I am a member of a group called Daughters of Abraham which has Christian, Jewish and Muslim women. This month we are reading a book entitled “Last Train to Istanbul” written by Ayşe Kulin. It is an international bestseller by one of Turkey’s most beloved authors. It is the story of two Turkish sisters just before and during WWII. Sabiha is married to Macit, and through his government position, the reader gains insight into Turkey’s politics of that time. The younger sister Selva has gone against family’s wishes to marry a Jewish man, Rafael. They move to France and become caught up in the Nazi occupation there. I have never been to Istanbul. The closest I came is watching the movie “Casablanca” which takes place in Morocco. I assume Istanbul has the same smoke-filled cafes where people drink strong Turkish tea in tiny tulip-shaped cups. I did have Turkish tea once while on vacation in the Balkans. The cups are shaped like tulips to keep the tea warm. My Turkish friend Sueheyla loves black tea and drinks it every day. I imagine Istanbul to be a very exotic place where there are belly dancers in all the restaurants and bars, but I’m sure the reality is much different. Let’s find out.
According to Wikipedia, Istanbul — formerly known as Constantinople — is the largest city in Turkey and the country's economic, cultural and historic center. The city straddles the Bosporus strait and lies in both Europe and Asia, with a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is the most populous city in Europe and the world's 15th-largest city.
Founded as Byzantion by Megarian colonists in the 7th century BCE and renamed by Constantine the Great — first as New Rome during the official dedication of the city as the new Roman capital in 330 CE, which he soon afterwards changed to Constantinople — the city grew in size and influence, becoming a beacon of the Silk Road and one of the most important cities in history. It served as an imperial capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman/Byzantine (330–1204), Latin (1204–1261), Byzantine (1261–1453) and Ottoman (1453–1922) empires. The city was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, hosting four of the first seven ecumenical councils — all of which were in present-day Turkey, before its transformation to an Islamic stronghold following the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE, especially after becoming the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1517. In 1923, after the Turkish War of Independence, Ankara replaced the city as the capital of the newly formed Republic of Turkey. In 1930, the city's name was officially changed to Istanbul, an appellation Greek speakers used since the 11th century to colloquially refer to the city.
Over 13.4 million foreign visitors came to Istanbul in 2018, eight years after it was named a European Capital of Culture, making it the world's eighth most visited city. Istanbul is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites and hosts the headquarters of numerous Turkish companies, accounting for more than 30% of the country's economy.
History
Neolithic artifacts, uncovered by archeologists at the beginning of the 21st century, indicate that Istanbul's historic peninsula was settled as far back as the 6th millennium BCE. That early settlement — important in the spread of the Neolithic Revolution from the Near East to Europe — lasted for almost a millennium before being inundated by rising water levels. The first human settlement on the Asian side, the Fikirtepe mound, is from the Copper Age period, with artifacts dating from 5500 to 3500 BCE. On the European side near the point of the Sarayburnu peninsula, there was a Thracian settlement during the early 1st millennium BCE. Modern authors have linked it to the Thracian toponym Lygos, mentioned by Pliny the Elder as an earlier name for the site of Byzantium.
The history of the city proper begins around 660 BCE, when Greek settlers from Megara established Byzantium on the European side of the Bosphorus. The settlers built an acropolis adjacent to the Golden Horn on the site of the early Thracian settlements, fueling the nascent city's economy. The city experienced a brief period of Persian rule at the turn of the 5th century BCE, but the Greeks recaptured it during the Greco-Persian Wars. Byzantium then continued as part of the Athenian League and its successor, the Second Athenian League, before gaining independence in 355 BCE. Long allied with the Romans, Byzantium officially became a part of the Roman Empire in 73 CE. Byzantium's decision to side with the Roman usurper Pescennius Niger against Emperor Septimius Severus cost it dearly; by the time it surrendered at the end of 195 CE, two years of siege had left the city devastated. Five years later, Severus began to rebuild Byzantium, and the city regained — and, by some accounts, surpassed — its previous prosperity.
Rise and fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire
Constantine the Great effectively became the emperor of the whole of the Roman Empire in September 324. Two months later, he laid out the plans for a new, Christian city to replace Byzantium. As the eastern capital of the empire, the city was named Nova Roma; most called it Constantinople, a name that persisted into the 20th century. On May 11, 330, Constantinople was proclaimed the capital of the Roman Empire, which was later permanently divided between the two sons of Theodosius I upon his death on January 17, 395, when the city became the capital of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.
