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71-544: Mathaf houses the world's largest collection of modern and contemporary Arab art. Mathaf (متحف in Arabic ) translates to "museum". The initial collection was gathered by Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed Al Thani , and QM provided the conditions of conservation as a public institution chaired by Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al Thani . Sheikh Hassan started building a collection in the early 1990s of art created by artists from

142-615: A Central Semitic group in southern Levant and northern Arabian peninsula . Arab tribes and federations such as Nabataeans , Tanukhids , Salihids , Ghassanids , and numerous other groups were prevalent in southern Levant ( Syrian Desert ) and northern Arabia. Their expansion beyond Arabia and the Syrian desert is due to the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. Iraq was conquered in 633, Levant (modern Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon ) between 636 and 640 CE. Egypt

213-518: A cross-section of Arab art over the previous 100 years. Simultaneously, the museum hosted Interventions (an exhibition of new commissions by five pivotal modernist Arab artists ( Dia Azzawi , Farid Belkahia , Ahmed Nawar, Ibrahim el-Salahi and Hassan Sharif ) and Told/Untold/Retold , an ambitious exhibition of new commissions by twenty-three contemporary Arab artists. Mathaf's following exhibition, Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab , ran from 5 December 2011 to 26 May 2012. The first solo show to be organized by

284-823: A mixture of Arab and Nubian elements. The Arab Abbasid Caliphate fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Egypt, the Levant and Hejaz also came under the Turkish Mamluk Sultanate . By 1570, the Turkish Ottoman Empire controlled most of the Arab world. However, Morocco remained under the rule of the Zenata Wattasid dynasty , which was succeeded by the Saadi dynasty in

355-475: A national cinema. While Egyptian and Lebanese cinema have a long history of production, most other Arab countries did not witness film production until after independence, and even today, the majority of film production in countries like Bahrain, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates is limited to television or short films. There is increased interest in films originating in

426-870: A new art form which was both modern and yet referenced traditional culture, media and techniques. Inspired by Japanese leporellos , Adnan also painted landscapes on foldable screens that can be "extended in space like free-standing drawings". In 2014, a collection of the artist's paintings and tapestries were exhibited as a part of the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art . Adnan's retrospective at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, titled "Etel Adnan In All Her Dimensions" and curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist , featured eleven dimensions of Adnan's practice. It included her early works, her literature, her carpets, and others. The show

497-492: A painter, her earliest abstract works were created using a palette knife to apply oil paint onto the canvas – often directly from the tube – in firm swipes across the picture's surface. The focus of the compositions often being a red square, she was interested in the "immediate beauty of colour". In 2012, a series of the artist's brightly colored abstract paintings were exhibited as a part of documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany. In

568-423: A retrospective of the artist, titled "A yellow sun A green sun a yellow sun A red sun a blue sun", including a selection of paintings in oil and ink, as well as a reading room of her written works. The exhibition explored how the experience of reading poetry differs from the experience of looking at a painting. Published in 2018, "Etel Adnan", a biography of the artist written by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, inquires into

639-715: A southwestern region in the Khuzestan Province ; others inhabit the Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces and the city of Qom . Mali and Senegal recognize Hassaniya , the Arabic dialect of the Moorish ethnic minority, as a national language . Greece and Cyprus also recognize Cypriot Maronite Arabic under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Additionally, Malta, though not part of

710-601: Is a member-state of the Arab League, although both Chad and Eritrea are observer states of the League (with possible future membership) and have large populations of Arabic speakers. Israel is not a part of the Arab world. By some definitions, Arab citizens of Israel may concurrently be considered a constituent part of the Arab world. Iran has about 1.5 million Arabic speakers. Iranian Arabs are mainly found in Ahvaz ,

781-488: Is nevertheless diverse in many ways, and economically includes some of the wealthiest as well as poorest populations. The region mostly corresponds with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) definition. In post-classical history , the Arab world was synonymous with the historic Arab empires and caliphates. Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within

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852-521: Is not included in the region. Similarly, Chad , Eritrea and Israel recognize Arabic as one of their official or working languages but are not included in the region because they are not members of the Arab League. The linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term Arab is generally dominant over genealogical considerations. In Arab states, Standard Arabic is used by the government. Local vernacular languages are referred to as Darija ( الدَّارِجَة "everyday/colloquial language" ) in

