Along the continents of Europe and Asia, Istanbul’s strategic location has made it an unparalleled cultural crossroads. Its geographic location alone seems destined to be the capital of a great empire. In fact, it was the center of two large but very different empires, the Byzantine and the Ottoman, some 1,700 years ago. However, even before ascending to the imperial throne, it had been shining as a dynamic, vibrant city for nearly a millennium, from the moment it was first founded as a Greek city in Byzantium.
It’s hard not to speak in superlatives when describing this epic cradle of civilization. No other city in the world had been besieged so many times, so it was so deeply reassured by the peoples outside its walls. No other city on Earth separates two continents. Not only was it ancient, but for centuries it was the most multicultural city in Europe, in whose streets more than a dozen languages were spoken, from Italian to Persian, and from Greek to Arabic. Above all it was a city dedicated to commerce, built for business.
Jews, Turks, and Christians believe in several faiths.
However, all that is recognized by God, that is, gold.
Historical and Critical Letters from a Gentleman in Constantinople to his Friend in London, 1730
Built on a triangular piece of land (the area today dominated by the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia), the original city was surrounded on three sides by water. This was no timid little retirement colony, but a confident outpost of commerce designed to rule one of the world’s most important waterways, the Bosporus. Control of this narrow channel connecting the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, guaranteed political influence, a steady stream of innovative ideas, and of course money, in the form of traffic and taxes.
Sailing on the Bosphorus today provides the perfect opportunity to look at the city as sailors would have seen it centuries ago, its seven hills studded with the most magnificent mosques. The daily boat trips stop at a number of points along it, such as Anadolu Kavagi almost at the entrance to the Black Sea. Here you can leave the ferry, dine at one of the beach’s fish restaurants, and tour the ruined castle for breathtaking views and a fantasy-jump to the time when Jason was sailing below in search of the Golden Fleece.
Nowadays, tankers crowd with passenger ferries on the waters of the Bosphorus, but their numbers are only a fraction of the ships that used to flock to Constantinople. In the days of the Ottomans, there were fifteen thousand small boats at work in the port, blocking its waters. It may be hectic but disorganized it certainly wasn’t. When it came to money, Medina was a strict and disciplined governess. At the Golden Horn, the capital’s magnificent and sheltered deep-water port, boats moored directly on shore to unload their cargoes, their cargoes carefully checked by a waiting army of customs officials who calculated their duties payable.
When the Byzantine Empire and the shattered city of Constantinople finally fell to Mehmed the Conqueror and his Ottoman army in 1453, shock waves reverberated throughout Western Europe and the entire Christian world. However, Muhammad was a visionary. Just as Constantine had done over a thousand years earlier, re-establishing Byzantium as his new capital, New Rome, Mehmed was determined to restore the city’s fortunes and place it on a higher pedestal.
He issued a rallying call to people of all races and religions to come, live and work in the city. It was an open door policy based on tolerance and freedom designed to attract skills, creativity and energy. As the pasha of the Sultan advised in the fifteenth century, trade would set Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire on the path to success:
“Look favorably upon the merchants of the land, and always look after them, and let no one harass them… For through their trade the land flourishes and the cheapness of their merchandise abounds in the world, and through them the Sultan’s excellent fame is transmitted to the surrounding lands and wealth increases in the land.”
Within a few decades, a whole host of foreign companies had stepped over the welcome mat and set up shop. Armenians prospered as jewelers, artisans, and merchants. Jews became successful apothecaries, blacksmiths and bankers. The Italians were busy importing silk, paper, and glass. Even the English were invited to the party when, in 1579, Sultan Murad III wrote to Elizabeth I welcoming English merchants to come and work in his free-trade empire.
Many of these businesses were operated out of the covered bazaar built by Mehmet the Conqueror, which still stands in the heart of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. You can still feel some of the sights, smells, and sounds of ancient Constantinople if you take some time to explore this labyrinthine city-within-a-city. Down the slope to the Spice Bazaar, the lanes are crowded with small shops and workshops filled with artisans plying their trade. She gives a small hint of the abundance of goods that once came to the imperial capital, from every corner of the globe.
For centuries, the Ottoman Empire was the mediator of the world, its famous merchants uniting three continents – Europe, Africa and Asia, even to the east of China. The world’s bounty didn’t just arrive by sea. All roads lead to Constantinople. Caravans of camels and mules of up to 2,000 soldiers arrived every month converging from all points of the horizon – from Poland to Arabia, from France to Persia.
Constantinople was a magnet for both goods and people long before the Turks arrived. A regular stopping place for Christian pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, once Byzantine Emperor Justinian built Hagia Sophia in the sixth century, the capital itself became a major pilgrimage site and tourist destination. Not an ancient place of worship, Hagia Sophia was the greatest church in Christendom for nearly a millennium. Converted into a mosque by Muhammad al-Fateh, it stands today as a picturesque museum open to people of all faiths.
Throughout Hagia Sophia a powerful reminder of the city’s longevity and glorious past. A few hundred meters to the north is Topkapi Palace, where the Ottoman Sultans lived and ruled in sumptuous grandeur. The Blue Mosque is a few hundred meters to the south, its slender minarets defining the city’s skyline. Next to it is the ancient Roman hippodrome, decorated with an Egyptian obelisk. When touring Istanbul, it is hard to imagine another city that could rival it as an open-air museum.
However, this is not a ghost town, nor is the city dyed in wool and old memories are shared. After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, its renaming as Istanbul and its demotion from the capital, the old city is on the rise again. Although Ankara is now the political capital of Turkey, located in the geographical heart of the country, Istanbul dwarfs it in terms of population, as well as in vitality. Adorned with some of the world’s finest architectural and artistic wonders, and with an extraordinary historical legacy on every street corner, Istanbul remains the true social, artistic and commercial hub of a vibrant and vibrant Turkey. Growing at an exponential rate, from 3 million in 1970 to a behemoth of nearly 11 million residents today, the city continues to be the ultimate cultural crossroads. Its lure and allure is stronger than ever – for many people its streets still seem paved with gold.