The museum exhibits diverse works of Islamic art from the 7th century to the 19th century from the area between Spain and India. Excavation activity in Ctesiphon, Samarra[1] and Tabgha, as well as acquisition opportunities, led to Egypt, the Foreign Orient and Iran in particular being important focal points. Other regions are represented by important collection objects or groups, such as the calligraphy and miniature painting from the Mughal Empire or the sicilianivory 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:
Quran-folding desk, Asia Minor (Konya), 13th century
Book art (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 (1918–2011), the so-called "Keir Collection", formerly housed in his home in Ham, Surrey. 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.[6] 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.[7] 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of the Edmund de Unger Collection was terminated and the collection, originally intended as a long-term loan, was withdrawn.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.[8]
History
King Hussein and Queen Nūr were shown around the Museum of Islamic Art in Dahlem by Director Klaus Brisch (foreground right) led (6 November 1978)
The museum was founded in 1904 by Wilhelm von Bode as the Islamic Department in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (today's Bode-Museum) and initially established by Friedrich Sarre as honorary director.[9] The occasion was the donation of the Mshatta facade, which originates from an unfinished umayyad desert palace located south of Amman by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II to Emperor Wilhelm II. 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. 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 from 1945 to 1946 as looted art. 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 Islamicart history in Germany.
In 2015, the museum started a new project for Arabic- and Persian-speaking refugees and other Muslim visitors titled "Multaka - 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. 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.[10]
Enderlein, Volkmar; Museum für Islamische Kunst; Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (2001). Museum für Islamische Kunst (in German). Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern. ISBN3-8053-2681-5. OCLC47728676.
Museum für Islamische Kunst; Enderlein, Volkmar; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin--Preußischer Kulturbesitz (2003). Museum of Islamic Art. Mainz: P. von Zabern. ISBN3-8053-3261-0. OCLC53938877.
Kröger, Jens; Museum für Islamische Kunst (2004). Islamische Kunst in Berliner Sammlungen : [100 Jahre Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin ; im Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, vom 19. Oktober 2004 bis 16. Januar 2005] (in German). Berlin: Parthas. ISBN3-86601-435-X. OCLC58421771.
^Annette Hagedorn "Aleppo Room" in Discover Islamicart Art. Place: Museum With No Frontiers, 2010.[1]
^The dome was brought to Berlin by Arthur von Gwinner in 1891 and given to the museum by his heirs in 1978. Jens Kröger: Alhambra Dome (2012).Museum With No Frontiers – Discover Islamic Art.
^"press-release of July 13, 2012". Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
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