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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) with its distinctive ensemble of six minarets,Istanbul.

© Robert Frerck—CLICK/Chicago

IstanbulIstanbul, Turkish İstanbul, formerly Constantinople, ancient Byzantium , largest city and seaport of 

Turkey. It was formerlythe capital of theByzantine Empire, of theOttoman Empire, and—until 1923—of theTurkish Republic.

The old walled city of Istanbul stands on atriangular peninsulabetween Europe andAsia. Sometimes as abridge, sometimes as abarrier, Istanbul formore than 2,500 yearshas stood betweenconflicting surges of religion, culture, andimperial power. For mostof those years it was oneof the most covetedcities in the world.

The name Byzantium may derive from that of Byzas,who, according to legend, was leader of the Greeksfrom the city of Megara who captured the peninsulafrom pastoral Thracian tribes and built the city about657 BCE. In 196 CE, having razed the town for opposinghim in a civil war, the Roman emperor SeptimiusSeverus rebuilt it, naming it Augusta Antonina inhonour of his son. In 330 CE, when Constantine theGreat dedicated the city as his capital, he called it NewRome. The coinage, nevertheless, continued to be

stamped Byzantium until he ordered the substitutionof Constantinopolis. In the 13th century Arabs usedthe appellation Istinpolin, a “name” they heardByzantines use—eis t ēn polin—which, in reality, was aGreek phrase that meant “in the city.” Through a seriesof speech permutations over a span of centuries, thisname became Istanbul. Until the Turkish Post Officeofficially changed the name in 1930, however, the citycontinued to bear the millenary name of Constantinople. Pop. (2007) 10,757,327; (2012 est.)

urban agglom., 13,301,345.

Table of ContentsIntroductionLandscapeCity siteClimateCity layoutArchitecture

Byzantine monumentsTurkish monumentsPeopleEconomyIndustryTransportationAdministration and societyGovernmentPublic utilitiesHealth and educationCultural lifeHistoryThe early periodByzantiumConstantinople

Centuries of growthModern Istanbul

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Aerial view of the Blue Mosque (foreground) and the Hagia Sophia (background), Istanbul.

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Ferryboats on the Bosporus.

 

The old city contains about 9 square miles (23 square km), but the present municipal boundaries stretch a great deal beyond.The original peninsular city has seven hills, requisite for Constantine’s “New Rome.” Six are crests of a long ridge above theGolden Horn; the other is a solitary eminence in the southwest corner. Around their slopes are ranged many of the mosques andother historic landmarks that were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.

By long tradition, the waters washing the peninsula are called “the three seas”: they are the Golden Horn, the Bosporus, and theSea of Marmara. The Golden Horn is a deep drowned valley about 4.5 miles (7 km) long. Early inhabitants saw it as being shapedlike a deer horn, but modern Turks call it the Haliç (“Canal”). The Bosporus (İstanbul Boğazı) is the channel connecting the BlackSea (Karadeniz) to the Mediterranean (Akdeniz) by way of the Sea of Marmara (Marmara Denizi) and the straits of theDardanelles. The narrow Golden Horn separates old Istanbul (Stamboul) to the south from the “new” city of Beyoğlu to the north;the broader Bosporus divides European Istanbul from the city’s districts on the Asian shore—Üsküdar (ancient Chrysopolis) andKadıköy (ancient Chalcedon).

Like the forces of history, the forces of nature impinge upon Istanbul. The great rivers of Russia and middle Europe—theDanube, Don, Dnieper, and Dniester—make the Black Sea colder and less briny than the Mediterranean. The Black Sea watersthrust southward through the Bosporus, but beneath them the salty warm waters of the Mediterranean push northward as apowerful undercurrent running through the same channel.

The prevailing northeast wind, or poyraz, comes fromthe Black Sea, giving way at times during the winter toan icy blast from the Balkans known as the karayel , or“black veil,” capable of freezing the Golden Horn andeven the Bosporus. The lodos, or southwest wind, canraise storms on the Sea of Marmara.

Fire, earthquake, riot, and invasion have ravaged thecity many times. More than 60 conflagrations wereimportant enough to be recorded in history, and thereremain scorched stretches of the old city that have

 

Landscape

City site

Climate

City layout

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Old houses in the Fener-Balat district, Istanbul.

