In the making

All trails

The museum is big and you may not know where to start. Tour / Learn offers short, ordered pathways, each with a clear goal, that take you step by step through the museum's own pages, or show you the whole route at once.

This section is growing. Around three hundred pathways are drafted on the museum's current pages; the chooser and the step-by-step walk are live, and the catalogue review continues. The rest of the museum stays as it is.

What do you want to understand?

Walk each pathway step by step, or see the whole route at once. Your progress stays in your browser.

By goal start hereplacesideas and practicespersonalitiestexts and sciencesart and objectseventsliving culturehard questionsan era

By region

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• Islam in Thirty Minutes

  An introductory trail for those who have not known Islam before: the meanings of Islam, iman and ihsan, the five pillars and how they are performed, then who the Prophet is, how the message began and where the Hijri calendar starts.start here · 30 min · 12 steps

• The Meccan Period: From the Cave to the Hijra

  A chronological trail through the years of the call in Mecca, from the descent of the revelation in the cave of Hira to the Hijra, in twelve events ordered as they unfolded.start here · 45 min · 12 steps

• The Two Emigrations to Abyssinia

  A short lesson on the first departure from Mecca: why they went to Abyssinia, who sheltered them, what happened there and how they returned, with the differing accounts of their return.start here · 25 min · 11 steps

• The Women Around the Prophet: Twelve Lives

  A trail through the lives of twelve women from the Prophet's circle — from the steadfast in Mecca to the emigrants, the fighters and the Mothers of the Believers — known by what has been transmitted of them.start here · 40 min · 12 steps

• From Opposition to Islam: Those Who Changed Sides

  A trail through twelve places in the stories of those who opposed the call in Mecca and then entered Islam, from Umar to the Muslims of the conquest, and then the category of 'those whose hearts were to be reconciled'.start here · 40 min · 12 steps

• The Abbasid Age

  A trail through Baghdad's great centuries.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Abyssinia

  A trail through the neighbour kingdom.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Jahiz and His Age

  A trail through Basra's greatest man of letters.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mirrors for Princes

  A trail through political adab.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Afghan Lands

  A trail through Greater Khorasan.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Death and the Hereafter

  A trail through the last journey.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Prophet's Household

  A trail through the Prophet's household.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Alexandria

  A trail through the Mediterranean bride.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Alexandria

  A trail through the Mediterranean's bride.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Algeria

  A trail through Algeria.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Andalus: Eight Centuries

  A trail through eight Andalusi centuries.places · 30 min · 6 steps

• Cities of al-Andalus

  A trail through Islamic Iberia's cities.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Emirs of al-Andalus

  A trail through the Umayyad state in Iberia.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Minds of al-Andalus

  A trail through al-Andalus's thinkers.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Ansar

  A trail through the people of Medina.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Literary Treasury

  A trail through the classics of adab.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Arabic Novel

  A trail through a century of the novel.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Arabia before Islam

  A trail through the kingdoms of jahiliyya.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Nawawi's Forty

  A trail through the most famous hadith text.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Arms in the Heritage

  A trail through arms as heritage.art and objects · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Early Ascetics

  A trail through the first ascetics.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Ten Promised Paradise

  A trail through the ten promised paradise.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Astronomers

  A trail through the watchers of the sky.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Astronomy

  A trail through Muslim astronomy.personalities · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Battle of Badr

  A trail through the first great battle.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Baghdad Sufis

  A trail through the Baghdad school.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Banu Qurayza

  A trail through the siege of Qurayza.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Barbary Corsairs

  A trail through Ottoman Algiers.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Travels of Ibn Battuta

  A trail through the greatest traveller.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Bay'a

  A trail through the compact of rule.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Arts of the Book

  A trail through the beauty of the word.art and objects · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Great Shelf

  A trail through ten books that changed the community.texts and sciences · 30 min · 6 steps

• Botany

  A trail through the herb physicians.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Buyid Age

  A trail through the Daylamites who ruled Baghdad.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Cairo's Architecture

