Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE, the capital of Turkey and of the Ottoman empire, is situated at the junction of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora, in 4l o 0' 16" N. lat. and 28° 59' 14" E. long. It may be said to stand upon two promontories rather than upon two continents, since the quarter now called Galata was reckoned in the time of Arcadius tho 13th Region, whereas Kadikeui (Chalcedon) and Iskudar or Scutari (Chrysopolis), situated on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, have been always distinct cities. The promontories on which the capital lies are divided the one from the other by the last and largest of those inlets which cut the western shore of the channel known as the Bosphorus. This inlet is a large and important harbour, running from east to north west, capable of floating 1200 ships. It curls up in a course of little more than four miles to the foot of the hills which, joining the heights on either side, seem to form a vast amphitheatre, till it meets the united volume of two streams—the Cydaris and Bar-bysus of the ancients—the two whelps of the oracle,—

“Bless’d they who make that sacred town their home, By Pontus’ mouth upon the shore of Thrace, There where two whelps lap up the ocean foam, Where hind and fish find pasture at one place.”

This peculiar harbour has always, by reason both of its form and its fulness, been called the Golden Horn. It is “like a stag’s horn,” Strabo says, “for it is broken into wavy creeks like so many branches, into which the fish pelamys (τryλoφt,υς) running is easily snared.” In former times this fish was, and at the present day might be, a source of rich revenue—ever from time immemorial rushing down from the Sea of Azoff and the Black Sea, and when it approaches the white rock, on which stands the Maiden’s (miscalled Leander’s) Tower, glancing off it, and shooting straight into the Horn, but never enriching the rival city on the coast of Asia—Chalcedon, “the City of the Blind.” If the figure of a stag’s horn resembles the harbour, that of an ancient drinking-horn would represent the general form of Constantinople proper—the Seraglio point being turned inward like the sculptured mouth-piece. On this knot the Megarian city stood gathered about its Acropolis, and occupying the easternmost hill on the verge of Europe. Constantine aimed at building his new capital, after the old, on seven hills; his wish was fulfilled—not at first, however, but a century after its dedication,—and he wished it to be in name, as in foundation, a counterpart of the ancient city. But it is the founder, not the model, that is commemorated in the name Constantinople, while its designation as “New Rome” lingers nowhere but in the official language of the Orthodox Eastern Church. Its Turkish name of Istamboul, ol ’ Stamboul, is said to be a corruption of the Greek words cìç r fqv About the end of the 18th century it was corrupted by a fanatical fancy into Islambol, or the city of Islam. Like the name, the emblem also of the city was adopted from the Greeks by the Ottomans. The crescent and star formed its device from the earliest times, and is found on Byzantine coins and on the statues of Hecate. So the body-guard of the Sultan retain insignia of the Varangian Guard of the Greek empire, of which traces seem to have been discovered in the Crimea. The sign manual of the sultans, rudely representing a left hand, originated with the action of a sultan who is said to have signed with a bloody hand a treaty with the republic of Ragusa.

