Text 1. HISTORY OF ISTANBUL

Assignment. Read Text 1 carefully paying special attention to the names of places, people etc. and the spelling of these names. Explain the peculiarities. Using reference books find the traditional Russian equivalents to these names.

Early Times

The earliest settlement, Semistra, was probably around 1000 ВС, a few hundred years after the Trojan War and about the same time that David and Solomon ruled in Jerusalem. It was followed by a fishing village, Lygos, which occupied Seraglio Point where Topkapı Palace stands today. Later, around 700 ВС, colonists from Megara (near Corinth) in Greece settled at Chalcedon (now Kadıköy) on the Asian shore of the Bosphoras.

Byzantium

The first settlement to have historic significance was founded by another Megarian colonist, a fellow named Byzas. Before leaving Greece, he asked the oracle at Delphi where he should establish his new colony. The enigmatic answer was, ‘Opposite the blind’. When Byzas and his fellow colonists sailed up the Bosphoras, they noticed the colony on the Asian shore at Chalcedon. Looking to their left, they saw the superb natural harbour of the Golden Horn on the European shore. Thinking, as legend has it, ‘Those people in Chalcedon must be blind’, they settled on the opposite shore, on the site of Lygos, and named their new city Byzantium. This was in 657 ВС.

The legend could well be true. İstanbul’s location on the waterway linking the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, and on the ‘land bridge’ linking Europe and Asia, is still of tremendous importance today, 2600 years after the oracle spoke.

Byzantium submitted willingly to Rome and fought Rome’s battles for centuries, but finally got caught supporting the wrong side in a civil war. The winner, Septimius Severus, razed the city walls and took away its privileges in AD 196. When he relented and rebuilt the city, he named it Augusta Antonina.

Constantinople

Another straggle for control of the Roman Empire determined the city’s fate for the next 1000 years. Constantine pursued his rival Licinius to Augusta Antonina, then across the Bosphoras to Chrysopolis (Üsküdar). Defeating his rival in AD 324, Constantine solidified his control and declared this city to be ‘New Rome’. He laid out a vast new city to serve as capital of his empire, and inaugurated it with much pomp in AD 330. The place which had been first settled as a fishing village over 1000 years earlier was now the capital of the world, and would remain so for almost another 1000 years.

The Byzantine Empire lasted from the re-founding of the city in AD 330 to the Ottoman Turkish conquest in 1453, an impressive 1123 years. Much remains of ancient Constantinople, including churches, palaces, cisterns and the Hippodrome. In fact, there’s more of Constantinople left than anyone knows about. Any sort of excavation reveals ancient streets, mosaics, tunnels, water and sewer systems, houses and public buildings.

The Conquest

What Westerners refer to as the ‘Fall of Constantinople’ was to Muslims the ‘Conquest of İstanbul’. Though the Byzantine Empire had been moribund for several centuries, the Ottomans were quite content to accept tribute from the weak Byzantine emperor as they progressively captured all the lands surrounding his well-fortified city. By the time of the Conquest, the emperor had control over little more than the city itself and a few territories in Greece.

When Mehmet II, known as Fatih (the Conqueror), came to power in 1451 as a young man, he needed an impressive military victory to solidify his dominance of the powerful noble class. As the Ottomans controlled all of Anatolia and most of the Balkans by this time, it was obvious that the great city should be theirs. Mehmet decided it should be sooner rather than later.

The story of the Conquest is thrilling, full of bold strokes and daring exploits, heroism, treachery and intrigue. Mehmet started with the two great fortresses on the Bosphorus. Rumeli Hisarı, the larger one, was built in an incredibly short four months on the European side. Anadolu Hisarı, the smaller one on the Asian side built half a century earlier by Yıldırım Beyazıt, was repaired and brought to readiness. Together they controlled the strait’s narrowest point.

The Byzantines had closed the mouth of the Golden Horn with a heavy chain to prevent Ottoman boats from sailing in and attacking the city walls on the northern side. In another bold stroke, Mehmet marshalled his boats at a cove (now covered by Dolma-bahce Palace) and had them transported overland on rollers and slides, by night, up the valley (where the Hilton hotel now stands) and down the other side into the Golden Horn at Kasımpaşa. He caught the Byzantine defenders completely by surprise and soon had the Golden Horn under control.

The last great obstacle was the mighty bastion of land walls on the western side. No matter how heavily Mehmet’s cannons battered them by day, the Byzantines would rebuild them by night and, come daybreak, the impetuous young sultan would find himself back where he’d started. Then he received a proposal from a Hungarian cannon founder called Urban who had come to offer his services to the Byzantine emperor for the defence of Christendom against the infidels. Finding that the emperor had no money, he went to Mehmet and offered to make the most enormous cannon ever. Mehmet, who had lots of money, accepted the offer, and the cannon was cast and tested in Edirne.

The first shot, which terrified hundreds of peasants, sent a huge ball 1.5 km, where it buried itself 2 m below ground. The jubilant sultan had his new toy transported to the front lines and started firing. A special crew worked for hours to ready it for each shot, for every firing wrecked the mount, and the gun had to be cooled with buckets of water.

Despite the inevitability of the conquest, the emperor refused surrender terms offered by Mehmet on 23 May 1453, preferring to wait in hope that Christendom would come and save him. On 28 May the final attack began, and by the evening of the 29th Mehmet’s troops were in control of every quarter. The emperor, Constantine XI Drapases, died in battle, fighting on the walls Mehmet’s triumphant entry into the world’s greatest city on the evening of 29 May is commemorated every year in İstanbul. Those parts of the city which did not resist his troops were spared, and their churches guaranteed. Those that resisted were sacked for the customary three days and their churches turned into mosques. As for Sancta Sophia, the greatest church in Christendom (St Peter’s in Rome, though larger, was not begun until 1506), it was converted immediately into a mosque.