Museum · Binbirdirek Mahallesi, Sultanahmet Meydanı (At Meydanı Sokak No:12), Fatih, İstanbul
Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi · TİEM · İbrahim Paşa Sarayı
A Ministry of Culture and Tourism museum of Turkish and Islamic art, housed since 1983 in the 16th-century İbrahim Paşa Palace on the west side of Sultanahmet Square in Fatih, Istanbul.
Where it is
41.0063, 28.9747
Why go
The museum was founded in 1914 in the Süleymaniye imaret and moved in 1983 to İbrahim Paşa Palace, a building Süleyman the Magnificent commissioned in 1520 for his grand vizier İbrahim Pasha — described by the Ministry as, apart from the royal palaces, one of the earliest surviving palace buildings. The palace was restored and the museum reopened in 2014. It was the first museum in Turkey to bring Turkish-Islamic artworks together, with pieces from the Umayyad, Abbasid, Artuqid, Ayyubid, Ilkhanid, Timurid, Safavid, Qajar, Mamluk, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Its carpet collection, which the Ministry calls the best in the world, includes rare 13th-century Seljuk carpets, alongside glass, stone, terracotta, metal and ceramic objects. A courtyard hall holds an ethnography section on 19th-century Istanbul daily life, and a Holy Relics section presents works similar to those at Topkapı Palace. This record covers only the Istanbul museum (Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, Q525939): not the Edirne museum of the same Turkish name in the Selimiye complex, not the Türk-İslam Eserleri museums in Bursa or Erzurum, and not its immediate neighbour on the same street, the Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum, about 65 m away.
Getting there
West side of Sultanahmet Square (At Meydanı Sokak No:12), in Fatih, Istanbul. Operated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi Müdürlüğü; ticketed by DÖSİMM (museum no. 160 in the Ministry's site directive). Official page: https://muze.gov.tr/muze-detay?SectionId=TIE01&DistId=TIE.
Accessibility
The Ministry does not publish whether the 16th-century palace building has a step-free route, a lift, stroller access, baby-care facilities or any particular sensory conditions; expect stairs in a historic palace and ask the museum before you go if you need a confirmed accessible route. Disabled visitors, Turkish and foreign, are admitted free, and a companion is admitted free only if they are a Turkish citizen — that is an admission-price rule, not a statement about the route itself.
Near Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
Museum
Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum
A Ministry of Culture and Tourism museum in the historic Defter-i Hakani (land-registry) building on Sultanahmet Square, telling Hagia Sophia's roughly 1,700-year history across 13 audiovisual halls — a separate building and a separate ticket from the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque itself.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Mosque
Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)
Sultan Ahmed I's early 17th-century imperial mosque beside the Hippodrome in Sultanahmet, Fatih, Istanbul. It is an active place of worship that welcomes visitors outside prayer times.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Theodosius Cistern
Şerefiye Sarnıcı, a covered cistern of about 1,600 years in Binbirdirek, Fatih, thought to date from the reign of Theodosius II. It was uncovered in 2010 and is run as a ticketed museum by Istanbul's municipal culture company.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Basilica Cistern
A vast 6th-century underground cistern in Sultanahmet, built for the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and now run as a museum by İBB Kültür A.Ş., the Istanbul municipality's cultural company.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Related guides
- Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum guide: the carpets, the palace and who pays
The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum occupies İbrahim Paşa Palace on Sultanahmet Square and holds what the Ministry calls the world's best carpet collection. This guide covers what is on show, the official hours and night opening, the Ministry's free-entry rule for foreign children (8 and under, or under 8 by its footnote), and how the listed ticket's own child pricing differs.