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Published by The Washington Post
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Monday, 02 January 2006 |
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Constantinople, City of the World's Desire 1453-1924">Constantinople, City of the World's Desire 1453-1924
By Philip Mansel,
"The seat of the Roman Empire is Constantinople ... Therefore you are the legitimate Emperor of the Romans ... And he who is and remains Emperor of the Romans is also Emperor of the whole earth."-George Trapezuntios to Mehmed the Conqueror, 1466"The only multinational capital in Europe, Constantinople received names in more languages than any other city. Serbs, Bulgarians and Russians admired Tsarigrad - the city of Emperors. Armenians lived in Gosdantnubolis - the city of Constantine. In everyday language Greeks called it - as some still do - polis, the city: there is no other. Its official Greek name had been Constantinoupolis Nea Roma, after which Ottomans called it, on coins and most official documents, Kostantiniyye (which is also its name in Arabic). In literary Ottoman it was called Der-i Sa'adet, `the House of Good Fortune', since it had the good fortune to be the Sultan's residence, or Asithane, Persian for `house of state'. However its name, in everyday spoken Turkish, even before the conquest, was a corruption of the Greek phrase for `into the city', eis teen teen polin: Istanbul...."
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