Under Constantine, who founded it on the site of Byzantium (q.v.), the city was more than doubled. His forum was fixed on the second hill; the walls were extended till a new inclosure was made, which spanned the peninsula from about the end of the old bridge to the mouth of the River Lycus in Vlanga Bostan; the line of his walls was not direct, but made a compass round the Polyandrion, or Heroon. It is said that 40,000 Goths were employed in first raising and afterwards manning these works; the seven gates separated the eight cohorts, each of 5000 men. Being Arians, the Goths were allowed no room within the city which they made safe for the Orthodox, but had assigned to them a quarter outside, which was called, either from several columns or from the one of Constantine that stood thereabout, Exokionion (the region without the columns), and the Gothic inhabitants of the quarter were styled Exolcionitae. So noble was this body or guild accounted among their countrymen, that many illustrious Goths were enrolled in it,—with others, the kings of Italy. In the course of time, after Anastasius had drawn a longer line of defences higher up, from the neighbourhood of Lake Dercon on the Euxine to Selymbria on the Propontis, and many of the Gothic cohorts were called away to defend these fortifications, the meaning of the name was by degrees forgotten, until it was changed into Hexe-Kionia, or Hexe-Marmora (six marble columns); and at last this corrupt form was rendered literally by the new occupants in their tongue Alti-Mermer (six columns), which name remains to the present day. As this is a landmark showing the limit of Constantine’s walls on the south, another sign is extant bearing witness to their extent on the north. This is a mosque, once a church, which is visible from the Golden Horn. Its Turkish name, Kahireh, or Kahrieh, is thought to have been formed into a resemblance of that of the capital of Egypt from the Greek χωpα. The monastery to which this church of the Saviour belonged was 'Ni.ovη τrj<s χωρaς, or, as we say, “in the fields.” This was an ancient establishment, and its church, the oldest church in the city, dates from the 3d century. Hither were brought, and entombed in sarcophagi, the remains of St Babylas and two other martyrs who suffered under Decius in the persecution of 250 a.d. At the beginning of the 5th century the Goths, being pressed by Attila and his Huns out of their settlements below the Balkan, flocked towards Constantinople to join their countrymen there and find refuge in its suburbs. It then became necessary to entrench this extra-mural camp. Accordingly in 412, under Theodosius IL, the first Theodosian wall was raised by the prefect Anthemius; and in 447 a second was added by the prefect Cyrus Constantinus, who advanced the fosse, and of the earth dug out of it formed an artificial terrace between two lines of defence. The Goths were long subjected to exclusion from the city; Justinian exempted the Exocionites, indeed, from the penalties which he exacted from all other Arians in the empire, but required them still to meet for public worship outside the walls. Some monuments to members of the body of Faederati, found outside the fifth gate, and perhaps the name Cerco-porta, a memento of their round church, or one of their circular forts, may mark the residence, as they intimate the heresy, of the noble guards of the Greek emperor. Arianism had died out when this body was reinforced by the Varangians—Anglo-Danes—in the 11th century; accordingly, it is not surprising to recognize in a Byzantine church in a quarter called Bogdan-Serai, within the walls on the fifth hill, the church of St Nicholas and Augustine, founded by an Anglo-Saxon who fled from the Normans to take service under the Greek emperor. It is maintained that most of the numbers distinguishing the cohorts attached to the several regions and walls remain to this day, as Deuteron, Triton, Pempton, and Hebdomon. Upon the completion of these Theodosian walls there ensħed a double arrangement of gates; towngates, communicating with the public roads, alternated with military gates which opened upon the terraces only. These town-gates, to the number of seven, communicated with the seven gates of Constantine’s wall each by a broad street, which separated the cohorts and their quarters. These gates were opened in peace but shut in time of war, and then the bridges connecting them with the country roads and crossing the fosse in front were taken down at the approach of the enemy. The military gates had no such bridges leading from them; they served only to give egress to that part of the garrison which was required to work the engines of war planted upon the terraces outside and below. The city gates in the Theodosian walls had for the most part the same names as the gates in the wall of Constantine which corresponded to them—with this difference, that they were styled “New.” Thus the gate “Roussion,” so named from the “demus” of the “Reds,” in the latter, answered to the “New” Roussion in the former. It is on this accouut that the existing gate is to this day called Yeni Kapu (New gate) as well as Mevlanelι Kapusi (gate of the Dervishes). The gate of Adrianople (Edreneh Kapusi) was formerly that of Polyandrion, and took its title from the corresponding gate in the wall of Constantine, called so because it stood near the Polyandrion or Heroon adjoining it, which was attached to the church of the Holy Apostles; the site is now occupied by the mosque of Mahomet the Conqueror (Mehmedieh).

The landward walls of Constantinople bear marks of the labour of many hands, and represent different and distant epochs. Their construction is unique. If the outer defence of tûe fosse is reckoned they are quadruple; the two inner lines are furnished with a series of towers, the smaller below, the larger above—round, octagonal, or square—at about 150 feet apart. As the gaunt array of castles droops into the valley, or seems to climb the hill beyond, one may decipher some of its now obscure inscriptions on marble or in tile work (one seems to be a prayer to Christ), and wonder at the contrivance which appears to defy a natural law. The great ditch, now a productive vegetable garden, is divided into a number of compartments or open cisterns, which used to be filled with water brought by pipes, carried along each partition-wall, and furnishing the supply from cisterns from within and without the city.

