When did Constantinople become a Turkish city? Istanbul: legends of the conquered City

On March 28, 1930, by order of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Constantinople was renamed Istanbul. The change of the sign on the gates of Constantinople was one of the final stages of the reforms of the first president of Turkey and symbolized the country’s final rejection of the Ottoman political heritage and the transition to secularism. Today, the legendary city, located in two parts of the world, is again at a crossroads - between Ataturk’s Europeanism and Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism.

• RIA Novosti

New name - new destiny. Istanbul has experienced the validity of this thesis more than once. The first sharp turn in the history of the city happened in 330: at the behest of Constantine, ancient Greek Byzantium became New Rome - the official capital of the Roman Empire, and almost half a century later it gave its generic name to its eastern successor. However, as the New or Second Rome, the city existed for a little more than a century and was again renamed: the capital of Byzantium was named Constantinople.

Another turn of fate occurred in 1453, when the city of Constantine was conquered by the Turks and proclaimed the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Formally, it retained its previous name, but it was changed in the Turkish way - Kostantiniye. Unofficially, the new owners dubbed it Istanbul. And the civilized world began to call this city simply - Istanbul.

Double name - double life: the largest center of Eastern Christianity turned into the center of the Islamic world. Istanbul-Constantinople existed in such an ambiguous position until the proclamation of the republic. And then, by the decisive hand of Ataturk, the city was deprived of its capital status and was soon renamed.

By the way, along with Constantinople, other Turkish cities with Greek roots also changed their signs: the newly-minted capital Angora became Ankara, Smyrna became Izmir, Adrianople became Edirne. And so that lovers of antiquity would be discouraged from looking into the past, correspondence marked “Constantinople” was sent back, notifying the addressee that such a city did not exist.

Word and deed

But before changing the signs, the first president of Turkey implemented his famous reforms, which transformed the country from a backward caliphate into a prosperous secular republic.

Türkiye has transformed externally and internally. Women received equal rights with men - and the compulsory wearing of Muslim clothing became a thing of the past. A new Latinized alphabet was introduced, replacing the Arabic script. Sharia laws have sunk into oblivion, giving way to the Civil Code. And finally, Türkiye adopted a common international system of time, calendar and measures for all progressive humanity. Thus, the doors to the European family of nations opened for Turkey.

Transformations in the economy have become no less noticeable. The reforms gave impetus to the rapid development of industry. The country was experiencing an industrial boom, enterprises were being built, roads were being built. Thanks to private entrepreneurship, agriculture has stepped from an antediluvian state into a new technological era. In a word, modernization was in full swing.

The final chord of the symphony of reforms was the change in the name of the very first president of Turkey. According to the law on surnames, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey assigned him the surname Ataturk (“father of the Turks”), which, however, is more reminiscent of an honorary title.

Forward to the past

The conquests of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk seemed unshakable. But only until Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power. The new helmsman of the Turkish Republic is persistently charting a course towards the Ottoman Empire. To understand this, it is enough to pay attention to such telling little things as the increase in the number of Muslim schools, permission to wear hijabs in secular universities and even in parliament, as well as the revival of the fashion for beards - before, the Turks, imitating Ataturk, shaved their chins and grew mustaches. The recent statement of the first lady of Turkey, Emine Erdogan, who publicly stated that “the harem is a wonderful school of life,” is also indicative.

Creeping Islamization penetrates into all spheres of life in the republic, and most importantly, into the minds of its citizens. And today, neo-Ottoman ideas no longer seem utopian to many Turks, especially young ones. Erdogan reinforces his sweet dreams of the revival of the caliphate with radical measures: abandoning Ataturk’s peaceful foreign policy and aggressive actions in the international arena, tightening the screws within the country and persecuting the free press. And also seasonal, so to speak, preventive floggings of the senior military leadership, who until recently were the guarantor and support of Turkey’s secularism. After all, Ataturk himself, whose portraits today disappear from the streets, orders and are erased from school textbooks, was a representative of the Turkish generals.

Ilya Oganjanov

Every educated person knows two things about the history of Istanbul:

• Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire here and gave the city his name, calling it Constantinople. (IV century AD)
• After more than a thousand years, the Ottoman armies captured it and turned it into the capital of the Islamic world. At the same time, the name was changed, and it turned into Istanbul. (XVI century AD)

I learned about the second of these renamings in childhood from a song I heard in a cartoon (only 2 minutes, I highly recommend it, it lifts my spirits):

"Istanbul was Constantinople, now it"s Istanbul, not Constantinople, why did Constantinople get the works?.."

