Because of its location, Istanbul—or Constantinople or Byzantium, as the city was known in earlier epochs—has been the lynchpin of Asia and Europe for thousands of years. In her beautifully written account, British historian Bettany Hughes capably juggles telling anecdotes and historic milestones from across the centuries. The city was the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires; as the seat of Eastern Orthodox Christianity it was besieged 13 times by Islamic armies and looted by Roman Catholic Crusaders. “Istanbul can never be listless,” Hughes concludes, surveying the contemporary city’s vivacious urban sprawl where remnants of many civilizations fill the shadows of modernity. In the struggle between great monotheisms that played out across much of the city’s timeline, Hughes finds many examples ignored in most histories of philosophical common ground, social intercourse and economic cooperation.
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