MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART

The Musée des Arts Islamiques (MIA), which boasted a spectacular, well-executed Wilmotte scenography since its opening in 2008, was closed for two years and underwent a facelift in September 2022, just before the kick-off of the Football World Cup. The collection has been expanded, and the permanent galleries have been thoroughly overhauled. Nearly 900 objects relating to Islamic art over 1400 years are now on display (compared with 600 previously), 60% of which are new pieces, some of them monumental. Temporary exhibitions are also organized.

The building. The Museum of Islamic Art was built in 2008 by the brilliant American architect of Chinese origin, Ieoh Ming Pei (who designed the Louvre Pyramid in Paris). Its beauty is a sight to behold. A complex shape made up of a circular, then octagonal, then quadrangular light shaft. A delicate fortress of French sandstone, with few visible openings, but with a monumental bay window on the sea side. This is where you'll find the MIA café, whose glass-and-white interior, with a view of the Doha skyline, was imagined by French designer Philippe Starck.
Surrounding the museum, the MIA park is well worth a visit, including a sculpture by Richard Serra (a "7", highly symbolic in Islamic culture) which faces the sea at the end of the crescent-moon pier, and which was conceived with the MIA's original project in mind. The impeccably manicured green lawns are dotted with children's games and cafés. An additional jetty has been added to the MIA, known as Doha's "harbor" for cruise ships, with new hotels and restaurants.

The collection. Nearly 900 objects of Islamic art are on display, including ceramics, glassware, manuscripts, metalwork and textiles. The MIA collection now includes more than 800 manuscripts, many of them historical copies, some dating back to the ^7th century, but also ^19th-century Ottoman manuscripts. Some pages of the famous Abbasid Blue Qur'an (dating from the Iraqi caliphate in the Middle Ages), one of the most beautiful manuscripts in the world, can be admired here, with other pages on display at MoMa in New York. The museum also houses two of only five known pages of the Timurid Baysunghur Qur'an, the largest Qur'an in the world.

Masterpieces include a superb ^10th-century bronze horse from Spain, and a complete suit of armor for an Ottoman horseman and his ^15th-century horse. But also rare Persian rugs, Indian carpets (including a magnificent one made in Kashmir in the ^17th century), an impressive collection of copper astrolabes... Vases and pottery from all over Arabia are on display, including the ^14th-century Cavour vase from Damascus in Syria. Numerous objects bear witness to Arab influence in Europe in the Middle Ages, from Umayyad Spain (which experienced seven centuries of Arab colonization) to Arab-Norman Sicily (when Byzantine, Arab and Norman arts merged), from Ayyubid Egypt to Shah Jahan's India, via Tamerlane's Persia (present-day Iran). Many objects also come from Iraq, during the Abbasid caliphate, and its influence in the region: Syria, Palestine... We come across hunting scenes from Persian manuscripts and leopards running on an Indian carpet. Many Indian jewels sparkle with precious stones. A falcon from Jaipur (^20th century), richly set with rubies, diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, is one of the highlights of the collection.

Sitara de la Ka'ba, door cloth from the Ka'ba in Mecca) 1839-1861.
Made for Sultan Abdülmecid in ^19th-century Egypt during the Ottoman period, this fabric once covered the holiest monument in the Islamic world: the Ka'ba in Mecca. An entire kiswa consists of several sections of embroidered fabric (sitara) sewn together to cover the Ka'ba like a curtain. It was probably replaced during an annual Eid al-Adha ceremony. From the Ayyubid period (^12th century), kiswas were made in Cairo every year and sent as gifts in a palaquin (mahmal) with the pilgrims' processions to Mecca.

Imperial decree, or firman, by Suleiman the Magnificent. Turkey (1559).

In this edict, written in Ottoman Turkish, Suleiman the Magnificent ceded a palace in Istanbul to his granddaughter. The text begins with an invocatory formula and ends with the signatures of the witnesses. The tughra, the sovereign's signature, occupies a central place: it is impressively large and abundantly ornamented. The tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent - who reigned from 1520 to 1566 - is one of the most beautiful. Here, ultramarine blue letters are underlined with gold; verticals, curves, loops and interlacing, executed with a confident hand, give the tughra a musical rhythm. The various compartments of this calligraphic composition are lined with delicate shoots, spiraling leafy branches and small flowers. The impressive tughra, the elegance of the divani (Ottoman chancery script), the gold used, the substantial size of the scroll and the prominence given to the few lines of text give this document great majesty, transforming an official paper into a work of art.

Amulet, India, ^17th century

The white jade has been polished: it is smooth to the touch. It bears an elegantly calligraphed inscription in nasta'liq. Engraved into the white jade, it creates a subtle white-on-white effect, barely perceptible but present on three sides of the amulet, on the front, back and underside. It is composed of Koranic verses; it also indicates Shah Jahan's name and titles, as well as the year 1041 in the Muslim calendar (1631-1632 in the Christian calendar). This haldidi, a type of pendant said to help calm the wearer's "heartbeat", was made a few months after the death of Mumtaz Mahal, the emperor's wife. The emperor immortalized his love for her by building her a magnificent mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.

Bowl, Iraq (probably Basra), ^9th century.

This bowl is extraordinarily minimalist. Its only decoration is a line of calligraphy stretching over half its surface. The effect is striking. This airy writing plunges the bowl into a profound silence, partly due to the special place given to "emptiness". "ma 'oumila salouha" ("What was done was worth it"), says the sentence in cobalt blue, written in kufic characters. The removed stroke vibrates at the end of the letters, transforming into a foliate pattern. In the early ^9th century, Muslim potters were fascinated by Chinese porcelain. The potters of Basra, a ceramics center renowned for the quality of its output, came up with the ingenious idea of coating their modest ceramics with an opaque glaze to give them a more refined appearance. But the real innovation was the introduction of cobalt-blue decoration on a white background. They were thus at the origin of the "blue and white" ceramics that flourished in the hands of Chinese potters a few centuries later.

Hind, fountain mouth, Spain, ^mid-10th century.

This beautiful doe, with its peaceful stance and pensive gaze, probably comes from a ^10th-century Andalusian palace built during the Umayyad period. A similar stag has been found in the ruins of Madinat al-Zahra (near Cordoba), and it's possible that both adorned the same fountain. In Islamic palaces, fountains are very important architectural elements. A fountain featuring a doe and a stag must have had a highly symbolic function. The sculptural quality of this doe, particularly its head, is astonishing. No naturalism, but a stylized form that captures the animal's essential features. Its abstract dimension is reinforced by arabesque decoration: the lines undulate, forming a regular pattern based on encircled half-palmettes.