Taregh Raja Museum

The Taregh Raja Museum is one of the main cultural attractions of Kuwait. Its owners, Tarek Rajab and his wife, Jehan Wellborn, have been collecting exhibits for 50 years, traveling to Islamic countries.

Mr. Tarek Rajab was the first Kuwaiti to be sent to England to study art. He married in England and later became director of the Department of Antiquities and Museums in Kuwait. In 1969, he finished his work in the department and by that time, Mr. Tarek Rajab, a scientist, artist, photographer, was already assembling his extensive collection with his wife. As a result, the Museum of Islamic Art was opened in 1980.

The museum is divided into two parts: the first part contains calligraphy, manuscripts, miniatures, ceramics, metal construction, glass, jade, wood, and stone carvings. The second part contains objects that have been produced in the Islamic world in the last 250 years, i.e. costumes, textiles, jewelry and musical instruments. The museum contains the richest collections of Islamic art of writing the words of Allah, ancient scrolls with half-erased notches found at the excavations of settlements of the VII-IX centuries AD. All kinds of examples of Arabic script, from the ancient, clear and exquisite handwriting of real masters to the later, written by careless hands of illiterate artisans who distorted letters. Carpets and paths sewn with gold, with interlaced prayers. Shamaili (wall panels) containing philosophical and religious sayings. The Museum of Islamic Art will impress visitors with an endless respect for the Letter and the Word, which you will not find anywhere else.