Book transported me to Istanbul, one of my favorite cities. I imagine what it would be like to travel to Istanbul and now have a much richer history and knowledge of this city

This was a very interesting and comprehensive history of Istanbul; the bibliography is quite extensive. The author tells the tale of the city through the terrain, the people (leaders, conquerors, political figures, entertainers, residents), the buildings, and the various events that shaped the city. One of the things I particularly liked is that the author would often identify where in modern Istanbul certain old buildings or monuments (or the ruins) could be found. Some of the buildings, monuments, or ruins are known tourist destinations or places that many residents would know about, but other locations are such that many residents might not even realize the significance of what lies nearby or beneath their feet.

As a historian and bibliophile, I was surprised and pleased to learn that in the fourth century AD, Constantinople/Istanbul was seen as the greatest repository of knowledge in the world. As the author stated, "Constantinople understood that a physical accumulation of knowledge worked as a lodestone -- drawing in respect, talent and sheer awe." It was also interesting to learn how well various ethnic groups and religious groups were integrated into the city for many centuries of Muslim rule (of course, modern day Istanbul and Turkey are not as open and understanding), although some restrictions were applied to non-Muslims. The history of the Janissaries is quite interesting and surprising, but I will leave that for the reader to discover.

I had not really thought about this fact, but with Istanbul having, as the author stated, direct access to the Caucasus, Middle and Near East, Central Asia, Russia, the Balkans, and North Africa, it was an intelligence hub in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "In between the two World Wars it was said that you could stand at any hotel window in Istanbul, throw a stone, and somewhere in the street you would hit a spy." I was surprised to learn that during World War I, the British, French, and Russians had agreed that Istanbul would be handed over to Russia if they won the war; it was the Russian Revolution in 1917 that prevented that agreement from being implemented.

I read a copy of the e-book via NetGalley.

This left me in awe of the big city.
I was amazed by the different histories and cultures and it made me appreciate Istanbul even more.
Very interesting and captivating

I found this to be so interesting. Learned a ton and filled in gaps in my knowledge. Everyone should really read this. Understanding the history of the important cities is vital. Well done.

“But of course, the idea of Istanbul is exponentially bigger than her footprint.”

4.5 Stars

Coming in at 800 pages (although the last chunk is notes and the bibliography), this comprehensive history book may seem daunting, but it reads well and details so many fascinating things that it feels half as long. Bettany Hughes delves into the deep, rich history of Istanbul chronologically, mixing culture, religion, and war to create a vivid picture.

“In terms of both historical fact and written histories this place reminds us why we are compelled to connect, to communicate, to exchange. But also to change.”

I read books like this and realize how ignorant and little I know of the world and its history (and geography). Istanbul (nee Constantinople, nee Byzantium) took center stage many times over history:

“The Milion marks out distance, and it marks the moment when Byzantium truly becomes a topographical and cultural reference point shared by East and West.”
...
“And so the city of Constantinople was founded on dreams, faith and hope, but also on ambition and blood.”
...
“Istanbul is not where East meets West, but where East and West look hard and longingly at one another, sometimes nettled by what they see yet interested to learn that they share dreams, stories, and blood.”

I highlighted many portions of this monograph; it is so rich in information and much of it beautifully written (especially for nonfiction). This is definitely a book I’ll refer back to and re-skim.

“Istanbul is a settlement that, in her finest form, produces, promote and protects the vital, hopeful notion that, wherever and whoever we end up, we understand that although humanity has many faces we share one human heart- to know Istanbul is to know what it is to be cosmopolitan- this is a city that reminds us that we are, indeed, citizens of the world.”

Beautifully done, extensive research, a grand, sweeping take of Istanbul - I enjoyed this immensely!

Wonderful presentation of the continuity and transformations of this special city through the rise and fall of three empires—the Roman, the Byzantine, and the Ottoman. One pagan and the other two variable forms of Christian and Muslim theocracies. What a labor of love this is. As a reader trying to lighten my ignorance of each of these empires, I hit a bonanza with this book. It made real dent in my dream of some shortcut to catching up on 3,000 or so years of history. I gleaned a lot of personal lessons and dispelled a lot of misconceptions through my read of this guided tour of history through the biography of a city. There is in some sense of three cities of different names (Byzantion, Constantinople, Byzantium) located in the same place of the current post-empire city of Istanbul, in some sense overlaid on top of each another. All with a continuity borne of a geography fitted to mediate the commerce, institutions, and religions of two continents it spans and that of nearby North Africa. The question the book raised for me a lot is how maybe there was enough similarity in the city’s multicultural residents and government infrastructure despite the changes in dominant religion to consider the latter as a bit of a veneer. After all, the Byzantine rulers called their city “New Rome” and saw themselves as a continuation of the Rome Empire and the same is true for the line of Ottoman sultans of an empire they termed “Rum.”
<img src="https://www.newcoldwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Map-of-Bosphorus-or-Istanbul-and-Dardanelles-Straits.jpg" width="400" height="250"/>
<i>Strategic location of Istanbul on the Bosporus Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, which in turn connects to the Mediterranean via the Dardanelle Strait. </i>

