First Mecca Pilgrimage Exhibition

The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islāmic Art is pleased to share its 80 works at the first major exhibition in the Netherlands dedicated to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca which is fundamental in Islam.

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The collection will be displayed from September 10, 2013 to March 9, 2014 at the National Museum of Ethnology or Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, in partnership with the British Museum in London. For hundreds of years, the Hajj has motivated leaders and artists to create outstanding items. More than 250 objects from Indonesia and Morocco dating back from the 10th century to the recent years have been collected for this show.

Mecca is well-known in Dutch culture and history with hundreds of thousands of people living in the Netherlands and those from the former Dutch colonies of Indonesia and Suriname have made the pilgrimage long-ago.

The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islāmic Art features textile art. It is one of the few private collections to have a large number of pilgrimage-related textiles. It consists of 20,000 works and is the biggest and most complete in the world, covering the full history of Islam.