Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire, which is the first exhibition on this subject to be showcased in the United Arab Emirates, is also Louvre Abu Dhabi's first show to date devoted exclusively to Islamic art. It covers the full breadth and richness of almost three centuries of Near-Eastern history from the transregional and transnational perspective of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517).
First presented in Paris in spring 2025 under the title Mamlouks,1250-1517, the exhibition's curators - Carine Juvin and Souraya Noujaim,the curator and director, respectively, of the Musée du Louvre's Department of Islamic Art - have presented fresh insights, based on recent studies. into this golden age of the Islamic world. Indeed, apart from architectural research, this period has not been the focus of such a review since 1981 when an exhibition was held in Washington, D.C., followed by a symposium in London in 2009, the proceedings of which were only published three years later. Thanks to Louvre Abu Dhabi's close relationship with the Musée du Louvre, and given the size and quality of the latter's collections. as well as, more broadly, the research on this period that has been carried out in France since the nineteenth century, the framework for this exhibition quickly took shape.
Both museums collaborated closely on this project, and several masterpieces of Mamluk art from Louvre Abu Dhabi collection have been included in the works displayed at both venues of this touring exhibition.
Among such artworks are a very rare carpet from the second half of the 15th century, a manuscript of the four gospels in coptic, dated 1266, and an inscribed bronze and silver basin from the first half of the 14th century
that was probably also produced in Egypt. Another notable piece is a remarkable Mamluk mosque lamp in enamelled glass, dating to the mid-14th century, which recently joined our collection. Although it could not be
included in the exhibition itself, it will soon form a link connecting this event to our permanent galleries.
The historical approach of this exhibition aims to go beyond the sultanate's military dimension, which is its most widely known feature. Established by soldier-slaves of predominantly Turkic and, later, Caucasiar
- origins, the sultanate encompassed a vast territory stretching westwards northwards to include eastern Anatolia and the Bilad al-Sham region from Egypt to the Hejaz in Arabia (including Mecca and Medina) and
(modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan). The exhibition focuses on the artistic and architectural output of a complex and multifaceted society in which sultans, emirs, and wealthy civilian elites -all actively involved in patronage - came together within a pluralistic society, where women. as well as minorities such as Coptic and Jewish sects, were all equally at home.