In the mindset of people of the West, over long stretches of time, tends to conceive of the city as liminal, a boundary and a buffer zone between Europe and aggressive powers of non-Christian Persians, Arabs, Slavs, and tribal hordes that periodically invaded from Central Asia. But it has also long been a gateway to the Mideast and Far East, as the Silk Road begins or ends there and grain from the breadbasket of North Africa long passed through its port. After Constantine built the capital of the Rome Empire “East Wing” at the site of an ancient settlement in the 4th century, his city of Constantinople became a world center of civilization, commercial trade, military might, and second only to Rome as a citadel of Christianity. A navy and the secrets of a napalm-like weapon known as Greek Fire were a key to success in plenty of wars. He completed an overland linkage to Rome and the West known as the Ignatian Way, which passed across the Balkans to a port in modern-day Albania across the Adriatic Sea from the Appian Way in Italy. In the 5th century, Emperor Theodosius (the last emperor of a unified Roman Empire) built massive outer walls to the city, a key to defense against many a siege over the ensuing centuries. In the 6th century a Golden Age of culture arises under the reign of Justinian, a ruler most remembered for his advances in in the legal system and benevolent works of his sainted wife Theodosia despite lowly origins as a circus performer and prostitute.
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Constantine_I_Hagia_Sophia.jpg/588px-Constantine_I_Hagia_Sophia.jpg" width="300" height="308"/>
<i>Constantine portrayed in a mosaic at the Hagia Sophia cathedral.</i>

<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGP45cRWoAAjtqB.jpg" width="400" height="251"/>
<i>Representation of Constantinople’s imperial palace, cathedral, and Hippodrome, which reveals a successful emulation of the splendors of Ancient Athens and Rome.</i>

<img src="https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/46/64946-004-CB78E6D2.jpg" width="400" height="204"/>
<i>Extent of the Byzantine Empire at its fullest extent in the 6th century (red line around the Mediterranean) and its restrictions by 1020 (in pink), and by 1360 (in red).</i>

This Byzantine Empire wound down from centuries of assaults from Persians, Avars, Vikings, Vandals, Huns, and Goths, terrible earthquakes and plagues, and economic competition from Europe. By the 8th century Charlemagne set himself up as a competing emperor of Christianity and eventually the Crusades would rile up forces under the new banner of Islam to take defense into offense. By the Fall of Constantinople in 1452 to the Ottoman Turks, the Byzantine Empire had shrunk to just Constantinople and parts of Anatolia. The use of a huge cannon to break down the walls marks one key to the Ottoman’s success. Despite the overtones of their subsequent wars of expansion in the West being fundamentally religious in nature, Islam vs. Christian, the city continued as the religious center for Eastern Orthodoxy and for long stretches a haven for a thriving Jewish populations. Moreover, they frequently allied with Christian nations of Europe against common enemies. In the case of Queen Elizabeth I, she engaged their help in fighting the Spanish. The Ottomans also developed special skills in diplomacy, nurturing a new class of adepts known as dragomen. They also developed a whole class of people recruited as children from around the empire and trained in mastery and proud devotion to protecting the sultan and his extended family in the imperial harem, the Janissaries.

By the 17th century, Ottoman expansion peaked, and the following centuries of decline and decadence tends to be what sticks out in Western memory. By the time the empire joined forces with Germany and the Hungarian-Austrian Empire against the rest of the West in World War 1, the Ottoman state was typically viewed metaphorically as a “sick old man”.

<img src="https://previews.123rf.com/images/peterhermesfurian/peterhermesfurian1412/peterhermesfurian141200024/34617022-The-Ottoman-Empire-at-its-greatest-extent-in-1683-Vector-illustration--Stock-Photo.jpg" width="400" height="336"/>
<i>Growth of the Ottoman Empire from Anatolia in the 14th century to its largest extent in the 17th century, when it almost equaled the range of the Byzantine Empire at its peak.</i>

