Last Friday, 31 March, Louvre opened a new exhibition called From Cordoba to Samarkand. Here are displayed masterpieces, key works and major examples of Islamic art. They are taken from Qatar national collection. The exhibition represents 42 works created from the 7th to the 19th century. The most of them are shown to a public for the first time. These objects illustrate the exceptional imaginativeness of artists in the Muslim world. You can see illustrated manuscripts of the time as well as the artisans’ inventive use of ceramics, textiles, metalwork, glass, ivory and precious stones. The highlights of this incredible treasure trove include an Imperial Ottoman decree dating to the 16th century that bears the emblem of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, an inlaid Iranian casket from around 1550 inscribed with a Shiite invocation, the original of a leopard-patterned ceramic plate from Iznik and a nephrite-and-jade hookah base embellished with lapis lazuli. This exhibition is a prelude to the opening of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and will last till 26 June.