Kerim Okten—EPA/© 2006 European Community 

The Galata Bridge crosses the Golden Horn, connecting Stamboul, the heart of old Istanbul, tothe …

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Fatih Sultan Mehmed Bridge (Bosporus II) in Istanbul.

Grant Smith

Kerim Okten—EPA/© 2006 European Community  never been rebuilt. Numerous major earthquakes anda variety of less serious temblors have shaken the city

since the time of Constantine the Great. Many of the burned-out neighbourhoodshave slowly been rebuilt, while a continuing program of street improvement haspushed wide avenues through some of the meanest quarters of the old city. Thereremain, however, numbers of unpaved alleys overhung with decrepit woodenhouses.

Portions of the walls of Stamboul remain. The land walls, which isolate thepeninsula from the mainland, were breached only once, by cannon of the Ottoman

sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror) in 1453, at the spot since called Cannon Gate(Top Kapısı). The walls are 4.5 miles (7 km) long and consist of a double line of ramparts—the inner built in 413, the outer in 447—protected by a moat. Thehigher inner wall is about 30 feet (9 metres) high and 16 feet (5 metres) thick and isstudded with 60-foot (18-metre) towers about 180 feet (55 metres) apart. Of 92turrets originally raised on the outer wall, 56 are still standing.

The sea walls were built in 439. Only short sections of their 30-foot- (9-metre-) highmasonry still remain along the Golden Horn. Intact, these walls had 110 towers and14 gates. The walls along the Sea of Marmara, which stretch about 5 miles (8 km)from Seraglio Point, curving around the bottom of the peninsula to join the landwalls, had 188 towers; they were, however, only about 20 feet (6 metres) high,because the Marmara currents provided good protection against enemy landings.Most of these walls still stand.

Within the city walls are the seven hills, their summits flattened through the agesbut their slopes still steep and toilsome. Geographers number them from theseaward tip of the peninsula, proceeding inland along the Golden Horn, the last hillstanding alone where the land walls reach the Sea of Marmara.

The Galata and Atatürk bridges cross the Golden Hornto Beyoğlu. Each day before dawn their centre spansare swung open to allow passage to seagoing ships.The shores of the Horn, served by water buses, are a jumble of docks, warehouses, factories, and occasionalhistorical ruins. Ferries to the Asian side of Istanbulleave from under the Galata Bridge. Istanbul has two

of the world’s longest suspension bridges: Bosporus I(Boğazici) Bridge (completed in 1973), with a mainspan of 3,524 feet (1,074 metres), and Bosporus II, theFatih Sultan Mehmed Bridge (1988), 3,576 feet (1,090metres).

Beyoğlu, considered to be “modern Istanbul,” remains,as it has been since the 10th century, the foreignquarter. Warfare and fires have left standing only afew structures that were built earlier than the 19thcentury. The approach from the Golden Horn is steep,and a funicular railway runs between the Galatawaterfront and the Pera Plateau. On the heights are

the big hotels and restaurants, the travel bureaus, theatres,the opera house, the consulates, and many Turkishgovernment offices.

From the 10th century onward, Galata was an enclave forforeign traders—principally the Genoese—who enjoyedextraterritorial privileges behind their walls. After theOttomans took the city in 1453, all foreigners who were notcitizens of the empire were restricted to this quarter. Aroundpalatial embassies were compounds that included schools,churches, and hospitals for the various nationalities.Eventually Galata became too crowded, so that the tide of 

building moved higher up the slope to the open country of Pera. For centuries, foreigners who wished to visit Stamboul, wherethe court was installed, could do so only if accompanied by one of the sultan’s Janissaries (elite soldiers).

BYZANTINE MONUMENTS

 

Architecture

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Wall of the Tekfur Sarayı, Istanbul, c. 1300.

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Ferries crossing the Bosporus, with the Bosporus I (Boğazici) Bridgein the background.

COMSTOCK INC./Michael Thompson

Nothing remains of the Byzantium that Constantine chose as the site of New Rome, and almost nothing is left of the mighty city he built there.Constantine’s column, the Burnt Column (Çemberlitaş), a shaft of porphyry drums bound by metal laurel leaves, still stands near theNuruosmaniye mosque complex, but there is no proof that any buildingin the city dates from his period. Constantine completed the Hippodromethat Septimius Severus had begun, but it was enlarged and rebuilt by hissuccessors until the 5th century. Only its curved end remains, with threecolumns along the central Spina—an obelisk removed from Egypt by theRoman emperor Theodosius I, a masonry obelisk of Constantine VII

(Porphyrogenitus; 905–959 CE), and a Delphic column formed by threeentwined serpents (now headless) cast after the Battle of Plataea, whenthe Greeks defeated the Persians in 479 BCE.