923-433: Is official in all of them. Several states have declared Arabic to be an official or national language , although Arabic is not as widely spoken there. As members of the Arab League, however, they are considered part of the Arab world under the standard territorial definition. Somalia has two official languages, Arabic and Somali , while Somaliland has three, Arabic, Somali and English . Both Arabic and Somali belong to

994-439: Is sometimes seen to be inappropriate or problematic, and may be supplemented with certain additional elements (see ancillary linguistic definition below). As an alternative to, or in combination with, the standard territorial definition, the Arab world may be defined as consisting of peoples and states united to at least some degree by Arabic language, culture or geographic contiguity, or those states or territories in which

1065-526: Is used as the lingua franca throughout the Arab world. The Arab world is at its minimum defined as the 19 states where Arabs form at least a plurality of the population. At its maximum it consists of the 22 members of the Arab League , an international organization, which on top of the 19 plurality Arab states also includes the Comoros , Djibouti and Somalia . The region stretches from

1136-592: The Arab nation ( اَلْأُمَّةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ al-ummah al-ʿarabiyyah ), the Arabsphere , or the Arab states , comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa . While the majority of people in the Arab world are ethnically Arab , there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Berbers , Kurds , Somalis and Nubians , among other groups . Arabic

1207-468: The Arab world over the last 200 years with the aim of creating a museum that could capture and represent artists from this region. From the 1990s and early 2000s, the collection was housed in two private villas in Madinat Khalifa in Doha while Sheikh Hassan and early advisors and staff conceived of an idea of what an Arab perspective on modern and contemporary art and museums could be. In 2010,

1278-728: The Arabian Peninsula (Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen). He also considered Iraq, alongside Upper Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria and Turkey), Ash-Sham (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey), Egypt and the Maghreb (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) to be part of the Arab regions. Malta , an island country in Southern Europe whose national language derives from Arabic (through Sicilian Arabic ),

1349-841: The Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The eastern part of the Arab world is known as the Mashriq , and the western part as the Maghreb . According to the World Bank , the Arab world has a total population of 456 million inhabitants and a gross domestic product of $ 2.85 trillion, as of 2021. The region

1420-911: The Druzes (mainly in Syria and also in Lebanon, Jordan) and Mandaeans (in Iraq). Formerly, there were significant minorities of Jews throughout the Arab World. However, the Arab–Israeli conflict prompted their mass exodus between 1948 and 1972. Today small Jewish communities remain, ranging anywhere from just 10 in Bahrain , to more than 1,000 in Tunisia and some 3,000 in Morocco . Historically, slavery in

1491-513: The Maghreb or Aammiyya ( ٱلْعَامِيَّة "common language") in the Mashreq . The majority of the vocabulary in these vernaculars is shared with Standard Arabic, but they also significantly borrow from other languages, such as Berber , French , Spanish and Italian in the Maghreb. Although no globally accepted definition of the Arab world exists, all countries that are members of the Arab League are generally acknowledged as being part of

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1562-430: The Mashriq at 73.6%. The United Nations published an Arab human development report in 2002, 2003 and 2004. These reports, written by researchers from the Arab world, address some sensitive issues in the development of Arab countries: women empowerment, availability of education and information among others. There is no single description of Arab cinema since it includes films from various countries and cultures of

1633-506: The Middle East , film production was scarce until the late 1960s and early 1970s when filmmakers began to receive funding and financial assistance from state organizations. This was during the post-independence and is when most Arab cinema took root. Most films produced at that time were funded by the state and contained a nationalistic dimension. These films helped to advance certain social causes such as independence, and other social, economic and political agendas. A sustained film industry

1704-519: The Ottoman Empire . The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries; a project known as Pan-Arabism . In page 9 of Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions , 10th century Arab geographer Al Maqdisi used the term Arab regions ( Arabic : أَقَالِيمُ ٱلْعَرَبِ ) to refer to the lands of

1775-886: The Qatar National Library . From March to May 2023 the museum hosted the exhibition "I Am The Traveler And Also The Road", which was part of the Tasweer Photo Festival. In October 2023 the Museum opened four exhibitions that were on display until March 2024. The exhibitions are meant to bring more attention to contemporary Arab art. The exhibitions consist of "Introspection as Resistance", a solo show by Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar, "Cities Under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project" by Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadiri, "Distilled Lessons: Abstraction in Arab Modernism" and "De/Constructed Meanings". As part of

