page_title: Nasser Khalili
section_title: Khalili Collections
hierarchical_section_title: Nasser Khalili / Khalili Collections
caption_attribution_description: English: Enamelled chariot belonging to the Indian Maharaja of Bhavnagar. From the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Enamels of the World
context_page_description: Nasser David Khalili is a British-Iranian scholar, collector, and philanthropist based in London. He is a British citizen. Khalili is the founder of the Khalili Collections, which is said to include the finest and most comprehensive collection of Islamic art in private hands. Khalili was born in Iran, before leaving the country to study in the United States. He graduated from Queens College, City University of New York in 1974 with a computer science degree. He later received a PhD degree in Islamic art in 1988, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, writing his thesis on Islamic lacquerware.
  He first started to collect art in New York during the 1970s, while also spending a lot of time in London investing in property during the 1980s. Over the coming decades, Khalili created eight distinct art collections under the auspices of the Khalili Family Trust. Khalili is said to have initially generated capital in the 1980s through the sale of a company and also venture capital. Since then his wealth has grown substantially, which he stated in an interview was due to "dealing in art, commodities and real estate".
context_section_description: Khalili has assembled eight art collections under the auspices of the Khalili Family Trust. Collectively referred to as the Khalili Collections, they are divided into Islamic Art dating from 700 to 2000; Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage from 700 to 2000; Aramaic Documents from 353 BC to 324 BC; Japanese Art of the Meiji Period from 1868 to 1912; Japanese Kimono from 1700 to 2000; Swedish Textiles from 1700 to 1900; Spanish Damascened Metalwork from 1850 to 1900 and Enamels of the World from 1700 to 2000. Together, the eight collections comprise some 35,000 works.
  The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art is curated by Julian Raby, the Director of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The collection has holdings of more than 28,000 objects documenting arts from Islamic lands over a period of 1,400 years. It was described in 1998 as "one of the largest and most representative collections of Quranic manuscripts in the world" and is the largest private collection. The collection includes manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an, rare and illustrated manuscripts, album paintings, bookbindings, lacquer, ceramics, glass and rock crystal, metalwork, scientific instruments, arms and armour, jewellery, carpets and textiles, coins and architectural elements.
  The Hajj and the arts of pilgrimage collection relates to Hajj and the arts associated with it. The works in the collection range from the Umayyad period to the 21st century. The collection aims to represent an overview of the subject, illustrating various religious and artistic aspects of the pilgrimages to various holy cities. The collection contains approximately 3,000 objects, including over 250 textiles and many other objects relating to Mecca and Medina. The combined collection is the second largest collection of its kind, with the Topkapı Palace museum the only larger collection globally.
  The Khalili Collection of Aramaic documents is a collection of 48 Aramaic documents from Ancient Bactria. The majority of the collection is made up of part letters and accounts connected with the court of the Satrap of Bactria. The significance of the documents is that they are the oldest correspondence of the administration of Bactria and Sogdiana. The documents are written in Official Aramaic and were likely from the historical city of Balkh. The documents are dated to a period of less than 30 years, between 353BC to 324BC. The newest of the documents were written during Alexander the Great's early reign in the region.
  The Japanese Art of the Meiji period collection is only comparable in terms of quality to the collection of the Japanese Imperial family. It comprises over 1,400 pieces, including metalwork, enamels, lacquerwork and ceramics. The pieces are from the period of Emperor Meiji's rule from 1868 to 1912. The period saw a cultural revolution in Japan, where traditional tastes in Japan were met with international ones.
  Khalili's second Japanese-based collection is the Khalili Collection of Kimono. This covers three hundred years of the Japanese textile industry and contains over 450 garments. The garments have been worn to demonstrate gender, age, status and wealth throughout Japan's history. The collection reveals a variety in kimono designs, illustrating how the design and use of kimono have changed over the centuries. The collection mainly represents four periods, the Edo period (1603-1868), the Meiji period (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa (1926–1989), with a few selected pieces produced later on.
  The Khalili Collection of Swedish Textiles comprises nearly a hundred textile panels, dating between 1700 and 1900. The majority of the works are from a one hundred-year period, and from the area of Scania, the southern-most region of Sweden. The textile collection contains art mostly made for wedding ceremonies in the region. While they played a part in the ceremonies, they were also a reflection of the artistry and skill of the weaver. Their designs often consist of symbolic illustrations of fertility and long life.
  The Spanish damascene metalwork
caption: Enamelled carriage belonging to the Indian Maharaja of Bhavnagar. From the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Enamels of the World
exif: {}