Of the myriad columns that decorated Constantinople, there remainstanding the base of the column of the emperor Arcadius (reigned 383–408) in the Cerrahpaşa quarter; a column of the emperor Marcian(reigned 450–457), known in Turkish as Kıztaşı (Column of the Virgin), in

the Fatih quarter; and, in the grounds of the Topkapı Palace, a perfectly preserved Corinthian column thought to be from thereign of another emperor, Claudius II (Gothicus; 268–270).

Spanning the valley between the third and fourth hills is the two-story limestone aqueduct built in 366 by the emperor Valens.Some of the enormous open-water cisterns of the Byzantine era now serve market gardens. The closed cisterns, of which thereare more than 80 remaining, include one of the most beautiful and mysterious structures of Istanbul, the Basilica Cistern, known

in Turkish as the Yerebatan Sarayı (“Underground Palace”) or Yerebatan Sarnıcı (“Underground Cistern”), near Hagia Sophia; its336 columns rise from the still, black waters to a vaulted roof.

The Golden Gate is a triumphal arch from about 390. It was built into the defenses of Theodosius II, near the junction of the landand sea walls. The marble-clad bases of its two large towers still stand, and three arches decorated with columns stretchbetween them.

The only well-preserved example of Byzantine palace architecture is theshell of a three-story rectangular building of limestone and brick, laid inpatterns and stripes. Dating from about 1300, it is called the Palace of Constantine (Tekfur Sarayı) and is attached to the land walls not far fromthe Golden Horn.

The largest legacy from the capital of the vanished empire is 25 Byzantinechurches. Many of these are still in use—as mosques. The largest of thechurches is considered one of the great buildings of the world. This is HagiaSophia, whose name means “Divine Wisdom.” Its contemporary andneighbour, St. Irene, was dedicated to “Divine Peace.” Many art historiansdeem the dome (105 feet [32 metres] in diameter) of Hagia Sophia to be themost beautiful in the world. The church, which shared its clergy with St.Irene, is said to have been built by Constantine in 325 on the foundations of a pagan temple. It was enlarged by the emperor Constans and rebuilt afterthe fire of 415 by the emperor Theodosius II. The church was burned againin the Nika Insurrection of 532 and reconstructed by Justinian. The structurenow standing is essentially the 6th-century edifice, although an earthquaketumbled the dome in 559, after which it was rebuilt to a smaller scale andthe whole church reinforced from the outside. It was restored again in themid-14th century. In 1453 it became a mosque with minarets, and a greatchandelier was added. In 1935 it was made into a museum. The walls arestill hung with Arabic calligraphic disks.

The Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus was erected by Justinian between527 and 536 as a thank-offering. The two soldier-saints allegedly appearedto the emperor Anastasius I to intercede for Justinian, who had beencondemned to death for conspiracy. The church is built as a domed octagon

within a rectangle, with a columned and galleried Byzantine interior. It is also called the Mosque of Küçük Ayasofya (Little Sophia)and can be considered an architectural parent of Justinian’s reconstruction of Hagia Sophia. The Church of the Holy Saviour inChora, which was converted into the Kariye Mosque, is near the Adrianople Gate. It was restored in the 11th century andremodeled in the 14th; the building is now a museum renowned for its 14th-century mosaics, marbles, and frescoes. Over thecentral portal is a head of Christ with the inscription, “The land of the living.” When the church was made a mosque, it acquired

the narthex (an enclosed passage between the main entrance and the nave), portico, and minarets.

The Galata district is dominated by a massive tower that shares its name. The tower was built by the Genoese traders in 1349 asa watchtower and a fortification for their walled enclave.

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Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.

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Interior view of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, showing pendentives.

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Anastasis (Christ ascending from hell), apse fresco, c. 1320; in the Church of the Holy …

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Blue Mosque, Istanbul.

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Galata Tower rising above other buildings of Istanbul.

