İstanbul. The Ottoman Centuries

Mehmet the Conqueror began at once to rebuild and re-populate the city. He saw himself as the successor to the glories and powers of Constantine, Justinian and the other great emperors who had reigned here. He built a mosque (Fatih Camii) on one of the city’s seven hills, repaired the walls and made İstanbul the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of his growing empire.

Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-66) was perhaps İstanbul’s greatest builder. His mosque, the Süleymaniye (1550), is İstanbul’s largest. Other sultans added more mosques, and in the 19th century numerous palaces were built along the Bosphorus: Çirağan, Dolmabahçe, Yıldız, Beylerbeyi and Küçük Su.

As the Ottoman Empire grew to include all of the Middle East and North Africa as well as half of Eastern Europe, İstanbul became a fabulous melting pot. On its streets and in its bazaars, people spoke Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish), Russian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, Albanian, Italian, French, German, English and Maltese.

However, the most civilised city on earth in the time of Süleyman eventually declined, as did the Ottoman Empire, and by the 19th century it had lost some of its former glory. But it continued to be the ‘Paris of the East’ and, to reaffirm this, the first great international luxury express train, the famous Orient Express, connected İstanbul with Paris.

Republican İstanbul

Atatürk’s (1881-1938) campaign for national salvation and independence was directed from Ankara. (For more details see The Turkish Republic in the History section of Facts about Turkey.) The founder of the Turkish Republic decided to get away from the imperial memories of İstanbul and to set up the new government in a city that could not easily be threatened by gunboats. Robbed of its importance as the capital of a vast empire, İstanbul lost much of its wealth and glitter. From being the East’s most cosmopolitan city, it relaxed into a new role as an important national, rather than international, city.

During the 1980s and ‘90s İstanbul began to regain something of its former role. Easier to live in than Cairo or Beirut, more attractive than Tel Aviv, more in touch with the Islamic world than Athens, it is fast becoming the capital of the eastern Mediterranean again.

Text 2. Orientation

Assignment. Read Text 2 and compare it with Text 1. What is emphasized in Text 2? How does the style change in accordance with its purpose? Find the props for the tourist that can help them find the place they are looking for.

İstanbul is divided from north to south by the Bosphorus, the wide strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, into European and Asian portions. European İstanbul is further divided by the Golden Horn estuary. Governmentally, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi) is divided into 15 smaller municipalities (belediye).

The historic heart of the city on the south shore of the Golden Horn, once called Stamboul by foreigners, is now the belediye of Eminönü. This name also applies to the district centred on the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) at the southern end of the Galata Bridge, which can lead to some confusion. On the north side of the Golden Horn is the belediye of Beyoğlu.

Lonely Planet publishes a comprehensive İstanbul City Map, which has detailed maps of the city at varying scales.

Old İstanbul

Old İstanbul is ancient Byzantium/Constantinople, called Stamboul by 19th-century travellers. It’s here, from Seraglio Point jutting into the Bosphorus to the mammoth city walls 7km to the west, that you’ll find the great palaces and mosques, the Hippodrome, monumental columns, ancient churches and the Kapalı Çarşi (Grand Bazaar or Covered Market). The best selection of budget and mid-range hotels is also here, with a few top-end places as well. The heart of the old city within the walls is now officially the belediyes of Eminönü and Fatih.

Beyoğlu

North of the Golden Horn is Beyoğlu, the Turkish name for the two ancient cities of Pera and Galata, or roughly all the land from the Golden Horn to Taksim Square. Here you’ll find luxury hotels; airline offices and banks; the European consulates and hospitals; and Taksim Square, the hub of European İstanbul.

Under the Byzantines, Galata (now called Karaköy) was a separate city built and inhabited by Genoese traders.

Under the sultans, the non-Muslim European population of Galata spread up the hill and along the ridge, founding Galata’s sister city of Pera. In recent times this part of the city has been the fastest growing and has stretched far beyond the limits of old Galata and Pera. Beyoğlu’s main street is the pedestrianised istiklal Caddesi, formerly known as the Grande Rue de Péra.

Old İstanbul and Beyoğlu are connected by the Galata Bridge at the mouth of the Golden Horn. Near the bridge are the docks for Bosphorus ferries.

Asian İstanbul

The Asian part of the city; on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, is of less interest to tourists, being mostly dormitory suburbs such as Üsküdar (Scutari) and Kadıköy (Chalcedon). One landmark you’ll want to know about is Haydarpaşa station, right between Üsküdar and Kadıköy. This is the terminus for Anatolian trains, which means any Turkish train except the one from Europe via Edirne. If you’re headed for Ankara, Cappadocia or any point east of İstanbul, you’ll board at Haydarpaşa.