Afif Bahnassi

Afif Bahnassi (Arabic: عفيف البهنسي; 17 April 1928 – 2 November 2017) was a Syrian art historian, museum director and academic, regarded as one of the founders of modern Arab and Islamic art history. He served as Director of Fine Arts in the Syrian Ministry of Culture from 1962 to 1971 and as Director-General of Antiquities and Museums from 1971 to 1989. He authored more than seventy-five books on art history, aesthetics, and Islamic architecture, and was a professor at the University of Damascus for over five decades. Provided by Wikipedia