The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha is a museum located in the Qatari capital, Doha, designed by the architect Ioh Ming Pei, which was (I.M. B) for short. The design of the museum was influenced by the ancient Islamic architecture. The total area of the museum is 45,000 square meters and is located on the edge of the Doha port in The southern tip of Doha Bay.
The museum’s holdings were collected from Europe and Asia, dating from the seventh century AD to the nineteenth century, and the collection of holdings represents the diversity found in Islamic art. The exhibits range from books, manuscripts, ceramic pieces, metals, glass, ivory, textiles, wood, precious stones and coins made of silver, copper and bronze, some of which date back to before Islam, specifically to the Sassanid era, and the most recent dates back to the Safavid era, through the Umayyad and Abbasid eras. The museum also includes a research center in addition to a library of Islamic art in addition to its holdings.
The collection of the 800 pieces of art lasted 15 years and documented a period of 14 centuries of Islamic art history. The Qatari authorities were so keen to preserve the art pieces that they placed them in an air-conditioned warehouse in one of the military barracks, pending the completion of the museum’s construction. In addition to the great effort that went into searching for it in many museums and cultural centers around the world, especially since some of them were never shown in advance, while others were shown for limited periods.
The museum building was designed by Chinese-American architect IMB, who previously designed the glass pyramid outside the Paris Louvre Museum and designed the unique Shanghai Bank building in China, as well as designed the Miho Museum in Japan. The museum is located on the facade of the Corniche in Doha, on an artificial island, with an area of 33.5 thousand square meters, and it is a five-storey building. The museum was inspired by its design from the “ablution fountain” that was established during the thirteenth century in the Ahmed Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, which dates back to the ninth century AD.
The designer says that when he received the invitation of the Emir of Qatar to design the museum, he initially refused, as he was not familiar with Islamic arts, before touring between Cordoba and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and a number of Islamic cultural centers around the world, and when the Chinese engineer saw the dome of the ablution fountain in Ahmed Mosque Ben Tulun, in Cairo, said at the time that he had found the spirit of the museum that inspired his design.
The museum consists of five floors. The basement contains all electrical and mechanical services serving the museum, while the ground floor includes the main entrance where the temporary display is located, and the second and third floors are for permanent exhibitions. While the fourth floor includes lecture halls and small exhibition halls, as for the fifth floor, it is designated for some administrative offices for senior administrators, and the floor also includes a modern restaurant. The museum also includes the educational wing that contains lecture halls, an equipped library, operations and visualization rooms that enhance aspects of education and research in the fields of Islamic art, as the museum will not be limited to the display and visits only.
