Islamism and Iran's Islamic Period Museum

Abstract

The Islamic Period Museum of Iran was established, almost 16 years after theIslamic Revolution, as an addition to the previous National Museum building –the Iran Bastan, or Ancient Iran Museum – in 1996. By examining the componentsof state Islamism, the space of the museum and key exhibits, this paperreveals the analogous relationship between the museum and state ideology. Thatrelationship suggests that the museum embodies fundamental ambiguities andinconsistencies inherent in Iranian state Islamism. Those ambiguities and inconsistenciesare only concealed, in the museum as in the ideology, by employingtraditionalist rhetoric with regard to religion and identity.