Fifteen galleries for the Arts of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia

Within this structure a largely chronological display follows the cultural sweep of historic Islamic civilization from the seventh century onward. The new installation will emphasize the rich diversity of the Islamic world and its artistic traditions by underscoring the many distinct cultures within its fold. Multiple entryways will also allow visitors to approach the new galleries—and the art displayed there—from different perspectives.

The collection of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Islamic Art—one of the finest and most comprehensive in the world—includes more than 12,000 works from the seventh to the early 20th century, reflecting the cultural traditions and the history of the Islamic world and its vast geographic sweep, from Spain and Morocco in the west to South Asia and beyond in the east. The galleries will contain works in a range of media from metal, stone and glass to ceramics, paper and textiles. Because of their sensitivity to light, textiles and works on paper will be rotated every several months.

Gallery 1
INTRODUCTORY GALLERY
Masterworks that represent the major media employed in the art of the Islamic world—pottery, carpets and textiles, jeweled arts, calligraphy, painting, and architectural elements—are showcased in this gallery. The styles, themes and motifs that visitors encounter here will recur in successive rooms, thereby connecting distinct cultures.

Gallery 2
ARTS OF THE EARLY CALIPHATES (7TH–13TH CENTURIES)
This gallery will explore early Islamic art, focusing primarily on the Umayyad dynasty (661–750), whose capital was Damascus, and the Early Abbasid dynasty (750–ca. 900), which was based in Baghdad. Also highlighted will be pre-Islamic traditions from ancient Rome, Byzantium, and Persia that evolved into Islamic art under the Umayyads. During the Early Abbasid period, the melding of influences from all parts of the world resulted in a golden age of creativity. Among the many treasures on view will be an outstanding selection of manuscripts and early Qur’an pages in Kufic script. These will be displayed alongside textiles from all reaches of the empire, from Yemen to Egypt, as well as ceramics, including luster-painted pottery; wooden doors in the beveled style from Samarra in Iraq; metalwork; and glass.

Gallery 3
EXCAVATIONS AT NISHAPUR AND THE SABZ PUSHAN SITE
The Nishapur area was excavated by the Iranian Expedition of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in several digs from 1935 to 1947. The most outstanding objects in the Museum’s collection from Nishapur are a group of architectural decorations from an excavated mound known locally as Tepe Sabz Pushan (“The Green-covered Mound”). New scholarship has made it possible to reconstruct with accuracy the walls of a small room, now called the Sabz Pushan Room, decorated with finds from the site including tall carved plaster dadoes, wall painting fragments, and stucco elements called muqarnas, the stalactite decoration characteristic of many Islamic buildings.

Gallery 4
EASTERN ISLAMIC LANDS (9TH–13TH CENTURIES)
The splendor and intellectual sophistication of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad and its far-reaching artistic, scientific, and literary impact in the eastern provinces will be the main focus of this room. Included will be the artistic achievements of the 11th-century Ghaznavid and 12th-century Seljuq Sultans, whose patronage ushered in a brilliant and inventive period of art and culture. Among the highlights will be luster-painted and ceramic vessels from 12th-century Kashan and Rayy, a pair of life-size statues of palace guards, and an early 13th-century monumental bronze incense burner in the shape of a snarling lion.

Gallery 5
EGYPT AND SYRIA (10TH–16TH CENTURIES)
Known for its history, rich culture, and diverse population, Cairo has played a vital role in the artistic life of the Islamic world for centuries. This gallery will feature a comprehensive display of the three major periods in the medieval history of the city: the Fatimid (909–1171), Ayyubid (1169–1260), and Mamluk (1250–1517). Under Mamluk rule, Cairo became one of the wealthiest cities in the Near East and a hub of artistic and intellectual activity in the Arab world. On display will be an outstanding selection of woodwork, gold jewelry from the Fatimid period, textiles, splendid inlaid metalwork and enameled glass from the Mamluk period, and luster-painted ceramics.

Gallery 7
MOROCCAN COURT
A Moroccan court of late medieval design will be reconstructed as a small interior garden adjacent to the Spain, North Africa, and the Western Mediterranean gallery. This area of repose and quiet reflection will evoke one of Islamic art’s most enduring themes, that of the Garden of Paradise. Here, original Nasrid columns will define the patio space, and dados of traditional glazed tiles will frame a fountain that will bring the sound of falling water to the galleries. An open window will reveal sweeping views of the Museum’s Roman Court below, inviting the viewer to contemplate the continuity between Mediterranean civilizations of different ages.

