Istanbul previously known as Constantinople ( the city of Constantine) is a tourist's dream. Its history, its natural position between Europe and the Orient make it the treasure trove of Byzantine and Ottoman art that spans 2000 years, with a culture that merges to create the aroma of modern day Istanbul. It is simply known as the City - the polis. There's no better description to denote its uniqueness. The New Rome was chosen to look in both the East and the Western parts of the greatest empire that ever was.
The book on Byzantium by Lord Norwich covers its history
On a short trip to Istanbul, we chose a hotel only five minutes from the centre of Roman/Ottoman Constantinople. We'd missed the day's organised tour, but as we were so near to the centre, we decided to walk down the same road as that used by the Emperors of old. The main street below the hotel was the ‘Mese’, the central avenue of the old city now called Divan Yolu which ran from the Palace to the Golden Gate.
We joined the crowds going down to the park and mingled with the tourists hunting for souvenirs and we stopped for some tea at an open air cafe. We had Ayia Sofia on one side and the Blue Mosque on the other. The Blue Mosque was built by the famous Turkish architect Sinan, a thousand years after Ayia Sofia as the answer to Justinian’s creation.
A short walk across the square and we descended to the Cisterns built by Justinian to supply the city with water. All of a sudden we were transported into a surreal atmosphere with ancient columns gleaming in the water, all lit up by spot lights to give the impression of a huge concert hall with classical music and excellent acoustics. We stood there silent, as our minds took us back to a bygone era into a sacred temple of antiquity.
Ayia Sofia itself stood proud surrounded by minarets that gave it a protective shield as if they were standing guard over the Great Church. Inside, inspite of the ravages of time and conquests, you could still feel the majesty as you looked up to the top of the dome that seemed suspended from heaven. There was the ubiquitous reminder that this had been used by the Turks as a mosque by the huge circular disks with Arabic inscriptions that were suspended from the top of the columns as well as the painted over mosaics and icons.
Ayia Sofia was such a wonder that when Justinian first entered the Church he cried out: " I have surpassed thee Solomon" referring to the Temple in Jerusalem. This Church had also been used as a model by the Arabs and later the Ottomans who built magnificent mosques in a similar style.
It was also the wonder of Ayia Sofia that helped convert the Russians to Christianity. Prince Vladimir’s emissaries who had been sent out to evaluate different religions were so impressed that they returned home and reported that they did not know if they were in heaven or on earth when they attended the Service in Ayia Sofia.
Later in the evening we heard the loudspeakers from the Blue Mosque calling the faithful to prayer. Suddenly the whole area was abuzz with the sound of the muezzin that gave the whole city an air of oriental mystery.
On the way back to the hotel, we passed the Hippodrome where the races and political gatherings were held in the past. It was here that the two main political factions of Greens and Blues united and rose against the Emperor Justinian. The story goes that the Emperor made ready to flee but was dissuaded by Theodora his wife who'd said that it would be better to die as an Emperor than live as a nobody, and that she would not flee. The courage of this woman was enough to shame the Emperor and his entourage, and the generals went to the Hippodrome unleashing the army who proceeded to massacre all the rioters. Justinian never forgot.
We then chose a restaurant recommended by the concierge which was down by the Galata Bridge and had a marvellous view of the Golden Horn. We walked all the way down to Eminonu, passing more sites including the European Railway Station made famous by the Orient Express.
We were lucky to find a table at the roof-top restaurant with a view of the harbour, the Galata bridge in front, and the lights of the Suleymaniye Mosque behind us. Looking down, we could see why Constantine had chosen this spot to build his New Rome. The Golden Horn provided a natural and secure harbour whose entry could be easily closed to any invaders.
The next day there was so much to see both in beauty and history, that it was difficult to decide what to leave out of our agenda. The challenge was how to span a thousand year period in such a short visit and still appreciate why the Empire lasted so long. We took the bus tour that gave us a view of both the old and the new city as well as the walls. You had to see the walls to appreciate how a small band of brave men fighting against tremendous odds for months on end, could hold off wave upon wave of the Ottoman hordes.
It was here at the Walls that I realised how little the West had done to help save the City. It almost seemed that they were relieved that the City would fall to the Ottomans. It was after reading Lord Norwich's book on Byzantium, that I was made aware of the conscious effort in the West to play down the importance, and the glorious history of Constantinople. When Rome in the West was struggling through the invasions of the northern barbarians, here in the East there was a very high level of art, industry, and philosophy inherited from the ancients in both Greek and Latin.
Artists and philosophers of antiquity were teaching in schools from Athens to Alexandria, Gaza and Constantinople and the Greek language was used alongside Latin until eventually it replaced it. To this day, the West is in denial on the art and science inheritted from the ancients in Constantinple. We are told that Aristotle's and Plato's works were passed on to us through Arabic translations from Spain, ignoring the close links between Venice and Constantinople.
By the turn of the 11th century, the Eastern Empire had fallen on hard times through constant attacks and incessant internal religious squabbles that had sapped the strength of the Empire. Power had shifted now to the more vigorous Franks and Normans in the West. The two parts of the empire had permanently split and the Eastern part was mainly in the hands of the Turks. Having lost most of its provinces Byzantium no longer had the means to raise either money or soldiers to defend itself.
When in desperation the Eastern Emperors had called for help from their Western fellow Christians, the West responded with the Crusades, which were to prove the ultimate catastrophe for Constantinople. The Westerners set up local kingdoms in the recovered lands of Asia Minor and the Holy Land. These people had no love for the finer art of the East, and they were mainly motivated by a desire for conquest and plunder. In the end, little distinction was made between eastern Christians, Muslims or Jews. Finally in 1204 the Crusaders sacked Constantinople itself and set up a latin empire.
The combination of competition, envy, and hatred that persisted and had caused the schism in the church, had spilled inevitably over to conquest. The damage to Constantinople by the invasion and sack of the 4th Crusade was worse than the city suffered from the Turks in 1453. The Crusaders even used Ayia Sofia to stable their horses. The pillage, the fire, the rape and butchery that followed, dealt such a blow to the Empire of the East that it never really recovered. From this point on, it was down hill all the way to the Ottoman onslaught.”
The Enlightenment in the West seems to have ignored the contribution of Constantinople to the development of the West. The translations from Greek to Latin already existed in Byzantium, as well as other cities in Italy where Greek influence and language persisted. Translations of Ancient Greek philosophy were already in Italy well before the rise of Islam as evidenced by St.Augustin's teachings of Plato in Latin. The Arabs to their credit, did not have such complexes in learning from the Eastern Empire and had long before appreciated Greek science and philosophy bringing these works to Spain.
The West looked down on Constantinople to such an extent that Gibbon, in his ‘Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire’ was very dismissive of the Byzantines. Western thinkers saw themselves as the exclusive inheritors of classical Greece. An intervening Greek culture such as that in the East would have diminished their authority. How could these 'devious corrupt and incompetent 'Byzantine Greeks' be the successors of a brilliant heritage? It was left to the Turks to refer to the East as the Roman Empire that they had conquered.
History is now finally being reviewed, and new voices have arisen to bear witness to what we owe to the Eastern Roman Empire that stood as a bastion protecting Europe in the East. The efforts to reunite the Church, and the positive steps taken by the Roman Catholic Popes wth Pope John apologising, and then Pope Benedict making a visit to Istanbul to the Orthodox Patriarch, are proof of the rapprochement between Western and Eastern Christendom and the central role of Constantinople.
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