Islamic art

British auction house Christie's will offer collectors a chance to purchase the rare portraits of six Ottoman sultans - Orhan Gazi, Bayezid I, Isa Chelebi, Mehmed I, Selim I and Selim II - when they go under the hammer on Oct. 28.

The portraits are expected to fetch a total of 800,000 to 1.2 million pounds ($1.1 million - $1.64 million).

A coffee collection of a Turkish couple is known to be one of the largest private collections related to Ottoman and Turkish coffee culture in the world, and they now aspire to establish a coffee museum.

Two of the 223 500-year-old İznik tiles and a tile panel, stolen from the Ulu Mosque in the southern province of Adana during its restoration 19 years ago, have been found in the Netherlands.

Mamluk style handmade carpets woven by women in Turkey's eastern Iğdır province are adorning homes in Japan.

In a joint project by the Turkish Employment Agency and Iğdır University, Turkish carpets were exported to Japan by women who are new to the profession.

Turkish historian Filiz Çağman, one of the world's leading experts on manuscripts and miniature art, died on Jan. 11 at the age of 81.

Retired in 2005, Çağman worked for 41 years at Istanbul's Topkapı Palace, one of the most famous landmarks of Istanbul that once housed Ottoman sultans while the city was the capital of the empire.

Ramazan Yumuşak is the last representative of a family who has been repairing "antique carpets with antique carpets" for three generations in Istanbul, which is noted as one of the well-known carpet and rug centers of the world. He wants to keep the tradition alive by passing his 36-year profession, which he started at the age of 11, to future generations.

A carpet trader, who collects hundreds of handmade carpets and rugs from across Anatolia, lays them out in the sun in Turkey's top tourism destination Antalya. 

Turkmenistan's leader on Tuesday hailed as "historic" the announcement that its traditional hand-woven carpets have been recognised as global cultural heritage by the United Nations.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said it was "evidence of world recognition of our marvellous carpets" and will help promote them abroad.

Tens of thousands of hand-woven "postmortem rugs" -- some being centuries old -- were collected by government officials across Turkey for maintenance and classification to be transferred to the coming generations

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is currently carrying out works to decorate a historic mosque in South Africa with ornamental Turkish calligraphy.