In his 1915 travelogue , " Constantinople and Istanbul Old and New , " H.G. Dwight writes , " Constantinople is a via media , therefore , and not always a successful one , between north and south . " In this example , Dwight speak of the jarring weather in the city , which mix theclimateof regions to the north and south .
Yet , his assertion also serves as an apt representation of the history of Constantinople ( currently know as Istanbul ) , which is a urban center that stands as a centuries - long compromise — a thawing pot — of peoples , religions and cultures .
From the Greeks to the Romans
Way back in the meter before the common era ( C.E. ) , Constantinople was the ancient capital letter of the Byzantine conglomerate , though it was know at the sentence as Byzantium . Byzas the Megariangave the area its name in 700 B.C.E. , and a small settlement of Greeks lived there until 300 B.C.E.
In 330 C.E. , Roman Catholic Saturnia pavonia Constantine I declare Byzantium to bethe ' New Rome . ‘The settlement transform into the major center of Constantinople , name after its new Roman vanquisher . The ancient Byzantium thrived under romish rule for more than 1,000 years , even as other constituent of the Roman Empire collapsed .
" Constantinople was the cap of the Eastern Roman Empire . It moved from Rome in the 4th-5th centuries of the Common Era ( C.E. ) . That was the formal introduction of the city [ under ] Emperor Constantine , " saysCornell Fleischer . Fleischer is the Kanunî Süleyman professor of Ottoman and modern Turkish studies in nigh Eastern languages and civilizations at The University of Chicago .
According to Fleischer , Venetian ruler assay to conquer the city through a Christiancrusade , and were concisely successful , dominate over the area from 1204 - 1260 C.E. But , otherwise , the empire remained in the hired hand of the Romans , do as the empire ’s central prat of world power until the Ottoman subjection in 1453 .
The Ottoman Conquest
But how did Constantinople fall into the hand of theOttoman Empire ? agree to Fleischer , the Ottoman " civil order " was one of many princedom in the Balkans and northwestern Anatolia ( also know as Asia Minor , in what is modern - twenty-four hours Turkey ) .
" The Ottoman principality was the one that was the closest — the close-fitting in a number of senses — to Constantinople , to the shopping mall of empire . And subjugation of the urban center had been a dream of sorts for a very foresightful clock time , " pronounce Fleischer . " Indeed , there are custom of the Prophet Muhammad that referred to the conquest of the city — the subjection of Rome — as one of the upshot that will usher in the culmination of the end of chronicle or the death of times , whatever that might be . "
There had been numerous attempted sieges of Constantinople starting in the late 1300s , but none had succeeded . But , finally , SultanMehmed IItoppled the urban center after a 55 - twenty-four hour period siege . His US Army pelt the city ’s defenses by both land and sea until the seat of the Byzantine Empire crumble May 29 , 1453 .
Beyond Constantinople , the Ottomans had been steady expanding their empire for decades , becoming a major world player in the process . " And the Ottomans had been pressing for several decade , and they had taken imperial territories in what had been the Balkans in fussy — former Yugoslavia , Bulgaria , Greece . These domain were the provenance of what became the Ottoman empire . "
Recent docudramas , such as " Rise of the Empires : Ottoman " on Netflix , have generalize this period of conquest for modern audiences .
Remaking the City
The Byzantine Empire had been in austere diminution at the time of its conquest in 1453 . Even though Constantinople was one of thelargest city in the worldly concern , its population had in earnest dwindled , concord to Fleischer . Fleischer read that nosecount records from the time determine Constantinople ’s population to have been 30,000 hoi polloi shortly after the conquest .
" After the conquest , repopulation and Reconstruction were major priorities , " says Fleischer . The universe eventually rebounded to 400,000 - 500,000 multitude by the next 100 , he says .
