Museum of Turkish Calligraphy Art

The Museum of Turkish Calligraphy Art (Turkish: Türk Vakıf Hat Sanatları Müzesi) is a museum devoted to Islamic and Ottoman calligraphic art, located in Beyazıt Square in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. It occupies a historically significant early 16th-century building that originally functioned as a madrasa within the Bayezid II Mosque complex. The institution matters as a specialized repository preserving a major collection of Turkish calligraphic heritage, though it has faced extended closure for restoration since 2015.

The museum opened in 1968 as the "Writing Museum" (Yazı Müzesi), originally housed in the madrasa of the Yavuz Selim Complex. In 1984, it relocated to its present site in Beyazıt Square and adopted its current name, the Museum of Turkish Calligraphy Art. The institution operated there for over three decades until 2015, when it was closed for restoration. As of 2020, the museum remained closed to the public, with restoration work still ongoing.

The museum's collection comprises 3,121 pieces, with holdings concentrated primarily on Islamic calligraphic art and, more specifically, Ottoman calligraphic traditions. The assemblage represents a specialized focus on the art of hat, the Ottoman-Turkish calligraphic tradition, rather than spanning broader Islamic artistic production. The collection's size and thematic concentration make it a significant dedicated resource for scholars of Ottoman calligraphy and Islamic epigraphy.

Specific individual works or signature pieces within the collection are not documented in the available sources. The sources indicate that the 3,121-piece collection as a whole is notable for its reflection of Islamic and Ottoman calligraphic art, but they do not single out particular masterpieces, famous calligraphers' works, or historically significant individual items for discussion.

The museum is housed in a former madrasa constructed in the early 16th century as part of the Bayezid II Mosque complex, commissioned by Sultan Bayezid II, son of Mehmed II. The mosque itself was completed in 1505, and madrasa construction began thereafter, finishing in 1507 according to one account, or between 1506 and 1508 by another dating. The building thus represents an early Ottoman architectural monument from the reign of Bayezid II, situated in Beyazıt Square, a historically significant public space in the Fatih district of Istanbul's historic peninsula.