The establishment of Constantinople was one of Constantine's most lasting accomplishments, shifting Roman power eastward as the city became a center of Greek culture and Christianity. Numerous churches were built across the city, including Hagia Sophia which was built during the reign of Justinian the Great and remained the world's largest cathedral for a thousand years. Constantine also undertook a major renovation and expansion of the Hippodrome of Constantinople; accommodating tens of thousands of spectators, the hippodrome became central to civic life and in the 5th and 6th centuries, the center of episodes of unrest, including the Nika riots. Constantinople's location also ensured its existence would stand the test of time; for many centuries, its walls and seafront protected Europe against invaders from the east and the advance of Islam. During most of the Middle Ages — the latter part of the Byzantine era — Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city on the European continent and at times the largest in the world. Constantinople is generally considered to be the center and the "cradle of Orthodox Christian civilization."
Constantinople began to decline continuously after the end of the reign of Basil II in 1025. The Fourth Crusade was diverted from its purpose in 1204, and the city was sacked and pillaged by the crusaders. They established the Latin Empire in place of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire. Hagia Sophia was converted to a Catholic church in 1204. The Byzantine Empire was restored, albeit weakened, in 1261. Constantinople's churches, defenses and basic services were in disrepair, and its population had dwindled to 100,000 from 500,000 during the 8th century. After the reconquest of 1261, however, some of the city's monuments were restored, and some — like the two Deesis mosaics in Hagia Sofia and Kariye — were created.
Various economic and military policies instituted by Andronikos II, such as the reduction of military forces, weakened the empire and left it vulnerable to attack. In the mid-14th-century, the Ottoman Turks began a strategy of gradually taking smaller towns and cities, cutting off Constantinople's supply routes and strangling it slowly. On May 29, 1453, after an eight-week siege — during which the last Roman emperor, Constantine XI, was killed — Sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" captured Constantinople and declared it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. Hours later, the sultan rode to the Hagia Sophia and summoned an imam to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque due to the city's refusal to surrender peacefully. Mehmed declared himself as the new Kayser-i Rûm — the Ottoman Turkish equivalent of the Caesar of Rome — and the Ottoman state was reorganized into an empire.
Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic eras
Following the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed II immediately set out to revitalize the city. Cognizant that revitalization would fail without the repopulation of the city, Mehmed II welcomed everyone — foreigners, criminals, and runaways — showing extraordinary openness and willingness to incorporate outsiders that came to define Ottoman political culture. He also invited people from all over Europe to his capital, creating a cosmopolitan society that persisted through much of the Ottoman period. Revitalizing Istanbul also required a massive program of restorations, of everything from roads to aqueducts. Like many monarchs before and since, Mehmed II transformed Istanbul's urban landscape with wholesale redevelopment of the city center. There was a huge new palace to rival — if not overshadow — the old one, a new covered market (still standing as the Grand Bazaar), porticoes, pavilions and walkways as well as more than a dozen new mosques. Mehmed II turned the ramshackle old town into something that looked like an imperial capital.
Social hierarchy was ignored by the rampant plague, which killed the rich and the poor alike in the 16th century. Money could not protect the rich from all the discomforts and harsher sides of Istanbul. Although the sultan lived at a safe remove from the masses and the wealthy and poor tended to live side by side, for the most part Istanbul was not zoned as modern cities are. Opulent houses shared the same streets and districts with tiny hovels. Those rich enough to have secluded country properties had a chance of escaping the periodic epidemics of sickness that blighted Istanbul.
The Ottoman Dynasty claimed the status of caliphate in 1517, with Constantinople remaining the capital of this last caliphate for four centuries. Suleiman the Magnificent's reign from 1520 to 1566 was a period of especially great artistic and architectural achievement; chief architect Mimar Sinan designed several iconic buildings in the city, while Ottoman arts of ceramics, stained glass, calligraphy and miniature flourished. The population of Constantinople was 570,000 by the end of the 18th century.
A period of rebellion at the start of the 19th century led to the rise of the progressive Sultan Mahmud II and eventually to the Tanzimat period, which produced political reforms and allowed new technology to be introduced to the city. Bridges across the Golden Horn were constructed during this period, and Constantinople was connected to the rest of the European railway network in the 1880s. Modern facilities — such as a water supply network, electricity, telephones and trams — were gradually introduced to Constantinople over the following decades, although later than to other European cities. The modernization efforts were not enough to forestall the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
Sultan Abdul Hamid II was deposed with the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, and the Ottoman Parliament — closed since February 14, 1878 — was reopened 30 years later on July 23, 1908, which marked the beginning of the Second Constitutional Era. A series of wars in the early 20th century — such as the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) — plagued the ailing empire's capital and resulted in the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, which brought the regime of the Three Pashas.
The Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers and was, ultimately, defeated. The deportation of Armenian intellectuals on April 24, 1915 was among the major events which marked the start of the Armenian genocide during WWI. Due to Ottoman and Turkish policies of Turkification and ethnic cleansing, the city's Christian population declined from 450,000 to 240,000 between 1914 and 1927. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 30, 1918, and the Allies occupied Constantinople on November 13, 1918. The Ottoman Parliament was dissolved by the Allies on April 11, 1920, and the Ottoman delegation led by Damat Ferid Pasha was forced to sign the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920.
Following the Turkish War of Independence from 1919 to 1922, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara abolished the Sultanate on November 1, 1922, and the last Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed VI, was declared persona non grata. Leaving aboard the British warship HMS Malaya on November 17, 1922, he went into exile and died in Sanremo, Italy, on May 16, 1926. The Treaty of Lausanne was signed on July 24, 1923, and the occupation of Constantinople ended with the departure of the last forces of the Allies from the city on October 4, 1923. Turkish forces of the Ankara government — commanded by Şükrü Naili Pasha of the 3rd Corps — entered the city with a ceremony on October 6, 1923, which has been marked as the Liberation Day of Istanbul, and is commemorated every year on its anniversary. On October 29, 1923, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared the establishment of the Turkish Republic with Ankara as its capital. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became the Republic's first President. According to historian Philip Mansel:
after the departure of the dynasty in 1925, from being the most international city in Europe, Constantinople became one of the most nationalistic ... Unlike Vienna, Constantinople turned its back on the past. Even its name was changed. Constantinople was dropped because of its Ottoman and international associations. From 1926 the post office only accepted Istanbul; it appeared more Turkish and was used by most Turks.
A 1942 wealth tax assessed mainly on non-Muslims led to the transfer or liquidation of many businesses owned by religious minorities. From the late 1940s and early 1950s, Istanbul underwent great structural change, as new public squares, boulevards and avenues were constructed throughout the city, sometimes at the expense of historical buildings. The population of Istanbul began to rapidly increase in the 1970s, as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were built on the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis. This sudden, sharp rise in the city's population caused a large demand for housing, and many previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into the metropolitan area of Istanbul.
Cityscape
The Fatih district, which was named after Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror corresponds to what was, until the Ottoman conquest in 1453, the whole of the city of Constantinople — today is the capital district and called the historic peninsula of Istanbul — on the southern shore of the Golden Horn, across the medieval Genoese citadel of Galata on the northern shore. The Genoese fortifications in Galata were largely demolished in the 19th century, leaving only the Galata Tower, to make way for the northward expansion of the city. Galata is today a quarter within the Beyoğlu district, which forms Istanbul's commercial and entertainment center and includes İstiklal Avenue and Taksim Square.
Dolmabahçe Palace, the seat of government during the late Ottoman period, is in the Beşiktaş district on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait, to the north of Beyoğlu. The Sublime Porte, which became a metonym for the Ottoman government, was originally used to describe the Imperial Gate at the outermost courtyard of the Topkapı Palace; but after the 18th century, the Sublime Porte or simply Porte began to refer to the gate of the Sadrazamlık or Prime Ministry compound in the Cağaloğlu quarter near Topkapı Palace, where the offices of the Sadrazam or Grand Vizier and other Viziers were, and where foreign diplomats were received. The former village of Ortaköy is within Beşiktaş and gives its name to the Ortaköy Mosque on the Bosphorus, near the Bosphorus Bridge. Lining both the European and Asian shores of the Bosphorus are the historic yalıs, luxurious chalet mansions built by Ottoman aristocrats and elites as summer homes. Farther inland, outside the city's inner ring road, are Levent and Maslak, Istanbul's main business districts.
During the Ottoman period, Üsküdar — then Scutari — and Kadıköy were outside the scope of the urban area, serving as tranquil outposts with seaside yalıs and gardens. But in the second half of the 20th century, the Asian side experienced major urban growth; the late development of this part of the city led to better infrastructure and tidier urban planning when compared with most other residential areas in the city. Much of the Asian side of the Bosphorus functions as a suburb of the economic and commercial centers in European Istanbul, accounting for a third of the city's population but only a quarter of its employment. As a result of Istanbul's exponential growth in the 20th century, a significant portion of the city is composed of gecekondus — literally "built overnight" — referring to illegally constructed squatter buildings. At present, some gecekondu areas are being gradually demolished and replaced by modern mass-housing compounds. Moreover, large scale gentrification and urban renewal projects have been taking place, such as the one in Tarlabaşı; some of these projects, like the one in Sulukule, have faced criticism. The Turkish government also has ambitious plans for an expansion of the city west and northwards on the European side in conjunction with plans for a third airport; the new parts of the city will include four different settlements with specified urban functions, housing 1.5 million people.
