The Museum of Islamic Art () is located in the

Pergamon Museum The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a Kulturdenkmal , listed building on the Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II, German Emperor, Wilhelm II and accordi ...

and is part of the

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters; several research institutes; libraries; and supporting facilities. They are overseen by the ...

Collection

The museum exhibits diverse works of

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

from the 7th century to the 19th century from the area between Spain and India. Excavation activity in

Ctesiphon Ctesiphon ( ; , ''Tyspwn'' or ''Tysfwn''; ; , ; Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified July 28, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/58.) was an ancient city in modern Iraq, on the eastern ba ...

Samarra Samarra (, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The modern city of Samarra was founded in 836 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new administrative capital and mi ...

and

Tabgha Tabgha (, ''al-Tabigha''; , ''Ein Sheva'' which means "spring of seven") is an area situated on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel and a depopulated Palestinian village. It is traditionally accepted as the place of the feedi ...

, as well as acquisition opportunities, led to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, the Foreign Orient and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in particular being important focal points. Other regions are represented by important collection objects or groups, such as the

calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

and

miniature painting Miniature painting may refer to: * Miniature (illuminated manuscript), a small illustration used to decorate an illuminated manuscript ** Persian miniature, a small painting on paper in the Persian tradition, for a book or album ** Ottoman miniatur ...

from the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

or the sicilian

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

works of art.

Important objects of the collection

The most notable pieces of the collection, which are kept variously because of their size, historical significance, or popularity with museum visitors, are: *

Mshatta Facade The Mshatta Facade is the decorated part of the facade of the 8th-century Umayyad residential palace of Qasr Mshatta, one of the Desert Castles of Jordan, which is now installed in the south wing of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It is pa ...

* The Aleppo Room is the wall paneling from a broker's home in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, Syria, that was commissioned during the Ottoman Period.Annette Hagedorn "Aleppo Room" in Discover Islamicart Art. Place: Museum With No Frontiers, 201

/ref> *

Dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

from the

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Muslim world, Islamic world. Additionally, the ...

Mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

from

Kashan Kashan (; ) is a city in the Central District (Kashan County), Central District of Kashan County, in the northern part of Isfahan province, Isfahan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. History Earlies ...

* Mihrab from

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

- Phoenix carpet,

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, early 15th century. *

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

-folding desk, Asia Minor (

), 13th century *

Book art Book Art is a field of art that involves the creation of works that use or refer to the structural and conceptual properties of books. The term is also used to describe works of art produced in this field. These works may contain text, images, or bo ...

(changing exhibition in the book art cabinets). In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum also shows exhibitions of modern art from the Islamic world, in 2008, for example, "Turkish Delight" (contemporary Turkish design) and "Naqsh" (gender and role models in Iran). In 2009, the museum received on permanent loan a collection of Islamic art from the London collector

Edmund de Unger Edmund Robert Anthony de Unger (, 6 August 1918, Budapest – 25 January 2011, Ham, London, UK) was a Hungarian-born property developer and art collector. In London he built up the Keir Collection, one of the greatest post-war collections of Isla ...

(1918–2011), the so-called "Keir Collection", formerly housed in his home in

Ham, Surrey Ham is a suburban district in Richmond, south-west London. It has meadows adjoining the River Thames where the Thames Path National Trail also runs. Most of Ham is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, chiefly, within the ward of ...

. The collection, assembled over more than 50 years, comprises some 1,500 works of art spanning 2,000 years and is one of the largest private collections of Islamic art. More than one hundred exhibits from the Keir Collection were first shown in 2007/2008 in the special exhibition ''Sammlerglück. Islamic Art from the Edmund de Unger Collection'' presented to the public at the Pergamon Museum. Another special exhibition with parts of this loan took place from March 2010 as part of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Islamic Art entitled ''Sammlerglück. Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Keir Collection''. In July 2012, the cooperation between the National Museums in Berlin-Prussian Cultural Heritage and the owners of the Edmund de Unger Collection was terminated and the collection, originally intended as a long-term loan, was withdrawn. The reasons given were ''differing ideas on how to continue working with the collection.''

