Museum of Islamic Art

This guide to the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha traces a jade pendant carved for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, and the vast art-buying spree of Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al Thani, the Qatari royal who commissioned this museum and recruited I. M. Pei out of retirement to design it. It follows Pei's search across the Islamic world for the ablution fountain that inspired the building, and the investigation opened in 2005 into how Sheikh Saud had been spending public funds. Stand on the bridge to the island where Pei insisted the museum sit apart from the mainland.