  A trail through the city of a thousand minarets.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Cairo's Complexes

  A trail through the city of al-Mu'izz.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Masters of Calligraphy

  A trail through the masters of the pen.ideas and practices · 30 min · 4 steps

• Islam in China

  A trail through Islam's far east.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Egyptian Cinema

  A trail through the Arab Hollywood.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Indian Cinema

  A trail through Bollywood's Muslim thread.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Indonesian Cinema

  A trail through the largest Muslim nation's cinema.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Iranian Cinema

  A trail through Persian cinema.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Maghreb Cinema

  A trail through Maghreb screens.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Pakistani Cinema

  A trail through Lollywood.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Palestinian Cinema

  A trail through the cinema of the cause.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Saudi Cinema

  A trail through the kingdom's new cinema.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Syrian Cinema

  A trail through Sham's screen.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Turkish Cinema

  A trail through Turkey's screen world.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Cities of Islam

  A trail through the capitals of the civilization.places · 30 min · 6 steps

• Coffee Culture

  A trail through the Arab drink that conquered the world: Yemen, Istanbul, Cairo's and Paris's coffeehouses.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Conquest of al-Andalus

  A trail through the crossing of 711.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Beyond the Oxus

  A trail through the Transoxiana conquests.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Conquest of the Maghreb

  A trail through the conquest of Africa.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Conquest of Persia

  A trail through the fall of the Sasanians.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Conquest of Sind

  A trail through the first opening of India.events · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Conquest of Syria

  A trail through Umar's conquests.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Great Conquests

  A trail through battles that redrew the map.events · 30 min · 7 steps

• Sieges of Constantinople

  A trail through eight centuries of sieges.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Creed and the Heart

  A trail through inner belief.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Iman and Its Pillars

  A trail through the creed.hard questions · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Crusading Era

  A trail through two centuries of crusade and counter-crusade.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Darb Zubayda

  A trail through the greatest pilgrim road.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Da'wa and Delegations

  A trail through the spread of the call.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Year of Delegations

  A trail through the year of delegations.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Delhi and India

  A trail through Muslim India.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Desert Castles

  A trail through the Umayyad retreats.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Dhimmi Communities

  A trail through Muslim-dhimmi relations.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Dua and Dhikr

  A trail through the worship of heart and tongue.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Oldest Mosques

  A trail through the oldest standing mosques.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The First Revelations

  A trail through the opening of revelation.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• East Africa

  A trail through the Swahili coast.an era · 30 min · 4 steps

• Islamic Education

  A trail through the community's schools.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Conquest of Egypt

  A trail through Islam's entry into Egypt.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Early Fiqh of Egypt

  A trail through Egypt's first jurists.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Islam in Egypt

  A trail through fourteen Egyptian centuries.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Two Eids

  A trail through the community's two feasts.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Year of the Elephant

  A trail through the year of the birth.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Muslim Ethics

  A trail through noble character.hard questions · 30 min · 6 steps

• The Expeditions

  A trail through the early expeditions.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islamic Philosophy

  A trail through the philosophers.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Fatiha

  A trail through the mother of the book.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Fatimid Cairo

  A trail through the Fatimid state; Jawhar enters Egypt and lays out Cairo, al-Mu'izz lodges in his palace there, then al-Azhar, al-Hakim and the Ayyubids.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Muslim's Seasons

  A trail through the year's seasons.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The First Fitna

  A trail through the community's hardest years.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The First Muslims

  A trail through the earliest Muslims.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Four Imams

  A trail through the great schools of law.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Freedom in Islam

  A trail through slavery and emancipation.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Geographers

  A trail through the describers of the earth.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Ghurids and India

  A trail through the house of Ghur.an era · 30 min · 4 steps

• Science in the Golden Age

  A trail through the minds that changed science: the House of Wisdom, Khwarizmi, Jabir, Razi, Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the astrolabe in hand.personalities · 30 min · 6 steps

• The Science of Arabic

  A trail through the birth of grammar.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Fall of Granada