Equally remarkable with these fortifications is the system of large cisterns, which are said to have furnished water to 1,000,000 men during four months; they were a necessity to a city subject to perpetual assault. One seems to have been annexed to every considerable monastery and palace— imperial and patrician. They may be reckoned the more ancient portion of the city, which is thus subterraneous;— for while the buildings above ground are scarcely any of them, in the condition now visible, older than the time of Justinian, the cisterns that can be distinguished date from the times of Arcadius, Theodosius, and Constantine.

The position assigned to the old imperial palace is, generally speaking, that of the mosque of Ahmed, which adjoins the Hippodrome. It was not one large edifice, but a scattered group of buildings within gardens, spreading to the Hippodrome on the one side, and on the other to the sea-shore; the northernmost point of its inclosure reached the site occupied now by the fountain of Ahmed III., then by the Geranion. This palace was gradually abandoned after the 12th century for that of Blachernae within the Horn. It was separated from the church of St Sophia by the Augusteum—the square in which stood the statue of Justinian looking towards Persia, the Milliarium, and among other monuments the column that bore the silver statue of the Empress Eudoxia, which occasioned the remonstrances of St Chrysostom. Ma homet IL, built his new palace (the seraglio) on the site of the Acropolis, about which ancient Byzantium had clustered, a situation specially favourable to his purpose, as it afforded the combined advantages of a lovely prospect, a perfect retreat from the noise of the city, and a facility for observing all the movements in the harbour. In erecting it he followed the three divisions of the palace of the Byzantine emperors—(1) the Chalce, the defensive part held by the guards; (2) the Daphne, which touched the Hippodrome and was used for receptions; and (3) the private chambers occupied by the imperial household. The three corresponding portions of the Ottoman palace are distinguished by their several gates :—(1) Babi Houmaioum, the Imperial Gate, opening into the court of the Janissaries; (2) Orta-Kapusi, Middle Gate, in which the sultan receives on high festivals; and (3) Babi Saadet, Gate of Felicity, where he formerly received ambassadors. Of late years the sovereign has resided in winter at Dolma-bakcheh or Tcheragan; in summer at Begler-beg on the Asiatic shore, or at some inland kiosk.

The main streets of the Stamboul of the present day follow the lines of the city of Constantine; thus the tramway, which turns from the New Bridge towards Serai Bournou, upon reaching the platform of St Sophia, enters upon the direction of the M«n? (Mése, middle street), now called Divan Yoli. The Mése parted into two branches, of which the one went to the gate Roussion ,or new gate, the other to the Polyandrion. On the north of the middle street one branch passed along the shore of the Golden Horn from the place where the railway station is, and issued at the gate Xy]ocircus near Balata. On the south, another street passed through the two Golden Gates. These three main lines were distinguished from the smaller tortuous streets by their adornment as well as by their breadth. They were bordered by rows or covered ways and arcades called tμβoλoι, some of them double, with pavements above, decorated with statues, &c. A few traces of the emboli still remain in silu, just as there are fragments of the ancient bazaars, khans, and baths. Imperial gates closed the lines of these principal thoroughfares.