© Digital Vision/Getty Images

TURKISH MONUMENTS

When the Turks took possession of Constantinople, they covered the spines of the seven hills with domes and minarets,

changing the character of the city. Like the Greeks, the Romans, and theByzantines, the new rulers loved the city and spent much of theirtreasure and energy on its embellishment. The Ottoman dynasty, whichlasted from 1300 to 1922, continued to build new important structuresalmost until the end of their line. The most imposing of their mosqueswere constructed from the mid-15th to the mid-16th century, and thegreatest of the architects all bore the name of Sinan. They were AtikSinan (the Elder), Sinan of Balıkesir, and Mimar Koca Sinan (Great

Architect Sinan). Although the building was deeply influenced by thePersian-born traditions of the Seljuq Turks, the style was blended withprevailing Hellenic and Byzantine traditions of the city. Mimar KocaSinan’s masterpiece—and his burial place—is the Mosque of Süleyman(1550–57), inspired by, but not copied from, Hagia Sophia. It ranks asanother of the world’s great buildings. Probably the most popularlyknown of all the mosques in Istanbul is the Blue Mosque, the mosque of Ahmed I (Ottoman sultan from 1603 to 1617), which has six minaretsinstead of the customary four.

The mosques of the 18th century and later show the deleterious effectsof importing European architects and craftsmen, who producedBaroque Islamic architecture (such as the Mosque of the Fatih, rebuilt

between 1767 and 1771) and even Neoclassical styles, as in theDolmabahçe Mosque of 1853, now the Naval Museum. Large mosqueswere usually built with ancillary structures. Among these were Qurānicschools (medrese), baths (hamam) for purification, hostels and kitchensfor the poor (imaret ), and tombs for royalty and distinguished persons.

There are more than 400 fountains in Istanbul. Some simply flow fromwall niches, but others, erected as public philanthropies, are pavilions. The most magnificent of these was built by the sultanAhmed III in 1728, behind the apse of Hagia Sophia. It is square, with marble walls and bronze gratings, a mixture of the Turkishwith the Western Rococo style.

To the north of it, toward the Golden Horn and occupying the whole tip of the promontory, is the sultan’s Seraglio (TopkapıPalace), enclosed in a fortified wall. It was begun in 1462 by Mehmed II and served as the residence of the sultans until thebeginning of the 19th century. It was to this palace that foreign ambassadors were accredited, and they were admitted throughthe Imperial Gate, or Bab-ı Hümayun, mistranslated by Westerners as “Sublime Porte.” The Seraglio consists mostly of smallbuildings grouped around three courts. The most significant buildings are the Çinili Köşk (Tiled Pavilion), built in 1472; theAudience Chamber (Arz Odası); the Hırka-i Şerif, a sanctuary containing relics of the Prophet Muhammad; and the elegantBaghdad Kiosk, commemorating the capture of Baghdad in 1638. The Seraglio houses the sultan’s treasure and has importantcollections of manuscripts, china, armour, and textiles. After the abandonment of the Old Seraglio, the sultans built forthemselves palaces along the Bosporus, such as the Beylerbeyi Palace (1865), the lavish Dolmabahçe Palace (1853), the Çırağan

 

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Interior of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

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Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey.

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The library of Sultan Ahmed III , Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul.

Gryffindor 

Palace (built in 1874 and burned in 1910), and theYıldız Palace, which was the residence of AbdülhamidII, Ottoman sultan from 1876 to 1909.

The Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı), founded early in theTurkish regime but often subject to fire andearthquake, had 4,000 shops around two centraldistributing houses. The district is laid out on a gridplan. It still bustles with life and the pursuit of piastres.

The L-shaped Egyptian Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı)—so calledbecause it is adjacent to the Yeni Valide Mosquecomplex, the construction of which was financed bytaxes from Cairo—was once a dedicated spice market.In later times the shops expanded their wares toinclude dried fruit, jewelry, linens, and other goods.

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İznik earthenware wall tiles, 16th century, adorningthe Harem of the Topkapı Palace, …

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Arabic calligraphy on tile in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul.

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The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

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Spices displayed for sale on a stand at the Egyptian Bazaar, Istanbul.

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Yeni Valide Mosque, Istanbul.

Matthew Mayer 

Istanbul, like other major cities in the region, attracts an increasing number of migrants from the countryside. These migrantshave contributed to the growth of shantytowns called gecekondu (literally “set down by night”) that have no sanitation facilitiesand limited access to power and water. The Christian and Jewish minorities continue to shrink both in percentage of the wholeand in overall numbers. Kurds now constitute the largest ethnic minority in the city.

