Mark Meek's Ideas: Istanbul

Istanbul is Turkey's largest city and is situated on the Bosporus Strait, which is the boundary between Europe and Asia. If the Asian side is included, then it is the largest city in Europe. Being on this strategic waterway, which is the only link between the Black Sea and the rest of the world's water, and on the bridge of land that connects Europe and Asia makes Istanbul not only the "doorway" between east and west but perhaps the most natural location for a city in the world. Adding to this ideal location is that there is an excellent natural harbor, known as the "Golden Horn" for it's general shape.

Have you ever heard the geographical terms "Thrace" and "Anatolia"? Thrace is the European part of Turkey, while Anatolia is the far larger Asian part of Turkey. The dividing line between the two is the Bosporus Strait, and about two-thirds of Istanbul's population lives on the European side.

Istanbul began in Hellenistic times. It became an important city as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople was named for the Roman Emperor Constantine which was the first emperor to become a Christian. It became the capital of the Byzantine Empire for nearly a thousand years.

Today, the term "byzantine" means something that is unnecessarily complicated but it was actually a great Christian empire. After the conquest of Byzantium by the Ottomans, in 1453, it was renamed Istanbul and made the capital of their empire, which was one of the greatest empires in history.

In the past, Istanbul has been both the largest and the wealthiest city in the world, but is not today the capital of the Turkish Republic.

The oldest section of Istanbul is on the peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, and is known as the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul. The three best-known sights here are the Hagia Sophia, the facing Blue Mosque, and the Topkapi Palace.

In the following image, from Google Earth, the peninsula is the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul and the water inlet above it is the Golden Horn.

Hagia Sophia means "The House of Holy Wisdom". This was the largest cathedral in the world for about a thousand years, until the construction of Seville Cathedral in the Sixteenth Century (which we saw in the posting on this blog, "When The Moors Ruled Spain".

When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, they renamed it as Istanbul. The Ottomans converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque and built the four minarets around it. To show that they too were capable of such architecture, they built the Blue Mosque facing it. The two great mosques look similar from a distance but the Blue Mosque has a courtyard, which the Hagia Sophia doesn't, and has six minarets, while the Hagia Sophia has four.

The following eight images of the Hagia Sophia are from Google Street View.

When have you ever heard of a mosque with four minarets, where one is a different color than the others? My theory of why three of the minarets of the Hagia Sophia are white, and the other is red, is in the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018, section 11) SYMBOLISM THEORY OF THE VATICAN AND THE HAGIA SOPHIA.

The following eight images are of the Blue Mosque, which the Ottomans built adjacent to the Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque closely matches the design of the Hagia Sophia. It is also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. I don't know if the Ottomans were trying to surpass the Hagia Sophia, which they had repurposed into a mosque, but the Blue Mosque has a courtyard that the Hagia Sophia doesn't and they put six minarets around the new Blue Mosque but only four around the Hagia Sophia.

The most momentous historical event to have happened in the city was the split between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, in 1054. The representatives of the pope came to the Hagia Sophia to meet with the Patriarch of Constantinople, to resolve their disagreements primarily over how much authority the pope should have. The meeting did not go well and the two sides ended up excommunicating each other. The split, and all of it's secular manifestations in the divide between east and west, has persisted to the present day.

In 1204, the Fourth Crusade was diverted to Constantinople and ended up occupying the city for over fifty years, and temporarily reconsecrating the Hagia Sophia as a Catholic Church.

My understanding of the reason was the overthrowing of the Byzantine emperor by his brother. The son of the deposed emperor asked the crusaders for help in restoring his father, promising money and supplies in return. But the son was unable to raise the promised money, was reportedly murdered and succeeded by another who couldn't raise the money either, so the crusaders looted and took over the city. The Byzantines eventually recaptured the city, but this episode probably helped along the death spiral of Byzantium which was ultimately conquered by the Ottomans.

The Ottomans did much to build Istanbul into the great city that it is today. Sulieman doubled the size of the Ottoman Empire and brought much of eastern Europe under it's control, one of the legacies of which is the population of Moslems in Bosnia. Upon the Ottoman conquest of 1453, the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity moved first to Kiev, and then to Moscow, which is what led to Moscow becoming a great city.