The following is an outline of the modern city, divided according to the seven hills and the intervening valleys. On the 1st hill, the most easterly, are situated the remains of the Seraglio, former palace of the Ottoman sultans; the great church-mosque St Sophia; St Irene; the imperial mint; the Atmeidan (Hippodrome), with three of its numerous monuments remaining; the mosque of Ahmed, &c. Along the 1st valley are traced the walls of the Seraglio on the west, made up of ancient materials, and the Babi Ali or Sublime Porte. The tramway runs along this valley. On the 2d hill stands the Burnt Column, that of Constantine the Great (which stood in the centre of his forum, and under which are said to be the instruments of the Crucifixion and a Palladium of Troy), and the Mosque of Osman. The 2d valley is occupied by the bazaars, several khans, and the mosque of Valideh Sultan, or Yeni Jami, overlooking the bridge and the head of the tramway. On the 3d hill are the Seraskierat (War Office) on the site of the cemetery of the Byzantines and the forum of Theodosius; the fire-tower, and the mosque of Suliman. Along the 3d valley is carried the Aqueduct of Valens, built out of the walls of Chalcedon destroyed for the citizens’ rebellion; near it is At-Bazar (horse-market). On the 4th hill rises the mosque of Mahomet II., where stood the church of the Holy Apostles and the church of the Pantocrator. South of this mosque, in a garden, is seen Kiz-tash, the Maiden’s Column, or column of Marcian, once that of Venus. On the 5th hill follows the mosque of Selim, on the edge of a large open cistern, south of which is the covered cistern of Arcadius. Below on the north lies the Phanar (so named from a lighthouse), the Greek quarter which reaches to the Golden Horn. This division includes the church of the Patriarchate, the great school of the Greek nation, the church-mosque Fetiyeh Jamisi (Pammacaristou), and the church of the Mongols (Mougloutissa). The 6th hill is distinguished by the palace of the Hebdomon, with its coronation hall, built, it is said, by Constantine I., and known vulgarly as Tekfur-Serai—palace of the lord (τoυ κvpiov). At its foot appears the church-mosque Kahrieh, or Kahireh, formerly Mone tes Choras (Mow) της χωpας). Below this hill, the quarter called Balata, from Palatium, now occupied by Jews, follows the Phanar, then the ancient suburb of Blachernae. Here are seen some remains of the Pentapyrgion, —five towers used by the Greeks of the Lower Empire as a political prison. This quarter is succeeded by Eyoub, celebrated for its mosque—which no Christian may enter— and for its cemetery. In this quarter, after Greek precedent, the sovereign is invested. On the hill near, in the Cosmidion, the first crusaders pitched their tents. The

7th hill is to be looked for in the most southern corner of the city. It is occupied by the fortress of the Seven Towers, the political prison of the sultans. It is isolated by the River Lycus.

Of the ecclesiastical buddings of Constantinople by far the most important is the Mosque of St Sophia, or Aya Sofia Jamisi, which ranks as perhaps the finest example of the Byzantine style. In striking contrast with the nobler specimens of Gothic architecture, it presents from the outside an uncouth and disproportionate appearance, even the effect of its unusual dimensions being destroyed by its lack of symmetry. But within the visitor cannot fail to be impressed by the bold span of the arches and the still bolder sweep of the dome, while his eye is at once bewildered and charmed by the rich, if not altogether harmonious variety of decoration, from the many-coloured pillars down to the mosaics and inscriptions on the walls. The dome is raised at the centre 180 feet above the ground, and has a diameter of 107 feet; its curve is so slight that the depth is only 46 feet, and round the rim it is relieved by a row of forty windows. The arrangement of the building may be understood from the plan on next page; and the magnificent volumes of Fossati and Salzenburg furnish all that can be desired in the way of views of the different parts of the interior. The first stone of St Sophia, or the Church of the Divine Wisdom, was laid in Õ32 on the site of several successive churches of the same name, the first of which had been erected by Constantine the Great. Anthemius of Tralles and Isidores of Miletus were the architects employed by the emperor Justinian, at whose command the enterprlze was commenced. No fewer than 10,000 workmen are said to have been engaged under the direction of 100 master builders; and when the woιk was completed it had cost tho imperial treasury about £1,000,000. The principal material of the walls was brick, but the whole interior was lined with costly marbles; and to add to its spléndours the temples of the ancient gods at Heliopolis and Ephesus, at Delos and Baalbec, at Athens and Cyzicus, were plundered of their columns. To render the dome as light as possible it was constructed of pumice-stone and Rhodian bricks, and to secure the building from the ravages of fire no wood was employed except for the doors. Not long after its completion the dome was shaken by an earthquake, but it was repaired by Isidore, the grandson of the original architect. In 1453 Mahomet converted tho church into a mosque, arid since that date numerous minor alterations have been made in the less essential parts of the building. A pretty complete restoration was effected in 1847-49 by Fossati, who found that the weight of the dome was too great for the Supporting walls, threatening the whole with destruction.

