Tiles from the Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Featuring Nicoletta Fazio, a film by Christian Sánchez

The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha (map) (website) is the closest museum outside of Iran to preserve star and cross tiles attributed to the Emamzadeh Yahya. Nine of these tiles were acquired in the 1990s and 2000s, before the museum opened in 2008 (see the list below). During the museum’s recent reimagining and reinstallation, one tile (TI.36.1998) was selected for inclusion in the Qurʾan gallery (Gonnella 2022). In this film created for the exhibition by MIA staff, curator Nicoletta Fazio introduces the star tile on display and takes us behind the scenes for a glimpse of the other tiles in storage. The film also includes an animation of the inscriptions on star tile TI.36.1998: sura al-Fatiha and sura al-Ikhlas, a common combination (fig. 1). This animation was prepared by the MIA team with the support of Mohammad Farsimadan (see his Speaking Objects) and features a recitation by Egyptian hafez Abdulbasit Abdusamad (d. 1988).

Figure 1. Star tile attributed to the Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, TI.36.1998. Photograph courtesy of Samar Kassab, © Qatar Museums.

Luster tiles attributed to the Emamzadeh Yahya in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
(unless otherwise noted, all tiles measure between 30–31 cm)

  1. TI.36.1998: star tile (fig. 1, on display in Gallery 2; published in Jodido 2008, p. 58)
  2. TI.37.1998 star tile
  3. TI.56.1998: star tile
  4. TI.57.1998: star tile
  5. TI.58.1998: cross tile
  6. TI.159.2003: cross tile
  7. TI.207.2004: star tile
  8. PO.290.2003: star tile (the small version, 21.5 cm)
  9. PO.336.2004: star tile (no inscriptions, 20.1 cm; attribution to the shrine is questionable [KO])

Related pages:

Sources:

  • Jodidio, Philip, and Lois Lammerhuber. Museum of Islamic Art: Doha, Qatar. Munich: Prestel, 2008.
  • Gonnella, Julia, ed. Museum of Islamic Art: The Collection. London: Thames & Hudson, in collaboration with Qatar Museums, 2022.

Acknowledgments: Thank you to Nicoletta Fazio and her team for creating this film. Thanks also to MIA’s former director Julia Gonnella, with whom the seeds of this collaboration were planted, and Simone Struth, for sharing information over the years.

Figure 2. Star tile TI.36.1998 on display in the Qurʾan gallery of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. Photograph courtesy of the museum.

The Film

Watch the film on our YouTube page in high resolution.

Nicoletta Fazio Curator of Iran and Central Asia, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Christian Sánchez Senior Video/Film Specialist and Social Media Content Developer, Qatar Museum Authority

Citation: “Tiles from the Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.” Featuring Nicoletta Fazio, a film by Christian Sánchez. In The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: An Online Exhibition of an Iranian Shrine, directed and edited by Keelan Overton, 33 Arches Productions, January 15, 2025. Host: Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online.