THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER \'Life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve\' GUARDIAN \'Richly entertaining and impeccably reserached\' 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.
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..
Phoenicians, Genoese, Venetians, Jews, Vikings, Azeris all called a patch of this earth their home.
At the latest count archaeologists have measured forty-two human habitation layers.
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.
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.
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.
Standing as the gateway between the East and West, it has served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires.
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.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER \'Life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve\' GUARDIAN \'Richly entertaining and impeccably reserached\' 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