The most remarkable of the church-mosques, besides St

Sophia, are the following:—(1) Kutfihuk Aya Sophia, the original model of the great church. It was built for Justinian before his accession, and dedicated to martyrs of his own Illyrian race—SS. Sergius and Bacchus. The lower stage is the original fabric. Here, according to Mahometan tradition, Messiah appeared among the worshippers. (2) Pqntocrator (the Almighty), now Zeirek Jamisi, a triple church of the Comneni. Its monastery became the headquarters of the Latins in the 13th century. (3) St John of the Studium — Emer-ahor—a basilica. Here was the famous monastery of Acaemeti (watchers) and a school of church poets. (4) The Church of the Saviour, with the monastery of the Chora, as being not only ìv τfi χ<μpa (“in the fields,”) but η χωpα rωv ζωvτωv the (land of the living), a gem of beauty still, even in its decay, rich with mosaic of the 14th century of a style purer and more refined than that which is more often seen and admired at Ravenna and Palermo. In this church, alternately with the Hodegetria, was kept the Holy Robe of the Virgin, which was wont to be carried in procession when the walls were threatened, and with which the patriarch Photius is said to have scared away the first Russian fleet which came against the city down the Bosphorus in the 9th century. (5) Pammacaristou— Fetiyeh Jamisi. The Greek patriarch moved hither from the Church of the Holy Apostles which had been assigned him. One dome of this church is still full of mosaic work.

The mosques of Constantinople are reckoned variously from 350 to 500, mesjids (chapels) included. Many of them retain the materials as well as occupy the sites of ancient churches. The great mosque of Suliman was chiefly built of the remains of the church of St Euphemia at Chalcedon, where the fourth Oecumenical Council was held, 451. This church stood above the valley of Haidar-Pasha, near Kadikeui; an ayasma belonging to it stands near the railway terminus at a little distance from the shore. The imperial mosques, that of Eyoub included, are nine in number. Most of them stand on high ground; and, with the harmonious contrast of dome and minaret, they offer to the eye a more pleasing view than the Christian churches of the past. The hills may be counted as these lordly structures follow in stately order, and the monuments of Osman, Suliman, Mahomet, and Selim seem to repeat the form fixed on the first hill by the architects of Justinian; and on high festivals their soaring minarets, more airy than the campaniles of the West, and beaming with festoons of light, shine out like beacons over the neighbouring waters.