But, as it turned out, I was wrong. Neither Constantine nor the conquering Sultan renamed the city as I thought. They renamed it completely differently.

Here is a brief history of the many names of long-suffering Istanbul:

In 667 BC the city was founded under the nameByzantium (Greek Βυζάντιον) - there are suggestions that it was named so in honor of the Greek king Byzantine.

In 74 AD, the city of Byzantium became part of the Roman Empire. His name has not changed.

In 193, Emperor Septimius Severus decides to rename the city in honor of his son Anthony. For 19 years Byzantium becameAugusta Antonina , then the name was changed back.

In 330, Constantine proclaimed Byzantium the capital of the empire, and issued a decree renaming the city New Rome (and not what you thought). True, no one liked this name, and residents continued to call the city Byzantium. At this point, the city was already almost 1,000 years old.

During his reign, Constantine intensively rebuilt the city, increased its size several times, and generally changed its appearance beyond recognition. For this, people began to call Byzantium the city of Constantine (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις).

Only during the reign of Theodosius II, about a hundred years later, the city was first calledConstantinople in official documents - no one liked the name “New Rome” so much. As a result, this name was assigned to the Byzantine capital for centuries.

In 1453, Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople after a long siege. This marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, and gave rise to the Ottoman Empire. The new owners began to call the city in a new way:Constantine . However, when translated, this means absolutely the same as in Greek - “city of Constantine.” At the same time, foreigners called it Constantinople and continued to do so.

To my surprise, it turned out that the city was called Constantinople throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire. Only after the emergence of the Turkish Republic in the 1920s, it was considered necessary to rename it. The Ataturk government urged all foreigners to call the city by a new name:Istanbul . (In Russian the city began to be called Istanbul.)

Where did this name come from? Another surprise: this is not a Turkish word at all, as I thought. For centuries, local residents referred to the central part of the city in Greek as "εις την Πόλιν" (in the Middle Ages it was pronounced "istembolis"). What simply means “City”, or, in the modern sense, “downtown”. This is exactly what New Yorkers call Manhattan “city” today.

Istanbul is the only metropolis in the world that is located in 2 parts of the world at once. The sea gate from Asia to Europe and the crossroads of cultures. The ancient city, from which the Christian history of Europe began, has a rich history and biography. It is not surprising that over more than two thousand years of history it has changed its name more than once.

The city was founded by the Greeks in 667 BC. under the name Byzantium, presumably it was named in honor of the Greek king Byzantium. In 74 AD, Byzantium became part of the Roman Empire. The name of the city has not changed.

In 193, Emperor Septimius Severus decided to perpetuate the name of his son Anthony and for 19 years Byzantium began to be called Augusta Antonina. The name, as history shows, did not stick.

In 330, the first Christian emperor Constantine proclaimed Byzantium the capital of the empire and issued a decree renaming it New Rome. Its residents also did not like this name, and unofficially everyone continued to call the city Byzantium.

During the reign of Constantine, the city was thoroughly rebuilt: the temples to the Greek gods on the Acropolis remained intact, but the appearance of the city completely changed. In gratitude for this, a hundred years later, already under the reign of Theodosius II, it was decided to officially change the name New Rome to Constantinople. The city of Constantine, literally from Greek.

After the collapse of the empire, Constantinople became the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman - since 395, remained the only empire since 476). The self-name of the empire was “Romean”, and the people - “Romei” - Romans. This name – “rumlar” in Turkish – is what the Turks continue to call the city’s few Greeks to this day.

For a millennium, Constantinople was the capital of Byzantium, the largest center of Eastern Christianity, and one of the largest cities in the world. In 1204 it was plundered by the crusaders, who established the Latin Empire in it until 1261. The restored Byzantium under the rule of the Palaiologan dynasty existed until 1453, when the city was taken by the Turks and Sultan Mehmed II proclaimed the city the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The conqueror moved his capital here, which meant the end of the Byzantine Empire and the beginning of a new one - the Ottoman Empire.