1846-808: The University of California, Berkeley , and at Harvard University . From 1958 to 1972, she was a professor of the philosophy of art at the Dominican University of California in San Rafael. She also lectured at many universities throughout the United States. Adnan returned from the US to Lebanon and worked as a journalist and cultural editor for Al Safa newspaper, a French-language newspaper in Beirut. In addition, she also helped build

1917-758: The 16th to 17th centuries. The Ajuran Sultanate also held sway in the southern part of the Horn region. The sentiment of Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalisms within the declining Ottoman Empire . When the Ottoman Empire collapsed as a result of World War I , much of the Arab world came to be controlled by the European colonial empires: Mandatory Palestine , Mandatory Iraq , British protectorate of Egypt , French protectorate of Morocco , Italian Libya , French Tunisia , French Algeria , Mandate for Syria and

1988-543: The 1840s to the present. The collection was donated by Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani to Qatar Foundation , and was later acquired by Qatar Museums Authority . It is thought to be one of the largest collections of Arab-produced paintings and sculptures in the world. Qatar Museums Authority chairwoman, Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al Thani , stated upon the opening of Mathaf in 2010 that, "[...] we are making Qatar

2059-494: The 1960s, she began integrating Arabic calligraphy into her artworks and her books, such as Livres d'Artistes [Artist's Books]. She recalls sitting for hours copying words from an Arabic grammar without trying to understand the meaning of the words. Her art was very much influenced by early hurufiyya artists, including Iraqi artist Jawad Salim , Palestinian writer and artist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra and Iraqi painter Shakir Hassan al Said , who rejected Western aesthetics and embraced

2130-411: The 2024 Years of Culture initiative, some permanent galleries were updated to highlight Moroccan artist such as Chaibia Talal or Mohamed Melehi. Other exhibitions organized by Mathaf include: As a museum founded on the premise of education and scholarship, there are a wide number of programs to engage multiple audiences including schools, universities, families, artists, and scholars. Highlights include

2201-485: The Arab world adhere to Islam , and the religion has official status in most countries. Shariah law exists partially in the legal system in some countries (especially in the Arabian Peninsula ), while others are legislatively secular . The majority of the Arab countries adhere to Sunni Islam . Iraq and Bahrain , however, are Shia majority countries, while Lebanon , Yemen , and Kuwait have large Shia minorities. In Saudi Arabia , Ismailite pockets are also found in

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2272-567: The Arab world and therefore does not have one form, structure, or style. In its inception, Arab cinema was mostly an imitation of Western cinema. However, it has and continues to constantly change and evolve. It mostly includes films made in Egypt , Lebanon , Syria , Iraq , Kuwait , Algeria , Morocco , and Tunisia . Egypt is a pioneer in the field, but each country in the region has its own unique cinema. Elsewhere in North Africa and

2343-407: The Arab world, has as its official language Maltese . The language is grammatically akin to Maghrebi Arabic. In the Arab world, Modern Standard Arabic , derived from Classical Arabic (symptomatic of Arabic diglossia ), serves as an official language in the Arab League states, and Arabic dialects are used as lingua franca. Various indigenous languages are also spoken, which predate the spread of

2414-403: The Arab world. The Arab League is a regional organisation that aims, among other things, to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries and sets out the following definition of an Arab: An Arab is a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arab country, and who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arab people. This standard territorial definition

2485-546: The Arab world. For example, films from Algeria , Lebanon , Morocco , Palestine , Syria and Tunisia are making wider and more frequent rounds than ever before in local film festivals and repertoire theaters. Arab cinema has explored many topics from politics, colonialism, tradition, modernity and social taboos. It has also attempted to escape from its earlier tendency to mimic and rely on Western film devices. In fact, colonization did not only influence Arab films, but it also had an impact on Arab movies theaters. Apart from

2556-530: The Arabic language. This contrasts with the situation in the wider Islamic world , where, in contiguous Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Perso-Arabic script is used and Arabic is the primary liturgical language, but the tongue is not official at the state level or spoken as a vernacular . Arabs constitute around one quarter of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the Islamic world. The majority of people in

