Islamic Art and Architecture: Museum Databases & Images
Selected Museum and Research Databases
Most of these databases or websites offer provenance, descriptive information and bibliographies to accompany each image. The ease of downloading images and text varies.
Produced by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries, Archnet is an open access resource on the architecture, urbanism, landscape design, and visual culture of the Muslim world.
- ARTstorContent includes approximately 1.9 million images covering art, architecture and archaeology.
ARTstor's content has moved to JSTOR, and the ARTstor website was retired on August 1, 2024. More information here: https://www.jstor.org/artstor-move/ - Discover Islamic Art This link opens in a new windowMuseum with No Frontiers: 14 Mediterranean & European Union countries have collaborated to produce a virtual museum that explores Islamic art and material culture in the Mediterranean region. The image database may be searched by country, period/dynasty, etc. Each object or monument has a description, select bibliography, and provenance.
Islamic Heritage Project is a digital collection of Islamic manuscripts, published texts, and maps from Harvard's libraries and museums. Materials date from the 10th to the 20th centuries and represent many regions, languages, and subjects.
Netherlands Institute in Turkey: Machiel Kiel Photographic Archive. Created between 1960s - 1990s by Machiel Kiel, historian and a former director of NIT, the archive documents many monuments which have not survived, or have been significantly altered during the late 20th century. As of May 2012, 1,300 photographs have been classified and digitized for Ottoman-Islamic monuments outside of Turkey in southeast Europe. Phase 2 will comprise Christian art produced under Ottoman rule; phase 3 will include monuments in Turkish Trace. Search by country and site.
Microfiche
- The Muslim WorldCall Number: N8214.5 .I76 M87; M8214.5 .I76 M87 GuideMuslim World Including the Searight Collection of Drawings and Prints, and Material from the Prints and Drawings Department of the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum , National Art Library of Great Britain. 1989-1990. 166 microfiches; guide (61 p.)