Istanbul

''This article is about the city. For Istanbul brand cymbals, see Istanbul cymbals.'' Istanbul (Turkish language: İstanbul; contraction of the city's previous Greek name Constantinople) is the largest city in Turkey, and arguably the most important. It is located on the Bosporus and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn (Turkish: Hali�), in the northwest of the country. It is officially in both Europe and Asia, but is generally considered European. Its population is between 11 and 15 million people, making it, by some counts, one of the Largest cities of the world in Europe. Istanbul is located at 41°1'7" North, 28°57'53" East (41.018611, 28.964722). [http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html] Originally founded by Greek colony as Byzantium, it was made the eastern capital of the Roman Empire in Anno Domini 324 by the Emperor Constantine I of the Roman Empire; Byzantium was renamed Nova Roma (New Rome) but this name failed to impress and the city soon became known as Constantinople, the City of Constantine. With the fall of Rome and the western empire Constantinople became the sole capital of what historians now call the Byzantine Empire. This empire was distinctly Greece in culture and the centre of Greek Orthodox Christianity and was adorned with many impressive churches including the once world's largest cathedral: Hagia Sophia. The seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church is located in Istanbul until our days. After the Fall of Constantinople to the invading Turks, in 1453, Constantinople became part of the Ottoman Empire and soon its capital. Before the conquest Turks called the city ''İstanbul'', but officially used the name ''Qusţanţaniyyeh'' (قسطنطنيه), which means "City of Constantine" in Arabic language. Only on March 28, 1930, was the city officially renamed ''Istanbul''.

