Istanbul Guide

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In 1204 soldiers of the Fourth Crusade led by Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, attacked and ransacked the city. They then ruled it with an ally, Count Baldwin of Flanders, until 1261, when soldiers under Mi chael VIII Palaiologos, a Byzantine aristocrat in exile who had risen to become co-emperor of Nicaea, successfully recaptured it. The Byzan tine Empire was restored. İstanbul Two decades after Michael reclaimed Constantinople, a Turkish war lord named Ertuğrul died in the village of Söğüt near Nicaea. He left his son Osman, who was known as Gazi (Warrior for the Faith), a small territory. Osman’s followers became known in the Empire as Osmanlıs and in the West as the Ottomans. Osman died in 1324 and was succeeded by his son Orhan. In 1326 Orhan captured Bursa, made it his capital and took the title of sultan. A victory at Nicaea followed, after which he sent his forces further afield, conquering Ankara to the east and Thrace to the west. His son Murat I (r 1362–89) took Adrianople (Edirne) in 1371. Murat’s son Beyazıt (r 1389–1402) unsuccessfully laid siege to Con stantinople in 1394, then defeated a Crusader army 100,000 strong on the Danube in 1396. Though temporarily checked by the armies of Ta merlane and a nasty war of succession between Beyazıt’s four sons that was eventually won by Mehmet I (r 1413–21), the Ottomans continued to grow in power and size. By 1440 the Ottoman armies under Murat II (r 1421–51) had taken Thessalonica, unsuccessfully laid siege to Constan tinople and Belgrade, and battled Christian armies for Transylvania. It was at this point in history that Mehmet II ‘The Conqueror’ (r 1451–81) came to power and vowed to attain the ultimate prize – Constantinople. In four short months, Mehmet oversaw the building of Rumeli Hisarı (the great fortress on the European side of the Bosphorus) and also re paired Anadolu Hisarı, built on the Asian shore half a century earlier by his great-grandfather Beyazıt I. Together these fortresses controlled the strait’s narrowest point. The Byzantines had closed the mouth of the Golden Horn with a heavy chain to prevent Ottoman boats from sailing in and attacking the city walls on the northern side. Not to be thwarted, Mehmet marshalled his boats at a cove (where Dolmabahçe Palace now stands) and had them transported overland by night on rollers, up the valley (present site of the Hilton Hotel) and down the other side into the Golden Horn at Kasımpaşa. Catching the Byzantine defenders by surprise, he soon had the Golden Horn under control.

History İstanbul

The founder of modern nursing, Florence Night ingale, arrived at the Selimiye Army Barracks near Üsküdar in 1854 to nurse soldiers wounded in the Crimean War and stayed for three years. Her nickname ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ was inspired by her solitary late-night medical rounds through the barrack wards.

717 Leo III, a Syrian, becomes emperor after deposing Theodosius III; he introduces edicts against the worship of images, ushering in the age of iconoclasm.

1204 Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, leads the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in a defeat of Constantinople; they sack the city and plunder many of its treasures.

1261 Constantinople is recaptured by Michael VIII Palaiologos, a Byzantine aristocrat in exile who had risen to become co-emperor of Nicaea; the Byzantine Empire is restored.

1432 Mehmet II, son of the Ottoman sultan Murad II, is born in Edirne; he succeeds his father as sultan, twice – once in 1444 and then permanently in 1451.