Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453-1924 - Hardcover

Mansel, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312145748 ISBN 13: 9780312145743

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1996

Synopsis

At once scholarly and entertaining, Constantinople depicts the Ottoman capital as a place of shifting boundaries and categories. It was the capital of both Islam and the Orthodox church, part of the "system of Europe" and a magnet for people and ideas from Paris to Isfahan. It was also a city of critical strategic importance, coveted at different periods by Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, and Greece. After the Great War, in its last years as an imperial capital, Constantinople was occupied by British, French, and Italian forces. Within a broad chronological framework, here is the story of the city and of the impact the Ottoman Sultans and their dynasty had on it; here too are the families who settled in Constantinople and served the Sultans, among them the Turkish Koprulu, the Italian de Testa, the Greek Mavrocordatos and the Hashemites from Mecca.
The story begins in 1453 with the triumphant entry into the city of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror on a white horse. It ends with the hurried departure of the last Ottoman ruler, Abdulmecid on the Orient Express. In studying the five hundred years between those two events, the author goes beneath the surface of the bustling, cosmopolitan traveler's Constantinople to record the history of what was at once an imperial capital, a holy city, a trading entrepot, a pleasure resort and, in its cultural and intellectual life, a laboratory of modernization.

About this title

Review:

Philip Mandsel's book is a five-hundred-year history of Constantinople (now Istanbul) which attempts to convey the rich history of this one-time capital city and describe the defining characteristics which point toward its potential to return to global grandeur. The book is sizable in scope and weight: there's a wealth of details and illustrations. Mandsel addresses the development of Constantinople into an Islamic city, covering the five-century dynasty of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire in 1453, converting the city from the capital of Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the home of sultans, eunuchs, and janizaries. They created a city of mosques and minarets that served as the Ottoman capital until the end of World War I. Mandsel's attention falls particularly on the palaces and the political history of the capital, as well as the great architectural works which still constitute the city's skyline. This is a highly readable history of the great city on the Bosporus, marked by keen perceptions of art and palace life.

About the Author:

Philip Mansel is the author of Dressed to Rule, Louis XVIII, Paris Between Empires, and Prince of Europe. He writes for such publications as the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Spectator, and the TLS.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0312145748
• ISBN 13: 9780312145743
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528