British Museum

Founded in 1753, the British Museum is the world’s first national public museum to cover all fields of human knowledge. Today, the museum holds over 100,000 historical and contemporary objects representing Islam across the globe. These objects are spread across curatorial departments; Middle East (where the biggest share of objects can be found), Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Asia, Britain, Europe and Prehistory, Coins and Medals, Egypt and Sudan, and Prints and Drawings. Amongst a myriad of other items, the collection includes: archaeological material, contemporary art, paintings and vessels made for royal patrons, and evocative objects of daily life. The collection also includes video and audio resources that can be found here.

If visitors are interested in finding out more about specific objects, the majority of the collection has been digitised and can be explored here. 

Any of the objects in the Middle East collection can be accessed for free to view by setting up an appointment with the study room here.

The British Museum’s founding collection is made up of objects from Sir Hans Sloane, who bequeathed his collection to the nation in his will. This founding collection included objects from the Islamic world, for example, an important group of Persian amulets with Quranic descriptions that were translated for Sloane by Suleiman Diallo - an enslaved muslim from Bundu (Senegal). Read more about the history of the collection here. 

The Albukhary Foundation Gallery, funded by the Albukhary Foundation, highlights the British Museum’s Islamic collection. The collection can be found in Gallery 42 and 43, comprising a broad and diverse spectrum of the material culture produced in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present day. It includes a series of regions stretching from West Africa to Southeast Asia. The collection has been catalogued here. 

Gallery 42 covers the period up to 1500 through chronological and thematic displays that are permanent, featuring topics such as global trade and exchange and luxury arts. Gallery 43 covers the period from 1500 to the present day, and features a rotating display of courtly culture, textiles and jewellery, artists books and contemporary art. 

A relevant past exhibition is ‘Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam’. Held in 2012, it was the world's first major exhibition showcasing the story, visually and textually, of the Hajj. The exhibition displayed 200 objects, from 40 public and private collections in 14 countries, largely drawing from the Khalili collection. Alongside these objects, the exhibition also displayed miniature pieces from Ahmed Mater's Magnetism.