The Al Thani Collection is pleased to announce its participation at the second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, where it is honoured to have been selected for AlMuqtani (“Homage”), the section which recognises the outstanding contribution that individual collectors have made to the appreciation and understanding of Islamic visual and material culture. For the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale, this will feature an exhibition of The Al Thani Collection’s masterpieces from Islamic lands, characterised by a taste for precious materials and virtuosic artistry, with a particular focus on jewelled objects. These pieces will be shown alongside works of art from The Furusiyyah Collection which is renowned for metalwork, especially works associated with chivalric culture across Islamic civilisations.

The second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale will bring together works by contemporary artists with Islamic art from across the globe, including sacred and secular objects loaned from major institutions worldwide including the Louvre Museum (Paris) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), as well as collections devoted specifically to Islamic arts and cultures, such as the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research (Timbuktu), the Museum of Islamic Art (Doha), and the Manuscript Institution of Türkiye (Istanbul). The Artistic Directors of the Biennale are Dr. Amin Jaffer (in his ongoing role as Director of The Al Thani Collection), Dr Julian Raby (former lecturer at the University of Oxford and former director of the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution), Dr Abdul Rahman Azzam (author, historian and Senior Expert Advisor for Almada in 2023), and Contemporary Art Curator and artist Muhammad Shono.

The Islamic Arts Biennale is organised by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation.