A new mega museum is slated to open in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island in December this year. Designed by UK architectural firm Foster + Partners, the Zayad National Museum will house a Qur’an more than 1,000 years old and the world’s oldest natural pearl.
The museum is named after the first president of the seven emirates of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004). It will “focus on his life and achievements but also reflect more broadly the historical trajectory of the country from the earliest times through to the more recent past,” the museum’s director, Peter Magee, told The Art Newspaper. “[The Zayad National Museum] is rooted in the values of the UAE’s founding father.” The UAE was born in 1971.
There will be six permanent galleries across two floors spanning 300,000 years of human history and a temporary exhibition gallery. The collection will comprise artifacts from across the UAE including Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age objects, as well as those loaned from domestic and international institutions. “These artefacts tell a story of resilience and resourcefulness of the country’s first communities, from the world’s oldest falaj irrigation system to evidence of Bronze Age copper mining,” the museum said in a statement.
“One of [Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s] values which we explore in the gallery is religious tolerance,” Magee said. “We make the point that when the first evidence for an early Christian Church dating to the seventh century was found on one of the islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi in 1959, [he] was extremely encouraging of that work.”
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While the museum is the “recipient of generous state funding,” Magee said, it plans to generate revenue. Its design is inspired by a falcon’s wing in flight (falconry is an integral part of Emirati culture) and comprises five massive glass towers which draw cooling drafts up through the museum to counter the Gulf state’s scorching temperatures.
As outlined in the UAE’s Tourism Strategy 2030, Abu Dhabi plans to draw almost 40 million tourists each year by 2030. When it opens, the Zayad National Museum will join other major cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and the upcoming Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi.
The Abu Dhabi Pearl, which is 8,00 years old, will be among the museum’s main attractions and will be permanently on show in its To Our Ancestors gallery, which the museum said “examines evidence of human activity in this part of the world dating back 300,000 years and early trade with other societies in the Arabian Gulf region.” Dating from AD800-900, the Blue Qur’an will also be a major draw. Researchers have found Qur’anic verses hidden beneath an intricate decorative layer of gold leaf on one of its pages.
Research, Magee explained, is a major part of the museum’s mission. “While research being generated from within the institution is extremely important, the museum has a fundamental role in furthering a research ecosystem within the country,” he said.
Among the international institutions lending objects to the museum is the British Museum.