Gallery 8
SPAIN, NORTH AFRICA, AND THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN (8TH–19TH CENTURIES)
The spread of Arab influence to the west will be showcased through the rich material culture of Al-Andalus, highlighting the arts of the tenth-century caliphate of Cordoba and the 14th- and 15th-century Nasrid emirate of Granada. The installation will illustrate the reciprocal creative exchanges between southern Islamic courts and northern Christian- and Judaeo-Spanish areas.

Gallery 9
THE HAGOP KEVORKIAN FUND SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY
The Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery, known for its focused presentations drawn primarily from the Museum’s holdings and occasionally supplemented by important loans, will be enlarged and better situated within the suite of galleries. The gallery will provide the opportunity to present the depth of the Museum’s Islamic collection while offering views into innovative, stimulating and unexplored aspects of the field.

Galleries 10 and 11
CARPETS, TEXTILES AND THE GREATER OTTOMAN WORLD AND ARTS OF THE OTTOMAN COURT (14TH–20TH CENTURIES)
Ottoman art at the Metropolitan Museum will be presented in the Koç Family Galleries, a series of grand spaces of over 3,500 square feet with 24-foot ceilings, showing the rich diversity of courtly, provincial, and tribal art. The new galleries will provide a comprehensive overview of the multi-layered nature of Ottoman patronage for the first time. Among the strengths of the collection are works from the imperial workshops of Istanbul under the reign of Sultan Süleyman, and the Museum’s unparalleled collection of Ottoman carpets, textiles, and arms and armor.

Gallery 12
THE DAMASCUS ROOM
Previously known as the Nur al-Din Room, this reception chamber from an upper-class home in Damascus is an important early 18th-century example of domestic Ottoman architecture. A high point of the new installation will be the repositioning of the Damascus Room within its proper regional context, off the gallery dedicated to the arts of Ottoman Istanbul, underscoring the influence of the imperial Ottoman arts on those of the provinces.

Galleries 6 and 13
IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA (13TH–16TH CENTURIES) AND SAFAVID AND LATER IRAN (16TH–20TH CENTURIES)
The Metropolitan Museum’s Iranian collections will be woven throughout a new suite of galleries in which a chronological overview of the art of the Persian world underscores its many connections with other cultures.
The first major gallery for Persian art displays material from the 13th to the early 16th century under the Mongol, Turkoman, Timurid and Uzbek dynasties, as these arts came to flourish in such royal capitals as Tabriz, Samarkand and Herat. Among the highlights are manuscript pages from 15th-century Herat, such as painted folios from the famous Parliament of Birds or Mantiq-ut-Tayr, and other examples of the arts of the book.
The second major gallery for Persian art—the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery—will feature masterpieces created in Tabriz and Isfahan under the imperial Safavid dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries and its successors. Highlights include the celebrated mid-16th-century Emperor’s Carpet and the famous illustrations to the Book of Kings or Shah-Nameh, displayed under glass table-tops for seated visitors to view.

Galleries 14 and 15
ARTS OF SOUTH ASIA AND THE MUGHALS (14TH–19TH CENTURIES) AND LATER SOUTH ASIA (1500–1900)
The new galleries for the art of Later South Asia will unify the rich holdings of the Islamic and Asian departments in two adjoining spaces, thus presenting for the first time a historically cohesive and visually spectacular overview of its many facets. The two galleries will highlight the long standing artistic heritage of the Indian subcontinent and its wider connections with the Islamic world, Europe and the Far East.
The first major space will display works of art from the Sultanate, Mughal and Deccan courts in a chronological and regional sweep from c. 1450 to the nineteenth century. Masterpieces include celebrated folios from the ‘Emperor’s Album’, jades and jewels of the Mughal period and fine examples of Deccan court arts. The second gallery will present vibrant examples of Jain, Rajput and Pahari painting from the sixteenth century onward as well as textiles and decorative arts, showcasing the artistic variety of the Indian courts.

Text: Press Reliese
http://www.metmuseum.org/press_room/full_release.asp?prid={0CD1B621-EA0D-445A-B9D9-977020EE10EB}

Photo:
Object Name: Mihrab
Date: A.H. 755/ A.D. 1354–55
Geography: Iran, Esfahan
Medium Mosaic of polychrome-glazed cut tiles on fritware body; set into plaster
Dimensions: 135 1/16 x 113 11/16in. (343.1 x 288.7cm)
Storage box: 99 x 41 1/2 in. (251.5 x 105.4 cm) Wt. 4,500 lbs. (2041.2 kg)
Classification: Ceramic
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1939
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