Calata and Pera.— Along the north shore of the Golden Horn spreads the quarter known as Galata, rising up to the crest of the hill and including the massive tower which crowns it. Beyond and above Galata, Pera stretches forward along the ridge that runs parallel with the shore. Both these quarters are chiefly inhabited by Christians, native and foreign. Galata is the seat of commercial establishments, Pera that of the diplomatic bodies. At the foot of the great tower of Galata is gathered a cluster of English institutions,—the consulate, consular court, consular prison, seamen’s hospital, post-office, and sailors* home. Several institutions, native and foreign, have been established of late years in Pera. The main street which connects these two quarters winds up from the outer bridge. A little beyond the Municipality House, it is crossed by another near the point where it separates the Russian Embassy from the Hotel d’Angleterre; hence the Greek name of Pera '½ravpo§póµ.iov (the cross roads). This street, rising tortuously from above Tophaneh, is said to have been formed by the track of Mahomet’s fleet of boats, which were rolled up to the crest of the hill and then down on the other side to the inlet below Kassim-Pasha, on the edge of which the Divan-Haneh (Admiralty) now stands. Before reaching the point of intersection this street, called Koumbaraji Sokak (street of bombardiers), passes beside the elegant English church (Crimean memorial church) which was consecrated under the name of Christ Church in 1868. The great tower of Galata, like that of the Seraskierat (War Office) on the opposite height in Stamboul, is used as a fire-tower. In the times of Genoese occupation it was the main castle or keep of the town; it was heightened, not founded, by those settlers from Italy. The original tower was built about the end of the 5th century by the emperor Anastasius Dicorus. Since that time it communicated with another huge tower (long ago destroyed), which stood near the site of the present terminus of the Adrianople Railway in Stamboul,—the tower of Eugenius. It was joined to this tower in. time of war by an iron chain laid across the Golden Horn to keep out enemies’ ships, while a similar chain, fastening the tower of Eugenius to a fort replaced now by the Maiden’s tower (miscalled Leander’s), barred the passage of the Bosphorus. From the tower of Galata there spread out, as spokes from an axle, some three or four lines of wall, which ran downward till they met on the right the line which guarded the quays, on the left a sweeping line which embraced that extension of the town which had crept along the shore as far as the modern Tophaneh. The inner line, which unequally divided the quarter that lies between the bridges, was double. Some portions of this and of the others still exist, with towers and gateways; but of the numerous tablets visible upon them when they were standing, two only remain in their original place. Below the double wall, which gave passage to troops from the great tower to the seaward wall, stands the remarkable mosque called Arab-jamisi (Saracens’ mosque). Its form and contents serve as a record of the history of Galata. Its minaret, unlike the miftarets of Turkish mosques, is square, recalling the Moorish towers of Spain. Remains of Genoese monuments on its floor and in the outer court testify to its Christian use. Originally a Mahometan place of worship, it is not orientated, nor has it an apsidal termination. It is said to have been first built for the Arab colony that lingered here since the invasions of Constantinople by the Arabs. When Galata, already occupied by the Genoese at the commencement of the 13th century, was, from motives of gratitude or of policy, given up entirely to that colony of daring merchants by Michael Palaeologus on his recovery of the city from the Latins, this mosque became their chief church; but when, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Ottoman Turks became masters of Constantinople, it reverted to its first purpose, and Christian worship gave way to Mahometan. Besides the great tower and some ruins of walls and towers, the massive blocks of building that are now banks and merchants’ offices, the palace of the podestà, the Lombard church known as St Benedict’s, which is at this day a centre of French philanthropic and religious works, are existing memorials of the settlements of those Genoese merchants, the active and successful rivals of the Pisans and Venetians,—whose proper quarters lay at the foot of the tower of Eugenius, now within the Seraglio wall—and the ancestors of the enterprizing merchants of later times who are known and respected as the Greeks of the island of Scio. The names Pera and Galata have not always been restricted to their present limits. Pera, like Peraea, is Greek, designating the region over the water, and was naturally employed as from Constantinople to mark that quarter of the city which lay on the other side of the Golden Horn. The name was accordingly first given to the lower portion of the town, now called Galata and formerly Sycae (the fig-trees). This quarter of the city was enlarged and adorned by Justinian, but before his time, under Arcadius, it was reckoned one of the regions of Constantinople. The ground which it covered seems to have been used still earlier as a cemetery of the Christian citizens, and corresponded thus with the site of the Seraskierat in Stamboul, on the third hill, which heathen monuments—discovered on the spot—show to have been the burial-place of the citizens of Byzantium. As all Galata was in former times called Pera, so Pera seems to have been sometimes included in Galata. Galata-Serai, the palace of the Turkish governor of Galata (now a Franco-Turkish lyceum), is situated in the centre of Pera. The name Galata, which has been the subject of much dis cussion, appears to be the corruption of the Italian Calat<e (descent), the name whereby that quarter of an Italian seaport town is known which spreads over the sloping shore. Until a few years ago Galata and Pera were separated by a dry moat. This has lately been filled up with streets.

Two bridges of boats span the Golden Horn and unite Galata to Stamboul. The inner one, constructed of iron, though new, has, in taking the place, adopted the name of a former bridge constructed in the reign of the-Sultan Mahmoud, and is still called the Old Bridge. It stretches from the western end of Galata to the quarter on the Stamboul side «. which is called Oun-Capou. The outer bridge is known as that of Karakeui, as it extends from a part of Galata so named, and also as the bridge of the Valideh Sultan, because the opposite end of it rests on the shore below the mosque of the Valideh-Sultan, otherwise Yeni Jami, or the new mosque. A third bridge, constructed during the Crimean -war between Hasskeui and Aivan Serai, has disappeared. There is said to have existed in ancient times one bridge—that of Justinian. The bridge built by Philip of Macedon seems to have crossed the river at the head of the Horn.

The climate of Constantinople is generally healthy, owing to the position of the city, its natural drainage, and the currents of the Bosphorus, but the temperature is subject to great and sudden changes.