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== Etymology == Bosporus_Bridge_across_the_Bosporus_(March_2005)">Image:BosphorusBridge.jpg|thumb|right|250px| Thick but fluid traffic driving down to the Bosporus_Bridge across the Bosporus (March 2005) The name Istanbul comes from the late Greek words ''stin Poli'' (στήν Πόλι), from Classical Greek ''eis t�n Polin'' (εις τήν Πόλι(ν)) meaning "to/at the City" (the City/Polis being Constantinoupolis). The intermediate form ''Stamboul'' was commonly used by the Turks in the 19th century. Because of the custom of affixing an ''i'' before certain words that start with two consonants (as in "Izmir" from Smyrna: in a coincidence of ''s'' + ''m'', the ''s'' turns to ''z'' in pronunciation as has been attested since early Byzantine times and in modern Greek usage), it was pronounced in Turkish ''Istambul''. (The ''m'' in the middle is also the Turkish linguistic custom of changing the ''n'' before a ''p'' or ''b'', as in �enber → �ember, anbar → ambar, although rules like this are not always observed in proper nouns like Istanbul). Similar examples of modern Turkish town names derived from Greek are İzmit (from Iznikmit which was Nicomedia and İznik (from Nicaea). Arab writers called the city Qusţanţini/--yye, but the Ottomans used several additional names, e.g. P�y-i taht, "the foot of the throne" (Persian); Asitane; and Islambol, "lots of Islam". == History == A more complete history is at Constantinople. Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque._(picture_shot_in_March_2005)">Image:TurkeyIstanbulBlueMosqueInterior.jpg|thumb|left|250px| Inside the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. (picture shot in March 2005) Byzantium was the original name of the modern city of Istanbul. Byzantium was originally settled by Hellenic civilization colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas. The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original Greek name Byzantion (Βυζάντιον) pronounced Vee-za-ndeon. After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus the city was siege by Roman Empire and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and quickly regained its previous prosperity. The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine I of the Roman Empire who, in 330 AD, refounded it as New Rome or Constantinoupolis after himself (Constantinople,Greek language: Konstantinoupolis or Κωνσταντινούπολη or Κωνσταντινούπολις) after a prophetic dream was said to have identified the location of the city. The name Nova Roma never came into common use. The Eastern Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from then until 1453, has often been called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium by modern scholars. The combination of imperialism and location would play an important role as the crossing point between two continents (Europe and Asia), and later a magnet for Africa and others as well, in terms of commerce, culture, diplomacy and strategy. At a strategic position, Constantinoupolis was able to control the route between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the ''Euxinos Pontos'' (Black Sea). Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine times the Greeks called Constantinople ''i Poli'' ("The City"), since it was the centre of the Greek world and for most of the Byzantine period the largest city in Europe. It was captured and sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and then re-captured by Nicaean Empire forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. On May 29 1453 the city fell to the Ottoman Turks (See the Fall of Constantinople) and was part of the Ottoman Empire until its official dissolution on November 1 1922. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or Istanbul. During the Ottoman period the city went through a complete cultural change from an imperial Byzantine city to an Ottoman Islamic one. Aya sofia was converted to a Mosque as were several other churches in the city. Other Mosques were constucted around the city, each Sultan having built a grand Mosque to commemorate his reign. Amongst these Mosques, the most impressive are; Beyazit Mosque, Suleymaniye (The largest Mosque in Istanbul), Sultan Ahmed Mosque (The first Friday sermon or "Khutba" in this Mosque was read by the Jelveti Sufi Sheikh Aziz Mahmud Hudayi) and Fatih Mosque. The wives and mothers of the Sultans also contibuted to the construction of Mosques and several Mosques both on the European and Asian sides of the city have the name Valide Sultan Mosque to signify that they were constructed under the orders of the Sultans mother. Sufi orders which were so widespread in the Islamic world and who had many followers who had activly participated in the conquest of the city came to settle in the capital. During Ottoman times over 100 Tekkes were active in Istanbul alone. Many of these Tekkes survive to this day some in the form of Mosques while others as museums such as the Jerrahi Tekke in Fatih, the Sunbul Effendi and Ramazan Effendi Mosque and Turbes also in Fatih, the Galata Mevlevihane in Beyoglu, the Yahya Effendi Tekke in Besiktas and the Bektashi Tekke in Kadikoy which now serves Alevi Muslims as a Cem Evi. