Name of Monument:

The museum of 'rare possessions'

Other name of the Monument:

Fatma Ismail’s Palace Museum at the Agricultural museum; The Antiquity Collection Museum

Location:

Dokki (Cairo), Egypt

Responsible Institution:

Ministry of Agriculture

 About Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), Dokki (Cairo)

Date of Monument:

Construction:1930; inauguration: 1940

History:

Princess Fatma Ismail (1853–1920) was one of Khedive Ismail's daughters. She married Prince Tusun ibn Muhammad Sa`id Pasha, alderman of Egypt, in 1871. She is distinguished from her sisters by her philanthropic contributions to culture and science. Princess Fatma took the initiative of dismissing the university from its financial crisis by providing it with an endowment. She also donated jewellery to provide the university with much-needed cash and land for the campus to be built on. She participated in laying the foundation stone of the university. She passed away before seeing the university built.

Description:

This building was once the villa of Fatma Ismail, daughter of Khedive Ismail, and now it is a museum that houses over 500 rare pieces of art dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When the palace was built and then restored, Egyptian architecture was being influenced by the European trends of the time (Italian and French). Italian and French architects were designing and building edifices for the Egyptian elite.

Citation of this web page:

Ibrahim Abdel Aziz "The museum of 'rare possessions'" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;AWE;eg;7;en

Prepared by: Ibrahim Abdel AzizIbrahim Abdel Aziz

Botany Senior Specialist, Natural Heritage Unit, Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Copyedited by: Daniel de la VegaDaniel de la Vega

Daniel de la Vega is a copy editor based in Portland, Oregon. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2014 and has since done editing and localization work on everything from college applications to magazines to video game dialogue.

MWNF Working Number: ET2 007