But the Eastern Orthodox patriarch is still based in Istanbul's Church of St. George, even though Turkey is a Moslem country. It is the same St. George that is England's national saint. The church still refers to the city as Constantinople.

After the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic moved the national capital to Ankara. But Istanbul was greatly renovated and continued to grow rapidly until today, if the population of the Asian side is included, it is the largest city in Europe.

The modern Turkish Republic uses the Latin Script but the old Ottoman Script, which was an adaptation of the Arabic Alphabet for the Turkish Language, is still seen in historic buildings. There is an anti-secular movement in the country today to go back to it's Ottoman heritage and restore the script. Two images from Google Street View.

The following scenes begin inside Topkapi Palace. This is the palace that the Ottomans built as the primary residence of their leadership, after their conquest of the city in 1453. It is built on a high point in the oldest part of the city where a Byzantine fortress had been. This palace, and the nearby Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque have had an aura of being eastern and exotic, but are actually in Europe.

The first four images of the Topkapi Palace are from Google Street View.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0135544,28.9839429,3a,75y,91.84h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPQYZQ-s4Wx9ji3VQiaLMFJ6GSIZash62wbE_oH!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPQYZQ-s4Wx9ji3VQiaLMFJ6GSIZash62wbE_oH%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya153.43823-ro0-fo100!7i6144!8i3072

In the Eighteenth Century, the Ottoman leadership decided to move their primary residence from the Topkapi Palace to the Dolmabahce Palace, which was along the Bosporus waterway. Like the kings of England or France, the Ottoman sultans periodically moved their residence to a new palace and had smaller palaces also, where royal relatives could live and where archives and collections could be stored.

The first five images of the Dolmabahce Palace are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0391643,29.0004594,3a,75y,85.26h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOSAKyFgQOkl_3CpUxvo_EPZSZblO1btXNqebJf!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOSAKyFgQOkl_3CpUxvo_EPZSZblO1btXNqebJf%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya81.724785-ro-0-fo100!7i6144!8i3072

The following scenes are of Ortakoy Mosque and adjoining Square. The first three images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0473447,29.0273176,3a,75y,3.63h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sV5-Dxqlkjd874rj3UekvmQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3DV5-Dxqlkjd874rj3UekvmQ%26yaw%3D3.6275752835247204!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Karakoy is the district across the Golden Horn, the harbor, from the oldest section of the city, the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul. In this district are Taksim Square and what was the financial center of the Ottoman Empire, Bankalar Caddesi. During the days of Byzantium, there was settlers from Genoa here. They built a tower that remains today, the Galata Tower. It was built about a century before the Ottoman conquest.

These two images, from Google Street View, are of Taksim Square.

These six images of the Galata Tower are of the tower, the surrounding streets and, the view from the top of the tower.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0254812,28.974161,3a,75y,90.79h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sK8yQk7wYbfah0MZOeP9zeA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DK8yQk7wYbfah0MZOeP9zeA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D91.04192%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

One of the best-known and most-visited streets in the world is Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue. It runs from the Galata Tower to Taksim Square, and is one of those pedestrian streets that are always crowded and which seem to have everything on them. The following scenes begin there. The first six images of Istiklal Avenue are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.030872,28.9758278,3a,75y,76.9h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqB8HEYV1omNS1rfnsXP5Uw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DqB8HEYV1omNS1rfnsXP5Uw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D72.861145%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The Grand Bazaar has been Istanbul's central market since just after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. Visitors come from all over the world to see it. There are four entrance gates to the Grand Bazaar, and it is like a city unto itself. Most of the original structure is till there, but it seems to not have originally been covered. This is reminiscent of the Al-Madina Souk in our visits to Aleppo and the souk in Damascus, and the similar bazaars in Iran. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, not being built until the Ottoman era, was built after the heyday of the Silk Road. The following scenes begin in the Grand Bazaar. The first four images of the Grand Bazaar are from Google Street View.