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved from Constantinople to Ankara. Istanbul became the official name in 1930. In the early years of the republic, Istanbul was overlooked in favour of the new capital Ankara, but during the 1950s-1960s Istanbul underwent great structural change. The city's once numerous and prosperous Greek community, remnants of the city's Greek origins, dwindled in the aftermath of violent anti-Greek riots organised by the Turkish police in the 1950's with most Greeks leaving their homes for Greece. In the 1960's the government of Adnan Menderes sought to develop the country as a whole and new roads and factories were constructed throughout the country. Wide modern road were built in Istanbul but some, unfortunately, were at the expense of historical buildings within the city. During the 1970s the population of Istanbul began to rapidly increase as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were constructed on the outskirts of the city. This sudden sharp increase in the population caused a rapid rise in housing development (some of poor quality resulting in great death and injury during the frequent eathquakes that hit the city) and many previously outlying villages became engulfed into the greater metropolis of Istanbul. Many Turks who have lived in Istanbul for over 30 or more years can still recollect how areas such as large parts of Maltepe, Kartal, Pendik and others were green fields when they were young. Other areas such as Tuzla were nothing more than sleepy villages. [[Image:TarihiYarimadaUydudan.jpg|thumb|250px|''Historical Peninsula, Istanbul. Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia can be seen in the aerial photo'']] == Places to visit == Constantinople was a cultural and ethnic melting pot. As a result, there are many historical Mosques, Churches, Synagogues and Palaces to visit in the city. A few of these are ===Buildings and monuments=== *Arap Mosque *Basilica Cistern *Bulgarian St Stephen Church (also known as "Bulgarian Iron Church") *Dolmabah�e Palace *Fatih Mosque *Galata Tower *Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya camii) *Istiklal Avenue *Mosaic Museum, Istanbul *Prince's Islands *Sultan Ahmed Mosque *Suleiman Mosque *Topkapi Palace ===Markets, neighborhoods and places=== *Bebek fish restaurants *Beyoglu *Golden Horn *Taksim Square *The Grand Bazaar, Istanbul *The Spice Bazaar, Istanbul The cross-continent European walking route E8 trail begins/ends here, running 4700km to Cork, Ireland. ==Seismic risk== Istanbul is situated near the North Anatolian fault, an active fault which has been responsible for several deadly earthquakes in contemporary history. Studies show that there are high risks of a devastating earthquake near Istanbul in the coming decades.[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1999/aug25/quake.html][http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/04/28/istanbul.quake.enn/] The proximity of the Marmara sea also indicates high risks of a tsunami should an earthquake occur. The difficulties of imposing suitable building rules is likely to result in a large number of collapses, especially in cheap masonry dwellings.[http://atlas.cc.itu.edu.tr/~barka/pubs/ist_haz/istanbul.html] == Education == Istanbul holds a number of universities. Most are public, but recent years have seen an upsurge in private universities. *Bahcesehir University *Bogazici University (founded as Robert College) *Fatih University *Galatasaray University *Isik University *Istanbul Bilgi University *Istanbul Technical University *Istanbul University *Koc University *Marmara University *Sabanci University *Yeditepe University *Yildiz Technical University == Transportation == ''Main article: Public transport in Istanbul'' === Airports === *Atat�rk International Airport (List of airports: I) *Sabiha G�k�en International Airport (List of airports: S) == Districts == Adalar, Avcilar, Bagcilar, Bah�elievler, Bakirk�y, Bayrampasa, Besiktas, Beyoglu, B�y�k�ekmece, Beykoz, �atalca, Emin�n�, Ey�p, Esenler, Fatih, Gaziosmanpasa, G�ng�ren, Kadik�y, Kagithane, Kartal, K��k�ekmece, Maltepe, Pendik, Sariyer, Silivri, Sultanbeyli, Sile, Sisli, Tuzla district, �mraniye, �sk�dar, Zeytinburnu ==Sister cities== Istanbul has 26 sister cities (aka "twin towns"): *Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan *Amman, Jordan *Barcelona, Spain *Busan, South Korea *Cairo, Egypt *Cologne, Germany *Constanta, Romania *Dubai, United Arab Emirates *Durres, Albania *Houston, Texas, United States of America *Jakarta, Indonesia *Jeddah, Saudi Arabia *Johor Bahru, Malaysia *Kazan, Tatarstan *Khartoum, Republic of Sudan *Mari, Turkmenistan *Odessa, Ukraine *Osh, Kyrgyz Republic *Plovdiv, Bulgaria *Rabat, Morocco *Rio de Janeiro, Brazil *Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina *Shanghai, People's Republic of China *Shimonoseki, Japan *Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia *Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation == See also == * Byzantium * Constantinople * Fall_of_Constantinople ===Buildings=== * Atat�rk Olimpiyat Stadyumu * The Bosphorus * Bosporus Bridge * Castle of Seven Towers * Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge * Galata Bridge * Hippodrome of Constantinople * Istanbul cymbals * List of hospitals in Istanbul * T�nel * Camlica TV Tower * Endem TV Tower ===Istanbul as capital of...=== * The Roman Empire, Roman Emperors. * The Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Emperors, List of Byzantine Empire-related topics, Byzantine architecture. * The Ottoman Empire, Osmanli. == External links == *[http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster/ Byzantine antiquities of Istanbul] *[http://mypage.iu.edu/~ktuncay/Turkey/index.html Historic Pictures] Kagan Tuncay *[http://members.fortunecity.com/fstav1/patrides/patrides.html Museum in Istanbul] *[http://www.photoglobe.info/spc_istanbul.html Istanbul from Space] * Description of Byzantine monetary system - 5th Century BC: [http://www.galmarley.com/framesets/fs_monetary_history_faqs.htm History of money FAQ's] Istanbul Cities in Turkey Coastal cities Byzantine Empire Roman sites in Turkey Ottoman Empire Holy cities Byzantine Empire Cities along the Silk Road Cities in Turkey Coastal cities Holy cities Ottoman Empire Roman sites in Turkey hi:इस्तांबुल simple:Istanbul

