The Islamic Museum was first inaugurated in the Heritage Area on the sixth of November 1996. This museum was then transformed, under the directions of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to the traditional Souq Al Majarrah (opened as a souq in 1987). The museum was then re-opened under the name “Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization” on the sixth of June 2008, after transferring the re-interpreted and re-displayed collections from the previous museum to this redesigned state-of-the-art museum.