History

The museum was founded in 1904 by

Wilhelm von Bode Wilhelm von Bode (10 December 1845 – 1 March 1929) was a German art historian and museum curator. Born Arnold Wilhelm Bode in Calvörde, and known as Wilhelm Bode for most of his career, he was ennobled in 1913, and thereafter adopted the ar ...

as the ''Islamic Department'' in the

Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum The Bode Museum (), formerly called the Emperor Frederick Museum (), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of German Emperor William II according to plans by Ernst v ...

(today's

Bode-Museum The Bode Museum (), formerly called the Emperor Frederick Museum (), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of German Emperor William II according to plans by Ernst v ...

) and initially established by

Friedrich Sarre Friedrich Paul Theodor Sarre (22 June 1865, in Berlin – 31 May 1945, in Neubabelsberg) was a German Orientalist, archaeologist and art historian who amassed a collection of Islamic art. In 1895-96, inspired by Carl Humann, he conducted archaeol ...

as honorary director. The occasion was the donation of the

Mshatta facade The Mshatta Facade is the decorated part of the facade of the 8th-century Umayyad residential palace of Qasr Mshatta, one of the Desert Castles of Jordan, which is now installed in the south wing of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It is pa ...

, which originates from an unfinished

umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

desert palace located south of

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

by the Ottoman Sultan

Abdülhamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline wit ...

to Emperor

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty's ...

. Parts of the eastern portion of the facade and the ruins of the structure of which it formed a part remain in Jordan. Together with 21 carpets donated by Bode, the facade formed the basis of the collection. In the newly built Pergamon Museum, the museum moved into the upper floor of the south wing and was opened there in 1932. Because of II. World War, the exhibition was closed in 1939. Despite the removal of artworks and the securing of objects remaining in the Pergamon Museum, the collection suffered damage and losses. A bomb hit destroyed one of the gate towers of the Mshatta façade, and an incendiary bomb burned all or part of valuable carpets housed in a vault at the Mint. In 1954 the collection was reopened as the ''Islamic Museum'' in the Pergamon Museum. The holdings that had been removed to the western occupation zones were returned to the museum in Dahlem, where they were also reexhibited in 1954 for the first time after the war. From 1968 to 1970, there was an exhibition in

Charlottenburg Palace Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough, and is among the largest palaces in the world. The palace was built at the end of th ...

. In 1971, the permanent exhibition of the ''Museum of Islamic Art'' was opened in a new building in the Dahlem museum complex. In 1958, the ''Islamic Museum'' in the Pergamon Museum on the Museumsinsel received back most of the artworks transferred to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

from 1945 to 1946 as

looted art Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of Crime, unlawful or u ...

. With the restoration of other important collection objects, it became possible to open all exhibition rooms to the public by 1967. Based on the Unification Treaty, the two museums were organizationally merged in 1992 under the name ''Museum of Islamic Art.'' At the Dahlem site, the exhibition closed in 1998. A newly designed permanent exhibition was opened on the upper floor of the south wing in the Pergamon Museum in 2000.

Directors

The history of the collection was significantly shaped by the respective heads and directors, who thus simultaneously influenced the development of

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

in Germany.

Multaka: Museum as Meeting Point

In 2015, the museum started a new project for Arabic- and Persian-speaking refugees and other Muslim visitors titled "

Multaka Multaka: Museum as Meeting Point is an intercultural project initiated in 2015 by four history museums in Berlin with and for Arabic- and Persian-speaking migrants and refugees. Multaka (Arabic: meeting point) was designed as an innovative project ...

- Museum as Meeting Point". This intercultural museum project organizes guided tours for refugees and migrants designed and offered for free by specially trained Arabic-speaking Multaka guides. The visitor-centered discussions with migrants in their language are focused on the historical origin and history of acquisition of cultural objects, including the visitors' own understanding of their country's

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...

. In 2019 the four founding museums in Berlin joined six similar museums in the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece and Switzerland, creating the international Multaka network.

Exhibitions

Permanent exhibitions

* since 2000: Islamic Cultures * since 2016: transcultural relations, global biographies – Islamic art?

