How Islamic art became part of the Metropolitan Museum

In 1970, the Damascus Room arrived at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in hundreds of pieces. Reassembled for the 1975 galleries and moved again for the 2011 installation, the room makes the museum’s collecting history visible. Its painted surfaces belong to a Syrian household; the way visitors encounter them today also belongs to a history of display in New York.

The collection now extends from the seventh century into the twenty-first and across a vast geography. The department's overview describes more than 15,000 objects, encompassing far more than objects created for worship. Ceramics, textiles, metalwork, manuscripts, and architectural elements connect religious settings with courts, households, workshops, and markets.

Before a dedicated department

Islamic objects appeared in the museum before they formed a distinct display. The Met’s retrospective describes early galleries mixing them with works from other regions and periods. Edward C. Moore’s 1891 bequest helped bring related glass, metalwork and woodwork together. That date marks a significant gift and change in presentation, rather than a clean beginning for all collecting.

A major early moment came in 1910 with an exhibition of oriental rugs. It brought together forty-nine carpets from twelve lenders. The exhibition was organized during Wilhelm Valentiner's work at the museum, following the establishment of a decorative arts department in 1907. The Met's history of its displays shows how carpets helped bring this material into public view.

Loans and private collecting shaped what audiences could see. A museum exhibition depended partly on what collectors owned and were willing to lend. Their preferences could elevate particular media or periods. The resulting presentation was therefore both an account of distant artistic traditions and a reflection of contemporary American collecting.

Gifts that changed the collection

The museum's 2011 exhibition The Making of a Collection examined the people and acquisitions behind the holdings. Its exhibition account highlights the role of collectors and donors, including James F. Ballard's contributions to the carpet collection.

The importance of a gift is not only numerical. A group of carpets can make it possible to compare regional styles or techniques. A manuscript acquisition can transform the range of painting available for study. Donors help determine which comparisons a museum can offer and which gaps remain.

Two major manuscript acquisitions illustrate the point. In 1955 the museum purchased thirty-nine leaves from the Shah Jahan Album. In 1970 Arthur A. Houghton Jr. donated seventy-six folios containing seventy-eight illustrations from the Shahnama made for Shah Tahmasp. These additions changed the possibilities for displaying Persianate and Mughal painting in New York.

Detached manuscript leaves also pose an interpretive challenge. A page on a gallery wall was once part of a sequence, binding, or album. Its beauty remains visible, but its original relationship to other pages may require explanation. Digital presentation and scholarship can help reconstruct connections that a single framed leaf cannot show.

Rooms, galleries, and changing categories

In 1965 the Met had a single gallery devoted to Islamic art. The 1975 installation expanded the presentation to ten galleries. Those changes made more works visible and gave the collection a stronger architectural presence within the museum.

The Damascus Room offers an especially tangible example. Acquired in 1970 in hundreds of components, it was assembled for the 1975 galleries and moved again for the installation opened in 2011. It presents an interior rather than an isolated object, encouraging visitors to think about scale, surfaces, and the experience of inhabiting a decorated room.

A reconstructed interior is nevertheless a museum presentation. Lighting, visitor circulation, explanatory labels, and the absence of its former occupants all shape the encounter. The room can reveal architectural craftsmanship while also prompting questions about how domestic spaces become museum objects.

An American encounter with a wider world

Museums are among the places where American audiences encounter Islamic cultures. That encounter is different from visiting a mosque or meeting a contemporary artist. Historical objects arrive through collecting networks and are interpreted through curatorial choices.

The category “Islamic art” is broad. It can include works made for Muslim patrons or within societies shaped by Islamic cultures, including work by people of different religions. A useful visit therefore follows the specific object: where it was made, who used it, what materials it required, and how it reached New York.

The galleries become richer when these two histories remain connected. One concerns the makers and users of the objects. The other concerns the collectors, scholars, and museum staff who assembled their American setting. Both influence the story a visitor sees.

For a route through the spaces themselves, continue to our first-visit guide to the Met.

Sources & further reading 4 sources

1. Met: Islamic Art department
2. Met: Displaying Islamic Art
3. Met: Making of a Collection
4. Met: educator questions