The Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World opens to the public on 18 October 2018. A major re-display of the British Museum’s world-class Islamic collection, the new gallery will be a comprehensive presentation of the Islamic world through art and material culture. Situated within a new suite of rooms at the heart of the Museum, it will underscore global connections across a vast region of the world from West Africa to Southeast Asia and reflect links between the ancient and medieval as well as the modern worlds.
Islam has played a significant role in great civilisations as a faith, political system and culture. The new gallery will feature objects that give an overview of cultural exchange in an area stretching from Nigeria to Indonesia and from the 7th century to the present day. From cooking pots to golden vessels, and from 20th-century dress to contemporary art, the objects displayed will demonstrate the extraordinary richness of global encounters. The place and role of other faiths and communities including Christians, Jews and Hindus - will be reflected throughout the gallery, showing their significant contributions to the social, economic and cultural life of the Islamic world.
The British Museum’s collection of Islamic material uniquely represents the finest artworks alongside objects of daily life such as modern games and musical instruments. The collection includes archaeology, decorative arts, arts of the book, shadow puppets, textiles and contemporary art. The creation of the Albukhary Foundation Gallery provides an extraordinary opportunity to display these objects in new ways that showcase the peoples and cultures of the Islamic world, as well as the ideas, technologies and interactions that inspired their visual culture.
The great medieval dynasties up to about 1500 are explored in the first room, highlighting connections within nearby galleries relating to Byzantium, the Vikings, the Crusades and Islamic Spain. A 13th-century incense burner made of intricate inlaid metalwork from Damascus combines techniques developed in Mosul, with decoration depicting Christian scenes demonstrating that such objects were made for a variety of patrons both Christian and Muslim.
Rarely seen archaeological material discovered at two major cosmopolitan centres will bring to life the inner workings of these early Islamic cities. Samarra in present-day Iraq, a vast palatial city on the banks of the Tigris, and Siraf a port city on the south coast of Iran. 20th-century excavations yielded an extraordinary richness of material, from 9th-century wall fragments with painted faces to coveted Chinese porcelain traded across the Indian Ocean in journeys echoing the tales of the legendary Sindbad the sailor from the Arabian Nights.
The second room introduces the three major dynasties dominating the Islamic world from the 16th century: the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals. Their patronage saw the production and trade of magnificent objects, including ceramics, jewellery and painting. A new approach in this gallery is to also include 19th- and 20th- century objects and textiles from Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia, many of which have not been displayed before. From elaborate 19th-century mother-of-pearl inlaid wooden Turkish bath clogs to a brightly decorated Uzbek woman’s robe with Russian lining, juxtapositions of objects will continually draw attention to the cross-fertilisation between regions and time periods.
The new gallery will accommodate a permanent presence for light-sensitive objects such as works on paper and textiles which will be regularly changed. These will include stunning 14thcentury illustrated pages from one of the most celebrated oral traditions, the Persian epic Shahnama (Book of Kings) which will be shown alongside monumental folios of the 16th-century Indian Mughal emperor Akbar’s Hamzanama (Adventures of Hamza). These belong to the Islamic literary tradition, which stems from a rich and diverse history of storytelling that predates the advent of Islam, featuring epics about real and mythical kings and heroes, as well as romances and religious narratives.
The arts of the book and calligraphy will be displayed alongside musical instruments, including an outstanding 19th-century lyre from Sudan and 20th- century shadow puppets from Turkey. Works on paper by artists from the Museum’s growing collection of contemporary art will be presented in dialogue with the cultures of the past. An exciting collaboration with the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts will also emphasise continuing traditions of paper-making, painting and illumination alongside masterpieces of Persian and Indian painting. An area dedicated to temporary displays will open with an exhibition from the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia exploring the idea of the arabesque; an abstract vegetal motif that spread across the Muslim world for over 1000 years.
The displays are enhanced by an engaging new programme of digital media that comprises a series of introductory films focussing on topics such as architectural decoration, ceramic technology, arts of the book and music. An accompanying website will allow for further research and exploration of the collections on display. The visitor will have the opportunity to engage directly with objects at a dedicated handling desk managed by the Museum’s volunteer programme.