{"id":6473,"date":"2015-11-22T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T07:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6473"},"modified":"2015-11-22T07:00:51","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T07:00:51","slug":"6473","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6473","title":{"rendered":"Bright shiny things…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fabulous<\/a>
Fabulous lines and angles and light and shadow make the museum quite beautiful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

As part of my ongoing love affair with museums, I recently lost myself for a few hours in the fabulous Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.<\/p>\n

The building is a work of art in itself – a beautiful collection of lines and shapes and angles on the outside and modern bright spaces on the inside.<\/p>\n

I love the British Museum and its\u00a0is eclectic collection of bits from all over the world. This was very different. This museum is devoted to a single culture, giving a much greater insight into its diversity and depth.<\/p>\n

On my first visit to Qatar nearly 15 years ago, their museum was just a single small building with a few local handicrafts on display. This new museum opened in 2008 and is world class.<\/p>\n

I love bright shiny things \u2013 and Oh My! There were plenty of them from places as diverse as India and Mongolia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A jewellers tool kit – and some of the style of objects that would have been made with it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The glassware was equally ornate. The workmanship simply amazing especially for something more than 800 years old.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I have seen wonderful lamps like this hanging in the grand mosques of many countries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ceramic work was equally impressive,\u00a0much of it decorated with the most beautiful calligraphy.<\/p>\n

\"Far<\/a>
Far too beautiful to use, even if they were not hundreds of year old.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astrolabes were invented by the Greeks,\u00a0but medieval Islamic scholars further developed it \u2013 not just in technical terms, but they also made devices of quite breath-taking beauty.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A useful device – but also a thing of great beauty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed the few hours I spent in the museum\u00a0\u2013 and not just inside.\u00a0 As I emerged just after dark, I was treated to a lovely view of one of my favourite modern buildings anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The nearby Fanar Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre is a beautiful building \u2013 especially at night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  As part of my ongoing love affair with museums, I recently lost myself for a few hours in the fabulous Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. The building is a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7g6jm-6473","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}