Museums in Saudi Arabia

Museum culture within Saudi Arabia can be traced back to 1945, when the Kingdom participated in the founding of the United Nations Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and signed the Cultural Treaty of the Arab League which emphasizes, in Article 10, the need to focus on the field of antiquities in the Arab world. Plans for museums began at the first archaeological conferences held by the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organisation (ALESCO).

Community initiatives in the field, however, date back to the early twentieth century, when Muhammad Salih Ba‘ishen founded the first private museum inside his home in Jeddah in 1902. He collected artifacts from Jeddah as well as from a range of Arab and Asian countries.[1] Decades later, Saudi public museums were established for preservation and education purposes and have long been associated with heritage and archaeology.[2] The Law of Antiquities, Museums, and Urban Heritage, established by Royal Decree in 2014, defines a museum as “a place where archaeological, artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific items are permanently exhibited for cultural, educational, or recreational purposes, and which is open to the public at specific times”.[3]

First Saudi Museum

The first Saudi public museum, the Jeddah Museum of Artifacts (al-‘adiyyat), was established in the 1960s before the field of museums and antiquities were given governmental support and instead served the purpose of preserving artifacts for research.[4] The Museum occupied a large hall in the Technical Affairs Building for Mineral Resources, which later became affiliated with what is now the Ministry of Energy. The Museum primarily contained books, ancient Islamic stone inscriptions, ceramic vessels, and coins and when it was visited by Abdulquddus Al-Ansari in 1961, he described its holdings in his book Between Antiquities and Heritage.

See also

References
  1. See Abdulquddus Al-Ansari, Between History and Antiquities (1971).
  2. Dalil bint Mutlaq Shafi Al-Qahtani, Museum Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Aims and Dimensions (1436 AH), 12.
  3. “Article 1,” Saudi Law of Antiquities, Museums, and Urban Heritage (2014).
  4. Abdulquddus Al-Ansari, Between History and Antiquities (1971).
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