The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture – Ithra is a masterwork of architecture, a towering beacon in the Dhahran skyline. The steel-pipe wrapped building represents five mutually-supporting stones that house its components: a library, cinema, theater, great hall, a four-gallery museum, a soaring tower dedicated to educational facilities, labs, studios and more, along with a creativity lab and the freestanding Energy Exhibit. A prominent and pioneering cultural center, Ithra is a platform for world-class exhibitions, performances, conferences, cinema and theatrical events. The award-winning center was honored by TIME magazine as “one of the greatest 100 places in the world to visit.”
Ithra is dedicated to fostering the Saudi creative and cultural industries as well as acting as a
cross-cultural window to act both as a global platform for talent from the Islamic World and a source of curated international experiences for regional audiences. Ithra’s museum features two galleries dedicated to Saudi and Islamic culture. The most recent edition of Ithra’s Islamic Art Conference featured renowned international speakers, workshops, demonstrations and 11 exhibitions on the theme “In Praise of the Artisan” — a deep dive into the evolving Islamic arts landscape and a call to action for supporting traditional craft professions.
Ithra’s display examines the practice of waqf — a centuries-old approach to charitable endowment associated with mosques and Islamic institutions.

Firman of Mustafa III
regarding the tomb of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

Maintaining the monuments of the Haramain (the two holy sanctuaries Makkah al-Mukarramah and Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah) is an undertaking of enormous responsibility, laden with religious significance. From the late 10th to 12th century AH/16th to 18th century CE, the role of supervising the royal charitable endowment to Makkah and Madinah, Evkafü’l-Haremeyn in Turkish, was usually bestowed on the chief eunuch (kızlar ağası) of the Ottoman ruler. This firman, issued under Mustafa III (r. AH 1171–87/1757–74 CE), appoints a kızlar ağası named as Bashir Agha as controller of the endowments to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Madinah. The text, written in six lines of diwani script, outlines the duties of this role and details the financial arrangements.
Under the Ottomans, revenues from specific lands in Egypt were dedicated to the maintenance of public charitable foundations in Makkah and Madinah and along the pilgrimage routes, including institutions such as mosques, madrasahs, Qur’an schools, kitchens, hospitals, and wells. In addition, numerous villages in Egypt were required to supply wheat and barley to the Hijaz. Agents of the Chief Harem Eunuch carried out revenue and grain collection from the lands, and it was the Chief Harem Eunuch’s responsibility to ensure that the grain made it to Makkah and Madinah along with the Egyptian pilgrimage caravan every year.