Istanbul

İstanbul:
A key point in world geography, focal point of the interests of international powers, capital of an empire, the only city in the world that belongs to two continents – Europe and Asia. Its origins are lost in the mists of time and have become legend. The story is told of a group of Doric colonists from Megara who landed and se... Read on

İstanbul:
A key point in world geography, focal point of the interests of international powers, capital of an empire, the only city in the world that belongs to two continents – Europe and Asia. Its origins are lost in the mists of time and have become legend. The story is told of a group of Doric colonists from Megara who landed and settled on the Asian coast of the Bosporus and founded a colony at Chalcedon. In 658 B. C. a second group of colonists led by king Byzas decided to consult the oracle of Delphi before starting out on their trip. The oracle advised them to stop on the land «across from the land of the blind». The sagacious interpretation of Byzas led him to found a colony on the European shores opposite Chalcedon, in a peaceful sheltered port, whereas the earlier colonists, in their blindness, had been unable to appreciate the beauty of the spot and had preferred a wind-swept bay. The site Byzas chose was actually the best of all possible places in a highly strategic position. Indeed through the strait of the Bosporus the Black Sea communicates with the Sea of Marmara which in turn empties into the Aegean through the strait of the Dardanelles and then into the Mediterranean. «The sea surrounds Constantinople like a garland» wrote Procopius. And it is at this specific point that the Bosporus forms a long winding natural port in the shape of an ox horn, known as the Golden Horn. Thanks to its position, Byzantium soon became an important trading center and was coveted by her greedy neighbors. The first of these was Darius of Persia, who conquered the city in 513 B. C.

Freed by Pausanius King of Sparta, Byzantium tenaciously resisted Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father, who besieged the city in 340 B. C. The story goes that one night the moon suddenly came out from behind the clouds, revealing the imminent enemy attack to the Byzantines. Ever since, the crescent moon has become a symbol of the city. After having entered into an alliance with the Romans, the city made the mistake of siding with Pescennius Niger, an adversary of Septimius Severus who razed the city to the ground in 196 A. D. after a long siege. Despite this, Septimius Severus was just and generous and rebuilt the city, constructing theaters, bath and the hippodrome.

In the third century A. D. while Rome’s power was inexorably on the wane, the star of Byzantium was growing ever brighter. In 324 A. D. Constantine united the two parts of the Empire and on May 11, 330, he solemnly consecrated the city as the new capital that came to be known as Constantinople and would develop a culture that was new and original with respect to the Latin traditions and which was to shine for centuries. Like Rome, Constantinople spread its walls over seven hills. It reached the apex of its splendor under the Emperor Justinian after the sun of the Roman Empire of the West had definitively set. The official language was no longer Latin but Greek and the emperor assumed the title of «basileus». Paradoxically, it was Constantinople’s Latin heritage which began to undermine its foundations. After having wrenched political power from Rome, Constantinople also wanted religious supremacy. The eternal conflict between East and West had already been exacerbated by the iconoclastic controversy and was now to deteriorate as a result of the series of excommunications which the two empires issued against each other. At the end of the 11th century the spiritual tension present in the West together with the idea of liberating the holy places in Jerusalem from the infidels led to the Crusades. While the first three crusades were based on religious inspiration, this was hardly true of the fourth crusade. The vested interests of Venice as opposed to the Eastern Empire, the spirit of adventure and conquest, on the part of the knights and the dream riches of distracted the crusaders from their original «noble» ideals.

In April of 1204 the Christian knights conquered Constantinople where they plundered and killed without pity, pillaging and destroying. Countless priceless treasures were melted down to make coins or were lost. With no more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, and completely stripped of its past splendor, Constantinople was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in 1261. The new Paleologue dynasty had to hold its own between the numerous intestine struggles and the increasing external pressure of the Ottoman Turks. The irresistible rise of Ottoman power began in 1451 when the able and ambitious sultan Mehmed II ascended the throne. His only ambition had been to take over Constantinople. Juggernaut of the Turkish army was a corps of fanatic soldiers, loyal to the sultan, the “Janissaries “. The confidence of the Turkish army was based on an ancient Islamic prophesy which said «Constantinople will be conquered: glory to the prince and the army which will accomplish the enterprise.»The siege began on April 5, 1453. The Byzantines had blocked the Golden Horn with floating tree trunks and the Turkish fleet was unable to force the blockade. The sultan then commanded his troops to drag about 70 ships across the peninsula of Pera, moving them on wagons and wooden tracks. The chronicles of the time narrate that it was «an extraordinary sight to see these ships, with their sails battened, their crews and their equipment, slide through the fields as if they were in the open seas.» In order to launch their final attack, the Turks built a bridge of barrels which united their camp with the mainland. From here the Turkish artillery soon shattered the fortifications which Theodosius II had erected in the V century. At dawn on May 29th, the Turks overran the conquered city and began the customary looting. Christian Constantinople thus ended up in the hands of a sultan who was little more than 23 years old.

Later the new city was to have another name, İstanbul. Generous with the vanquished, Mehmed II (who from then on was to be called Fatih, the Conqueror), guaranteed their old privileges to the Genovese and the Venetians, opened his court to artists and scholars of all races and religions, and left freedom of worship to the Greeks and the Armenians. As a result of the sultan’s tolerance many Christians settled in İstanbul. The Ottoman empire reached the zenith of its power under Süleyman I known as the Magnificent by Westerners and as the Lawmaker by the Turks. His great architect Sinan adorned the city with grand mosques, bridges, palaces and fountains. At the same time, İstanbul was the capital of Islam because sultan was also Caliph, that is the spiritual leader of the Muslims. The history of the city is inseparable from that of the empire, sharing in its vicissitudes, suffering its fate. As Ottoman power gradually waned and the empire was dismembered, the city too declined until the dawn of the 20th century saw the end of the empire and the birth of the new Turkish republic. In 1923 the capital was transferred to Ankara, but the history of the country’s millennial past lives on in the glorious monuments of İstanbul.

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