Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts

The Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts in Istanbul, housed in the sixteenth-century palace of Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, holds the world's most important carpet collection featuring rare thirteenth-century Seljuk masterpieces. Saved from demolition in 1938, the historic palace became the museum's home in 1983. Today, it preserves over 17,000 historic manuscripts, 3,000 Qurans, and 250,000 early Quranic fragments from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Istanbul · from the walk “Sultans, Spices & Hidden Streets” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, Atmeydanı Cd. No:46, Sultanahmet, Fatih, İstanbul

When did the Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts in Istanbul move into Ibrahim Pasha Palace?

You are standing before one of the most dramatic buildings in all of Istanbul... a palace built for a man whose very Nickname tells his whole story. They called him Makbul Ibrahim Pasha... "the Favorite." But after his death, that name was changed... to Maktul... "the Executed."

...... This grand stone palace overlooking the ancient Hippodrome was home to Pargali Ibrahim Pasha, the first grand vizier appointed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. And his rise to power... is almost unbelievable. Ibrahim was born to Orthodox Christian parents in Parga, Epirus, then part of the Republic of Venice. His father was either a sailor or a fisherman. As a young boy, he was captured in an Ottoman raid and sold into slavery. Yet somehow, this fisherman's son became the second most powerful man in the entire Ottoman Empire.......... How does a slave boy become practically equal to a sultan? Simple... friendship. He and Suleiman became close friends in their youth. When Suleiman took the throne, Ibrahim was so rapidly promoted that at one point he Begged Suleiman not to promote him too quickly, for fear of arousing jealousy. Pleased with this display of modesty, Suleiman purportedly swore that Ibrahim would never be put to death during his reign.......... And his power was extraordinary! Venetian diplomats called him "Ibrahim the Magnificent"... a play on Suleiman's own famous title! His palace here is the Only residence built by someone outside the Ottoman dynasty that deserves to be called a palace.......... But power breeds enemies. Hurrem Sultan, Suleiman's wife, whispered into the sultan's ear about Ibrahim's increasing arrogance. And Ibrahim made a fatal mistake during a campaign against Persia... he awarded himself a title that included the word "Sultan." That was a line NO one could cross.......... According to legend, Suleiman found a way to break his oath of protection through a religious edict... Ibrahim would be killed while the sultan "slept." On the night of March fifteenth, fifteen thirty-six, during the month of Ramadan, after breaking his fast with the sultan at Topkapi Palace, Ibrahim was strangled by the palace's mute executioners while sleeping in his assigned room. Suleiman later deeply regretted Ibrahim's execution... and even twenty years later, his poetry was haunted by themes of friendship and trust.......... Now... the palace itself. This museum first opened in nineteen fourteen, and in nineteen eighty-three moved into Ibrahim's palace. Remarkably, the building was nearly demolished in nineteen thirty-eight to build a courthouse, and was only saved when architect Sedatt Chetintash published an article about its historical value.......... Inside, you will find a carpet collection of seventeen hundred pieces... the most important in the world. Among the masterpieces are rare thirteenth-century Seljuk carpets that simply cannot be found anywhere else. The museum also holds over seventeen thousand manuscripts, three thousand Qurans, and two hundred fifty thousand early Quranic fragments from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.......... So as you step through these doors, remember... you are walking into the home of a fisherman's son who became the most powerful vizier in Ottoman history, whose friendship with a sultan was the stuff of legend... and whose fall was just as spectacular as his rise.

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