Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA; Arabic: متحف الفن الإسلامي) is a museum on one end of the seven-kilometer-long (4.3 mi) Corniche in Doha, Qatar. As per the architect I. M. Pei's specifications, the museum is built on an island off an artificial projecting peninsula near the traditional dhow harbor. A purpose-built park surrounds the edifice on the eastern and southern facades while two bridges connect the southern front facade of the property with the main peninsula that holds the park. The western and northern facades are marked by the harbor showcasing the Qatari seafaring past. In September 2017, Qatar Museums appointed Julia Gonnella as director of MIA. In 2024 Julia Gonnella became director of the Lusail Museum and was replaced by Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr. In November 2022 the MIA became the first carbon-neutral certified museum in the Middle East. The museum participated in the Expo 2023 Doha from October 2023 until March 2024, with workshops and events focusing on biodiversity and sustainability.
The museum hosts the restaurant IDAM led by the head chef Alain Ducasse. The restaurant is inspired by French Mediterranean cuisine. IDAM also offers master classes in cooking artisanal bread and raw foods. The museum has a park, workshops for schools and the general public, and a library that provides information about Islamic Arts in both English and Arabic. The library also has nine study rooms.
Adjacent to the museum is the MIA Park, a waterfront open space administered by the museum. It features cafes, a children's play area, and 7, a vertical steel sculpture by American sculptor Richard Serra. A bazaar is also held at the park, having started in 2012 as a once a month event, but eventually being hosted twice a week since late 2016. After being paused in 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the bazaar was held again in late February 2023.
The Museum of Islamic Art has established partnerships with globally renowned institutions for the purpose of furthering its reach and developing cross-cultural dialogues.
Collaboration with the Louvre allowed the very possibility of artifact loans and joint exhibitions, adding to the global narrative of art and history.
Joint research and exhibition programs with the Metropolitan Museum have advanced scholarship in Islamic art, contributing to academic publication and public outreach.
The museum lend four items to the Diriyah Biennale Foundation to be displayed at the first Islamic Art Biennale "Awwal Bait" in 2023. The second Biennale of Islamic Art in 2025, "And all that is in between", featured eight works by MIA with a focus on numbers.
The Museum of Islamic Art is very much an active partner in the community through a wide range of educational initiatives, aimed at instilling greater insight into Islamic heritage.
Deputy Director of Learning and Outreach department is Salem Al Aswad.
In May 2024 the museum launched the Challenge Camp, which aims to teach Islamic and national values, with a second camp being held in December of the same year. The camp is a collaboration between the MIA, the AWQAFM, the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar Red Crescent, the Qatar Calendar House, and Qatar’s Internal Security Forces.
Workshops in calligraphy, ceramic art, and the preservation of manuscripts are usually based on items from the museum collection. Finally, such programs will allow participants to practice certain traditional events now appreciated in today's modern world. This includes school partnerships; developing and providing bespoke educational tours, as well as creating curriculum-aligned resources with schools—both locally and internationally. These initiatives enable students to engage with Islamic art in an active and open way. Calligrapher Fatma Al Sharshani credits the workshops she attended there as enabling her artistic career.
The museum is influenced by traditional Islamic architecture yet has a uniquely modern design involving geometric patterns. It is the first of its kind to feature over 14 centuries of Islamic art in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
Occupying an area of 45,000 m (480,000 sq ft), the museum is on an artificial peninsula overlooking the south end of Doha Bay. Construction of the building was done by a Turkish company, Baytur Construction, in 2006. The interior gallery spaces were designed by a team of Wilmotte Associates. The museum was opened on November 22, 2008, by the then-emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad. It opened to the general public on December 8, 2008.
At 91 years of age, the museum's architect, I. M. Pei had to be coaxed out of retirement to undertake this enterprise. He traveled throughout the Muslim world on a six-month quest to learn about Muslim architecture and history and read Muslim texts to draw inspiration for his design. According to Pei, the light fountain in 9th century Ibn Tulun Mosque of Cairo was the inspiration.
