The Museum Of Islamic Art In Cairo
The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo is considered to be one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. The museum hosts more than 104,000 displays reflecting the greatness of the Islamic civilization in Egypt and the whole Islamic world and showing how it has flourished and changed throughout history.
Many of the displays of the Museum of Islamic Art were gathered from Arab and non-Arab nations and from individuals that have sold their belongings or donated them to the museum. The museum hosts many exhibits that date back to the beginning of the Islamic era up to the period of the family of Mohamed Ali.
The Museum of Islamic Art has many different types of displays including metal and wooden works, carpets, rare copies of the Qur’an, coins, minbars, and many other exhibits that amaze the visitors of the museum coming from all over the world.
The Establishment Of The Museum Of Islamic Art
The idea of establishing the museum of Islamic art goes back to 1880, when Egyptian authorities collected all the precious pieces of Islamic art from several mosques, other structures, and buildings and stored them in the eastern section of Al Hakem Mosque on Al Mui’z Street in Cairo.
Shortly afterward, these antiquities were put on display in a small museum that was specially built in the open courtyard of the Al Hakem Mosque called the House of Arabian Antiquities. The displays of the Museum of Islamic Art remained in that location until the building of the museum in 1903 and it was officially opened for public visits on December 28, 1903. After the Egyptian Revolution in 1952 the museum was renamed as the Museum of Islamic Art.
Displays In The Musuem
The number of displays at the Museum of Islamic Art has been increased and multiplied many times since its establishment. The museum had only around 7,000 displays when it first opened in 1903 but that number increased to 78,000 in 1978, 96,000 in the recent past and over 100,000 pieces today.
The displays of the Museum of Islamic Art were gathered from many different locations around Egypt. This includes the ruins of the cities of Fustat and Askar, the first Islamic capitals of Egypt before the establishment of Cairo. Some other displays were brought from Aswan, Tanis in the Nile Delta, Rashid, and Luxor. This is in addition to many other displays that were sold or donated to the museum by individuals from all over the world.
Today the Museum of Islamic Art displays some of the rarest exhibits including pottery, pieces of cloth, rocks with Islamic writings, colored windows, and many other displays. There is also the collection of Persian and Turkish pottery that the museum bought in 1945.
