Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum

The museum occupies the palace built in the 1520s for İbrahim Pasha, grand vizier to Süleyman I - a rare surviving example of a large Ottoman private residence, with rooms round a courtyard and a terrace looking straight down onto the Hippodrome. The carpet collection is the reason specialists come: Seljuk fragments from the thirteenth century, Anatolian village and court carpets, Mamluk and Persian pieces, many of them removed from mosques for safekeeping over the centuries and unmatched as a sequence anywhere in the world. Alongside are illuminated Qur'ans and calligraphy, İznik and Kütahya ceramics, metalwork, woodwork, and doors and shutters inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. The ethnographic section on the lower floor reconstructs Anatolian nomadic and village interiors with a black tent and a loom. It faces the Blue Mosque across the square and is a good deal quieter than either of its neighbours.

What you actually see

• The carpet halls - Seljuk fragments through Ottoman court pieces.
• The Qur'an collection - illumination and calligraphy across centuries.
• The palace rooms - İbrahim Pasha's sixteenth-century residence.
• The ethnographic floor - nomad tent, loom and village interiors.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Mornings; it is far less crowded than Hagia Sophia or Topkapı at any hour. Check the weekly closing day.

Honest expectations

Lighting in the carpet galleries is deliberately low for conservation, so it can feel dim. Labelling is uneven in places. Some sections close for rotation.

Nearby

The Hippodrome is directly outside; the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are a minute away.