Arts of the Islamic World

Purview

At the Brooklyn Museum, the Islamic World is roughly synonymous with the territory that was once ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate, at its height reaching from what is now Spain to Pakistan.

Our collection of Islamic art includes both religious and nonreligious work primarily from the Middle East, North Africa, and Anatolia (roughly Turkey). These works date from the 7th century through the 21st century.

Religious works from outside this region may be found in Arts of the Islamic World or in the collection representing the area for which an object was made—Arts of Asia, for example. Artwork that predates Islam in this region is largely in Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art. Twentieth- and 21st-century artwork from this region or by Muslim artists is in this collection or in Contemporary Art, Photography, or Feminist Art.

History

The Brooklyn Institute, a precursor of the Brooklyn Museum, began acquiring Islamic ceramics at the turn of the 20th century. Over decades, the collection expanded to include clothing and textiles, works on paper, and beyond. Early acquisitions came primarily as gifts from collectors; some objects were purchased from New York–based antiquities dealer Aziz Khayat.

In the 1960s and ’70s, Charles K. and Irma Wilkinson were influential in building up the department both through gifts from their personal collection—including important oil paintings from Qajar period Iran, such as Prince Yahya—and through Charles’s leadership as curator in 1970–74. Another substantial gift came in 1986 from the Ernest Erickson Foundation: over 100 objects including particularly fine ceramics, metalwork, rugs and textiles, and works on paper.

In 2008, Pouran Jinchi’s Prayer Stone 5 became the first contemporary artwork to enter the Arts of the Islamic World collection. A years-long project to renovate and reinstall the Arts of the Islamic World galleries was completed in 2022. Although most of the collection is historical, the inclusion of modern and contemporary works in this reinstallation reflects the dialogue between the past and the present.