Istanbul

''During the Byzantine period it was also known as Byzantium.'' Byzantium is also more properly the name of a town, which was ''re''founded by Constantine as Nova Roma or Constantinopolis. I'm not sure how or if this should be worked in. ----- It seems to me like it would make sense to consolidate the pages for :Constantinople, :Byzantium, and :Istanbul, which somewhat randomly overlap. Any votes for which one we should choose as the master page? Should the other two be redirects or stubs? -- User:Alan Millar :Don't each name concern a different time period? There's a lot of history to be covered for this town, eventually, so I think it'll probably help organization to have it split (even if it means that a few sentences will be duplicated). --User:Pinkunicorn ::Istanbul is not the only city in the world, and not even the only major city, to have had more than one historically significant name during its history. We put Danzig/Gdansk on one page and we put St. Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad on one page, so I would say these articles should be combined and listed under Istanbul, with a redirect from the other two. -- user:Jsc1973 :::In my opinion, if you really want to consolidate these names, then it should be under the name of "Istanbul" because its current name is that and it has been using since 15th century, even though in some Greek maps it is still shown as "Constantinople". Other than "Istanbul", all are historical names of the city and has to be mentioned under the title of "Istanbul". an istanbuliot --User:Huger ::I'm with Pinkunicorn. To merge Istanbul and Byzantium would seem blasphemous for all concerned. We're dealing with an ancient city, which served as the capital of two distinct great empires. As such, and lest confusion arises, it is probably best to leave the two unmerge. Constantinople and Byzantium, on the other hand, should be merged, being - leaving pedantry aside for the moment - two different names for very much the same thing. ::--User:Itai 01:15, 6 Jan 2004 (UTC) :::I agree with Itai and Pinkunicorn, Constantinople and Istanbul should go under separate articles, even though Istanbul is simply the Turkish version of Constantinople and because of that they should really go into the same article. But if you search for Constantinople you would probably be interested in the older history of the city and if you search for Istanbul you would probably be more interested in the modern city and recent history etc. If we were to be completely correct, all historical events that happened before 1930 should go under the Constantinople article. --User:The Phoenix 16:41, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::::Surely the point about 1930 just proves the point that there is no sense in having two separate articles. The two names seem to have been used in parallel for centuries (not just by Greeks and Turks separately). ---- According to a greek friend of mine, Instanbul name is really derived from is stin Poli (the abreviation of Constantinople), which means that its not a myth. Anybody has a reference for the turkish version? Muriel Gottrop :I really do not know how it is a historical myth. As far as I know, "stin poli" is the real reason. There are parallels: : stin poli (accusative of polis) --> i-stambol : se nikya --> i-znik : zmyrni --> i-zmir : se nikomedya --> i-znikmit --> izmit :the first "i" is there because of the two consonants beginning a word, hence in old turkish we used to say ispor for sport, and we still say istavroz for stauros, the cross. and the "turkish artikel" does not make sense either. to the best of my knowledge there is not article in the Altaic languages like Turkish, but there is a suffix -i (which can also be -u) in order to indicate the direct object which in most of the cases is translated with "the" into English. :--Kutlu Akalin, kutluakalin@yahoo.com ::Against the "stin poli" ipothesis there is the fact that in many languages Istanbul is still called with some derivative of Polis nowadays. Just as reference, in Laz language that is Mpolis. Apart from other fantasious ethimologies, "eis tin polis" is still good as "stin poli", so I'll slighty modify the page.--User:Aledeniz 12:19, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC) :::It's almost certainly a folk etymology - that is, it has no linguistic background. I'm not going to change the article, in case someone really wants to disagree with me. But 'constantinopolis'->'stanopolis'->'stambol'->'istanbul' is just as easy to believe, if not moreso. I have moved this objection of the name etymology here from the article since it was an objection, not an encyclopedic content: :Etymological and historical objection to the above definition: :Istanbul is simply a Hellenic word: Eistenpoli, meaning "to the city". It has been the vulgar name of the town since her foundation by Constantinus I. It's not a result of a renaming, therefore. :Compare with "İsl�m bol", invented around the 17th century as an assonance to the original name. –User:The Phoenix 07:33, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC) ::Probably part of the confusion arises because the Greek language has changed since Byzantine times. The Ancient Greek "Eis ten polin" has become "Stin poli" (pronounced Stimboli) in Modern Greek. Maybe Istanbul reflects the earlier Greek version (and might have been preserved because of the Turkish preference for avoiding double consonants at the start of a word) and Stamboul (which still appears to be the form in use in Russian) reflects the later Greek version. User:Ross Burgess 10:02, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Istanbul or Constantinople ? == Constantinople is the area