Istanbul does not have a primary urban park, but it has several green areas. Gülhane Park and Yıldız Park were originally included within the grounds of two of Istanbul's palaces — Topkapı Palace and Yıldız Palace — but they were repurposed as public parks in the early decades of the Turkish Republic. Another park, Fethi Paşa Korusu, is on a hillside adjacent to the Bosphorus Bridge in Anatolia, opposite Yıldız Palace in Europe. Along the European side and close to the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is Emirgan Park, which was known as the Kyparades or Cypress Forest during the Byzantine period. In the Ottoman period, it was first granted to Nişancı Feridun Ahmed Bey in the 16th century, before being granted by Sultan Murad IV to the Safavid Emir Gûne Han in the 17th century, hence the name Emirgan. The 120-acre park was later owned by Khedive Ismail Pasha of Ottoman Egypt and Sudan in the 19th century. Emirgan Park is known for its diversity of plants and an annual tulip festival has been held there since 2005. The conservative and populist political party AKP government's decision to replace Taksim Gezi Park with a replica of the Ottoman era Taksim Military Barracks — which was transformed into the Taksim Stadium in 1921, before being demolished in 1940 for building Gezi Park — sparked a series of nationwide protests in 2013 covering a wide range of issues. Popular during the summer among Istanbulites is Belgrad Forest, spreading across 14,000 acres at the northern edge of the city. The forest originally supplied water to the city, and remnants of reservoirs used during Byzantine and Ottoman times survive.
Culture
Istanbul was historically known as a cultural hub, but its cultural scene stagnated after the Turkish Republic shifted its focus toward Ankara. The new national government established programs that served to orient Turks toward musical traditions, especially those originating in Europe, but musical institutions and visits by foreign classical artists were primarily centered in the new capital.
Much of Turkey's cultural scene had its roots in Istanbul, and by the 1980s and 1990s Istanbul reemerged globally as a city whose cultural significance is not solely based on its past glory.
By the end of the 19th century, Istanbul had established itself as a regional artistic center, with Turkish, European and Middle Eastern artists flocking to the city. Despite efforts to make Ankara Turkey's cultural heart, Istanbul had the country's primary institution of art until the 1970s. When additional universities and art journals were founded in Istanbul during the 1980s, artists formerly based in Ankara moved in.
Beyoğlu has been transformed into the artistic center of the city, with young artists and older Turkish artists formerly residing abroad finding footing there. Modern art museums — including İstanbul Modern, the Pera Museum, Sakıp Sabancı Museum and SantralIstanbul — opened in the 2000s to complement the exhibition spaces and auction houses that have already contributed to the cosmopolitan nature of the city. These museums have yet to attain the popularity of older museums on the historic peninsula — including the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, which ushered in the era of modern museums in Turkey, and the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum.
The first film screening in Turkey was at Yıldız Palace in 1896, a year after the technology publicly debuted in Paris. Movie theaters rapidly cropped up in Beyoğlu, with the greatest concentration of theaters being along the street now known as İstiklal Avenue. Istanbul also became the heart of Turkey's nascent film industry, although Turkish films were not consistently developed until the 1950s. Since then, Istanbul has been the most popular location to film Turkish dramas and comedies. The Turkish film industry ramped up in the second half of the century, and with “Uzak” in 2002 and “My Father and My Son” in 2005, both filmed in Istanbul, the nation's movies began to see substantial international success. Istanbul and its picturesque skyline have also served as a backdrop for several foreign films, including From Russia with Love in 1963, Topkapi in 1964, The World Is Not Enough in 1999 and Mission Istaanbul in 2008.
Coinciding with this cultural reemergence was the establishment of the Istanbul Festival, which began showcasing a variety of art from Turkey and around the world in 1973. From this flagship festival came the International Istanbul Film Festival and the Istanbul International Jazz Festival in the early 1980s. With its focus now solely on music and dance, the Istanbul Festival has been known as the Istanbul International Music Festival since 1994. The most prominent of the festivals that evolved from the original Istanbul Festival is the Istanbul Biennial, held every two years since 1987. Its early incarnations were aimed at showcasing Turkish visual art, and it has since opened to international artists and risen in prestige to join the elite biennales, alongside the Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Art Biennial.
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