The Museum of Islamic Civilisation in Istanbul opens its doors with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in attendance

The Museum of Islamic Civilisation in Istanbul opens its doors with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in attendance

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took part in the opening of the Museum of Islamic Civilisations in the mosque complex of “Büyük Çamlıca” in Istanbul, a museum that holds a wide range of cultural and historical artefacts.
In a speech at the opening, Erdoğan said “The new museum reflects Istanbul's history and its geographical and cultural fabric, and it does this city great justice”

He noted that “visitors to the museum will realise that knowledge and wisdom are the true founders of civilisations”, explaining that “the artefacts on display in the museum represent thousands of years of accumulated Islamic civilisation”.

The Museum of Islamic Civilisations was built on an enclosed site of 10 thousand square metres, holding selected works from the Topkapı Palace collections, the Museum of the National Palaces Collections, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, the Istanbul Tombs Museum and the Foundations Museum.
The museum displays close to 800 works reflecting the development of Islamic art from the seventh to the nineteenth century, along with a collection of architectural and decorative elements of Islamic art, a model depicting the first structure of the Holy Kaaba, documents about Damascus and other precious Islamic artefacts.

The Museum of Islamic Civilisations also holds one-of-a-kind pieces bearing traces that go back 1200 years, many of which have never been displayed before.