Exhibitions

As part of its Festival of Muslim Culture season, the National Museum is running two parallel exhibitions.

The first, The Muslim World on your Doorstep offers an insight into the wealth of ancient Islamic artifacts which have been excavated from around Wales, including some beautiful ceramics, as well as providing a good explanation of the key pillars of the Islamic faith.

This part of the exhibition opens with the question of ‘Who is a Muslim?’, and goes on to explain about the Qur’an, Allah and Muhamed.

The second part of the exhibition is 1001 Inventions. This extraordinary interactive display shows the way in which inventions from the Islamic empire have benefited our way of life. It is divided into sections, demonstrating how Muslim heritage has affected the market place, towns, homes, schools and hospitals.

Everything from carpet making and coffee to eye surgery and irrigation is shown to have links in pioneering Islamic inventions. This wealth of information is presented in a fun and user friendly format, making it well worth a look.

Interesting in its own right, these exhibitions serve another important function: they show the wealth of history and diversity within the Muslim world, stepping away from the type cast images so commonly reported in the media.

For anyone wishing to know a little more about Muslim culture and the Islamic faith, the National Museum is certainly the place to go.

Amy Grier