  A trail through the last Andalusi state.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Grand Tour

  The museum's grand tour for the new visitor.places · 30 min · 8 steps

• The Great Mosques

  A trail through Islam's great mosques across twelve centuries.places · 30 min · 6 steps

• The Great Mosques

  A trail through the garrison-town mosques.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Prophetic Hadith: From Hearing to the Collections

  A trail through the hadith sciences in seven stations: what a hadith is, the isnad that conveys it, the six books, the science of methodology, the sira that preserves its context, the shama'il that preserve the Prophet's portrait, and selected texts from the Sahih — a doorway into the museum's Prophetic-word shelves.texts and sciences · 35 min · 8 steps

• The Science of Hadith

  A trail through the community's unique science.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Hadramawt

  A trail through the wadi of Hadramawt.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Rites of Hajj

  A trail through the days of hajj.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Foster Mother

  A trail through the Prophet's infancy.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Hallaj

  A trail through the most famous executed mystic.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Two Sanctuaries

  A trail through the holiest ground: the Haram, Kaaba, Zamzam, Hira's cave, then the Prophet's Mosque, Quba, Uhud and Baqi.places · 30 min · 6 steps

• Al-Hasan al-Basri

  A trail through the shaykh of the Tabi'un.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Hayy ibn Yaqzan

  A trail through the first philosophical novel.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Hijaz

  A trail through the cradle province.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The New Muslims

  A trail through those who embraced Islam.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Hijra Journey

  A trail through the most famous journey.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Hijra Road

  A trail along the journey that changed history.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Hudaybiyya to Tabuk

  A trail through the sira's last years.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Hulagu and the Fall of Baghdad

  A trail through the year the Abbasid era ended.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Hunayn

  A trail through the day of the ambush.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Ibadiyya

  A trail through the third tradition.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Ibn Arabi

  A trail through the Greatest Shaykh.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Ibn Khaldun

  A trail through the founder of sociology.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Ibn Taymiyya and His School

  A trail through the Hanbali shaykh and his school.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Ihya Ulum al-Din

  A trail through the greatest ethics book.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Imperial Mosques

  A trail through the giant mosques.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Indian Ocean

  A trail through Islam's southern sea.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Muhammad Iqbal

  A trail through the poet of the East.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Cities of Iran

  A trail through the cities of Persia.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Cities of Iraq

  A trail through the cities of the two rivers.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Land of Iraq

  A trail through Iraq.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islam in India

  A trail through eight Indian centuries.an era · 30 min · 4 steps

• Islam on Screen

  A trail through the museum's Screening Room.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Map of the Scholars

  A trail through the geography of learning.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islamic Finance

  A trail through riba-free banking.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Isma'ili Da'wa

  A trail through the movement that built Cairo.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj

  A trail through the greatest night.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mosques of Istanbul

  A trail through the skyline of domes.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Jabir and Alchemy

  A trail through the father of chemistry.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Jazira and the North

  A trail through the northern lands.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Holy Jerusalem

  A trail through the Holy City: al-Aqsa, the Dome of the Rock, the Night Journey, Umar's conquest and Saladin.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Friday

  A trail through the weekly festival.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Juz Amma

  A trail through the thirtieth juz.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Ka'ba

  A trail through the Sacred House.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Kano and the Hausa

  A trail through the Nigerian savanna.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Karbala: Story and Memory

  A trail through the event that marked the umma.personalities · 30 min · 4 steps

• Khaybar

  A trail through Khaybar.events · 30 min · 4 steps

• Khorasan

  A trail through the land that bore the hadith masters.personalities · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Khwarazmian Empire

  A trail through the last power before the Mongols.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Kufa School

  A trail through the Kufa school.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Languages of the Umma

  A trail through the umma's tongues.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Lepanto and Vienna

  A trail through the empire's western edge.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• A Muslim Life Cycle

  A trail through life-cycle rites: aqiqa, circumcision, marriage, funeral and burial.ideas and practices · 30 min · 6 steps

