Istanbul: A City on Two Continents - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 209

Golden Horn. Memmet put seventy ships on wheeled cradles and, using oxen and soldiers,
had them hauled overland (the oarsmen pulling rhythmically against the air) and into the
waters of the Golden Horn. From there the flotilla's oarsmen rowed the attackers upstream
to the city's weakest defenses. And on Tuesday, May 29, Byzantium ceased to exist. To
this day, in the Orthodox Communion Tuesday is considered a less-than-auspicious day.
The last emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus, threw himself into the battle and was never
seen again. Three days of looting, rape, and killing followed; about 4,000 Byzantines are
estimated to have died. And in one of the city's palaces, Memmet is said to have intoned
the words of the Persian poet, Saadi: “The spider weaves the curtain in the palace of the
Caesars. / The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab” [165]
HOW DID THE TURKS CHANGE CONSTANTINOPLE?
With the capture of Constantinople (soon to be named Istanbul), the Ottomans brought to
the city the wealth of an expanding empire. At its height in 1653, when their armies be-
sieged Vienna, the Ottomans controlled an enormous territory centered around the Black
Sea. In terms of twentieth century geography, in Russia they controlled the Crimea, Geor-
gia, and Armenia. In the Near East they controlled Syria, Arabia, Anatolia (Turkey), The
Holy Land, and Egypt. In North Africa they controlled Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Mo-
rocco. In Europe they controlled Greece, Yugoslavia, and Hungary. The Ottomans were, in
Jason Goodwin's telling book title, “Lords of The Horizon.”
Under the Ottomans, Istanbul became a cosmopolitan beehive. Houses and palaces
burgeoned. Merchants the world over set up enclaves in the city. Diplomats of the major
powers established legations. Religious leaders within the empire had representation in the
city (including the Vatican, the Orthodox Communion, and Jews, as well as Shiites and
Sunnis). Officials from all over the empire reported to the city. The sultan's wives and con-
cubines (his harem) of many races and ethnic origins lodged within Topkapi Palace. And
nearby were the headquarters of an army recruited across the empire. [166]
Topkapi Palace commands Istanbul's magisterial site. It sits at the confluence of the
Bosphorus, the Golden Horn, and the Sea of Marmara. In Ottoman times it was a labyrinth
of power and the powerful. It was the seat of government; the palace of the Sultan; the
rooms of his harem (the seraglio); and the abode of royal family and their servants, slaves,
and retainers. Topkapi's reception and throne rooms were faced with exquisite glazed tiles
and furnished with divans covered in beautiful silks; and from the gateway of the Sublime
Porte (Bab-I-Ali), messengers rode forth to carry imperial rescript to the farthest reaches of
empire.
Four areas of Topkapi are especially fascinating to visitors: the sultans' collection of
swords, objects of gold, and jewelry; those magnificent emeralds? Rumor has it that they