B.A. in English Literature, University of Kuwait
Co-owner (with husband Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah) of the Al-Sabah Collection. The Al-
Sabah Collection is a private collection which is on loan to the State of Kuwait under the
auspices of the Ministry of Information, Kuwait.
irector of Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah (Kuwait Museum of Islamic Art), since its opening in
1983. Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah is the institution based upon the Al-Sabah Collection. It
administers the variety of scholarly and artistic activities, which revolve around this
collection. The collection itself, considered by many scholars to be among the most
important concentrations of Islamic art in the world, is an extensive and comprehensive
collection of Islamic art ranging from Early Islam to the 18th century and organized
according to both historical period and geographical region. The reference library and
the publications of the Dar are closely related to the collection and to the activities of the
Dar. The yearly lecture series, which has been revived, is focal point for historians and
other specialists, since it features talks by prominent international scholars on various
topics of Islamic history, culture and art, which presents recent research to the public
and promotes scholarly exchange. The Dar has sponsored archaeological excavations
in Upper Egypt that date to the Fatimid period. The art school associated with the Dar
promoted (before the invasion) skills in the various artistic genres that are represented
in the collection.
The second travelling exhibition on road is the “Treasury of the World: the Jewelled Arts
of India in the Age of the Mughals” from the Al-Sabah Collection, which was inaugurated
first at British Museum, London on 16th May ‘2001 and presently in American tour, been
recently inaugurated at Metropolitan Museum of Art on 15th October ‘2001, showing an
expression of Kuwaiti support for the American people and government at the
September 11 tragedy.
Member of Board of the Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, Kuwait.
Former Member of Steering Committee of Islamic Research Centre for History, Arts and
Culture in Istanbul, Turkey.
Member of Advisory Cultural Committee of I’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
Head of Kuwait Information Centre in Damascus, Syria during the period when
Kuwait was under occupation, 1990-91.
‘Honorary Academic’, Class of Human Disciplines, academia delle Arti del
Disegno, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Facolta di Architettura.
Academician, International Informatization Acedemy, Moscow, Russia
Benefactor Member, World Federation of friends of Museums (WFFM), Mexico
City, Mexico
warded “The State Appreciation Award for Culture” on 39th January ‘2002
Activities
Acquisition of objects for the DAI art collection and books for library.
Contributing to and editing many of the publications of DAI:
• Newsletter (Hadeeth Ad-Dar)
• Guidebooks for museum visitors
Exhibition catalogues:
• Proceedings of seminars
• Illustrated full texts of lecture series
Excavating Islamic sites such as Bahnasa (1985-87) in Upper Egypt, in cooperation
with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS)
Organizing visiting exhibitions and catalogues:
• Opening of Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah (1983)
• Science in Islam (1984)
• Qur’anic Manuscripts from Beith Al-Qu’ran, Bahrain (1987)
• Variety in Unity (1987)
• Photographs of Old Jerusalem (1988)
• Islamic Coins in Sweden (1989)
• Masterpieces from the Heritage (1990)
• Handicrafts of Daghestan (1990)
• Turkish Calligraphy (1992)
• Flowers from the Ashes (in honour of the visit of former US President George Bush
to Kuwait, 1993)
• Dutch Cartography (1993)
• Kuwait in Early Maps (1993)
• The Overseas Business of the Dutch (1993)