• The Prophet's Life: From the Elephant to the Passing

  A trail through the Prophet Muhammad's life in twelve stations: his birth in the Year of the Elephant, the revelation in the cave of Hira, the Aqaba pledges, the Hijra, the building of Medina, Badr, Uhud and the Trench, Hudaybiyya, the conquest of Mecca, the Farewell Pilgrimage, the Year of Delegations, and the passing — as the museum's pages tell them in order.events · 60 min · 12 steps

• Rites of the Lifetime

  A trail through the whole lifecycle.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Madinat al-Zahra

  A trail through the greatest Andalusi city.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Islamic Maghreb

  A trail through the Islamic West.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Dynasties of the Maghreb

  A trail through the Maghreb's dynasties.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• States of the Maghreb

  A trail through the Maghreb states.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Awaited Mahdi

  A trail through the awaited one.ideas and practices · 30 min · 4 steps

• Malcolm X

  A trail through the most famous Muslim American.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Mali Empire

  A trail through Africa's greatest empire.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mamluk Cairo

  A trail through the Mamluk sultanate.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Art of the Maqama

  A trail through the unique Arabic genre.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Maragha Observatory

  A trail through the greatest pre-modern observatory.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mathematics and the Stars

  A trail through the people of number.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Fuqaha of Mecca

  A trail through the circle of the Haram.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Medicine in Islam

  A trail through the community's medicine.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Mosques of Medina

  A trail through Medina's first mosques.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The School of Medina

  A trail through Medina as a school.personalities · 30 min · 4 steps

• Tabi'un Medina

  A trail through Medina after the Prophet.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mehmed the Conqueror

  A trail through the sultan who ended Rome.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Modern Egypt

  A trail through 19th-century Egypt.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mosques of the Modern Age

  A trail through modern mosque architecture.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Modern Reform

  A trail through 19th-century revival.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Modern Thought

  A trail through the last two centuries' renewal.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Monasteries of the Peninsula

  A trail through the early monasteries.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Muslim Mongol Khanates

  A trail through the Mongols who embraced Islam.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Mongol Shock

  A trail through the catastrophe and its transformation: Baghdad's fall, Ayn Jalut, the khanates' conversion.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• Cities of Morocco

  A trail through the far Maghreb.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Anatomy of a Mosque

  A trail through the parts of God's house.hard questions · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mothers of the Believers

  A trail through the Prophet's household.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Mu'allaqat

  A trail through the golden odes.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mu'amalat

  A trail through the fiqh of daily life.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mu'awiya and His State

  A trail through the first king.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mughal India

  A trail through the Mughal empire.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Hadith Scholars

  A trail through the bearers of the Sunna.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi

  A trail through Karbala's avenger.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Treasures of the Museum

  A trail through ten museum treasures: the Salting Mihrab, the Kiswa, the Kutubiyya minbar, the Ardabil carpet, astrolabes and Qur'an folios.art and objects · 30 min · 6 steps

• Story of the Mushaf

  A trail through the codex between two covers.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Muslims in the West

  A trail through Islam in the Americas and Europe.hard questions · 30 min · 4 steps

• Muslim Charity

  A trail through the giving organizations.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Muslim Education Today

  A trail through the community's new universities.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Muslim Media

  A trail through screen and press.living culture · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mu'tah

  A trail through the first clash with Byzantium.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Muwatta

  A trail through the first hadith-fiqh compilation.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Mystics and Gnosis

  A trail through the path of the heart.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Eastern Mystics

  A trail through the eastern ascetics.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Najran

  A trail through the south of the peninsula.events · 30 min · 4 steps

• Muslim Navigators

  A trail through the seafarers.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• Cities of the Nile

  A trail through Egypt's cities.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Nizariyya

  A trail through the Isma'ilis of the mountain.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Naguib Mahfouz

  A trail through the Arab world's only Nobel laureate.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Ottoman Cities

  A trail through the imperial cities.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Ottoman Lands