2627-951: The Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab World, a resource offering detailed biographies that have been researched by scholars and independent historians as well as essays, videos, and interviews. In March 2020, the museum closed to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic , with parts of the collections still being accessible online through a partnership with the Google Arts & Culture platform. The museum reopened in August 2020 with three new exhibitions "Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960-2020", " Huguette Caland : Faces and Places", curated by Mohammed Rashid Al Thani and " Yto Barrada : My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nougat", curated by Laura Barlow. Wassan Al-Khudhairi

2698-579: The GPI of Yemen is only 0.46 in a 53% adult literacy rate. Literacy rate is higher among the youth than adults. Youth literacy rate (ages 15–24) in the Arab region increased from 63.9 to 76.3% from 1990 to 2002. The average rate of GCC States * Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) was 94%, followed by the Maghreb at 83.2% and

2769-404: The Lebanon and the so-called Trucial States , a British protectorate formed by the sheikhdoms on the former "Pirate Coast". Etel Adnan Etel Adnan ( Arabic : إيتيل عدنان ; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet , essayist , and visual artist . In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" by

2840-635: The Making of the Artwork by the Artist, the Museum and the Public was held from November 2012 to March 2013. Through revisiting the contested histories of how Egyptian collections have been amassed by numerous museums from the 19th century onwards, this exhibition brings together antiquities, modernist works, archives and 26 international contemporary artists and artist collectives. In November 2014, Mathaf opened

2911-490: The Muslim world developed out of pre-Islamic practices of slavery in the Arab world . According to UNESCO , the average rate of adult literacy (ages 15 and older) in this region is 78% . In Mauritania the rate is lower than the average, at less than 50%. Bahrain , Palestine , Kuwait , Qatar , and Jordan record a high adult literacy rate of over 95%. The average rate of adult literacy shows steady improvement, and

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2982-588: The Nile Valley, Levant and northern Iraq respectively. There are also Assyrian , Armenian , Syriac - Aramean and Arab Christians throughout Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. There are also native Arab Christian communities in Algeria, Bahrain, Morocco, Kuwait and Tunisia. Smaller ethno-religious minorities across the Arab League include the Yezidis , Yarsan and Shabaks (mainly in Iraq),

3053-500: The absolute number of adult illiterates fell from 64 million to around 58 million between 1990 and 2000–2004. Overall, the gender disparity in adult literacy is high in this region, and of the illiteracy rate, women account for two-thirds, with only 69 literate women for every 100 literate men. The average GPI (Gender Parity Index) for adult literacy is 0.72, and gender disparity can be observed in Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen. Above all,

3124-475: The academic journal MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States . In addition to her literary output, Adnan made visual works in a variety of media, such as oil paintings, films and tapestries, which have been exhibited at galleries across the world. Etel N. Adnan was born in 1925 in Beirut , Lebanon . Adnan's mother, Rose "Lily" Lacorte, was Greek Orthodox from Smyrna and her father, Assaf Kadri,

3195-444: The age of 18. Rapists are often treated leniently or acquitted in the Arab region if they marry their victims. 37% of Arab women experienced violence in their lifetime, but the numbers may be higher according to indicators. In some countries, the share of women experiencing violence and abuse by intimate partner reaches 70%. Table of largest cities in the Arab world by official city propers : The Arabs historically originate as

3266-416: The biographies of Arab artists. The Encyclopaedia of Modernity and the Arab World is published by Mathaf Curatorial and Research department, as a peer reviewed platform linking the museum to University. Arab world The Arab world ( Arabic : اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ al-ʿālam al-ʿarabī ), formally the Arab homeland ( اَلْوَطَنُ الْعَرَبِيُّ al-waṭan al-ʿarabī ), also known as

3337-448: The cultural section of the newspaper, occasionally contributing cartoons and illustrations. Her tenure at Al Safa was most notable for her front-page editorials, commenting on the important political issues of the day. In her later years, Adnan began to openly identify as lesbian . She met her partner Simone Fattal in 1972 and the couple lived together until Adnan's death. The two of them worked together on The Post-Apollo Press which

3408-467: The current state of Arab cinema. Women in the Arab world are still denied equality of opportunity , although their disenfranchisement is a critical factor crippling the Arab nations' quest to return to the first rank of global leaders in commerce, learning and culture, according to a United Nations -sponsored report in 2008. According to the United Nations, 14% of Arab girls are married by

3479-505: The eastern Al-Hasa region and the southern city of Najran. Ibadi Islam is practiced in Oman , where Ibadis constitute around 75% of Muslims. There are also Christian adherents in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt , Syria , Lebanon , Iraq , Jordan , and Palestine . Small native Christian communities can be found also throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa . Coptic , Maronite and Assyrian Christian enclaves exist in

