Islamic Arts

Topics in Art History
Art & Art History General Guide

Afghanistan Digital Library New York University
The immediate objective of the Afghanistan Digital Library is to retrieve and restore the first sixty years of Afghanistan’s published cultural heritage. 

Aga Khan Museum Toronto, ONT
The Aga Khan Museum presents and collects art from historically significant Muslim civilizations as well as contemporary Muslim communities and diasporas around the world. The core of its Permanent Collection spans a vast geographic area from Spain and North Africa in the west, across the Middle East, to South Asia and China in the east.

British Museum, London, ENG
Explore the collections using keyword “Islamic”

The Islamic Painted Page, University of Hamburg
The Database covers examples of the painted page dating from about 700 to 1900 CE from all over the Islamic world. Persian painting and Ottoman painting are especially widely covered. 

Metropolitan Museum of Art Islamic Art Collection
The Met's collection of Islamic art ranges in date from the seventh to the twenty-first century reflecting the great diversity of the cultural traditions of Islam.

Minassian Collection Brown University, RI
Persian, Indian and Mughal miniature paintings.

Morgan Library, NY
The Morgan holds important Islamic manuscripts full of extraordinary paintings. Since Islam refers to both the religious faith and civilization of Muslims, this online exhibition includes both religious and secular texts.

Museum With No Frontiers (MWNF), Vienna, AUT
The Discover Islamic Art Database includes objects and monuments contributed by the partners from 14 countries who, between 2004 and 2007, set up the Discover Islamic Art Virtual Museum with the support of the European Union’s Euromed Heritage programme.

Princeton University Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts, Princenton, NJ
This is the premier collection of Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and other Islamic manuscripts in the Western Hemisphere. 

Qatar Digital Library (QDL)
A vast archive featuring the cultural and historical heritage of the Gulf and wider region freely available online. It includes archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs and much more, complete with contextualised explanatory notes and links, in both English and Arabic.

Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Freer and Sackler together hold one of the country’s finest collections of the arts of the Islamic world, with particular strengths in illustrated manuscripts and ceramics among the more than 2,200 objects.

Walters Art Museum Baltimore, MD
Explore the museum’s collections from the Islamic World and a fantastic collection of Islamic Manuscripts. 
 

HIstory of the Middle East 

Islamic History & Studies

Khamseen Islamic art History Online

Guide to Research in Islamic Art & Architecture
Harvard University

Arts of the Islamic World 
Beginners guide

Islamic Heritage Project

Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arab Manuscripts

Art of Islam

Companion to Islamic Art & Architecture

Design Criteria for Mosques and Islamic Centers: Art, Architecture, and Worship

Dictionary of Islamic Architecture

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World

Islamic Geometric Patterns: their Historical Development and Traditional Methods of Construction

Encyclopedia Iranica

Worldcat Online Catalog

Ars Islamica 

Bulletin of the American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology 

Bulletin of the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology 

Muqarnas * 

Arts and the Islamic World 

Virtual Large Mosques
Search mosques, tombs, palaces and sacred sites in 3D.