The building was originally constructed by the Knights Templar[citation needed], who used it as an annex to their headquarters established at the former Al-Aqsa Mosque.

[1] The annex building served an assembly hall for the Fakhr al-Din Mohammad School (al-Fakhriya), a madrasa built by al-Mansur Qalawun in 1282 CE, during the Mamluk era.

[9] The Islamic Museum displays large copper soup kettles used in the Haseki Sultan Imaret, a soup kitchen, built through a donation by Hürrem Sultan, the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, dating back to the 16th century, as well as stained glass windows, wooden panels, ceramic tiles and iron doors from the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.

Also on display are a cannon used to announce the breaking of Ramadan, a large collection of weapons, a large wax tree trunk, the charred remains of the Minbar of Saladin (built by Nur ad-Din Zangi in the 1170s and destroyed in an arson attack in 1969), and the blood-stained clothing of 17 Palestinians killed in the rioting on the Temple Mount in 1990.

[9] The museum has 600 copies of the Qur'an donated to the al-Aqsa Mosque during the Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman eras by caliphs, sultans, emirs, ulama and private individuals.