Istanbul
Istanbul (Turkish: Istanbul), historically known as Byzantium and
Constantinople[2] (see names of Istanbul for further information), is the
largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province (municipality) had
13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010,[1] which is 18%
of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe
(including the Asian side of the city) after London and Moscow. Istanbul
is a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of
Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural
harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It
extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides
of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is
situated on two continents. Istanbul is a designated alpha world city.
During its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman
Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and
1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–
1922). When the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29 October 1923,
Ankara, which had previously served as the headquarters of the Turkish
national movement during the Turkish War of Independence, was chosen as
the new Turkish State's capital. Istanbul was chosen as a joint European
Capital of Culture for 2010 and the European Capital of Sports for
2012.[3] Istanbul is currently bidding to host the 2020 Summer
Olympics.[4] The historic areas of the city were added to the UNESCO
World Heritage List in 1985.[5] The city covers 39 districts of the
Istanbul province.[6]
Byzantium (Greek: ?????t???, Byzántion) is the first known name of the
city. Around 660 BC,[note 1] Greek settlers from the city-state of Megara
founded a Doric colony on the present-day Istanbul, and named the new
colony after their king, Byzas.[12] After Constantine I (Constantine the
Great) made the city the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire in 330
AD, the city became widely known as Constantinopolis or Constantinople,
which, as the Latinised form of "???sta?t????p????" (Konstantinoúpolis),
means the "City of Constantine".[13] He also attempted to promote the
name Nea Roma ("New Rome"), but this never caught on.[14] Constantinople
remained the official name of the city throughout the Byzantine period,
and the most common name used for it in the West until the establishment
of the Republic of Turkey.
By the 19th century, the city had acquired a number of names used by
either foreigners or Turks. Europeans[15][16] used Constantinople to
refer to the whole of the city, while using the name Stamboul – as the
Turks also did – to describe the walled peninsula between the Golden Horn
and the Sea of Marmara. Pera was used to describe the area between the
Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoglu,
which is still in use today.[17] However, with the Turkish Postal Service
Law of 28 March 1930, the Turkish authorities formally requested
foreigners to adopt Istanbul, a name in existence since the 10th
century,[18] as the sole name of the city within their own languages.[19]
Etymologically, the name "Istanbul" (Turkish pronunciation: [is'tanbu?],
colloquially [?s'tambu?]) derives from the Medieval Greek phrase "e?? t??
?????" [is tim 'bolin] or, in the Aegean dialect, "e?? t?? ?????" [is tam
'bolin] (Greek: e?? t?? p????, Modern Greek "st?? ????" [stim 'boli]),
which means "in the city" or "to the city".[13][18][20] In modern
Turkish, the name is written "Istanbul", with a dotted I, as the Turkish
alphabet distinguishes between a dotted and dotless I. Also, while in
English the stress is on the first syllable ("Is"), in Turkish it is on
the second syllable ("tan"). Like Rome, Istanbul has been called "The
City of Seven Hills" because the oldest part of the city is supposedly
built on seven hills, each of which bears a historic mosque.[21]
Recent construction of the Marmaray tunnel unearthed a Neolithic
settlement underneath Yenikapi on Istanbul's peninsula. Dating back to
the 7th millennium BC, before the Bosphorus was even formed, the
discovery indicated that the peninsula was settled thousands of years
earlier than previously thought.[22] Thracian tribes established two
settlements—Lygos and Semistra—on the Seraglio Point, near where Topkapi
Palace now stands, between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. On the Asian
side, artifacts have been found in Fikirtepe (present-day Kadiköy) that
date back to the Chalcolithic period.[23] The same location was the site
of a Phoenician trading post at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC as
well as the town of Chalcedon, which was established by Greek settlers
from Megara in 685 BCE.[10]
However, the history of Istanbul generally begins around 660 BCE,[note 1]
when the settlers from Megara, under the command of King Byzas,
established Byzantion (Latinised as Byzantium) on the European side of
the Bosphorus. By the end of the century, an acropolis was established at
the former locations of Lygos and Semistra, on the Seraglio Point.[12]
The city experienced a brief period of Persian rule at the turn of the
5th century BC, but the Greeks recaptured it during the Greco-Persian
Wars.[24] Byzantium then continued as part of the Athenian League and its
successor, the Second Athenian Empire, before ultimately gaining
independence in 355 BCE.[25] Long protected by the Roman Republic,
Byzantium officially became a part of the Roman Empire in AD 73.
