Istanbul | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

(2002 pop. 10.3 million). Istanbul (called Byzantium until 330 CE and Constantinople until 1930), is an ancient city in northwest Turkey that straddles Europe and Asia. Istanbul lies on both sides of the Bosporus, a narrow, thirty-two-kilometer-long strait that separates the European and Asian parts of the city, so that the northern city is in Europe and the southern in Asia. The city was the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires and also of the Turkish Republic until 1923, when the capital was moved to Ankara. Tourists, temporary workers, and transit passengers may increase the city's population to close to 12 million. Divided into twelve districts (kazas), Istanbul covers 240 square kilometers, three-quarters of it in Europe.

Istanbul is largely a product of the millennia-long interaction between Eastern Europe and Asia and thus represents a unique mixture of Eastern European and Oriental cultures. Founded by Greeks around 660 BCE, the ancient city became a strategically important seaport due to its position on the Bosporus, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Emperor Constantine the Great (d. 337) selected it as the capital of the Byzantine empire in 324 and renamed it Konstantinou polis (Constantine's city) in 330.

Constantinople became the largest and most prosperous city in Europe, benefiting from its strategic location and a vibrant trade. However, the city's wealth and situation made it an attractive prize, and through the centuries it was often attacked. For instance, in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204), the Crusaders captured and sacked the city, causing enormous damage. The Byzantines retook it in 1251, and for many centuries, Constantinople was the spiritual and political center of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Byzantine empire. At first, the city was situated entirely on the European side and was encircled by a wall. This ancient part of the city was home to numerous Orthodox churches, palaces, and public buildings, with some Byzantine monuments, such as the magnificent church of Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia or Holy Wisdom, today a museum) surviving today.

In 1453 the Turks under the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II (1432–1481) captured Constantinople, and soon afterward the city became the Ottoman capital. One symbol of the city, Hagia Sophia, built by the emperor Justinian (483–565) in 532–562, was converted into a mosque in the fifteenth century. The Turkish sultans nevertheless patronized ethnic and religious minorities and ordered the preservation of the city's major Byzantine churches and the retention of the Orthodox patriarchate. When in 1509 a devastating earthquake damaged many parts of the city, the Ottomans had the city rebuilt, adding numerous public buildings, including magnificent mosques, palaces, public baths, and gardens. As the capital of the Ottoman empire, Constantinople became the cultural center of the Middle East and for the next four centuries influenced the cultural, political, and economic development of the region.

Constantinople experienced a new wave of significant changes during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the Tanzimat (Reorganization), the Ottomans' attempt to catch up with the West and to modernize the country. Textiles, weapons, shipbuilding, and other industries proliferated in the city, and Constantinople was significantly enlarged to take in new areas south of the Bosporus. In 1838 the first bridge was built across the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosporus, which forms Istanbul's harbor. In June 1883, a railroad, the renowned Orient Express, first connected Constantinople with Paris via Vienna.

During the Crimean War (1853–1856), in which Turkey was allied with France and Britain against Russia, French and British troops had been quartered in Constantinople. Yet close relations with the major great European powers did not last, and attempts to reform the country's political and economic systems met major resistance among conservative elements in Turkish society. In the early twentieth century, Turkey shifted its alliances and established close relations with Germany. The First World War left the Ottoman empire significantly weakened and unable to cope with separatist movements in its numerous provinces, combined with pressure from the European great powers, and Turkey collapsed.

At war's end in 1918, Britain, France, and Italy occupied the city until 1923, but then evacuated under pressure from the Turkish liberation movement led by Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938). In 1923, the Turkish republican government established Ankara as the capital of the secular Turkish Republic, but Constantinople (renamed Istanbul in 1930) has remained a major industrial, financial, and cultural city of the republic and by the end of the twentieth century was the largest city in Europe.

Istanbul is one of the most important commercial centers in Turkey and southeast Europe. Its deepwater seaport and international airport enable it to serve as a transportation and communication hub for all the Black Sea countries, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The city's manufacturing sector involves petrochemicals, cement, machinery, food and tobacco processing, textiles, garments, and various other goods. Tourism is another important sector of Istanbul's economy, providing not only direct employment for more than 100,000 people, but also hard-currency earnings for the city and country. The number of tourists visiting Turkey rose steadily throughout the 1980s and 1990s, reaching 10 million in 2000 (official estimate), though the number of arrivals sharply declined in 2001. Most tourists to Turkey chose Istanbul as an entry point or destination of choice.

During the second half of the twentieth century, Istanbul became the fastest-growing city in Europe; its population almost doubled from approximately 2.3 million in the 1950s to 5.5 million in 1985 and in 2000 (official estimate) doubled to 10.1 million, approximately 15 percent of Turkey's total population. Only about half of the people who live in modern Istanbul were born in the city; the rest moved there from other parts of Turkey in search of jobs and better living standards. Due to the rapid population growth, many shantytowns called gecekondu ("set down by night") appeared on the city's outskirts. In the 1990s, Istanbul became an important transit hub for immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia, and Northern Africa on their way to Europe. The majority of the population are Turks, although there is a sizable minority that includes Greeks, Jews, Armenians, and Albanians.

Rafis Abazov

Behar, Cem, and Alan Duben. (1998) Istanbul Households: Marriage, Family, and Fertility, 1880–1940. Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy, and Society in Past Time, 15. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Celik, Zeynep. (1993) The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Gerstel, Sharon, Julie Lauffenburger, and Garry Vikan, eds. (2001) A Lost Art Rediscovered: The Architectural Ceramics of Byzantium. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Lewis, Bernard. (1989) Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire. Centers of Civilization Series. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Mansel, Philip. (1995) Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924. London: John Murray.

Ousterhout, Robert, and Nezih Basgelen. (2000) Monuments of Unaging Intellect: Historic Postcards of Byzantine Istanbul. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

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