Visiting the Tareq Rajab Museums

Up until yesterday, I had never been to the Tareq Rajab Museums. I’m aware that’s odd considering I’ve been blogging about things to do and places to visit in Kuwait for 15 years now, but for some reason, I never thought of passing by the museums until yesterday. There are two Tareq Rajab museums, the Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Art and the main Tareq Rajab Museum, both located in Jabriya and are close to each other.

Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Art
This first museum is located right across from the New English School. I actually wasn’t aware there were two museums until I got there using Google Maps. I typed Tareq Rajab in Google Maps and clicked on the first result but when I got there it didn’t look like the museum I had driven by before. So I asked security about it he told me that was the other museum located down the block. This museum focused on Islamic art and housed an extensive collection of Islamic calligraphy, old Korans and the famous Ka’aba coverings.

Although the building looks large from the outside, the museum itself wasn’t that big and could be covered in under 30 minutes. Opening hours are Saturday to Thursday 9AM to 12PM and 4PM to 7PM. While on Fridays the museum is open from 9AM to 12PM. I’d call (25317358) and double-check before heading there though since yesterday the museums were open till 1PM and not 12PM. Here is the location on Google Maps. The entrance fee is KD2.

Tareq Rajab Museum
After quickly going through the Islamic Art Museum I got in my car and drove down the block to the main museum. Although the building on the outside isn’t as impressive as the Islamic Art Museum, once you walk down into the basement where the museum is located, you’ll quickly realize this museum is much bigger with a lot more things on display (over 10,000 pieces on display according to their website).

The museum is divided into two areas. The first area contains calligraphy, manuscripts, miniatures, ceramics, metalwork, glass and jade, wood and stone-carvings. The second area contains objects which were produced in the Islamic world during the last 250 years including costumes, textiles, jewelry, weapons, and musical instruments.

I loved this museum since there were so many things to check out and they were all displayed pretty nicely. I was not expecting it to be this organized or this big, so I was really surprised and also kind of disappointed in myself that it took me this long to visit it.

Like the Islamic Museum, the opening hours to this museum is from Saturday to Thursday 9AM to 12PM and then from 4PM to 7PM. Fridays the museum is also open from 9AM to 12PM. Here is the location on Google Maps. The entrance fee is KD2.

Here is a link to their website.
Here is a link to more information on the museums.