3550-650: The featured artist all being part of the permanent collection of Mathaf. The series opened with exhibitions from artists Farid Belkahia , Abdelhalim Radwi, Faraj Daham and Inji Aflatoun and was held on Mathaf's ground floor exhibition space from October 2015 to February 2016. The museums also works together with other museums and institutes like the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid , the Palais de Tokyo in Paris or

3621-419: The history of Arab cinema, recently the portrayal of women became an important aspect in the production of Arab cinema. Arab women shaped a great portion of the film industry in the Arab world by employing their cinematic talents in improving the production of Arab films. The production of Arab cinema has declined in the last decades and many filmmakers in the Middle East gathered to hold a meeting and discuss

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3692-697: The institution to be a "twenty-first century 'post-museum'...a fledgling term for transparent, interaction-oriented museum models." The inaugural exhibitions included "Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art," featuring 240 artworks by more than 100 artists curated by Nada Shabout , Wassan Al-Khudhairi , and Deena Chalabi ; "Interventions: A Dialogue Between the Modern and the Contemporary," curated by Nada Shabout; and "Told / Untold / Retold," curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath and featuring newly commissioned works by 23 contemporary artists. In 2013, Mathaf launched

3763-445: The larger Afro-Asiatic language family. Although Arabic is widely spoken by many people in the north and urban areas in the south, Somali is the most widely used language, and contains many Arabic loan words . Similarly, Djibouti has two official languages, Arabic and French . It also has several formally recognized national languages; besides Somali, many people speak Afar , which is also an Afro-Asiatic language. The majority of

3834-399: The majority of the population speaks Arabic, and thus may also include populations of the Arab diaspora . When an ancillary linguistic definition is used in combination with the standard territorial definition , various parameters may be applied to determine whether a state or territory should be included in this alternative definition of the Arab world. These parameters may be applied to

3905-603: The museum opened its doors in the Qatar Foundation's Education City in the Doha Metropolitan Area in a former school building transformed by the French architect Jean-François Bodin. At the time, it was the first museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art in the country. Artist and former staff member Sophia Al-Maria recounts the early intentions of Sheikh Hassan and the founding team as shaping

3976-494: The museum, Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab showcased more than fifty works, including seventeen newly commissioned artworks, by the renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang . Saraab ("mirage") re-imagined historical relations between China and the Persian Gulf region and reaffirmed Mathaf's commitment to presenting a unique Arab perspective on modern and contemporary art. The exhibition opened with Cai Guo-Qiang's largest ever daytime explosion event, Black Ceremony . Tea with Nefertiti:

4047-400: The permanent exhibition "Summary, Part 1" with 8,000 pieces of contemporary art. "Summary, Part 2" was opened in September 2017 as an updated permanent exhibition to showcase different pieces of Mathafs collection together with two exhibitions from the FOCUS: Works from Mathaf Collection series. In 2015 Mathaf started a series of solo exhibitions called FOCUS: Works from Mathaf Collection, with

4118-739: The place to see, explore and discuss the creations of Arab artists of the modern era and of our own time." Mathaf permanent collection exhibition occupies seven galleries in the upper floor, while the atrium and five galleries are dedicated to temporary exhibitions. The museum looks at major modern and contemporary movements represented in the collection. The permanent collection includes works by Etel Adnan , Yousef Ahmad , Manal AlDowayan , Farid Belkahia , Kamal Boullata , Saloua Raouda Choucair , Jilali Gharbaoui , Shirin Neshat , Shakir Hassan Al Said , Wael Shawky , and Chaibia Talal . Mathaf opened on 30 December 2010 with an exhibition called Sajjil , which means "act of recording" in Arabic, and featured

4189-439: The population speaks Somali and Afar, although Arabic is also widely used for trade and other activities. The Comoros has three official languages: Arabic, Comorian and French. Comorian is the most widely spoken language, with Arabic having a religious significance, and French being associated with the educational system. Chad , Eritrea and Israel all recognize Arabic as an official or working language, but none of them

