After years of restoration work on its fine neo-Mameluke buildings and exhibitions of Islamic art, Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art is close to reopening to the public. Nevine El-Aref took a tour On Port Said Street in the Bab Al-Khalq area of Cairo stands the lofty, honey- coloured edifice of the Museum of Islamic Art, its neo-Mameluke architecture and luxurious façade featuring the rich patterns and elaborate decoration of the Islamic style. However, inside the institution the picture that greets visitors will soon be far less familiar. Following years of restoration work, visitors to the museum will soon be able to roam around spacious galleries showcasing the museum's collection of rare wooden, metal, ceramic, glass, rock crystal and textile objects from across the Islamic world. Following years of negligence, the Museum of Islamic Art has finally been undergoing comprehensive rehabilitation not only of its building and interior design, but also of its exhibition design and displays. "Restoring the Museum of Islamic Art is an ambitious and challenging task that illustrates Egypt's commitment to preserving one of the country's Islamic institutions, in addition to its Pharaonic and Coptic heritage," Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. Hosni added that over the last five years, renovation work to the tune of LE85 million had been carried out at the museum, with work continuing until December 2009 when the institution will celebrate its official reopening. First planned in 1869 even before the establishment of a committee of Arab antiquities dedicated to building a national collection of Islamic art, the Museum of Islamic Art first opened in 1881 with an initial display of 111 objects gathered from mosques and mausoleums across Egypt, these being exhibited in the arcades of the mosque of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim. Owing to a rapid increase in the size of the collection, a new building was constructed in the courtyard of the mosque in 1883 to house what had now become a considerably enlarged museum. In 1899, the government began construction work on the present building, and in 1903 the Islamic Museum opened with a display of 3,154 objects originating from Egypt and other countries. While the museum's name has been changed over the years, in 1952 the museum's trustees settled on the institution's present name, the Museum of Islamic Art, in recognition of the contributions of non-Arab Muslims. Since then, the museum has become the main repository for the national collection of Islamic art, and, owing to new discoveries, purchases and donations, this now boasts some 100,000 objects. Nevertheless, by the time renovation work started on the museum in 1999, the Museum of Islamic Art had become beset by negligence. In all the 100 years or so of its existence the museum had never once been renovated, except for an attempt to clean the institution's walls and renovate the displays in 1983, and attempts at a more comprehensive renovation were frustrated in part by the building's upper floor being occupied by a separate institution, the Dar Al-Kotob Al-Masreya. In 2003, the Ministry of Culture launched a comprehensive restoration project for the museum in an attempt to reinstate its original function and splendour. The masterplan for the renovation work and the new exhibition design was drawn up by French designer and museographer Adrien Gardère in cooperation with the Islamic Department of the Louvre Museum in Paris, which has advised on the reorganisation of the museum's collections. According to Iman Abdel-Fattah, an Islamic art historian at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Cairo and the coordinator of the Islamic Museum project, the renovation masterplan puts the museum's main entrance on Port Said Street, as it was originally, and from here visitors will first encounter an introductory gallery that will present Islamic arts and the Muslim countries and their locations in the world in a mixed display made up of panels, maps and objects from the collection. Visitors will also gain an idea of the geography of historic Cairo and the early Islamic city of Fustat, the oldest Islamic settlement in Egypt. The renovated museum is divided into two large wings, Abdel-Fattah explained, with the wing on the right-hand side being devoted to the chronological exhibition of Islamic artefacts taken in the main from monuments in historic Cairo just a few steps away from the museum. This wing of the museum will follow a broadly chronological approach in its presentation of the collection, Umayad, Abbasid, Tulunid, Fatimid, Ayubid, Mameluke and Ottoman, while also including various thematic displays. "This museum for me is a site museum," Abdel-Fattah commented, adding that it will serve as an ideal introduction to the magnificent Islamic edifices in neighbouring historic Cairo. The museum's collection includes a lamp taken from the neighbouring Ibn Barqouq Mosque, for example, together with a minbar from the adjacent Al-Sultan Hassan Mosque. The other, left-hand wing of the museum will display materials from other countries besides Egypt, including calligraphy, manuscripts, ceramics, mosaics, textiles, grave stones, mashrabiya, woodwork, metal and glass vessels, incense burners and caskets, pottery, metalwork and glass lamps dating from different periods in Islamic history. These objects will be displayed both according to chronology and according to theme, provenance and material. The renovated museum will have state-of-the art security and lighting systems, as well as a fully-equipped restoration laboratory, a children's museum and library. According to Abdel-Fattah, one of the most impressive items to be displayed in the new presentation will be a Mameluke water fountain restored by Spanish restorer Eduardo Porta, who was also a member of the restoration team working on the tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens at Luxor. The fountain, made of semi-precious stones, green onyx and coloured mosaic pieces, was originally bought for the Museum of Islamic Art in 1910 and placed in the museum's garden. Owing to ill use and faulty restoration work carried out in the 1960s and 1970s, the fountain fell into decay and it is only now being properly restored. According to Porta, the fountain "is unique in the world, and it will be one of the most important objects in the museum." "One challenge that faced Porta and his team from the SCA and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture was how safely to dismantle the fountain from its cement base and transport and relocate it at the restoration lab at the Citadel without further destruction," Abdel-Fattah said. During the dismantling and restoration process, Porta and his team removed almost three tonnes of material used in earlier attempts to restore the fountain and corrected the harmful effects of previous attempts at restoration. According to Abdel-Fattah, the overall museum restoration project has achieved three goals. It has brought light into the museum's galleries by enlarging the size of the windows, and it has replaced old display cases with new state-of-the-art ones providing a far better display environment for the artefacts. Thirdly, the project has reorganised the display of the collection and highlighted a successful example of international cooperation, with work being carried out jointly with the Islamic Department of the Louvre in Paris and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which helped in the restoration of several larger items. Inevitably there have been some delays. When Hosni and Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, embarked on an inspection tour of the museum last August, they found work that needed to be corrected in order to meet international standards, and this delayed the inauguration until December. However, the newly renovated museum, in addition to having restored buildings and renovated displays, will also have new facilities designed to reach out to every kind of public. The renovated Museum of Islamic Art will have a curatorial training programme organised by the Friends of the Museum of Islamic Art for the general public, for example, as well as education programmes for children and young adults. The renovation project has been a lengthy and dedicated one. "The restoration of the Museum of Islamic Art is an extraordinary achievement, executed by some 15 specialists, 20 SCA restorers and 150 workmen," Hawass said in an interview with the Weekly, with all the work executed to the highest international standards. "Now that the Museum of Islamic Art meets the international standards set out by the International Committee of Museums, it is in a position to compete with its counterparts in Europe and America," Hawass said. "Following its reopening in December, the museum will once again stand as proudly as it ever did."