Declining all proposed sites for the museum, he suggested a stand-alone island for the structure to avoid encroachments by other buildings in the future. It was built off an artificial peninsula, approximately 60 m (200 ft) off the Doha Corniche and surrounded by a somewhat crescent-shaped 290,000 m (3,100,000 sq ft) park. Pei requested that the museum spaces be designed by his collaborator on the Louvre project, Wilmotte & Associates, who then assembled a design team including Plowden & Smith (conservation consultants), Isometrix Lighting + Design (lighting consultants), and SG Conseil (AV Consultants) under Turner Projacs. Along with this design team, Leslie E. Robertson Associates was the structural engineer for the project.
The main building consists of the five floors, the main dome, and the central tower. It is connected with the education ward via a large central court. Pei utilized creamy limestone for the outer facades to emphasize the various shades during the different times of the day. The five floors are covered by a glass facade to the north, and it provides a panoramic view of the Persian Gulf. The interior of the building is decorated by several Islamic arts, and the large metallic chandelier hung over the main staircase of the lobby. Many elements found in Ibn Tulun Mosque are represented in the building as an abstract form. This enables the agreement with values and principles of the postmodern architecture historical trend which synchronize the modernity and the historical Islamic architectural identity.
As preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Museum of Islamic Art announced in June 2021 that it would be closed for renovation works until autumn 2022, to upgrade its main entrance, galleries, lecture hall and further indoor spaces. In June 2022 MIA Director Julia Gonnella introduced the museum's revised concept of an 'immersive cultural experience' to attract additional visitors and to enable families and young visitors to explore Islamic art. In August 2022 the official reopening date was confirmed for 5 October 2022 with an increased number of more than 1,100 mostly newly acquired exhibits on display. The renovations provided better accessibility and an improved educational environment including digital presentations and subjects interesting to younger visitors. The museum also added a 3-D tour to its website.
The museum reopened on 4 October 2022, during the National Cultural Event of "Qatar Creative", which provides an opportunity to bring together Qatar's creative industries with the wider public community. Its 18 newly renovated galleries, covering an area of 480,000 square feet, display Islamic art from the seventh to the 20th centuries, divided according to their historical eras and their cultural and geographical backgrounds, which allows visitors of modern Doha an extended insight into Islamic history. The renovated museum's first exhibition, Baghdad: Eye's Delight presents the traditions and history of Iraq's capital. The exhibition includes also objects loaned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris.
The Museum of Islamic Art represents Islamic art from three continents over 1,400 years.
Its collection includes metal work, ceramics, jewelry, wood work, textiles, and glass obtained from three continents and dating from the 7th to the 20th century.
The museum houses a collection of work gathered since the late 1980s including manuscripts, textiles and ceramics. It is one of the world's most complete collections of Islamic artifacts, with items originating in Spain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, India, and Central Asia.
It ranges from the exceptional pieces of the Persian and Mughal periods to necklaces, bracelets, and pendants from the 17th and 18th centuries. These items, recorded in the museum catalogs, are valued for their minute goldsmith work and use of semiprecious stones, testifying to the significance of personal adornment in Islamic cultures.
These include a very rare 14th-century Egyptian minbar panel; the panel contains outstanding geometric arabesque motifs and possesses historical significance. The panel epitomizes the fusion of functional and aesthetic elements in Islamic religious art.
An important Quranic manuscript within the collection is MS.474.2003. The museum also owns a page of the Blue Qur'an, an indigo-dyed manuscript created over 1,000 years ago that is one of the most elaborate Qur'ans in the world.
The MIA hosted the 2019 Love Ball Arabia from the Naked Heart Foundation as part of the 2019 Qatar-Russia Year of Culture. The 2022 to 2023 exhibition "Baghdad: Eye’s Delight" showcased objects from other museums such as the Met or the Louvre. After receiving a donation from Qatar Museums to celebrate the reopening of the MIA and the 10th anniversary of the opening of The Met’s Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia in 2022, the Met named one of its galleries the Qatar Gallery. During the 2021 Qatar-USA year of culture, the exhibition "Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran" was shown as part of a collaboration at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC. From October 2023 to April 2024 the exhibition took place at the MIA. After Qatar Museums signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, an exhibition at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, organised by the MIA, were announced for 2025. In May 2024 the museum opened a Museum Escape Room in a cooperation with the VCUarts Qatar, focusing on themes such as Islamic Science, Calligraphy and Inventions as well as Astronomy.
The museum exhibited some of their items in the Place Vendôme Mall in Lusail in 2024.
Exhibitions organized by MIA include: