Istanbul har alltid vært et sted hvor fortellinger og historier møtes, hvor ideene er like levende som historiske fakta. Fra Koranen til Shakespeare, dette er byen med tre navn - Bysants, Konstantinopel og Istanbul. Som en port mellom øst og vest har denne byen fungert som hovedstad for det romerske, bysantiske, latinske og ottomanske imperiet. I denne biografien tar Bettany Hughes oss med på en historisk reise gjennom Istanbul. Omtalen er utarbeidet av BS.
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.
