The Private Library of Professor JM Rogers (1935-2022), approximately 900 rare publications,...

The Private Library of Professor JM Rogers (1935-2022), approximately 900 rare publications, journals and pre-1960s monographs on the art and archaeology of the Mongol, Timurid, Safavid, Seljuq, Ottoman and Mughal dynasties. A complete list can be requested from the department. 

John Michael Rogers, FBA, FSA (1935 – 25 December 2022) was a British art historian who was an expert in Islamic art history. He was Khalili Professor Emeritus of Islamic Art at SOAS, University of London from 1991 and a published author. In his later years, he was Honorary Curator of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.

Rogers studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1958). National Service followed - initially in the Royal Artillery and latterly the Intelligence Corps, where he was commissioned and trained as a Russianist. After National Service he continued to briefly serve in the Territorial Army (Reserves), but returned to Academia and a research fellowship in philosophy at Oriel College; he latterly taught philosophy at Pembroke College and Wadham College. As his interests shifted from philosophy to Islamic art, he learned Turkish, and earned a PhD on the architectural patronage of Seljuq Anatolia under Samuel Stern and Victor Ménage.

Rogers taught Islamic art at the American University in Cairo, 1965–1977. In 1977 he joined the British Museum, as a curator in the Department of Oriental Antiquities, where he organized several exhibitions including "Islamic Art and Design" (1983), and "Suleyman the Magnificent" (1988). He was also responsible for the installation of the Islamic collections in the John Addis Gallery in 1989.

From 1991 to 2000, Rogers was the Nasser D. Khalili Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology at SOAS, University of London. From 1992, he was Honorary Curator of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, the world’s largest collection of Islamic art and antiquities in private hands. He was a Member of Council at the British Academy, 1992–1995.