This is a lot of history to cover in one book. The Ancient Greece period is sketchy because of the lack of reliable historical accounts, but administering fees on ship traffic through the Bosporus to and from the Black Sea was a business worth fighting for among Imperial Greece, the Spartans, and Persians (Troy is practically a suburb of the city). From Constantine on there were 96 Christian reigns (in 21 dynasties), followed by 36 Muslim reigns. The author’s 79 chapters follow these successions by epochs, but she slows down to highlight particular periods and to explore thematic issues in a satisfying and engaging way. Some of my favorite chapters have catchy titles, such as the following:
--Wine and Witches
--The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
--The Problem with Goths
--Faith, Hope, Charity and the Nicene Creed
--Battles in Heaven and on Earth: Gaza and Alexandria
--Sex and the City: Eunuchs
--The Jewish City
--The Silkworm’s Journey
--A Bone in the Throat of Allah
--Monks by Night, Lions by Day
--Byzantium and Britannia
--Viking Foe-Friends and the Birth of Russia
--Negotiating Monks and Homicidal Usurpers
--No Country for Old Men
--A Diamond between Two Sapphires
--Dragomans and Eunuchs
--The Sultanate of Women
--The Janissaries
--The Great Siege of Vienna
--White Caucasians
--Tulips and Textiles
--Tsargrad
--Gallipoli: The End of an Empire

The birth of a Christian empire and its succession by an Islamic one sets the big narrative to that of perpetual conflict between two patriarchal, monotheistic religions which, sadly, have more in common than difference. The author makes a fascinating exploration of the idea that Constantine’s conversion and alignment with what was then a minority sect in a largely pagan populace was motivated by pragmatic concerns to enhance his power with the Christian mantle:

<i>Accepted as god-men, Roman emperors were themselves sublime, so why make yourself the follower of a forgiving God and of his impoverished, peace preaching failure of a son? …Rather than a threat, Christianity was looking increasingly like a means to unify and consolidate power. Who needs a democracy or republic if every man is equal in the eyes of God?...
Was this Constantine declaring himself a combination of Christ, the Greek Apollo, a Trojan hero, and the Eastern Sol Invictus?
…Constantine I might be a Christian emperor, but he wore the clothes of the pagan world.
…The ancient gods were always shape-shifting, so did this new church really just make another god-man bigger, shinier, and even more formidable?
…Now Constantine could better Herodotus’ vision of civilization—a city with both Greek and Near Eastern genetic coding, strengthened by Roman muscle and sinew, and wrapped in a Christian skin. </i>

There is less doubt that his mother and wife were true believers. They both founded numerous churches, convents, and sanctuaries dedicated to Mary and started the mania of religious relic collection and reverence. She asks whether the condition of women in the empire was really an improvement over that of women elsewhere through the long epochs of the Middle Ages:
<i>In Constantine there was a perfect storm of a pagan Eastern environment where female deities had real heft, combined with Roman legal attitudes to the rights of women and how this sublime role model in Orthodox Christian theology—of the Virgin Mary being the bearer of the Godhead.</i>

She basically concludes her exploration of the topic by pointing out that the emperor’s female relatives were special cases. She suggests that the Church’s embracing of Augustinian doctrine that the temptation of men to sin from Eve on down contributed to keeping women is place as unworthy of responsible roles. Thus:
<i>So it would be entirely foolish to imagine the city as some kind of proto-feminist wonderland. But as Christian women living in the city, you were not living in the past. You are the past—living in the present. </i>

This book fulfilled a hunger to satisfy germs of interest sparked long ago when I was lucky enough to visit Istanbul as a 15-year old on a school trip. Picture a near blank-slate of a kid from Oklahoma experiencing the first view of the city aboard a tourist transport ship from Athens, the huge and busy harbor and the great mosques like the ancient Hagia Sophia nested among towering minarets in the glow of sunset. Imagine my confusion to learn how this impressive architectural wonder was a Christian cathedral for over a 1,000 years from construction in 537 AD. A visit to the fabulous Mosque of Ahmed (“Blue Mosque”) made me wonder why all the beautiful mosaics bore no images of religious figures. A visit to the Grand Bazaar comforted me that a city so dominated by religious edifices could retain such an old venue full of vibrant, diverse, and secular businesses . A tour of the Topkapi Palace stunned me with its opulence and disgusted me with the crass greed behind the accumulation of tons of jewels and fancy settings for the Imperial Seraglio. Just the very thought of slave women in the sultan’s harem reminds me of my negative image of man walruses riding herd on their diminutive females. With these first and lasting impressions, it was very helpful to get a full context on these cultural aspects of the Byzantine Empire. For example, the Grand Seraglio was effectively a school, safe society, and coveted path for slaves to achieve high status and potentially become an emperor’s mother or gain emancipation. Still, the practice is a blot on the Ottoman Empire no matter how you slice it.

<img src="http://www.egypthighlights.net//UserImages/magdy_19Istanbul%20cover.jpg" width="400" height="260"/>
<i>Istanbul Harbor</i>

<img src="http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm271/tlcohio/JewelDagger.jpg" width="350" height="245"/>
<i>Jeweled dagger in the Topkapi Palace museum. I got a thrill from the 1964 movie “Topkapi”, in which an elaborate heist is built around the theft of this famous object.</i>

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Inspecting_New_Arrivals_by_Giulio_Rosati_2.jpg" width="400" height="225"/>
<i>Stereotyped harem scene in a painting with a black eunuch in the imperial court performing an “Inspection of The New Arrivals” (by Giulio Rosati, early 20th century).</i>.