Special exhibitions

Ctesiphon Exhibition - Pergamonmuseum Berlin 2017

2013 *

– Center of the World. * Masterpieces from the Seraglio paintings from the adhesive albums of Heinrich Friedrich von Diez * Affordable to many. Printed fabrics from Egyptian tombs. * Ornament and tongue: book bindings from the Islamic world. 2014 * Indulgence and Intoxication. Wine, tobacco and drugs in Indian paintings. * Pride and Passion. Representations of men in the Mughal period. * Mshatta in Focus. The Jordanian desert castle in historical photographs. 2015 * Picnic in the Park. Gardens in Islamic Miniature Painting * Aatifi – News from Afghanistan. * How Islamic Art Came to Berlin. The collector and museum director

2016 * Mystical Travelers:

Sufis Sufism ( or ) is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and ...

, ascetics, and holy men. * Reading words – feeling words An introduction to the Koran in Berlin collections. * Contrast Syria. Photographs by Mohamad Al Roumi * The Legacy of the Ancient Kings.

and the Persian sources of Islamic art. 2017 * Iran. Dawn of Modernity. * Faithful wonder – Biblical traditions in the Islamic world. * Cozy: rugs in Indian miniature paintings. 2018 * Perched , Stopover. An Installation by Felekşan Onar. * Copy and Mastery. * The Gallery in the Book. Islamic scrapbooks * Tape Art * With a sense of proportion. Masterpieces of architecture in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

Research and outreach projects

Exhibition placement

* Fellowship International Museum of the Federal Cultural Foundation. * Objects of Transfer * Cultural Stories from the Museum of Islamic Arts * Multaka: Treffpunkt Museum – Refugees as Guides in Berlin Museums

Research abroad

* Areia Antiqua. Ancient Herat / 3 projects * Creation of digital cultural property registers for Syria * Iran: The Provincial Museum Yazd / National Museum Tehran * Qasr al-Mschatta: The Early Islamic Desert Castle of Mschatta, Jordan * Reconstruction of an ancient cultural landscape in Baluchistan, Pakistan * The Citadel of Aleppo, Syria

Cultural and political education

project for museum educational access for Muslim visitors * Common past – common future * TAMAM – The educational project of mosque communities with the Museum of Islamic Art

Collection-related research

* Khurasan – Land of the Sunrise * Ctesiphon * Samarra and the art of the Abbasids * The Yousef Jameel Digitization Project File:Fachada Mshatta 06.JPG,

(detail), Mid-8th centuryCollection highlights listed in the museum site https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/museum-fuer-islamische-kunst/collection-research/collection-highlights/ File:Dish with stylised bird Earthenware with glaze and lustre painting Samarra 9th century 8352.jpg, Bowl from

Abbasid Samarra Samarra is a city in central Iraq, which served as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate from 836 to 892. Founded by the caliph al-Mu'tasim, Samarra was briefly a major metropolis that stretched dozens of kilometers along the east bank of the Tigr ...

, 9th century File:Seljuk Islamic Art (28596871532).jpg,

Samanid The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate society, Persianate Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian peoples, Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Greater Khorasan, Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest ...

Simurgh The simurgh (; ; also spelled ''senmurv, simorgh, simorg'', ''simurg'', ''simoorg, simorq'' or ''simourv'') is a benevolent bird in Persian mythology and Persian literature, literature. It bears some similarities with mythological birds from di ...

Platter, 10th century File:MIK - Elfenbeinkasten 1.jpg,

Siculo-Arabic Siculo-Arabic or Sicilian Arabic is a group of Arabic variaties that were spoken in the Emirate of Sicily (which included Malta) from the 9th century, persisting under the subsequent County of Sicily, Norman rule until the 13th century. It was d ...

Ivory Casket, 11th century File:Abbasid Islamic Art Carved Ivory Horn (28625011851).jpg, Signal horn (olifant) of ivory with figural decoration, Lower Italy or Sicily, 11th-12th century File:Mihrab, Kashan, 1226, Pergamon Museum, Berlin (6) (40226858061).jpg,

from

(detail), 1226 File:Ayyubid Islamic Art (28702554485).jpg,

Seljuk Seljuk (, ''Selcuk'') or Saljuq (, ''Saljūq'') may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * S ...

