[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
The study of Constantinople seems virtually inexhaustible, and new insights continue to emerge. For the Roman part of its history, The Cambridge Companion to Constantinople[1] along with more niche studies such as Paul Magdalino’s Roman Constantinople in Byzantine Perspective[2] and Elena M. Boeck’s The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople[3] have recently demonstrated the vigour and ingenuity of scholarship on the city. The present work, a multi-authored collection of essays, “aims to visit all periods of the city’s existence, from its Prehistory to its rise as a global city in the twenty-first century” (p.5), and to examine the visual culture of the city in the widest sense: geography, landmarks, religious symbols, and urban design, with an emphasis on the different cultural engagements with the past.
The Introduction gives a general historical overview, and Chapter 1 by Floris van den Eijnde summarizes the geology of the place and topography of the polis Byzantion. In Chapter 2, Mark Humphries traces the eclipse in importance of Rome in late antiquity and the emergence of Constantinople as the ruling city and draws on the Chronicon Paschale to demonstrate how long-standing historical reality received an ideological underpinning in the seventh century. Chapter 3 by Fabian Schultz analyses aspects of the rupture between Rome and Constantinoplethe conflicts connected to the patriarchs Gregory of Nazianzus (the Meletian Schism of 381) and Photius (the Photian Schism, 863-867), with Michael Keroularios (the Great Schism of 1054) as a coda, though his contribution is mainly treated in a footnote. Chapter 4 by Shaun Tougher gives a précis of the functions and politics of the court under the Macedonians (867-1056). Chapter 5 by Filippo Ronconi explores libraries, readership, influences and tastes throughout the late antique and medieval periods of the city. Though post-classical works were evidently the most copied and read category of manuscripts, successive generations of scholars and patrons of literature went to great lengths to preserve and restore libraries in the face of adversity, as shown by the flourishing of scholarship in the exilic empire in Nicaea and the last centuries of Roman rule. The chapter manages to combine the story of transmission and libraries with the more mundane activities surrounding manuscripts: copying, the act of reading, etc.
Chapter 6 by Mariëtte Verhoeven is diachronic in nature as well but catalogues many of the churches turned into mosques and shows how these transformations along with earthquakes and fires changed their remains through the ages up to the present, with ruins being turned into mosques again and mosaics and frescoes being hidden or covered. Chapter 7 by Joanita Vroom is an updated version of an earlier paper from 2011, published by two of the editors of the present volume.[4] It offers an overview of the findings from the Marmaray rescue excavations of 2004-15, especially the Theodosian harbour, which was active from late antiquity to around 1200 when silting from the Lykos river and the Sea of Marmara finally put an end to the harbour as a port of trade. The 37 vessels of varying size found on the site provides a unique insight into the provisioning of the city and the role of smaller vessels in the trade routes of Constantinople. Chapter 8 by Rolf Strootman, also an updated version of a paper from the same publication, bridges the eras of the emperors and the sultans by interpreting Mehmed II’s reign as in essence a continuation of rulership in Constantinople. Mehmet II styled himself as a new Constantine and renovator of the dilapidated city. Seen in this light, Mehmet’s decision to demolish the Church of the Holy Apostles in 1463 was perhaps less motivated by a wish to sever ties with the Roman past than to present himself through the building of his own tomb on the site as a second, truer Constantine. Though Mehmed’s building projects, public actions, and official propaganda clearly promoted this view, it seems strange to demolish the grave of Constantine if not to mark a break with that emperor. But then again, imperial propaganda has a way of having the cake and eating it too. The chapter opens and ends with some perspectives on the current use of the history of the conquest of Constantinople and the shaping of nationalist narratives in present day Istanbul and Ankara.
