The idea of establishing a research center for Islamic history, arts and culture (IRCICA) began during the holding of the Seventh Islamic Foreign Ministers' Conference in Istanbul in 1967. Dr. Ekmeluttin Ihsanoglu, the Director-General of the center, said that what the ministers saw in the capital of the Ottoman state, the wealth of its libraries with the rare Arabic, Turkish, Persian and other manuscripts in various branches of science and knowledge which they contained, the priceless objects of Islamic art collected in its museums and the magnificent architectural remains in its territory, are some of the things which were incentives which encouraged the idea of establishing a center subject to the Organization of the Islamic Conference