Hyderabad, July 9 -- Michael D Calabria has spent over 40 years studying Islam, first as an Egyptology student in Cairo, later as a Franciscan friar who now runs the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at St Bonaventure University in New York. His 2021 book, "The Language of the Taj Mahal," argues that the monument isn't just a symbol of love but a spiritual text, built from Quranic verses meant to be read as a journey.

He brought that argument to Hyderabad on Wednesday, July 8, delivering "Reading the Taj Mahal Beyond Marble" at the Salar Jung Museum, in collaboration with Delhi Art Gallery and tied to Rana Safvi's exhibition "The Mute Eloquence of the Taj Mahal: Ba-zaban-e Be-zabani."

Siasat.com sat down with Prof Calabria after the l...