Surprisingly, the Sultan did not rename Constantinople and the city lived under this Greek name until March 1930, when the government of Kemal Ataturk, which had proclaimed the Turkish Republic several years earlier, decided to reject the Greek name of the ancient city and ordered from now on to call it Istanbul (in Russian - Istanbul). Which supposedly means “filled with Islam.” There really are a lot of Muslim churches there, including some converted from Christian ones.

According to a more common version, the historical surprise is that this is not a Turkish word at all, but also Greek. For centuries, local residents, speaking of the central part of the city, called it “Istinpolin” or “Istembolis”, which goes back to the Greek phrase. εἰς τὴν Πόλι(ν) (“is tin pόli(n)”, “is tim boli(n)”) - “to the city” or “to the city”.

Lygos, Byzantium, Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - whatever the name of this ancient city was! And with each name his appearance, his character changed dramatically. The new owners of the city developed it in their own way.

Pagan temples became Byzantine churches, and those, in turn, turned into mosques. What is modern Istanbul like - an Islamic feast on the bones of lost civilizations or an organic interpenetration of different cultures? We will try to find out this in this article.

We will tell the amazingly exciting story of this city, which was destined to become the capital of three superpowers - the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. But has anything survived from the ancient polis?

Should a traveler come to Istanbul in search of Constantinople, the same Constantinople from which the baptists of Kievan Rus came? Let's live all the milestones in the history of this Turkish metropolis, which will reveal all its secrets to us.

Foundation of Byzantium

As you know, the ancient Greeks were a very restless people. They plied the waters of the Mediterranean, Ionian, Adriatic, Marmara and Black Seas on ships and developed the coasts, founding new settlements there. So in the 8th century BC, Chalcedon, Perinthos, Selymbria and Astak arose on the territory of modern Istanbul (formerly Constantinople).

Regarding the founding in 667 BC. e. the city of Byzantium, which later gave the name to the whole empire, there is an interesting legend. According to it, King Visas, the son of the sea god Poseidon and the daughter of Zeus Keroessa, went to the Delphic oracle to ask him where to found his city-state. The soothsayer asked Apollo, and he gave the following answer: “Build a city opposite the blind.”

Visas interpreted these words as follows. It was necessary to establish a policy directly opposite Chalcedon, which arose thirteen years earlier on the Asian shore of the Sea of ​​​​Marmara. The strong current did not allow the construction of a port there. The tsar considered such shortsightedness of the founders to be a sign of political blindness.

Ancient Byzantium

Located on the European shore of the Sea of ​​Marmara, the policy, initially called Lygos, was able to acquire a convenient port. This spurred the development of trade and crafts. Named Byzantium after the death of the king in honor of its founder, the city controlled the passage of ships through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea.

Thus, he kept his finger on the pulse of all trade relations between Greece and its distant colonies. But the extremely successful location of the policy also had a negative side. It made Byzantium an “apple of discord.”

The city was constantly captured by: the Persians (King Darius in 515 BC), the tyrant of Chalcedon Ariston, the Spartans (403 BC). Nevertheless, sieges, wars and changes of government had little effect on the economic prosperity of the polis. Already in the 5th century BC, the city grew so much that it occupied the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, including the territory of Chalcedon.

In 227 BC. e. Galatians, immigrants from Europe, settled there. In the 4th century BC. e. Byzantium (the future Constantinople and Istanbul) gains autonomy, and the concluded alliance with Rome allows the polis to strengthen its power. But the city-state was not able to maintain its independence for long, about 70 years (from 146 to 74 BC).

Roman period

Joining the empire only benefited the economy of Byzantium (as it began to be called in Latin). For almost 200 years, it grew peacefully on both banks of the Bosphorus. But at the end of the 2nd century AD, civil war in the Roman Empire put an end to its prosperity.

Byzantium supported the party of Gaius Pescennius Niger, the current ruler. Because of this, the city was besieged and three years later taken by the troops of the new emperor, Lucius the Last ordered to destroy all the fortifications of the ancient polis to the ground, and at the same time canceled all its trading privileges.

A traveler arriving in Istanbul (Constantinople) will only be able to see the ancient hippodrome that remains from that time. It is located on Sultanahmet Square, right between the city's two main shrines - the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Another monument of that period is the Valens Aqueduct, which began to be built during the reign of Hadrian (2nd century AD).

