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Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin

museum in Berlin, Germany

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ1954632 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Museum of Islamic Art (German: Museum für Islamische Kunst) is located in the Pergamon Museum and is part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Collection

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 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 sicilian ivory 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:

Mshatta Facade from the Umayyad palace of Mshatta in Jordan

The Aleppo Room is the wall paneling from a broker's home in Aleppo, Syria, that was commissioned during the Ottoman Period.

Alhambra cupola

Mihrab from Kashan

Mihrab from Konya

Dragon-Phoenix carpet, Asia Minor, early 15th century.

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.

Editorial summary

“Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin” enters the record as museum in Berlin, Germany. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Museum, Islamic and Berlin can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2009, 1918, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1904. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Museum, Islamic and Berlin.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Museum, Islamic and Berlin provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1954632. VIAF identifies the subject as 155484478. The Library of Congress control number is n82024983. Authority coordinates are 52.521, 13.396. 4 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2009, 1918 and 2011.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin primary sources, Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin archive and Museum research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.