Istanbul is Turkey’s largest port and the hub of its industry. Textiles, flour milling, tobacco processing, cement, and glass are thecity’s principal manufactures. Tourism is a growing source of income for Istanbul.

People

Economy 

Industry

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There is rail service along the walls of the old city, and Haydarpaşa station, on the Asian side of the city, is the starting point of the Baghdad Railway. Maritime services include many forms of transport, from harbour dinghies and small ferries tointernational liners. Buses provide internal urban transportation, and the ferries range as far as the Kızıl Adalar (Princes Islands),several hours sailing to the south. İstanbul Atatürk Airport is close to the city’s centre and provides both overseas and domesticservice.

The municipality, which was organized by Constantine as 14 districts in imitation of Rome, is now divided into districtmunicipalities, each of which has a mayor and a district council whose members are elected every five years. Districtmunicipalities manage their own budgets and are responsible for local tasks that include handling waste removal and issuingconstruction permits.

While Istanbul has a chlorinated and filtered water supply and a sewage-disposal system, these facilities are not sufficient tomeet the increased need created by the influx of rural migrants to the city. Water supply is a problem, particularly in thesummer. Electric power supplies have been increased to help promote industrial expansion.

Most health services are concentrated in the municipality. There are more than 70 hospitals, about half of which are public.

The first University of Istanbul was founded in 425 by Theodosius II and was succeeded by Istanbul University (İstanbulÜniversitesi), founded in 1453. The university now includes faculties of letters, science, law, medicine, and forestry and hasfacilities in Beyazıt, Avcılar, Çapa, Cerrahpaşa, Bahçeköy, Kadıköy, and Şişli. There is also a technical university on the Galata sideof the Horn as well as an Academy of Fine Arts and schools of technology, commerce, and economics. Foreign educationalinstitutions include the American Robert College for boys (founded in 1863) and the American College for girls (founded in 1871),both on the Bosporus.

The Atatürk Cultural Center, situated in Taksim Square, is an important centre for the arts where opera, ballet, and theatreperformances are staged. The municipal theatre operates several playhouses, and there are many theatre companies.

A large number of learned societies and research institutes are headquartered in the city, including the Turkish Law Association(Türk Hukuk Kurumu), Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu), German and French archaeological institutes, and theTurkish Language Institute (Türk Dil Kurumu). There is a nuclear research centre at Küçükçekmece.

There are many public and private libraries. The small, specialized Köprülü Library (1677) has books from early Ottoman pressesand handwritten works more than 1,000 years old. Many of the city’s mosques, palaces, and monuments, as mentioned earlier,contain museums. Other museums include the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul (İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri), the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi), and the Military Museum and Cultural Center (Askeri Müze ve Kültür Sitesi

Komutanlığı).

The Hippodrome is now a public garden; there are also numerous other public parks. A unique feature of the city is its marketgardens, which are associated with the open cisterns that formed early Constantinople’s water-supply system. The cisterns havebeen partially built over and are called Çukur Bostan (Hollow Gardens).

 

Transportation

 Administration and society 

Government

Public utilities

Health and education

Cultural life

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The European Champions League final betweenLiverpool and AC Milan at the Atatürk Olympic …

© Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Football (soccer) is a popular sport, and Istanbul has a number of stadiums,including BJK İnönü, Vefa, Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu, Atatürk Olympic stadium,and Ali Sami Yen. Florya and Ataköy are popular beaches on the Sea of Marmara.

Blake Ehrlich

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

BYZANTIUM

Byzantium was one of the many colonies founded from the end of the 8th century BCE onward along the coasts of the Bosporusand the Black Sea by Greek settlers from the cities of Miletus and Megara.

The Persian king Darius I took the settlement in 512 BCE; it slipped from Persian grasp during the Ionian revolt of 496, only to beretaken by the Persians. In 478 an Athenian fleet captured the city, which then became a rich and important member of theDelian League. As Athenian power waned during the Peloponnesian War, Byzantines acknowledged Spartan overlordship.Although Alcibiades besieged and retook the city, Sparta reasserted its domination after defeating Athens in 405 BCE.

