Stunning mansion with world-class calligraphy
Centered around a historic building in Emirgan on the shore of the Bosphorus, this museum features a large and diverse permanent collection and conservation department. The mansion and its extensive grounds were purchased by the Sabancı family in 1951 and remained their private residence for many years. In 1998, Sakıp Sabancı bequeathed the estate and its original furnishings, along with his calligraphy and painting collections, to Sabancı University to establish a museum. An annex housing modern galleries was built adjacent to the home, and the museum opened in 2002. It hosts temporary international exhibitions, lectures, seminars and concerts, as well as educational programs for children and adults. The museum houses a superb collection of books and calligraphic works that represent 500 years of Ottoman production, including rare manuscript Qurans, calligraphic compositions, albums, inscriptions, hilyes (descriptions of the Prophet Muhammad), and Ottoman documents. Its painting collection includes select works from the late Ottoman and early Republican periods, particularly strong in Turkish painting from 1850 to 1950, with works by Osman Hamdi Bey, Şeker Ahmed Paşa, Süleyman Seyyid, Nazmi Ziya Güran, İbrahim Çallı, Feyhaman Duran and Fikret Mualla, as well as foreign artists including Fausto Zonaro and Ivan Ayvazovsky, both of whom worked at the Ottoman court.