It is true of the capital, as of the country at large, that no point is so hard to ascertain as the sum total of the inhabitants and the relative proportions of its parts. Byzantius in 1851 reckoned the population of the city and its suburbs at about one ⅛illion, viz.,—500,000 Turks, 220,000 or 300,000 Greeks, 50,000 or 120,000 Armenians, 70,000 Jews, 10,000 Franks, and 70,000 miscellaneous. Official statistics return the population of the city and suburbs as not exceeding 700,000 in 1877.

The Mahometan public schools are of three classes :— (1) The primary district schools— Malιdleh — for boys and girls mixed; (2) for boys, the provincial schools— Rushdiyelι — of a higher order; (3) for young men, the mosque schools— Medresselι, — a sort of theological seminaries. There are said to be 500 medressehs in Stamboul alone. In the first class of schools are taught the Turkish alphabet and the reading of the Koran in Arabic; in the second, reading, elements of writing, principles of arithmetic, and Turkish geography and history; in the third, besides theology, Turkish, Arabic, and sometimes the Persian language. The age of entrance into the first is about five years; into the second, ten. Most lads, on leaving these secondary schools, at about sixteen years of age, proceed no higher. Besides the public schools, which are open to all Mahometan youth without distinction, there arø special Government schools. The five chief establishments are the military, naval, and artillery schools, the school of military engineering, and the medical school. To each of these is annexed a preparatory school— Idadìyelc. A few other special schools are a training-school for teachers in the Bushdiyeh, a school of languages for translators, and a school for managers of woods and forests. The most Important institution for supplying good secondary instruction is the metropolitan lyceum of Galata, which has generally been under French direction. A large school for orphans of different nationalities was opened some years ago near the mosque of Selim in Stamboul.

Among the philanthropic establishments of the capital must be reckoned the Imarets, intended like the Greek Xenones to be at once hospitals and poor-houses. They are attached to most of the mosques, and may be about 300, though many are fallen into decay.

The bazaars call for particular notice. They are large fire-proof buildings, lighted from above, where the varied wares of the city are retailed.

The city numbers, besides, about 180 khans (groups of offices and store-houses for merchandize), and some 130 hammams, or baths.

The trade of Constantinople carried on now, as under the Greek empire, by foreigners, is not distinguished by any speciality. Its harbour is a convenient centre to many lines of commerce, sheep’s wool, mohair, goat-skins, grain, <fcc., being transhipped from the coasts of Asia and the Black Sea. Great improvements have been introduced of late. Besides the steamers which secure communication with foreign ports, others ply between the city and its suburbs on the Horn, the Bosphorus, and the Sea of Marmora.

The streets, though ill paved, have been some of them enlarged, and many on the Pera side are lighted with gas; but the greatest improvement of all is the formation of an active and highly disciplined fire-brigade.

It is sometimes said that modern Constantinople, after so many earthquakes in earlier centuries, and conflagrations in all, retains few relics of the past; but several monuments have been already named, and others might be added. They are most numerous about the Hippodrome— that centre and focus of the city’s life, and theatre of its revolutions, its festivities, and its crimes. Besides the remains of six palaces, five columns entire or in fragments are pointed out—memorials of the 1st, 3d, 4th, and 5th centuries, and associated with the historical names of Claudius II and Constantine, Theodosius and Arius, Arcadius, Eudoxia, Marcian, and Chrysostom. Tombs of the great lie about in various corners and courts. It is to be remembered, moreover, that the greater part of the Greek city is under ground,—that besides the ruins or remains of more than 20 churches, and of the colonnades that lined the streets or divided the bazaars, and which still are met with by the passenger along its public thoroughfares, there spread out of sight beneath his feet labyrinths of passages, cisterns, and prisons of length and direction unknown, so that he may be said to walk not so much on terra firma, as on a continuous roof.

