This new museum was inaugurated just 15 years ago and is located inside the Gulhane park in the building that used to be a stable. The museum is very interesting and is reflecting the grandeur of the Islamic golden ages where the science played a major role. The models are very informative and you will be amazed with these inventions that preceded the European renaissance by hundreds of years especially in the fields of weapons, navigation and astronomy. This placed is highly recommended for both adults and toddlers.

Located in the 16th century Ibrahim Pasa Palace, which has some lovely architectural features, this museum is centrally located near the Blue Mosque and other tourist sites so it is easy to visit. The small garden in front is decorated with ceramic doves on the lawn. I was expecting an art gallery, however, I found this was more of an ethnographic museum so I was initially disappointed. I did, in the end, learn about historic Islamic art periods and I always love looking at carpets and old artifacts but I still regret I didn't get as much of an art experience as I had hoped. The ground floor contains recreations of rooms and dwellings and displays on Turkish life such as the hammam, coffee drinking and shadow plays and upstairs there is a series of rooms showing artifacts from each of the various Islamic periods from the Four Caliphs and Umayyad period around 664 to the Qajar period of 1779–1924. The artifacts include mosque doors, windows, sarcophagi, jewellery, hairbrushes, pottery, bronze artifacts, tiles, calligraphy, drawings of Ottoman architecture, stonework and wooden works. Special rooms contain sacred relics of Islam which requires respectful behaviour and no photos, another contains the Damascus documents and another one displays many carpets from the Seljuk to Ottoman periods. Additional carpets are displayed along the hallways. The displays are nicely presented in an uncluttered manner. It wasn't crowded. There are some nice views from up top. We almost missed an additional exhibition on the ground floor to the left after security but before the museum entry and had to re-enter the museum to see it (which we were able to do). That exhibition had some average modern art and embroidered clothing but no explanations in English.

For what was a very informative and interesting collection, I was surprised at how uncrowded this museum was. The collection is well laid out chronologically and is very educational for someone like me who does not possess much knowledge of Turkish and Islamic history. If you are interested in knowing more about Islamic or Turkish history then you should not miss this museum.