The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha invites everyone to attend A Seat at the Table: Food & Feasting in the Islamic World, an extensive exhibition that explores the cultural, social, and spiritual roles of food across centuries and regions of the Islamic world. On display until 8 November 2025, the showcase is curated by Dr Tara Desjardins and Teslim Sanni, and presented in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
The exhibition traces how the act of preparing, sharing, and consuming food has shaped identity, community, and exchange from the rise of Islam in the 7th century to the present day. Displaying more than one hundred art pieces and objects from MIA’s collection and loans from partner institutions in Qatar, it unfolds across five galleries dedicated to different dimensions of food culture.
The journey begins with the Breaking Bread section. It celebrates bread as a universal staple and showcases the diversity of types, techniques, and traditions that span from North Africa to Central Asia. Visitors can watch documentary films of bakers at work alongside immersive displays that evoke the heat and ritual of bread ovens. Food and Faith examines how Islamic dietary laws and religious festivals shape culinary practices. This gallery features manuscripts, Qur’anic verses about food, and ritual objects that highlight the spiritual dimensions of eating.
The next section, Itinerant Ingredients, explores the networks of trade and cultural exchange that spread foods and spices across continents. It also addresses historical views of food as medicine and recent archaeological discoveries in Qatar that reveal ancient agricultural innovation. Courtly refinement and spectacle take centre stage in Dining with the Sultan, which transports visitors into the opulence of royal banquets. Here, luxurious tableware, ceremonial utensils, and objects of entertainment evoke how food was used to display power and cultivate diplomacy.
The final gallery, Contemporary Cuisine: We Are What We Eat, brings the story to the present. It examines how globalisation, sustainability, and modern lifestyles have reshaped food practices. Through video installations, works by contemporary artists, and contributions from chefs, the section emphasises continuity and change, situating food at the intersection of tradition and modernity.
A Seat at the Table underscores how what might appear as everyday practices are in fact deeply connected to faith, hospitality, diplomacy, and identity. At the same time, the exhibition looks forward, engaging with questions of sustainability, global food systems, and the future of culinary culture. Thus, it offers a reflection on the enduring importance of food as a shared human experience.
To get more information about A Seat at the Table, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
Additionally, while at MIA, you may be interested in looking at the Sitara of the Ka‘ba and the Varanasi-style Necklace. We also recommend that you read our article about Pressure Cooker presented by the National Pavilion UAE at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.
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