In 343 BCE Byzantium joined the Second Athenian League, throwing off the siege of Philip II of Macedon three years later. Thelifting of the siege was attributed to the divine intervention of the goddess Hecate and was commemorated by the striking of coins bearing her star and crescent. Byzantium accepted Macedonian rule under Alexander the Great, regaining independenceonly with the eclipse of Macedonian might. In the 3rd century BCE the city’s treasury was drained to buy off marauding Gauls. Afree city under Rome, it gradually fell under imperial control and briefly lost its freedom under the emperor Vespasian. When in196 CE it sided with the usurper Pescennius Niger, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus massacred the populace, razed thewalls, and annexed the remains to the city of Perinthus (or Heraclea, modern Marmaraereğlisi), in Turkey.

Subsequently Septimius Severus rebuilt the city on the same spot but on a grander scale. Although sacked again by Gallienus in268, the city was strong enough two years later to resist a Gothic invasion. In the subsequent civil wars and rebellions that brokeout sporadically in the Roman Empire, Byzantium remained untouched until the arrival of the emperor Constantine I—the firstRoman ruler to adopt Christianity. Overcoming the army of the rival emperor, Licinius, at nearby Chrysopolis, on Sept. 18, 324,Constantine became head of the whole Roman Empire, east and west. He decided to make Byzantium his capital.

CONSTANTINOPLE

Within three weeks of his victory, the foundation rites of New Rome were performed, and the much-enlarged city was officially

 

History 

The early period

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inaugurated on May 11, 330. It was an act of vast historical portent. Constantinople was to become one of the great worldcapitals, a font of imperial and religious power, a city of vast wealth and beauty, and the chief city of the Western world. Until therise of the Italian maritime states, it was the first city in commerce, as well as the chief city of what was until the mid-11th centurythe strongest and most prestigious power in Europe.

Constantine’s choice of capital had profound effects upon the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It displaced the power centre of the Roman Empire, moving it eastward, and achieved the first lasting unification of Greece. Culturally, Constantinople fostered afusion of Oriental and Occidental custom, art, and architecture. The religion was Christian, the organization Roman, and thelanguage and outlook Greek. The concept of the divine right of kings, rulers who were defenders of the faith—as opposed to theking as divine himself—was evolved there. The gold solidus of Constantine retained its value and served as a monetary standard

for more than a thousand years. As the centuries passed—the Christian empire lasted 1,130 years—Constantinople, seat of empire, was to become as important as the empire itself; in the end, although the territories had virtually shrunk away, thecapital endured.

Constantine’s new city walls tripled the size of Byzantium, which now contained imperial buildings, such as the completedHippodrome begun by Septimius Severus, a huge palace, legislative halls, several imposing churches, and streets decorated withmultitudes of statues taken from rival cities. In addition to other attractions of the capital, free bread and citizenship werebestowed on those settlers who would fill the empty reaches beyond the old walls. There was, furthermore, a welcome forChristians, a tolerance of other beliefs, and benevolence toward Jews.

Constantinople was also an ecclesiastical centre. In 381 it became the seat of a patriarch who was second only to the bishop of Rome; the patriarch of Constantinople is still the nominal head of the Orthodox church. Constantine inaugurated the firstecumenical councils; the first six were held in or near Constantinople. In the 5th and 6th centuries emperors were engaged indevising means to keep the Monophysites attached to the realm. In the 8th and 9th centuries Constantinople was the centre of the battle between iconoclasts and the defenders of icons. The matter was settled by the seventh ecumenical council against theiconoclasts, but not before much blood had been spilled and countless works of art destroyed. The Eastern and Western wingsof the church drew further apart, and after centuries of doctrinal disagreement between Rome and Constantinople a schismoccurred in the 11th century. The pope originally approved the sack of Constantinople in 1204, then decried it. Various attemptswere made to heal the breach in the face of the Turkish threat to the city, but the divisive forces of suspicion and doctrinaldivergence were too strong.

By the end of the 4th century, Constantine’s walls had become too confining for the wealthy and populous metropolis. St. JohnChrysostom, writing at the end of that century, said many nobles had 10 to 20 houses and owned 1 to 2,000 slaves. Doors wereoften made of ivory, floors were of mosaic or were covered in costly rugs, and beds and couches were overlaid with preciousmetals.

