Collections of the Islamic Art Museum

Islamic Art Museum in Athens

Collections of the Islamic Art Museum

Many exhibits were collected by Antonis Benakis at the time when he was still living in Egypt. The collection was later enriched with further donations and today houses one of the most important collections in the world.

The special feature of these objects lies both in their historical significance and in their skilful construction. The museum currently houses over 8,000 works of art.

These include:

- ceramics, gold, metalwork, textiles and glass, smaller groupings of bone objects, inscribed funerary steles and weaponry, as well as the marble-faced interior of a reception room from a 17th Century Cairo mansion.

- 2 carved wooden memorial door panels from 8th Century Mesopotamia rank amongst the more important objects in the collection, as do the unique reed from 10^th Century Tiberias, the small brass box bearing the signature of Ismail ibn al-Ward al-Mausili dated 1200, the bronze astrolabe of Ahmad ibn al-Sarraj dated 1328/29, and the famous 16th Century velvet saddle from Bursa.