Museum of Islamic Art

Museum of Islamic Art, art museum in Cairo, Egypt, founded in 1903 to collect and display Islamic works of art (see Islam). In 1880 the Egyptian Museum, then based in Giza, began collecting and displaying Islamic art objects as well as pre-Islamic antiquities. In 1902 the Egyptian Museum was moved to Cairo, and in 1903 a separate Museum of Islamic Art, sometimes referred to as the Islamic Museum, was created. Thousands of objects dating from between ad 642, when Egypt became a Muslim country, and 1879 were transferred from the Egyptian Museum to the Museum of Islamic Art.

Most of the objects in the Museum of Islamic Art—including stucco panels, tombstones, wooden carvings, colored glass, ceramics, weapons, and books—were made in accordance with the Muslim prohibition on depictions of human beings or animals. Some works, notably those from the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, when Egypt was ruled by the Shia Fatimids, do not obey this Muslim restriction, reflecting the influence of Persian traditions. The museum has a garden containing a fountain, a gazebo, and several stone carvings. It shares its building with the Egyptian Library, noted for its Egyptian and Persian manuscripts.