As I have developed since then, I aspire to somehow become a citizen of the world and see the common brotherhood of man beyond race, creed, and nationality. But even in imagination or attitude, I can’t yet escape beyond my Western identity and the sense of the East as “other”. The history of Istanbul, the city that spans two continents, helps me begin to think of a marriage of the East and West and making a bigger “we” for my self to nest within. I begin to feel pride as a human for the periods in these empires when life in this city partook of admirable levels of civilization, including multicultural tolerance, sophistication in its legal system, public investment in schools, libraries, and institutions of learning, and social services such housing and food for the poor and disabled. At the same time, I was led by this reading into some kind of accommodation to the more shameful parts of the three empires centered on this remarkable city. The author, Betthany Hughes, may not be an academic heavyweight in historical scholarship, but she is a great communicator with a significant track record in creating TV documentaries on the ancient and medieval worlds and in authoring a couple of popular history books on Ancient Greece. Her education does include an undergraduate degree in history from Oxford and current engagement in graduate research at Kings College London.

This book was provided for review by the publisher through the Netgalley program.

Just wow.

If you love any kind of history, this book is for you. Yes, it's dense. Yes, it's long. But Hughes' style of prose is luxurious and so much more enjoyable that similarly long and dense histories I've read before. The research that went into this book is clearly displayed on every page. When you finish it, Istanbul remains with you.

My favorite thing about this book is how Istanbul is the protagonist, changing over time, weaving in bits of its past as a new future is thrust upon it. It's geography alone makes for such a fantastic set-up for what happens over time. And, all the civilizations that have grown and fallen within those walls. Hughes takes a sweeping but detailed view of the whole process.

Of course, as with any book with such breadth, it took me a while to get through but the length of time was worth the learning I got from it. And I enjoyed Hughes writing so much, I can't wait to pick up one of her other works.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Perseus Books - Da Capo Press, and the author Bethany Hughes for the opportunity to do so.

Well-researched, but difficult to read.  There is so much history to Istanbul that it was hard to keep it all straight.  Still, such an important location deserves an important history.  This seems to be it.

This book is a tour de force about the history and culture of the city where east meets west. I enjoyed they detailed narrative and was enthralled and transported while reading it.

This massive work by Bethany Hughes visits what must be the vast majority of Byzantine settlements all over the world as Hughes uncovers the wonders that were Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul. Art, architecture, literature, commerce, social history, politics, fashion, religion: the subjects tackled cover the spectrum of life in the city by the Bosporus from hundreds of years BC to the present. Note that the detailed timeline provided in the back is a useful reference as you travel through the history of the city. Be prepared to settle in for a long engagement with this book, but one that is very rewarding if you want to understand more about the role of this city which is so central to the politically turbulent region in which it stands.

A well detailed, well researched, examination of the city, the people, and the history of Istanbul. Hughes's interest and knowledge in her subject leaps from the pages making this long tome a joy to read. I never got bogged down or lost interest the entire read.

Dense and delightful. This is a really neat perspective on a city that has represented so much to so many over the centuries, at the intersection of so many cultures--it's a part of history that we tend to treat as incidental and off to the side in Western social studies and I was really appreciative of the solid grounding of the city's life and story that Hughes was able to provide.

Book: Istanbul
Author: Bettany Hughes
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, for providing me with this galley.

I have loved Bettany Hughes’s work for a few years now. It started with her Ancient Worlds series and Helen of Troy book. Whenever I heard she was writing a new book, I was thrilled. I just knew that I was going to have to read it. While Istanbul does have the same magic that her other works do, I found it not to be as thrilling. I don’t know why, but there was just something missing from it.

I loved the amount of detail that she put into her writing. She is very knowledgeable about Istanbul and gives us a lot of depth about the city. I really do feel like she didn’t leave anything out and paints a wonderful picture of the city’s past. I just felt like there was so much in this book that I feel like I really don’t need to read another book on Istanbul to find out more about the city.

This is a history book and is not really a light read. It does read and feel like a history book. It is very clear that Bettany is a historian and she is sharing with you all that she has learned about this amazing city. She starts us out in prehistoric times and takes up through the modern city. She covers a number of topics and it really doesn’t feel like she has left anything out.

I loved how balanced everything was. It seemed like every time in history got the same amount of time as another. There was so much detail on each subject as well-I feel like I’m saying that a lot. She really does take a balanced approach, even if the flow was a little off. I don’t know if the flow is in the finished version or not, but in the ARC version there seems to be problems with the flow. Some of the stories are in rather odd places that just didn’t make any sense.

So, if you are looking for a one stop shop for everything on Istanbul, then this is the book for you!