Byzantium's decision to side with the usurper Pescennius Niger against
Roman Emperor Septimus Severus cost it dearly; by the time it surrendered
at the end of 195, two years of siege had left the city devastated.[26]
Still, five years later, Severus began to rebuild Byzantium, and the city
regained—and, by some accounts, surpassed—its previous prosperity.[27]
When Constantine I defeated Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in
September 324, he effectively became the emperor of the whole of the
Roman Empire.[28] Just two months later, Constantine laid out the plans
for a new, Christian city to replace Byzantium. Intended to replace
Nicomedia as the eastern capital of the empire, the city was named Nea
Roma (New Rome); however, most simply called it Constantinople ("the city
of Constantine"), a name that persisted into the 20th century.[29] Six
years later, on 11 May 330, Constantinople was proclaimed the capital of
an empire that eventually became known as the Byzantine Empire or Eastern
Roman Empire.[30]
The establishment of Constantinople served as one of Constantine's most
lasting accomplishments, shifting Roman power eastward and becoming a
center of Greek culture and Christianity.[30][31] Numerous churches were
built across the city, including the Hagia Sofia, which remained the
world's largest cathedral for a thousand years.[32] The Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople developed in the city, and its leader is
still one of the foremost figures in the Greek Orthodox Church.
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 as well as from the advance of Islam.[31]
During most of the Middle Ages and the latter part of the Byzantine
period, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city on the
European continent, and during parts of this period the largest in the
world.[33]
Constantinople began to decline after the Fourth Crusade, during which it
was sacked and pillaged.[35] The city subsequently became the center of
the Latin Empire, created by Catholic crusaders to replace the Orthodox
Byzantine Empire, which was divided into splinter states.[36] However,
the Latin Empire was short-lived, and the Byzantine Empire was restored,
weakened, in 1261.[37] Constantinople's churches, defenses, and basic
services were in disrepair,[38] and its population had dwindled to forty
thousand from nearly half a million during the 9th century.[39][40]
Various economic and military policies instituted by Andronikos II, such
as the reduction of forces, weakened the empire and left it more
vulnerable to attack.[41] In the mid-14th century, the Ottoman Turks
began a strategy by which they took smaller towns and cities over time,
cutting off Constantinople's supply routes and strangling it slowly.[42]
Finally, on 29 May 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.[43][44] Hours later, the sultan rode to the Hagia Sofia
and summoned an imam to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand
cathedral into an imperial mosque.[45]
Following the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed II immediately set out to
revitalize the city, now also known as Istanbul. First he deported all
the Christian population of the City, leaving only the Jewish inhabitants
of Balat[46] then he invited and forcibly resettled many Muslims, Jews,
and Christians from other parts of Anatolia and Rumelia into the
city,[47] creating a cosmopolitan society that persisted through much of
the Ottoman period.[48] By the end of the century, Istanbul had returned
to a population of two hundred thousand, making it the second-largest
city in Europe.[49] Meanwhile, Mehmed II repaired the city's damaged
infrastructure and began to build the Grand Bazaar. Also constructed
during this period was Topkapi Palace, which served as the official
residence of the sultan for four hundred years.[50]
The Ottomans quickly transformed Constantinople from a bastion of
Christianity to a symbol of Islamic culture. Religious foundations were
established to fund the construction of grand imperial mosques, often
adjoined by schools, hospitals, and public baths.[50] Suleiman the
Magnificent's reign from 1520 to 1566 was a period of especially great
artistic and architectural achievements; chief architect Mimar Sinan
designed the Süleymaniye Mosque and other grand buildings in the city,
while Ottoman arts of ceramics, calligraphy and miniature flourished.[51]
The total population of Constantinople amounted to 570,000 by the end of
the 18th century.[52]
A period of rebellion at the start of the 19th century led to the rise of
the progressive Sultan Mahmud II and eventually the Tanzimat period,
which produced reforms that aligned the empire along Western European
standards.[53][54] Bridges across the Golden Horn were constructed during
this period,[55] and Istanbul was connected to the rest of the European
railway network in the 1880s.[56] The Tünel, one of the world's oldest
subterranean urban rail lines, opened in 1875;[57] other modern
facilities, such a stable water network, electricity, telephones, and
trams, were gradually introduced to Istanbul over the following decades,
although later than to other European cities.[58]
Still, the modernization efforts were not enough to forestall the decline
of the Ottoman regime. The early 20th century saw the Young Turk
Revolution, which disposed of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and a series of wars
that plagued the ailing empire's capital.[59] The last of these, World
War I, resulted in the British, French, and Italian occupation of
Istanbul. The final Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, was exiled in November
1922; the following year, the occupation of Istanbul ended with the
signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and the recognition of the Republic of
Turkey, which was declared by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 29 October
1923.[60]
In the early years of the republic, Istanbul was overlooked in favor of
the country's new capital, Ankara. However, starting from the late 1940s
and early 1950s, Istanbul underwent great structural change, as new
public squares (such as Taksim Square), boulevards, and avenues were
constructed throughout the city, sometimes at the expense of historical
buildings.[61] In 1955, the Istanbul Pogrom targeted the city's ethnic
Greek community. The pogrom greatly accelerated the emigration of the
city's ethnic Greeks to Greece.[62] 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 development, and many
previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into the greater
metropolitan area of Istanbul.[63]