  A trail through six Ottoman centuries.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Grand Viziers

  A trail through the men of state.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Ages of Islam

  A trail through fourteen centuries.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islam in Iran

  A trail through Muslim Iran: conquest, Buyids, Seljuks, the Safavid turn, Isfahan and the shrines.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• Poets of Persian

  A trail through classical Persian verse.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Poets of the Umma

  A trail through poetry and Islam.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• A Muslim's Day

  A trail through the ordinary day of worship.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Prophet's Campaigns

  A trail through the sira's campaigns.events · 30 min · 6 steps

• The Prophet's Mosque

  A trail through the second mosque.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Prophets in the Qur'an

  A trail through the Qur'anic prophets.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Prophets' Story

  A trail through the prophetic chain from Adam to the seal Muhammad.personalities · 30 min · 7 steps

• The Qadiriyya

  A trail through the first great order.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Qajar Iran

  A trail through the Qajar century.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Qibla

  A trail through the holiest direction.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Way of the Qur'an

  A trail through the Qur'an's life: revelation, memorization, recitation, exegesis and sciences.ideas and practices · 30 min · 6 steps

• Al-Qushayri and the Risala

  A trail through the man who codified Sufism.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Month of Ramadan

  A trail through the holy month.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Rashidun Era

  A trail through thirty formative years: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali — consensus, conquests, codex and strife.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Rayy, Hamadan and Qom

  A trail through Iran's heartland cities.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Falling Cities

  A trail through the receding frontier.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Fuqaha of the Garrison Towns

  A trail through first-century regional fiqh.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Sacred Relics

  A trail through relics tied to the Prophet.art and objects · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Ridda Wars

  A trail through the first crisis.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Palaces of Power

  A trail through the architecture of authority.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Rumi and Konya

  A trail through Mawlana.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Safavid Iran

  A trail through the state that reshaped Iran.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• Sahih al-Bukhari

  A trail through the most authentic book.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Sahih Muslim

  A trail through Sahih Muslim.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Prayers of the Sunna

  A trail through prayers beyond the five.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Sarajevo and Bosnia

  A trail through the Muslim heart of the Balkans.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Documentaries

  A trail through war and peace documentaries.living culture · 30 min · 4 steps

• Epics on Screen

  A trail through sira and heroism on screen.living culture · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Second Fitna

  A trail through Ibn al-Zubayr's war.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Seekers

  A trail through those who sought and found.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Marches of the Sira

  A trail through the roads of the battles.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Writers of the Sira

  A trail through the sira writers.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Seljuk Age

  A trail through the Seljuk century.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Sharia and Fiqh

  A trail through the legal system.hard questions · 30 min · 5 steps

• Shrines and Sanctuaries

  A trail through the visited sanctuaries.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islamic Sicily

  A trail through Sicily: the conquest from Ifriqiya, Palermo as the king's seat, and what al-Idrisi and Ibn Jubayr wrote of the island.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Silk Road

  A trail along the Muslim Silk Road: Samarkand, Bukhara, Shiraz, and its travellers Ibn Battuta and Zheng He.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Books of the Sira

  A trail through the sira's written tradition.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Six Books

  A trail through the great hadith compilations.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Souqs

  A trail through the great markets.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Sufi Path

  A trail through the inner path: zuhd, ihsan, dhikr, sama, Rumi's Konya and the urs seasons.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Books of Sufism

  A trail through the library of the path.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Suleiman the Magnificent

  A trail through the greatest sultan.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Four Sunan

  A trail through the remaining four books.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Sources of the Sunna

  A trail through the library of the Sunna.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Adiyat

  A trail through the charging mares.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Anfal

  A trail through the Badr sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Balad

  A trail through the sura of the city.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Baqara

  A trail through the longest sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Buruj

  A trail through the sura of the ditch.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Fajr

  A trail through the dawn sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Fath

  A trail through the victory sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 4 steps

• Surah al-Hashr

  A trail through the sura of exile.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Hujurat

  A trail through the ethics sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Insan

