The Asian capital home to the Museum of Islamic Art designed by I. M. Pei is Doha, Qatar.
The museum stands on an artificial island beside Doha’s Corniche, where its geometric limestone forms rise above the waterfront. I. M. Pei, the Chinese-American architect known for the Louvre Pyramid, came out of retirement for the project at age 91. Before designing it, he traveled through the Muslim world and studied Islamic architecture.
Pei drew particular inspiration from the light-filled fountain of Cairo’s 9th-century Mosque of Ibn Tulun. The museum’s simplified arches, domes, and angular volumes reinterpret traditional Islamic forms rather than copying a single historic building. Its island setting was chosen to protect the structure from future development around it.
The museum opened in 2008 and presents Islamic art from three continents, spanning roughly 1,400 years. Its holdings include ceramics, metalwork, textiles, jewelry, glass, woodwork, and manuscripts. It is not in Abu Dhabi or Muscat, both of which also have major cultural institutions and museums.