
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ` Life-filled & life-affirming history, steeped in romance & written with verve` GUARDIAN ` Richly entertaining & impeccably reserached` Peter Frankopan Istanbul has always been a place where stories & histories collide & crackle, where the idea is as potent as the historical fact. From the Qu`ran to Shakespeare, this city with three names
- Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul
- resonates as an idea & a place, & overspills its boundaries
- real & imagined. Standing as the gateway between the East & West, it has served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin & Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was known simply as The City, but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a story. In this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey through the many incarnations of one of the world`s greatest cities. As the longest-lived political entity in Europe, over the last 6, 000 years Istanbul has absorbed a mosaic of micro-cities & cultures all gathering around the core. At the latest count archaeologists have measured forty-two human habitation layers. Phoenicians, Genoese, Venetians, Jews, Vikings, Azeris all called a patch of this earth their home. Based on meticulous research & new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate & scholarly narrative history at its finest.