Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum

This guide to the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in Istanbul opens on a Ramadan dinner between Suleiman the Magnificent and his closest friend, the grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha, in the palace that now houses the collection. It follows Ibrahim's rise from a boy who caught a young prince's eye near Edirne to the most powerful man in the empire after the sultan, and the rivalries and shifting titles that surrounded him on campaign. Along the way it takes in the tens of thousands of Islamic artworks and manuscripts the building now holds, including centuries-old carpets and Qur'anic fragments from Damascus.