Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

"The Museum of Islamic Art is more influenced by the mosque of Ibn Tulun than any other building. This mosque is very austere and beautiful, and it has the most refined geometry. What inspired me most was the small ablution fountain in the middle of a large courtyard. The little building is a poem."

-I.M. Pei, The Architect

I learnt something invaluable during my visit to Qatar's Museum of Islamic Art, and that is: even brilliant minds find their inspiration in the works of others.

As I approached the entrance of cubically-shaped museum, I knew that I had seen it somewhere... in fact it felt as if I had been to it before. I had read a bit about how the architect had travelled the Islamic world to gather ideas on traditional Islamic architecture to manifest them in the Qatari museum... but I had never thought that he would use one small feature from Ibn Tulun's mosque to create a whole museum...

See if you can spot the similarities for yourself:



A word about the exhibition on display: the treasures this tiny building contains are preeminent jewels of the Islamic civilization. I could not tell whether the artwork on display originated from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Spain, or China...a testament that Muslims shared one cultural identity throughout the ages.