Islamic Art, Museum of

in Cairo (until 1952, the Museum of Arabic Art), one of the most important museums in Egypt. Founded in 1881. It contains relics of the medieval monumental and decorative art and applied art of the Arab countries, Iran, and Turkey. The collection (which had about 70,000 exhibits in the early 1970’ s) is based on artifacts from Cairo mosques, private homes, and excavations at al-Fustat and other districts of Cairo. The museum houses extremely valuable collections of manuscript texts, miniatures, wood carvings (for example, reliefs from the Fatimid palace with hunting scenes; 11th century), pottery, artistic metalwork (for example, a table belonging to Sultan Kalaun, 1327, by the craftsman Muhammad ibn Sunkur of Baghdad), and glassware painted with colored enamels (lamps from mosques and vessels).