4260-627: The present, the possible alongside works by Chung Chang Sup , Fahrelnissa Zeid , Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara , and Saloua Raouda Choucair as well as contemporary artists such as Julie Mehretu , Haegue Yang , Taro Shinoda , Jac Leirner , and Adrian Villar Rojas , among others. In 2017, Adnan's work was included in "Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction," a group exhibition organized by MoMA , which brought together prominent artists including Ruth Asawa , Gertrudes Altschul , Anni Albers , Magdalena Abakanowicz , Lygia Clark , and Lygia Pape , among others. In 2018, MASS MoCA hosted

4331-476: The program Mathaf Voices, which trains local university students to give exhibition tours from their own perspectives, and Artist Encounters, which invites artists to discuss concepts and lead workshops based on their processes. In 2022, the museum also cooperated with the Doha Film Institute on a short story competition for teenagers. The museum also houses a library. The museum, in collaboration with Qatar Foundation, has published an online encyclopedia containing

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4402-424: The states and territories of the Arab League (which constitute the Arab world under the standard definition) and to other states and territories. Typical parameters that may be applied include: whether Arabic is widely spoken; whether Arabic is an official or national language; or whether an Arabic cognate language is widely spoken. While Arabic dialects are spoken in a number of Arab League states, Literary Arabic

4473-450: Was a Sunni Muslim - Turkish , and a high-ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus , Ottoman Syria . Assaf Kadri's mother was Albanian . Adnan's grandfather was a Turkish soldier . Her father came from a wealthy family. He was a top officer and former classmate of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at the military academy. In contrast, Adnan's mother was raised in extreme poverty; her parents met in Smyrna during World War I while her father

4544-425: Was able to emerge in Egypt when other parts of the Arab world had only been able to sporadically produce feature-length films due to limited financing. Arabic cinema is dominated by films from Egypt . Three quarters of all Arab movies are produced in Egypt. According to film critic and historian Roy Armes, the cinema of Lebanon is the only other in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to

4615-434: Was conquered in 639, and gradually Arabized during the medieval period. A distinctively Egyptian Arabic language emerged by the 16th century. The Maghreb was also conquered in the 7th century, and gradually Arabized under the Fatimids . Islam was brought to Sudan from Egypt during the 8th to 11th centuries. The culture of Sudan today depends on the tribe, some have a pure Nubian, Beja , or Arabic culture and some have

4686-403: Was educated at French convent schools and French became the language in which her early work was first written. She also studied English in her youth, and most of her later work was first written in this language. At 24, Adnan traveled to Paris where she received a degree in philosophy from the University of Paris . She then traveled to the United States where she continued graduate studies at

4757-414: Was founded by Fattal in 1982, and where Adnan was a vital contributor as an author and translator. Adnan lived in Paris and Sausalito, California . She died in Paris on 14 November 2021, at the age of 96. A documentary about Adnan's life by American filmmaker Marie Valentine Regan in collaboration with the artist, began production in 2023 about "the last five years of her life". Adnan also worked as

4828-429: Was launched in March 2014, accompanied by a 580-page catalog of her work published jointly by Mathaf and Skira . The catalog was designed by artist Ala Younis in Arabic and English, and included text contributions by Simone Fattal , Daniel Birnbaum , Kaelen Wilson-Goldie , as well as six interviews with Hans-Ulrich Obrist . In 2015, Adnan's paintings and tapestries were featured in Sharjah Biennial 12: The past,

4899-402: Was reassigned as curatorial advisor to the director of the National Museum of Qatar Sheikha Amna Al Thani. The 5,500-square-meter (59,000-square-foot) museum, located in a former school building in Doha's Education City , has a collection of more than 9,000 artworks, as communicated in 2014, that offers a rare comprehensive overview of modern Arab art, representing the major trends spanning from

4970-427: Was serving as an officer in Smyrna. Prior to marrying Adnan's mother, her father was already married with three children. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, Adnan's parents migrated to Beirut. Adnan stated that her mother was 16 years old when she met her father, at a time when "the Greeks in Turkey were in concentration camps." Though she grew up speaking Greek and Turkish in a primarily Arabic-speaking society, she

5041-444: Was the inaugural chief curator and director of the museum, where she served from 2007–2012. Michelle Dezember served as interim director from 2012–2013. Moroccan curator Abdellah Karroum was appointed director of Mathaf in June 2013, where he served until May 2021. In November 2021, Qatar Museums appointed Zeina Arida , the previous director of the Sursock Museum in Beirut, as the new director of Mathaf, replacing Abdellah Karroum who

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