In 1907, a devastating fire occurred in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, causing substantial damage to the historical archive stored in the treasury section of the mosque. As a result of this unfortunate event, the valuable works were transported to the capital city of Istanbul from Damascus in 1917. This relocation was carried out under the supervision of a delegation led by Ismet Bey, a member of the board of directors of the Islamic Foundations Museum, to ensure their preservation. The collection, known as the "Damascus Papers," was named after its transfer from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus to the museum. It comprises over 200,000 Quran leaves, archive documents, and volumes, containing a wide array of more than 13882 items.
The majority of the items in the collection originate from the Early Islamic Period, featuring Quranic pages from the Umayyad and Abbasid periods dating back to the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. These pages are exemplars of illuminated or unilluminated manuscripts written in Kufic calligraphy on gazelle skin.
Notably, the collection also includes Quranic pages inscribed in Hijazi script, which are dated to the late 7th century and early 8th century, representing some of the earliest known examples of the Holy Quran. Additionally, the collection houses wooden frame bindings dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries, which are considered to be among the earliest examples of Islamic book art.