between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara of today's Istanbul - it is just a relatively small part. The Ottomans settled in Istanbul - around the Bosphorus - well before 1453 AD, the year Constantinople fell. :No - Constantinople was the official name of the whole of the city until 1930. It's true that the original ancient city was only a small part of the modern city, and it has subsequently absorbed other settlements, but the same is true of any ancient town that has become a major city in modern times. User:Ross Burgess 09:50, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC) 1930??? Where did you get that idea from? The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, believe me, they wouldn't have left the name as Constantinople. Istanbul is Istanbul since 1453. == "Prince's" Islands? == The article Burgazada just popped up, and while cleaning it up I came across some confusion. Is it "Prince's Islands", "Princess Islands", "Princes' Islands", or something else entirely? Google test leads me to believe it's "Princess Islands". -- User:Cyrius|User talk:Cyrius 03:01, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC) :In Steven Runciman's ''The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his reign'', they are called "The Princes' Islands". I don't have the book in front of me, but I think Isaac Deutscher, in his biography of Leo Trotsky (who was banished to this location in the early 20th century) called them either the "Prince's Islands" or "Princes' Islands". The later form makes best sense because it was where troublesome members of the Byzantine Imperial family (usually male) were placed. -- User:Llywrch 01:49, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Inappropriate content== I'm concerned about a lot of material added in early December by Erginer. There's a lot of flowery and inappropriate language, for instance "It is not yet in the power of our science to know the origins of Istanbul. By what miracle it emerged from the depths of the sea like a pearl from its shell ..." and I suspect that it may be a copyright violation - indeed at one point it refers to "as I explain in the few pages of this book". Should we just delete all of this material? User:Ross Burgess 07:01, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC) :Yeah, I think it's all from a book that's referenced in an early section. It is dense, unencyclopedic, probably non-neutral, and just looks bad, and so, based on Wikipedia:Don't_include_copies_of_primary_sources and other policies, I'm going to revert it. User:Blacklite 07:08, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC) :::~~I think you should do this selectively - there have been a number of edits since Erginer's additions, which may be worth keeping. User:Ross Burgess 07:41, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)~~ I should have noticed you had already done this. User:Ross Burgess 09:44, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Etymology of the name == An anonymous user has posted an update to the effect that the (eis tin Poli) εις τήν Πόλι(ν) explanation [is] thought to be a folk etymology. Can he/she or anyone provide a reference for this statement? Otherwise I'm inclined to revert it. User:Ross Burgess 23:34, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC) : I�m sorry for reverting the "folk etymology" statement made by anon but I�ve just saw your reference request. Of hand, I can only provide an online resource (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Istanbul) which describes the "''Islam bol'' - plenty of Islam" version as the folk etymology, and not the other way around. From my part I would also love to see some academic citations of any other approaches to this case --User:Ninio 23:53, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC) Why was this reverted? "The name Istanbul comes from the late Greek words stin Poli (ςτήν Πόλι), from Classical Greek eis t�n Polin (εις τήν Πόλι(ν)) meaning "to/at the City" (the City/Polis being Constantinoupolis). The intermediate form Stamboul was commonly used in the 19th century. Because of the custom of affixing an i before certain words that start with two consonants (as in "Izmir" from Smyrna: in a coincidence of s + m, the s turns to z in pronunciation as has been attested since early Byzantine times and in modern Greek usage), it was pronounced in Turkish Istambul." This is basically correct (although "Stamboul" looks like a re-Hellenization of the alternative Turkish form Sıtambul). The current version now leaves out the intermediate stage ςτήν Πόλι, and so is less accurate. I always heard the εἰς τὴν πόλιν etymology during my studies of ancient Greek. And insofar as I can read the [http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9A%CF%89%CE%BD%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%B7 Greek] & [http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0stanbul Turkish] Wikipedia entries (not very much), both mention this derivation. So the first sentence of the English article still needs correcting. Someone who's comfortable with Unicode issues should go ahead & do it. --User:Adamgarrigus 15:22, 2005 Jun 16 (UTC)

Istanbul

Main article: Istanbul Cities in Turkey

Istanbul

Doodoocaca Doodoocaca Doodoocaca Whee! Whee! Hi! It's Istanbul.

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Istanbul
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Istanbul_(Not_Constantinople)
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Istanbul_observatory_of_al-Din
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Istanbul_State_Symphony_Orchestra
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Istanbul_Tunel
Istanbul_University