This tradition was continued after the death of the Conqueror, and St
Irene gradually became a storehouse of weapons captured from the enemy in the
wars waged by successive Ottoman sultans.
With the orientation towards the West during the reign of Ahmet III at
the beginning of the 18th century there emerged the desire to set up a museum
on the European model. This project was realised in 1726 by making a number of
modifications in the collection already in existence in St Irene, and
references to this first Military Museum (known as the Dar-ul Esliha) can be
found in the memoirs of Baron de Tott, the French military expert invited to
Istanbul in the reign of Abdulhamit I to advise on the modernisation of the
Ottoman artillery.
The Dar-ul Esliha proved to be short-lived, being closed down after
the looting and pillaging that occurred during the Janissary mutinies in the
reigns of Selim III and Mahmut II. Finally, with the abolition of the Corps of
Janissaries in 1826, a number of valuable objects stored here were destroyed
because of their association with the Corps.
In the reign of Abdulmecit, the St Irene collection was re-arranged to
form a new Museum, at first known as the Muze-i Askeri (Military Museum) and
later as the Asar-i Atika-i Muze-i Humayun (The Imperial Museum of Antiquities).
After repairs and alterations carried out in the building the collection was
divided into two, one part forming the Mecma-i Esliha-i Atika (Collection of
Antique Weapons) and the other the Mecma-i Asar-i Atika (Archaeological Museum).
The latter collection was transferred to the Çinili Köşk (Tiled Pavilion) and
was to form the nucleus of the Archaeological Museum founded in the second
half of the nineteenth century by Osman Hamdi Bey. On his visit to the museum
Abdulmecit was particularly impressed by the costumes belonging to the
Janissaries and to various notables of the past, but during the reign of
Abdulaziz St Irene began to lose its importance as a museum and became a mere
storehouse for weapons, the collection of costumes being transferred to
another building known as the Janissary Museum.
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Plans were drawn up during the reign of Abdulhamit II at the end of
the nineteenth century for a small museum of arms and weapons to be
established in the ground of the Yıldız Palace, but although this museum was
actually opened it was very quickly closed by the Sultan, who feared for his
personal safety.
After the Declaration of the Constitution in 1908, Ali Rıza Paşa who
had prepared the plans for the museum, obtained a ferman (Sultan’s Order) from
the Sultan authorising the foundation of a museum of arms and weapons. A
commission was formed to supervise the acquisition of the weapons from
Istanbul and other parts of the Empire, but as no suitable building could
be found ihe exhibits had to be temporarily housed in the museum building of
St Irene. Plans for a new museum were shelved during the eventful period that
followed but when the Minister of War, Mahmut Şevket Paşa, returned from a
visit to Germany in the course of which he had observed the very great
importance given there to the establishment of Military Museums, one of the
first things he did was to ask Ahmet Muhtar Pasha to set up a Militaty Museum
(Esliha-i Askeriye Muzesi) and to appoint him as the new museum’s first
director.
Following a great deal of intensive and arduous work Ahmet Muhtar Paşa
ńnally succeedled in opening the new museum, which he renamed the Muze-i
Askeri-i Humayun (Imperial Military Museum). Besides its collection of weapons
the museum contained a library, a shooting range and, a remarkable innovation
for that period, a museum cinema. Later he added a Mehterhane, the old type of
Janissary military band composed of wind and percussion. Ahmet Muhtar Paşa
continued as director of the museum from 1908 to 1925, and through out these
years of world-shaking events at home and abroad the museum remained as one of
the most important cultural centres of the time, offering an interesting
programme of documentary films, music and Janissary band displays.
Another interesting new venture was the publication in French and
Turkish of a three volume Museum Guide prepared by Ahmet Muhtar Paşa’s son
Sermet Muhtar, together with the scores of Janissary military band music
(Mehterhane-i Hakani) and concert and museum posters.
This continued until 1940, when it was decided that in view of the
danger that Turkey might become involved in the war the museum should be
closed down and the most valuable of the exhibits sent to Ankara for safe-keeping,
the others being retained for the time being at Sultanahmet. Later all the
exhibits were transferred to Nigde, in Central Anatolia, whence they were
brought back at the end of the war in 1945 and housed in the Maçka barracks in
Istanbul. When it was decided that this building should
be handed over to the Technical University the weapons collection was
transferred to the Military Gynmasium at Harbiye. Work on converting this
building into a proper museum was finally completed on 31 August 1959 and the
exhibits are now displayed in four spacious rooms. As a result of continual
additions to the museum collection the building at Harbiye soon became totally
indequate, and a search began for a more suitable building. It was finally
decided that the site of the old Militaty School at Harbiye should be used for
the construction of a completely new building to house the Military Museum and
Culture Centre. On completion, this building now allows the exhibits to be
displayed in conformity with the most advanced ideas of museum arrangement,
and thus to present in the most effective fashion a truly comprehensive survey
of Turkish military history.