The population pressure from within, and the barbarian threat from without, prompted the building of walls farther inland at the

hilt of the peninsula. These new walls of the early 5th century, built in the reign of Theodosius II, are those that stand today.

In the reign of Justinian I (527–565) medieval Constantinople attained its zenith. At the beginning of this reign the population isestimated to have been about 500,000. In 532 a large part of the city was burned and many of the population killed in the courseof the repression of the Nika Insurrection, an uprising of the Hippodrome factions. The rebuilding of the ravaged city gave Justinian the opportunity to engage in a program of magnificent construction, of which many buildings still remain.

In 542 the city was struck by a plague that is said to have killed three out of every five inhabitants; the decline of Constantinopledates from this catastrophe. Not only the capital but the whole empire languished, and slow recovery was not visible until the9th century. During this period the city was frequently besieged—by the Persians and Avars (626), the Arabs (674 to 678 andagain from 717 to 718), the Bulgars (813 and 913), the Russians (860, 941, and 1043), and a wandering Turkic people, thePechenegs (1090–91). All were unsuccessful.

In 1082 the Venetians were allotted quarters in the city itself (there was an earlier cantonment for foreign traders at Galataacross the Golden Horn) with special trading privileges. They were later joined by Pisans, Amalfitans, Genoese, and others. TheseItalian groups soon obtained a stranglehold over the city’s foreign trade—a monopoly that was finally broken by a massacre of Italians. Not for some time were Italian traders permitted once more to settle in Galata.

In 1203 the armies of the Fourth Crusade, deflected from their objective in the Holy Land, appeared before Constantinople—ostensibly to restore the legitimate Byzantine emperor, Isaac II. Although the city fell, it remained under its own government fora year. On April 13, 1204, however, the Crusaders burst into the city to sack it. After a general massacre, the pillage went on foryears. The Crusading knights installed one of themselves, Baldwin of Flanders, as emperor, and the Venetians—prime instigatorsof the Crusade—took control of the church. While the Latins divided the rest of the realm among themselves, the Byzantinesentrenched themselves across the Bosporus at Nicaea (now İznik) and at Epirus (now northwestern Greece). The period of Latinrule (1204 to 1261) was the most disastrous in the history of Constantinople. Even the bronze statues were melted down forcoin; everything of value was taken. Sacred relics were torn from the sanctuaries and dispatched to religious establishments inwestern Europe.

 

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Rumeli Fortress (Rumeli Hisarı) on the European bank of the Bosporus, Istanbul.

© William J. Bowe

In 1261 Constantinople was retaken by Michael VIII(Palaeologus), Greek emperor of Nicaea. For the nexttwo centuries the shrunken Byzantine Empire,threatened both from the West and by the risingpower of the Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor, led aprecarious existence. Some construction was carriedout in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, butthereafter the city was in decay, full of ruins and tractsof deserted ground, contrasting with the prosperouscondition of Galata across the Golden Horn, which had

been granted to the Genoese by the Byzantine rulerMichael VIII. When the Turks crossed into Europe inthe mid-14th century, the fate of Constantinople wassealed. The inevitable end was retarded by the defeatof the Turks at the hands of Timur (Tamerlane) in1402; but in 1422 the Ottoman sultan of Turkey,Murad II, laid siege to Constantinople. This attemptfailed, only to be repeated 30 years later. In 1452another Ottoman sultan, Mehmed II, proceeded toblockade the Bosporus by the erection of a strongfortress at its narrowest point; this fortress, calledRumelihisarı, still forms one of the principal landmarks

of the straits. The siege of the city began in April 1453. The Turks had not only overwhelming numerical superiority but alsocannon that breached the ancient walls. The Golden Horn was protected by a chain, but the sultan succeeded in hauling his fleet

by land from the Bosporus into the Golden Horn. The final assault was made on May 29, and, in spite of the desperate resistanceof the inhabitants aided by the Genoese, the city fell. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI (Palaeologus), was killed inbattle. For three days the city was abandoned to pillage and massacre, after which order was restored by the sultan.

