Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World

Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World

by Thomas F. Madden
Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World

Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World

by Thomas F. Madden

Paperback(Reprint)

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Overview

One of Time’s 12 Books for the History Buffs on Your Holiday Gift List  

The first single-volume history of Istanbul in decades: a biography of the city at the center of civilizations past and present.


For more than two millennia Istanbul has stood at the crossroads of the world, perched at the very tip of Europe, gazing across the shores of Asia. The history of this city—known as Byzantium, then Constantinople, now Istanbul—is at once glorious, outsized, and astounding. Founded by the Greeks, its location blessed it as a center for trade but also made it a target of every empire in history, from Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Empire to the Romans and later the Ottomans. At its most spectacular Emperor Constantine I re-founded the city as New Rome, the capital of the eastern Roman empire, and dramatically expanded the city, filling it with artistic treasures, and adorning the streets with opulent palaces. Around it all Constantine built new walls, truly impregnable, that preserved power, wealth, and withstood any aggressor—walls that still stand for tourists to visit.
      From its ancient past to the present, we meet the city through its ordinary citizens—the Jews, Muslims, Italians, Greeks, and Russians who used the famous baths and walked the bazaars—and the rulers who built it up and then destroyed it, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the man who christened the city "Istanbul" in 1930. Thomas F. Madden's entertaining narrative brings to life the city we see today, including the rich splendor of the churches and monasteries that spread throughout the city.
     Istanbul draws on a lifetime of study and the latest scholarship, transporting readers to a city of unparalleled importance and majesty that holds the key to understanding modern civilization. In the words of Napoleon Bonaparte, "If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital."

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780143129691
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/07/2017
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 176,698
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Thomas F. Madden is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University. He has written and lectured extensively on the ancient and medieval Mediterranean as well as the history of Christianity and Islam. Awards for his scholarship include the Medieval Academy of America's Haskins Medal and the Medieval Institute's Otto Grundler Prize. He is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Medieval Academy of America. His books include Venice: A New History and Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World.

Table of Contents

Maps xii

Preface xv

Part I Byzantion (667 BC-AD 330)

Chapter 1 Across from the City of the Blind 3

Chapter 2 Bread for Athens 16

Chapter 3 Romans Bearing Gifts 30

Chapter 4 Ruin and Survival 44

Part II Byzantine Constantinople (330-1453)

Chapter 5 Founding a New Rome 61

Chapter 6 Baptized Capital 76

Chapter 7 East of the Fall of Rome 89

Chapter 8 City of Justinian 103

Chapter 9 Surviving the Middle Ages 119

Chapter 10 Byzantine Plots 131

Chapter 11 Dining with Barbarians 144

Chapter 12 Treasure and Treachery 161

Chapter 13 Blind Men 177

Chapter 14 Latin Occupation 200

Chapter 15 Life Among the Ruins 220

Chapter 16 Empire's End 235

Part III Ottoman Constantinople (1453-1923)

Chapter 17 The Spiders Curtain 251

Chapter 18 City of Suleiman the Magnificent 263

Chapter 19 The Sultanate of Women 280

Chapter 20 Return of the West 295

Chapter 21 Sick Man of Europe 312

Chapter 22 Empire's End, Again 327

Part IV Istanbul (1923-2016)

Chapter 23 Becoming Modern 341

Acknowledgments 359

Notes 361

Further Reading 365

Index 369

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