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Istanbul

A Tale of Three Cities

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Istanbul

By: Bettany Hughes
Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
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Summary

 THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'Life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve' GUARDIAN

'Richly entertaining and impeccably researched' Peter Frankopan

Istanbul has always been a place where stories and histories collide and 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 and a place, and overspills its boundaries - real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between the East and West, it has served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and 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 and 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 and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate and scholarly narrative history at its finest.

Written and read by Bettany Hughes

(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group©2017 Bettany Hughes Ancient Archaeology Eastern Europe Middle East Turkey Middle Ages Ottoman Empire Imperialism Africa Iran Greek Mythology Thought-Provoking Ancient History War Crusade Mythology Ancient Greece
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Critic reviews

This is historical narrative brimming with brio and incident. Hughes's portraits are written with a zesty flourish ... Istanbul is a visceral, pulsating city. In Bettany Hughes's life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve, it has found a sympathetic and engaging champion' (Justin Marozzi)
Bettany Hughes' Istanbul is built deliberately on what is passing as well as past. It is a story of numerous overlapping names, changes that often happened more slowly than the guidebooks tell us. Her subject is the city that was Byzantium for some 900 years, Christian Constantinopole for another 1,000, Islamic Islam-bol, then Istanbul - while also being New Rome, a Diamond Between Two Sapphires and The World's Desire...assiduous...passionate...there have beeen swirling tidal shifts around Istanbul since she began this book 10 years or so ago. She is celebrating citizenry of the world at a time when that idea is in retreat, damnming the "otherness" that the west has bestowed upon the east when throughout the world there are more and more "others"...She is a wistul and impassioned cosmopolitan who has produced a challenging story for 2017. (Peter Stothard)
Her latest book, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, is a particular stroke of genius...Over the years the city has had three names - Byzantium, Contantinople and Istanbul so in a vivid rattle she hurls Xerxes, Alcibiades, Constantine, Justinian, Theodora, Suleyman the Magnificent and a sometimes overwhelming cast of thousands before us...It is a story well worth telling as the region continues to implode, the final or at least latest lashings out of the Ottoman Empire's collapse...The book is littered with historical echoes that...are impossible to ignore...there are wonderful anecdotes...She concludes with an encomium to Istanbul as a world city - literally, a cosmo-polis - where faiths and ethnicities are brought together by learning or trade...not an original thought but one that in this particularly troubled moment, for bomb-hit Istanbul and the rest of us, bears repeating. (Richard Spencer)
With a broadcaster's delight, Bettany Hughes...throws herself into the gargantuan task of capturing the history of a city that spans 3,000 years, and whose story has been woefully neglected compared with other great urban centres...Hughes reconstructs Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul as living, breathing landscapes...her scholarship is impressive...her enthusiasm radiates...Her subject...is irresistibly rich. The place known simply as "The City", Hughes notes, has long lived a "double life - as a real place and as a story"...The tale she tells of the metropolis at the crossroads of the Earth is textured, readable and often compelling. (Louise Callaghan)
All stars
Most relevant
― George Orwell,

This is the history of a city that is placed on the crossroads of continents and ideas, a place that absorbs all the gods and despots that carry the standards of these gods to rule over the citizens, slaves, minds and the flow of monetary power that being at the center gives, but in the end this desirability is the undoing, the curse that defeats all mortals and Gods into the sediment and detritus of a city that is more immortal than all of them.
A panoramic historical view of a place that is just as important today as it was to Greeks and Persians, a book that moves through time and rivers of blood as potent as the Bosphorus, as horrible as the bombs and terrorism that seeps into its modern streets as the Ottoman empire tries to reawaken.
If you love history this book is a delight, but be aware that it concentrates in the city and sometimes you feel like a little more explanation of external influences would have helped to explain some events with more depth, also some aspects of social practices are not described as thoroughly as others; we expend a large amount of time on eunuchs but the enslavement and commerce of slaves till very recently feels like it almost to controversial a subject. Apart from that, this is a fantastic read that exposes humanity as much as a city.

Of Gods and men, war and commerce, suffering and delight, of desire and want we build the cities we inhabit that inhabit us.

Power is not a means; it is an end.

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A thorough history of a fascinating city. Excellently narrated by author. What a pleasure. Recommended.

A city history that needed to be told.

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I gave up part way through this book. It seemed overly full of small details. I put it to one side. Then a couple of months later I picked it up and tried again. How glad I am that I did! I needed to concentrate more. Pay attention to the fine detail. Once I’d made more effort I was richly rewarded with a wonderful journey through European history told with passion by one of, if not the best historians of our times. I’ve always watched Bethany Hughes TV programmes. I find them enthralling, and her lovely personality carries you along. Her knowledge and understanding of her subject is immense. She can lose herself in the story, then once you join her and make the effort you are rewarded with an understanding of human history that lives with you long after. The world is changing like never before. The politics of Europe are rubbing up against the politics of the East. Nobody knows where this will take us, but if you read/listen to this remarkable book you may gain some insight and see things clearer.

A long book but well worth the journey.

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If you're interested in the in finding out about Istanbul through its whole history in detail, this is probably the best book out there.
Excellently researched with historical detail as well as interesting stories.

Best Book on the subject

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This is a book that needs concentrating on. Hughes has a lovely voice to listen to and makes light work of difficult pronunciations. The story of the city is fascinating, complex and told in enough detail to give a well-stitched tapestry of the history, making sense of more than Istanbul alone. Loved it.

Long but fascinating

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