Explore
If you are interested to get more information and resources on Islamic Art and Architecture, we highly recommend you to explore websites from other museums and organizations using the links provided below. Moreover, MIA offers free access to our digital collections too!
Sources of Images
- Artstor Over 500,000 digital images of creative works from all historical periods and world cultures, including architecture, painting, prints, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and more.
- Google Images Search millions of images on the Web! You can limit your search on the Advanced Image Search page by size (small, medium, or large) color, filetypes (.jpg, .gif, .png) and by domains (.edu , .gov, .org, etc).
- MIA Google Arts and Culture Set in the MIA Park on the waterfront, the museum building stands out as an architectural gem. Once inside, you will see masterpieces of Islamic art, including metalwork, ceramics, jewellery, woodwork, textiles and glass, collected from three continents and dating from the 7th to the 19th century.
Recommended Library Guides
List of external library guides on Islamic Art and Architecture subject:
Museum Digital Collections
- Aga Khan Museum, Toronto The Museum collection contains over one thousand artefacts and artworks and spans over one thousand years of history. The objects – in ceramic, metalwork, ivory, stone and wood, textile and carpet, glass and rock crystal objects, parchment and illustrated paintings on paper – present an overview of the artistic accomplishments of Muslim civilisations from the Iberian Peninsula to China.
- Archnet Archnet is an authoritative open access image repository, and a tool for teaching and learning about architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim societies, past, and present. Archnet is a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT).
- Galleries for Islamic Art at the Louvre The new galleries of the Department of Islamic Art opened to the public on September 22, 2012. Some 3,000 objects are on display, spanning 1,300 years of history and three continents, from Spain to Southeast Asia.
- Getty Research Institute. Pierre de Gigord collection of photographs of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1850-1958 Visual record of the late years of the Ottoman Empire and the formation and early years of the Republic of Turkey. The collection focuses on cultural and urban images, mainly of Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but other geographic areas, such as the Balkans, and other cities and towns within the empire such as Bursa and Smyrna (İzmir) are included, as are a few images from places such as Greece, Egypt, Jerusalem, India and China.
- Harvard art Museums Explore by culture, gallery, time period. Includes the Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art.
- Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art This website is conceived as a companion to the Islamic galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Intended as a general introduction to Islamic art, it draws upon examples from the museum’s comprehensive collection, which includes works from an area extending from southern Spain to Central Asia, ranging in date from the seventh century up to the present day.
- Islamic Art from the David Collection Images of examples of Calligraphy, Miniature Paintings, Ivory, Wood and Paper-Mache
- Islamic Art in the Mediterranean from Museum With No Frontiers Discover Islamic Art contains 1235 artefacts from 40 museums, monuments and archaeological sites from 14 countries and 18 Exhibitions
- Chester Beatty Library. Islamic / Arabic Collections The Islamic Collections are internationally renowned for the overall high quality and scope of the material. The manuscripts range in date from the eighth century to the early years of the twentieth century, primarily from the Arab world, Iran, Turkey and India, and include some of the greatest documents of Islamic art and culture.
- Jameel Gallery at the Victoria and Albert The V&A holds over 19,000 items from the Middle East and North Africa, ranging from the early Islamic period (the 7th century) to the early 20th century. The collections include holdings of metalwork, ceramics, architectural woodwork and textiles, in particular from Iran, and also from Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and the countries of North Africa..
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: Works of Islamic Art Search and view over 12,000 objects from the Metropolitan Museum's collection of Islamic art, which ranges in date from the seventh to the nineteenth century and reflects the great diversity and range of Islamic culture.
- Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo With a new display including approximately 1700 objects, the MIA is still one of the most important and largest collections on the subject in the world
- Qatar Digital Library The Qatar Digital Library (QDL) is making a vast archive featuring the cultural and historical heritage of the Gulf and wider region freely available online for the first time. It includes archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs and much more, complete with contextualised explanatory notes and links, in both English and Arabic.