When Constantinople was captured, it was almost deserted. Mehmed II began to repeople it by transferring to it populationsfrom other conquered areas such as the Peloponnese, Salonika (modern Thessaloníki), and the Greek islands. By about 1480 thepopulation rose to between 60,000 and 70,000. Hagia Sophia and other Byzantine churches were transformed into mosques.The Greek patriarchate was retained, but moved to the Church of the Pammakaristos Virgin (Mosque of Fethiye), later to find apermanent home in the Fener (Phanar) quarter. The sultan built the Old Seraglio (Eski Saray), now destroyed, on the site

occupied at present by the university, and a little later the Topkapı Palace (Seraglio), which is still in existence; he also built theEyüp Mosque at the head of the Golden Horn and the Mosque of the Fatih on the site of the Basilica of the Holy Apostles. Thecapital of the Ottoman Empire was transferred to Constantinople from Adrianople (Edirne) in 1457.

After Mehmed II, Istanbul underwent a long period of peaceful growth, interrupted only by natural disasters—earthquakes, fires,and pestilences. The sultans and their ministers devoted themselves to the building of fountains, mosques, palaces, andcharitable foundations so that the aspect of the city was soon completely transformed. The most brilliant period of Turkishconstruction coincides with the reign of the Ottoman ruler Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–66).

The next major change in the history of Istanbul occurred at the beginning of the 19th century, when dismemberment of theOttoman Empire was approaching. This period is known as the era of internal reforms (Tanzimat). The reforms wereaccompanied by serious disturbances, such as the massacre of the Janissaries in the Hippodrome (1826). With the triumph of theprogressive Ottoman sultan Mahmud II over the conservative opposition, the Westernization of Istanbul started apace. Therewas an ever-growing influx of European visitors who, since the 1830s, could reach Istanbul by steamship. The first bridge across

the Golden Horn was built in 1838. In 1839 the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I issued a charter guaranteeing to all his subjects,whatever their religion, the security of their lives and fortunes. The process of Westernization was further accelerated by theCrimean War (1853–56) and the quartering of British and French troops in Istanbul. The latter part of the 19th and the beginningof the 20th century were marked by the introduction of various public services: the European railroad extending to Istanbul wasbegun in the early 1870s. The underground tunnel joining Galata to Pera was completed in 1873; a regular water supply forIstanbul and the settlements on the European side of the Bosporus was brought from Lake Terkos on the Black Sea coast (29miles [47 km] from the city) by the French company, La Compagnie des Eaux, after 1885; electric lighting was introduced in 1912and electric street cars and telephones in 1913 and 1914. An adequate sewerage system had to wait until 1925 and later.

Blake Ehrlich

In the first quarter of the 20th century there were various disruptions marking the death of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of modern Turkey. In 1908 the city was occupied by the army of the Young Turks who deposed the hated sultan Abdülhamid II.

 

Centuries of growth

Modern Istanbul

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During the Balkan Wars (1912–13) Istanbul was nearly captured by the Bulgarians. Throughout World War I the city was underblockade. After the conclusion of the Armistice (1918) it was placed under British, French, and Italian occupation that lasted until1923. The Greco-Turkish War in Asia Minor, as well as the Russian Revolution, brought thousands of refugees to Istanbul. Withthe victory of the Nationalists under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the sultanate was abolished, and the last Ottoman sultan, MehmedVI, fled from Istanbul (1922). After the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, Istanbul was evacuated by the Allies (Oct. 2, 1923), andAnkara was chosen as the capital of Turkey (Oct. 13, 1923). On October 29 the Turkish Republic was proclaimed. Because of Turkey’s neutrality during most of World War II, Istanbul suffered no damage, although a German invasion was feared after theBalkans had been conquered by the Axis.

In the period following World War II, the size and population of Istanbul increased dramatically as vast numbers of rural

residents moved to the city in search of employment. This nearly 10-fold increase in the city’s population during the second half of the 20th century placed enormous strains on Istanbul’s infrastructure, and, in a pattern typical of large Middle Eastern cities,overcrowding, pollution, and insufficient city services became major social problems. Likewise, in a region prone to violentseismic activity, the proliferation of substandard and unregistered construction contributed greatly to high death tolls duringearthquakes; in August 1999 a tremor centred near Istanbul killed more than 15,000 people.

These developments took place against the backdrop of a city whose profile was being rapidly altered by an explosion in the useof automobiles. Large tracts of the city were demolished or cleared to make way for modern highways, which further contributedto urban sprawl, and by the close of the century major projects had been undertaken to connect the Asian and European sides of the city by road and rail.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

"Istanbul". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 08 Mar. 2016<http://www.britannica.com/place/Istanbul>.