Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani Museum

The Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani Museum is a large private collection housed in a purpose-built fortress about 35 km west of Doha on the Al Rayyan road. The four wings cover Islamic art and manuscripts, Qatari heritage and traditional objects, pre-Islamic Arabian artifacts, and an extraordinary collection of vintage cars — Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, and mid-century American automobiles among them.

The museum is vast and the organisation reflects personal collecting passions rather than curatorial logic, which gives it an energy that institutional museums often lack. Allow at least two hours. Getting there requires a car; no public transport. Admission is charged.

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Sheikh Faisal has been collecting since the 1970s with a focus that ranges across Islamic coins, Qur'ans, vintage cars, model boats, and pre-Islamic artifacts — categories that no Western museum would house together. The collection now fills a purpose-built fortress-style building on the Al Samriya Farm Road and numbers in the tens of thousands of objects. It is the most idiosyncratic museum in Qatar.

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