Housed in the 16th-century Ibrahim Pasha Palace overlooking the old Hippodrome, this museum holds one of the world's finest collections of Islamic art. The palace itself belonged to Suleiman the Magnificent's powerful Grand Vizier until his execution in 1536. Inside you'll find over 17,000 manuscripts, 3,000 Qurans, and an extraordinary carpet collection spanning centuries of Islamic craftsmanship from Spain to Central Asia. The ethnographic section recreating a traditional Ottoman home is surprisingly engaging. It gets a fraction of the crowds that hit the nearby Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, making it one of Sultanahmet's most rewarding yet overlooked stops.