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| Islamic art museums | |
|---|---|
| Name | Islamic art museums |
| Established | Various |
| Type | Art museum |
| Collection | Islamic art |
| Location | Worldwide |
Islamic art museums are institutions dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and display of material culture produced in societies historically associated with Islam. They collect objects spanning calligraphy, manuscript arts, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, carpets, architecture fragments, numismatics, and scientific instruments from regions including the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Museums serve as nodes linking scholarship, conservation, curatorial practice, and public education across transregional networks of collectors, patrons, and scholars.
Islamic art museums encompass collections derived from or influenced by the histories of the Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate, Ottoman Empire, Safavid dynasty, Mughal Empire, Almohad Caliphate, Ayyubid dynasty, Seljuk Empire, Timurid Empire, and later modern states such as Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Institutional scope often includes objects connected to courts and patrons like the House of Wisdom, Topkapı Palace, Alhambra, Suleymaniye Mosque, Humayun's Tomb, and commercial hubs such as Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad, Samarkand, Isfahan, Fez, Marrakesh, Granada, Cordoba, Istanbul, Aleppo, and Alexandria. Collections address interactions with neighboring polities and movements including the Byzantine Empire, Mamluk Sultanate, Crusader States, Mongol Empire, Timurid Renaissance, and European collectors such as Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and institutions like the British Museum, Louvre, and Victoria and Albert Museum.
Museums with Islamic holdings developed from royal treasuries and private collections associated with rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent, Shah Abbas I, Akbar, and Muhammad Ali of Egypt and collectors like Aga Khan IV and Nasser D. Khalili. Nineteenth-century collectors and institutions including Sir Hans Sloane, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Giambattista Belzoni, Lord Elgin, and museums such as the Musée du Louvre, British Museum, Rijksmuseum, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and Metropolitan Museum of Art catalyzed museum formation. Twentieth-century nation-building produced national museums like the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Egyptian Museum, National Museum of Iran, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin and university collections at SOAS, Harvard Art Museums, Yale University Art Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Bode Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Collections typically feature illuminated manuscripts (e.g., copies of the Qur'an such as the Topkapi Manuscript), illustrated manuscripts like Shahnameh commissions, scientific manuscripts linked to scholars such as Avicenna, Alhazen, Al-Kindi, and Al-Biruni, ceramics from Iznik, Far Eastern kilns, Fritware porcelains, lustreware, metalwork by workshops documented in Zangid and Mamluk contexts, carpets from Tabriz, Kashan, Hereke, and textile fragments associated with the Mamluk Sultanate and Ottoman court. Notable objects include the Topkapı Dagger, Sampson Mosque Door, Bowl of Ibn al-Bawwab calligraphy, Bactrian coins, dirham and dinar numismatics, astrolabes linked to Al-Zarqali, and Iznik tiles from Selimiye Mosque. Collections also contain items connected to trade routes such as the Silk Road, diplomatic gifts exchanged at courts like Mughal-Dutch interactions, and modern art by artists exhibited at venues like the Sharjah Art Foundation and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.
Museum buildings often reference typologies exemplified by monuments such as the Alhambra, Great Mosque of Córdoba, Ibn Tulun Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Sultan Ahmed Mosque while employing contemporary practices from architects like I. M. Pei, Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, and firms responsible for projects like the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art by I. M. Pei. Exhibition design negotiates display strategies informed by curators from institutions such as the British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, National Gallery of Art, and Pergamon Museum and integrates digital platforms exemplified by initiatives at Google Arts & Culture, Europeana, and university digital humanities centers in Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton, and Columbia University.
Prominent institutions with significant holdings include the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, British Museum, Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Pergamon Museum, Topkapı Palace Museum, National Museum of Iran, Egyptian Museum, Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, David Collection, Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Aga Khan Museum, Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar (Note: regional duplicates reflect administrative distinctions), Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, Museum of Islamic Art, Palermo, Museum of Islamic Art, Granada, Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Spain), Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, and university collections at SOAS, Harvard Art Museums, Yale University Art Gallery, Princeton University Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Dumbarton Oaks, National Museum of Korea, Tokyo National Museum, National Museum of Indonesia, National Museum of Pakistan, Pakistan National Council of the Arts, Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Iran National Museum, National Museum of Afghanistan, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Rijksmuseum, State Hermitage Museum, Museo Nacional del Prado, and Museo Arqueológico Nacional.
Conservation programs engage specialists in textile conservation, paper conservation, ceramics conservation, and metal conservation trained at centers such as the Courtauld Institute of Art, Winterthur Museum, Getty Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution, ICCROM, ICOMOS, UNESCO, and university laboratories at University College London and King’s College London. Scholarship draws on philologists and historians specializing in figures like Ibn Khaldun, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Battuta, Rumi, and codicologists working with archives such as the Bodleian Library, Chester Beatty Library, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Vatican Library. Educational programming partners with cultural foundations such as the Aga Khan Development Network, Qatar Museums Authority, Sharjah Art Foundation, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, and universities hosting fellowships and postdoctoral research.
Islamic art collections have been contested regarding provenance, colonial acquisition practices tied to actors like Lord Elgin and administrations such as the British Empire, restitution debates involving institutions like the Louvre and British Museum, and repatriation efforts by nations including Greece, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. Legal and ethical frameworks invoked include conventions and organizations such as UNESCO, ICOM, UNIDROIT, and national laws in France, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Italy. High-profile provenance cases reference the dispersal of looted antiquities during conflicts like the Iraq War, colonial-era excavations led by figures like Ernest Renan, and modern restitution negotiations exemplified by agreements between the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and claimant states. Curatorial debates address decolonizing collections initiatives promoted by scholars and activists at institutions such as Museum of London, Ashmolean Museum, Tate Modern, Smithsonian Institution, and universities conducting provenance research projects.
Category:Museums