Having lost its fortifications, Byzantium began to be subject to raids by barbarians. Without trading privileges and a port, its economic growth ceased. Residents began to leave the city. Byzantium shrank to its original size. That is, he occupied a high cape between the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Golden Horn Bay.

But Byzantium was not destined to vegetate for long as a backwater on the outskirts of the empire. Emperor Constantine the Great noted the extremely favorable location of the town on a cape, controlling the passage from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea.

He ordered the strengthening of Byzantium, the construction of new roads, and the construction of beautiful administrative buildings. At first, the emperor did not even think about leaving his capital - Rome. But tragic events in his personal life (Constantine executed his son Crispus and his wife Fausta) forced him to leave the Eternal City and go east. It was this circumstance that forced him to pay closer attention to Byzantium.

In 324, the emperor ordered the construction of the city to begin on a metropolitan scale. Six years later, on May 11, 330, the official ceremony of consecration of New Rome took place. Almost immediately the second name was assigned to the city - Constantinople.

Istanbul was transformed during the reign of this emperor. Thanks to the Edict of Milan, the pagan temples of the city were left untouched, but Christian shrines began to be built, in particular the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Constantinople during the reign of subsequent emperors

Rome suffered more and more from barbarian raids. There was unrest on the borders of the empire. Therefore, the successors of Constantine the Great preferred to consider New Rome their residence. Under the young emperor Theodosius II, prefect Flavius ​​Anthemius ordered the strengthening of the capital.

In 412-414, new walls of Constantinople were erected. Fragments of these fortifications (in the western part) are still preserved in Istanbul. The walls stretched for five and a half kilometers, encircling the territory of New Rome of 12 square meters. km. Along the perimeter of the fortifications, 96 towers rose 18 meters. And the walls themselves still amaze with their inaccessibility.

Constantine the Great also ordered the construction of a family tomb near the Church of the Holy Apostles (he was buried in it). This emperor restored the Hippodrome, erected baths and cisterns to accumulate water for the needs of the city. At the time of the reign of Theodosius II, Constantinople included seven hills - the same number as in Rome.

Capital of the Eastern Empire

Since 395, internal contradictions in the once powerful superpower led to a split. Theodosius the First divided his possessions between his sons Honorius and Arkady. The Western Roman Empire de facto ceased to exist in 476.

But its eastern part was little affected by barbarian raids. It continued to exist under the name of the Roman Empire. In this way, continuity with Rome was emphasized. The inhabitants of this empire were called Romans. But later, along with the official name, the word Byzantium began to be used more and more often.

Constantinople (Istanbul) gave its ancient name to the entire empire. All subsequent rulers left behind a significant mark on the architecture of the city, erecting new public buildings, palaces, and churches. But the “golden age” of Byzantine Constantinople is considered to be the period from 527 to 565.

City of Justinian

In the fifth year of this emperor's reign, a riot broke out - the largest in the history of the city. This uprising, called "Nika", was brutally suppressed. 35 thousand people were executed.

The rulers know that, along with repression, they need to somehow reassure their subjects, either by staging a victorious blitzkrieg or by starting mass construction. Justinian chose the second path. The city is turning into a big construction site.

The Emperor called the best architects of the country to New Rome. It was then that in just five years (from 532 to 537) the St. Sophia Cathedral was built in Constantinople (or Istanbul). The Vlaherna quarter was demolished, and new fortifications appeared in its place.

Justinian did not forget himself either, ordering the construction of an imperial palace in Constantinople. The construction of the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus also dates back to the period of his reign.

After the death of Justinian, Byzantium began to experience difficult times. The years of the reign of Phocas and Heraclius weakened it internally, and sieges by the Avars, Persians, Arabs, Bulgarians and Eastern Slavs undermined its military power. Religious strife did not benefit the capital either.

The struggle between iconoclasts and worshipers of holy faces often ended in the looting of churches. But with all this, the population of New Rome exceeded one hundred thousand people, which was larger than any major European city of those times.

Period of the Macedonian dynasty and Komnenos

From 856 to 1185 Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) is experiencing unprecedented prosperity. The first university - the Higher School - appeared in the city, arts and crafts flourished. True, this “golden age” was also marred by various problems.

From the 11th century, Byzantium began to lose its possessions in Asia Minor due to the invasion of the Seljuk Turks. Nevertheless, the capital of the empire flourished. A traveler interested in the history of the Middle Ages should pay attention to the surviving frescoes in Hagia Sophia, which depict representatives of the Komnenos dynasty, and also visit the Blachernae Palace.