The history of the city is almost a record of its sieges. About 100 years after its enlargement or foundation by Constantine the Great (330 a.d.) began that series of assaults by sea and land before which it gave way only thrice, when its gates were opened to Dandolo, Michael Palaeologus, and Mahomet II. Michael, by the aid of his Varangians, recovered, 200 years before its final capture, what the Latins had held nearly 60 years; and 100 years before it surrendered, the Ottoman Turks profited by the divisions in the empire, and were called into the east of Europe as the followers of the same anti-Christian standard had been called into the west, till the last Constantine fell in defending the city which the first had raised and named. Constantinople was threatened by the Huns in the reign of Theodosius the Younger, 450; by the Huns and Slavs in that of Justinian, 553; by the Persians and Avars in that of Heraclius, 626. The Arabs besieged it in three different expeditions. They came under Sophian in 668,and attacked it six times, once every year (672-679), when Constantine Pogonatus was emperor. Leo the Isaurian repelled a second invasion under Moslemeh in 717. They were finally led by Haroun-al-Rashid, who made peace with Constantine and Irene in 782. The Russians assailed the sea-walls of the capital four times from 865 to 1043, in the reigns of Michael III. and his successors. Romanus Lecapenus, who beat them back when they were come down the second time, had to repel another enemy—the Hungarians—in 924. It was not by arms, but by the treachery of Gilpracht, the leader of the German guard, that Alexius Comnenus entered one of the land-gates and seized the throne(1081); and another Alexius, with his father Isaac Angelus, brought the Latins, who occupied the city for 56 years, after the two sieges of 1203 and. 1204, until Michael Palaeologus embossed bis name as conqueror on the bronze gates of St Sophia. In the 15 th century Constantinople was attacked by the Turks twice; under Manuel it resisted Amurath in 1422; but under Constantine Palaeologus it yielded to Mahomet in 1453. The city has thus been often the aim, rarely the prize, of invasion.

The captures of the city by the Latins and the Turks brought loss to the East and gain to the West. In an age when the Goths on the one side, and Arabs on the other, had ruined traffic elsewhere, Constantinople was the greatest and almost the only commercial town in the world, while Greek supremacy at sea secured a flow of riches into the state; but, the citizens being dispersed during the sixty years of Latin occupation, all commerce was transferred to the cities of Italy. To that Latin conquest is mainly attributed the sudden development of the formative arts in the 13th century, for then there arose more frequent intercourse between the Greeks and the Italians, and many Greek artists were established in Italy, especially at Venice, Siena, Pisa, and Florence. In like manner, the fall of the city before the Turks scattered Greek learning among the Latin and Teutonic races; when Greek libraries were burnt and the Greek language proscribed, Greek MSS. of the Bible, sedulously copied by the monks of Constantinople from the 5th to the 15th century, conveyed the text into Western Europe; the overthrow of the capital of Greek literature synchronized with the invention of printing, and in a great measure caused the revival of learning. Since that last siege which introduced the Ottoman rule, the city from being the object became the starting-point of invasion; for long ages the busy hive of science and art, it was turned into a swarming nest of hornets. The mausoleum of Haireddin (Barbarossa) at Beshiktash, a suburb of the city, is a memorial of the subjugation of the Northern States of Africa; a ruin, beneath the Burnt Column, once the residence of Busbek, in the 16th century, bears witness to the privileges and the restraints of the ambassadors of Germany; and inscriptions left on the inner walls of the Seven Towers, ranging in date from 1698 to 1800, record the imprisonment and the liberation or death of captives, Venetians, French, <fcc., and the obstinate struggles in which the Ottomans engaged with the different powers of Europe. The last European ambassador imprisoned there was Le Brun, envoy of the French republic; he was thrown in on the news of the French landing in Egypt, and remained three years. A fter the tide of fortune turned on the repulse of the Turkish forces from Vienna in 1683, Constantinople began to be once more the special mark for ambition or revenge. When the peace of Carlowitz was signed in 1699 a new enemy was rising in the North; in 1770 the city was threatened by tho Russian fleet joined by the English squadron. In 1807 Vice-Admiral Duckworth, having forced the passage of the Dardenelles, appeared before Constantinople, but the Turks put themselves in a posture of defence, and after eight days his squadron retreated. For further historical details, see Turkey.

Authorities—Paspati, Déthier, Glavany (local), besides Alemann on. Procopius, Byzantius, Gibbon, Montesquieu, &c. (C. G. C. )