  A trail through the sura of time.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Kahf

  A trail through the Friday sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Layl

  A trail through the sura of contrasts.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Mulk

  A trail through Tabarak.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah an-Naba'

  A trail through the sura of the Great News.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Nur

  A trail through the light sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Qamar

  A trail through the moon-splitting sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Qasas

  A trail through the great story sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Rahman

  A trail through the bride of the Qur'an.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah at-Tariq

  A trail through the piercing star.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah at-Tin

  A trail through the double oath.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah al-Waqi'a

  A trail through the sura of the Event.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah Ya-Sin

  A trail through the heart of the Qur'an.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah Yusuf

  A trail through the best of stories.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• Surah az-Zalzala

  A trail through the earthquake sura.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Tabi'un Generation

  A trail through the generation after the Companions.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Masters of Tafsir

  A trail through the great exegetes.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Purity

  A trail through ritual purity.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Sufi Orders

  A trail through the organized orders.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Textiles and Dress

  A trail through Islamic textiles.art and objects · 30 min · 3 steps

• Cities of the Tigris

  A trail through Iraq's river cities.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Translation Movement

  A trail through the great translation movement.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Turks in Islam

  A trail through the Turkic dynasties.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Twelve Imams

  A trail through the imamate line.personalities · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Battle of Uhud

  A trail through the day of Uhud.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

  A trail through the ascetic caliph.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Builders of the Umayyads

  A trail through the Umayyad builders.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Poets of the Umayyad Court

  A trail through the age of the Naqa'id.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Unseen World

  A trail through the unseen.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• Usul al-Fiqh

  A trail through legal theory.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islam of the North

  A trail through Volga Bulgaria and Tatarstan.places · 30 min · 4 steps

• The Age of al-Walid

  A trail through the Umayyads' proudest age.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Islam in West Africa

  A trail through the Sahel of gold and learning: Ghana, Mali, Mansa Musa and Timbuktu.an era · 30 min · 5 steps

• Women in Islam

  A trail through women who changed history.personalities · 30 min · 7 steps

• Women in Power

  A trail through women who ruled and endowed.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Novels of the World

  A trail through novels from Muslim worlds.texts and sciences · 30 min · 5 steps

• A Year of Worship

  A trail through the Muslim's year of worship: the five prayers, Friday, Ramadan, the two eids, hajj and umrah.ideas and practices · 30 min · 7 steps

• The Year of Sorrow

  A trail through the hardest year.events · 30 min · 5 steps

• Happy Arabia

  A trail through Yemen.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Wonders of Yemen

  A trail through the architecture of Arabia Felix.places · 30 min · 5 steps

• Zakat and Waqf

  A trail through Islamic social finance.ideas and practices · 30 min · 5 steps

• The Zaydiyya

  A trail through the activist Shi'a.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

• Zengids and Ayyubids

  A trail through the counter-crusade.personalities · 30 min · 5 steps

What you will find here

• Choose what you want to understand: a phase of history, a group of personalities, a group of events, an idea, a place, a text or a hard question.
• Walk it step by step, or see the whole route at once as a list, a timeline and a map.
• Every pathway states its goal: what you will know, and be able to place, by the end.
• An honest time for each: ten minutes, half an hour, two hours or a week of evenings.
• Your progress is kept in your browser only, with no account and no AI answering you: the pathways are written and reviewed.
• Every step is a cited page of the museum, with side steps for going deeper or hearing the other view that never block the way.

Three hundred pathways in preparation

During planning, AI proposes the list of pathways, then people review and order it. None of that runs while you visit.

Eras and phases	40
Personalities and groups	55
Events grouped together	40
Ideas, beliefs and practices	45
Places and cities	30
Texts and sciences	30
Art, architecture and objects	20
Living culture today	15
Hard questions with their voices	15
Starter paths by visitor and time	10
Total	300

In the meantime

• Start with the Hijra →
• Questions for newcomers
• Themes
• Tell us what you want to learn
• The design document