Koran folding desk, Mid-13th century File:Mihrab from Konya, 3rd quarter of 13th cent.;Pergamon Museum, Berlin (6) (40193310612).jpg, Mihrab from

(detail), 13th century File:Ayyubid Islamic Art (28624582311).jpg, Wash Basin from

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

, 1251 - 1275 File:Mosul ewer, 1250-1275.jpg, Pitcher from Mosul, 1251 - 1275 File:Polo players painted onto glass with enemal and gold paint Egypt or Syria 13th century 8430.jpg,

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

bottle with polo-playing riders (detail), c. 1300 File:Ceiling of Torre de las Damas (Alhambra) - Pergamonmuseum - Berlin - Germany 2017 (2).jpg, Ceiling from the Torre de las Damas (

), c. 1320 File:Dragon-Phoenix carpet Turkey 15th-16th century 8473 01.jpg, Dragon-Phoenix carpet, Mid-15th century - 16th century File:Vase with Hatay motif Iznik Turkey early 16th Quarz ceramic with underglaze painting in cobalt-blue 8493.jpg, Vase (

Iznik pottery Iznik pottery, or Iznik ware, named after the town of İznik in Anatolia where it was made, is a decorated ceramic that was produced from the last quarter of the 15th century until the end of the 17th century. Turkish stylization is a reflectio ...

), 1st quarter of the 16th century File:Ushak carpet - Google Art Project.jpg, Small Pattern

Holbein carpet Holbein carpets are a type of Ottoman Empire, Ottoman carpet taking their name from Hans Holbein the Younger, due to their Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting, depiction in European Renaissance paintings, although they are shown in paintings ...

, 16th century File:Berlín Lahore ca. 1610- 01.JPG, Spiral Tendril

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

Carpet (detail), 16th - 17th century File:Aleppo Room - Google Art Project.jpg, Aleppo Room, 1600 - 1603 (detail) File:Emperor Jahangir (1605 - 1628) at prayer - Google Art Project.jpg, Emperor

Jahangir Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal emperors, Mughal ...

at the gathering for the

Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main Islamic holidays, festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide becaus ...

, 1615–1625

Bibliography

* * * * Jens Kröger: ''Das Berliner Museum für Islamische Kunst als Forschungsinstitution der Islamischen Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert''. (PDF; 692 kB). In: ''XXX. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Freiburg, 24.–28. September 2007. Ausgewählte Vorträge, herausgegeben im Auftrag der DMG von Rainer Brunner, Jens Peter Laut und Maurus Reinkowski.'' 2009. * Stefan Weber:
Zwischen Spätantike und Moderne: Zur Neukonzeption des Museums für Islamische Kunst im Pergamonmuseum
'' In: Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Band XLVIII (2014), S. 226–257. * Stefan Weber:
Über uns und die anderen: Museen und kulturelle Bildung in der Islamdebatte
'' In: Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz XLIX (2015), S. 88–109. * Stefan Weber:
Jeder kann Aleppo lieben
'' In: National Geographic, November (2016), S. 28–32 ''(Syrian Heritage Archive Project)'' * Stefan Weber:
Kampf um und gegen Kulturgüter im Nahen Osten – Das Fallbeispiel Syrien
'' In: BMVg.de: ''Der Reader'' Sicherheitspolitik, August (2016), S. 1–12 ''(Syrian Heritage Archive Project)'' * Stefan Weber:
Multaka: museum as meeting point. Refugees as guides in Berlin museums / Multaka: il museo come punto di incontro. I rifugiati come guide nei musei berlinesi
'' In: ''Archaeology & ME, Looking at archaeology in contemmpory Europe / Pensare l'archeologia nell'Europa contemporana.'' Bologna (2016), S. 142–45.

References

External links

*
Museum für Islamische Kunst
be
Discover Islamic Art

Freunde des Museums für Islamische Kunst im Pergamonmuseum e.V.
{{Authority control Islam in Berlin Islamic museums Museum Island

Islamic Art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Archaeological museums in Germany 1904 establishments in Germany