The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (Muzlum Kesenlan Islam Malaysia) in Kuala Lumpur, the first and largest museum of its kind in South-East Asia opened in 1998.

Occupying 30,000sq m, and housing over 8,000 artefacts, the Museum aims to create a collection truly representative of the Islamic world. See their web site here.

The museum comprises 12 permanent galleries, each highlighting a different type of Islamic artwork, including Jewellery, Textiles, Metalwork, Coins and Seals, Ceramics and Glassware, Architecture, and Quran and Manuscripts. These also include galleries dedicated to India, China and the Malay world, three of the great centres of Islamic culture in Asia.

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There are multiple elaborately-decorated domes inside and outside the buildings.

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There were multiple domes like this one (below) in the museum. All,except an inverted one, are concave on the inside.

The Architecture Gallery also features scale models of some of the greatest places in Islamic history, including the cities of Mecca and Medina. I will create a separate post showing these models.

The museum also features a conservation centre, a restaurant, gift shop, two terraces, a fountain garden, an auditorium, a children’s library and a scholar’s library.

The restaurant (above) offered a buffet lunch but it was rather quiet.

KL’s bird park is behind the museum.

The museum’s interior is designed to maintain a seamless continuity of light and space, which carries through the galleries and into every area of the museum.

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The shades are to protect the exhibits from the strong tropical sunlight – which was absent on the day we were visiting.

This museum really deserves a second visit. We were a bit rushed and (I) did not looked closely at the exhibits.