It should be said that during that period the city center shifted to the west, closer to the defensive walls. Western European cultural influence began to be felt more in the city - mainly thanks to the Venetian and Genoese merchants who settled in

While walking around Istanbul in search of Constantinople, you should visit the Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, as well as the churches of Our Lady of Kyriotissa, Theodore, Theodosia, Ever-Virgin Pammakristi, Jesus Pantepoptos. All these temples were erected under Komnenos.

Latin period and Turkish conquest

In 1204, the Pope declared the Fourth Crusade. The European army took the city by storm and completely burned it. Constantinople became the capital of the so-called Latin Empire.

The occupation regime of the Baldwins of Flanders did not last long. The Greeks regained power, and a new Palaiologan dynasty settled in Constantinople. It was ruled primarily by the Genoese and Venetians, forming an almost autonomous Galata quarter.

Under them, the city turned into a large shopping center. But they neglected the military defense of the capital. The Ottoman Turks did not fail to take advantage of this circumstance. In 1452, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror built the Rumelihisar fortress on the European shore of the Bosphorus (north of the modern Bebek region).

And it doesn’t matter in what year Constantinople became Istanbul. The fate of the city was sealed with the construction of this fortress. Constantinople could no longer resist the Ottomans and was taken on May 29. The body of the last Greek emperor was buried with honors, and his head was put on public display at the Hippodrome.

Capital of the Ottoman Empire

It is difficult to say exactly when Constantinople became Istanbul, since the new owners retained its old name for the city. True, they changed it in the Turkish way. Constantiniye became the capital because the Turks wanted to position themselves as the “Third Rome”.

At the same time, another name began to be heard more and more often in everyday life - “Is Tanbul”, which in the local dialect simply means “in the city”. Of course, Sultan Mehmed ordered to turn all the churches in the city into mosques. But Constantinople only flourished under the rule of the Ottomans. After all, their empire was powerful, and the wealth of the conquered peoples “settled” in the capital.

Konstantiniye acquired new mosques. The most beautiful of them, built by the architect Sinan Suleymaniye-Jami, rises in the old part of the city, in the Vefa area.

On the site of the Roman Forum of Theodosius, the Eski-Saray palace was built, and on the acropolis of Byzantium - Topkapi, which served as the residence for 25 rulers of the Ottoman Empire, who lived there for four centuries. In the 17th century, Ahmed the First ordered the construction of the Blue Mosque opposite Hagia Sophia, another beautiful shrine of the city.

Decline of the Ottoman Empire

For Constantinople, the “golden age” occurred during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. This sultan pursued both an aggressive and wise internal state policy. But his successors are gradually beginning to lose ground.

The empire is expanding geographically, but weak infrastructure does not allow communication between the provinces, which come under the authority of local managers. Selim the Third, Mehmet the Second and Abdul-Mecid are trying to introduce reforms that turn out to be clearly insufficient and do not meet the needs of the time.

However, Türkiye still wins the Crimean War. At the time when Constantinople was renamed Istanbul (but only unofficially), many buildings were built in the city in a European style. And the sultans themselves ordered the construction of a new palace - Domlabahce.

This building, reminiscent of an Italian Renaissance palazzo, can be seen on the European side of the city, on the border of the Kabatas and Besiktas districts. In 1868, the Galatosarai Lyceum was opened, two years later - the university. Then the city acquired a tram line.

And in 1875, a metro called the “Tunnel” even appeared in Istanbul. After 14 years, the capital became connected to other cities by rail. The legendary Orient Express arrived here from Paris.

Republic of Türkiye

But the rule of the sultanate did not meet the needs of the era. In 1908, a revolution took place in the country. But the “Young Turks” dragged the state into the First World War on the side of Germany, as a result of which Constantinople was captured by the troops of France and Great Britain.

As a result of the new revolution, Mustafa Kemal comes to power, whom the Turks to this day consider the “father of the nation.” He moves the country's capital to the city of Angora, which he renames Ankara. It's time to talk about the year in which Constantinople became Istanbul. This happened on March 28, 1930.

It was then that the “Post Law” came into force, which prohibited the use of the name Constantinople in letters (and in official documents). But, we repeat, the name Istanbul existed during the Ottoman Empire.