Chapter 9 by Paolo Girardelli explores the special Levantine character of Pera with its Christian quarters, churches, and embassies. Chapter 10 by Nicola Verderame is a microhistory of the fountains of Constantinople in the second half of the nineteenth century. Though Sultan Abdulhamid II did not have much of a public presence, he ensured that the public was aware of his benevolence and munificence by dedicating fountains with inscriptions and coats of arms, thus legitimizing his reign. Conversely, the public was able to circumvent the government and appeal directly to the ruler, highlighting the neo-patrimonial power structures emerging at this time. The chapter also details the shift towards concessions for the upkeep of the waterworks, granting rights to private companies who would then distribute water to subscribers. In Chapter 11, Brian Johnson and Richard Wittmann trace the development of the burial grounds of Pera, the Grand Champs de Morts, and the transfer of the Christian cemetery further north in the nineteenth century. We hear of its use as recreational grounds for the citizens of Constantinople, including the celebrations of festivals, complete with kebabs prepared on site. The chapter contains a host of small biographies of the interred and their families in western Europe, creating a charming slice of life narrative in tandem with the overall subject of the chapter.[5]
Chapter 12 by Ceren Abi presents the emergence of traditions and historical narratives in the late eighteenth century and especially in the wake of the outbreak of the First World War and the Gallipoli campaign. The threat to Constantinople stimulated a traditionalistic and nationalistic response, with a new interest in Turkishness and the conquest of 1453. Chapter 13 by N. Buket Cengiz describes the rapid displacement of the city’s minorities, their immigration from Anatolia in the second half of the twentieth century and the nostalgia for a cosmopolitanism that never really was; Ottoman society was not multicultural or cosmopolitan but rather heterogenous owing to the millet system, which imposed strict divisions, especially for non-Muslims. The second part of the chapter is a survey of modern literature on and by the minority groups of Constantinople. In Chapter 14 by Enno Maessen, an analysis of the recent history of the Beyoğlu district shows the complicated nature of this part of Istanbul with its pogroms, gentrification, and nostalgia.
As should be clear from the resumé, Constantinople through the Ages does indeed “visit all periods of the city’s existence” as promised in the introduction. The approach is openly eclectic and does not aim to be comprehensive offering a series of insights into the cultural layers of the city across time. However, while often interesting in their own right, the chapters lack the kind of cohesion one would hope for in a thematic volume, and the logic behind the choice of subject matter is at times hard to grasp. The chapters vary in approach from diachronic overviews to detailed studies (e.g., of fountains, excavation sites, or the polemics of Gregory Nazianzus and Photius), and often the subjects sit too far apart to inform each other or to present a connection beyond the geography of the city. Constantinople through the Ages situates itself uncomfortably between general introductions and specialized studies of rather narrow scope limiting its use for specialists and the uninitiated alike.
Authors and titles
Introduction, Diederik Burgersdijk, Fokke Gerritsen, and Willemijn Waal
- Byzantium’s Earliest History: Formation, Colonization, and Habitation of the Βοσπόριος ἄκρα, Floris van den Eijnde
- The Shadow of Constantinople: the New Rome and the Old from Constantine to Constans II, Mark Humphries
- The Bishops of Constantinople and the Opposing Occident: Gregory, Photius, and Rome, Fabian Schultz
- Court Life in Byzantine Constantinople: the Age of the Macedonian Dynasty (867–1056), Shaun Tougher
- Visible Words: The Transmission of Classical Texts in Constantinople in Light of Surviving Manuscripts and Literary Evidence, Filippo Ronconi
- The Byzantine Churches of Constantinople: History, Transformation, and Heritage, Mariëtte Verhoeven
- Next Stop, Constantinople: How a New Istanbul Metro Line Revealed Archaeological Treasures, Joanita Vroom
- From Hippodromos to Atmeydanı: Continuity and Change in the Urban Layout of Constantinople after the Ottoman Conquest, Rolf Strootman
- A Levantine Landscape: Galata and Pera, Paolo Girardelli
- Re-branding Water: Imperial Fountains in the Hamidian Historical Peninsula, Nicola Verderame
- Funerary Heritage of the Grand Champs des Morts: Evidence of Istanbul’s Communal Diversity in Feriköy, Brian Johnson and Richard Wittmann
- Istanbul during the Allied Occupation: Ottoman and Allied Relationships to the City and Its Past (1918–1923), Ceren Abi
- The People of the Palimpsest City: Istanbul in Prose Fiction after the Twentieth Century, Buket Cengiz
- The Beyoğlu District between Resilience and Conflict 1950–2010, Enno Maessen
Notes
[1] Basset, Sarah (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Constantinople, 2022.
[2] Magdalino, Paul, Roman Constantinople in Byzantine perspective: the memorial and aesthetic rediscovery of Constantine’s beautiful city, from late antiquity to the Renaissance, 2024.
[3] Boeck, Elena M., The bronze horseman of Justinian in Constantinople. The cross-cultural biography of a Mediterranean monument, 2021.
[4] Burgersdijk, D. and Waal, W. (eds.), Constantinopel, een mozaïek van de Byzantijnse Metropool, 2011.
[5] The chapter is open access.