One of the not bad rule of Constantinople wasSuleiman ' the Magnificent , ' also commonly known as Suleiman ' the Lawgiver . ' Suleiman ’s forefathers had done most of the heavy lifting of redo Constantinople by ordering the institution of mosque , universities and hospital .
" What Suleiman did was … to progress in a very distinctive architectural style imperial monument in the material body of mosque and school and so forth throughout the soil [ of the empire ] , " allege Fleischer .
One of the mosques that Suleiman commissioned , was theSüleymaniye Mosque . Constructed by designer Mimar Sinan in the 1550s , the imperial mosque became a significant religious and educational center . The mosque still stands in Istanbul today as the one must - see relics from the Ottoman Empire .
A Cultural, Religious and Commercial Hub
There is no specific particular date for when , exactly , Constantinople became the Das Kapital of the Ottoman Empire . There had been several heart of power in the Ottoman Empire , include Bursa , which became the " intellectual and spiritual capital of the enterprise by the fifteenth century , " grant to Fleischer . But , he says , " with the subjugation of Constantinople and its reconstruction and the construction of majestic mosque and university , the centerfield , by the middle of the 16th century , really move to Constantinople . "
Due to its important geographical location at the crux of Europe and Asia , surrounded by both land and ocean , Constantinople was well - place as not only a center of cultural and spiritual bodily function , but also as a commercial center .
Constantinople formed a hub , or " enlarge internet of trade routes , " says Fleischer . " And the trade routes were augment by the construction ofcaravanserai , which were structures for long - space bargainer , all the agency from Iran to the borders of what is now known as Austria . "
Most notably , under the Ottoman Empire , a kind of organized religion and languages flourish , from Greek - talk Orthodox Christians to Turkish - speak Muslims . " The Ottomans were n’t trying to exchange everybody to Islam , " enunciate Fleischer . They saw themselves and presented themselves as protectors of all of the monotheistic religions of the world — meaning the Christians , the Jews , as well as the Muslims . "
As a result , Constantinople continue a absolute majority non - Moslem area well into the 16th C . Instead of wholly dismantling pre - existing religious artifacts , the Ottoman Empire keep them , retain their architectural structures — such as bombastic pillar — even when convert them into churches and synagogues .
" The large symbolical churches were convert into mosques . This was normal drill , particularly in the 15th and sixteenth centuries , with the architecture being preserve , but modifications being made to allow for proper orientation for the direction of supplication and so on , " says Fleischer .
Overall , the Ottoman convention favour multiculturalism . " In the Ottoman case , their insurance of pattern was based on inclusivity and capacitance to maintain and tolerate a great deal of diverseness , " according to Fleischer .
Modern Istanbul Is a Multi-cultural City
Despite the changing of hands from the Byzantine to the Ottoman Empire , ' Constantinople ' stayed in place as the formal name of the city until the early twentieth century , when the last shreds of the Ottoman Empire crumbled and the Republic of Turkey began .
" The terminology of Constantinople in Arabic ( Konstantiniye ) was conserve . That was the official name of the place until the early twentieth century when the empire was ended by the Second Advent of the Republic , " says Fleischer .
After that pointedness , the urban center became more formally known by the name ' Istanbul , ' which educe from the Grecian phrasal idiom , " Stanbulin , " meaning " to the city . " However , residents of the city had informally refer to the metropolis as Istanbul for many geezerhood before the official name variety , switching between Istanbul and Constantinople depend on the berth . Many residents called the former part of the metropolis ' Stamboul ' well into the nineteenth C .
The city continues to appeal to tourists for its multi - ethnic inheritance and cornucopia of different spiritual architectural site . However , the current government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has favored a country largely intended for Turkish , Sunni Muslims , according to Fleischer .
The end consequence has " have in mind that the so - called minority populations , particularly the Christians and Jews , have shrunk substantially through expatriation , " says Fleischer . " I ’m not certain that many people who live in greater metropolitan Istanbul today would realize that Constantinople was the name of the piazza until sometime near within the reach of living memory . "
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