Museum of Islamic Art
An I. M. Pei building set on an artificial island, and twelve hundred years of objects.
Duration
2 hrs – 3 hrs
Best time
Late afternoon
Open
Closed Tuesday
Entry price
Free
I. M. Pei, architect of the Louvre pyramid, was ninety-one when he accepted this commission, on one condition: that he choose the site himself. He insisted on an artificial island, so that nothing could ever be built against the building.
He travelled the Muslim world for months before drawing, and the form comes from the ablutions fountain of the Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo: stacked cubic volumes that produce, under the sun, a different play of shadow every hour. The collection spans fourteen hundred years, from the seventh century to the nineteenth, and entry is free.
Getting there
On its island, at the southern end of the corniche. Metro gold line, Souq Waqif station, then fifteen minutes on foot.
Hours
Closed Tuesday
Rules on site
Closed on Tuesday. The view of the Doha skyline from the museum park at sunset is worth as much as the collection — stay on after the visit.