Having visited Istanbul several times, I was looking forward to this book which had received positive reviews from several national sources. I must admit however, that my expectations were not met. It might be that the author attempts to cover too much of history in this sever hundred plus page tome. Starting at 800,000 BC-no, I am not kidding- Ms. Hughes provides us with information on the earliest settlements, how drastic weather created the area, etc. While that is of interest to a certain group, the three main areas of concentration are the time from Severus and Constantine, the Byzantine and of course, the time of the Ottomans.
Each of the three sections is dealt with separately and assumes that a basic knowledge of each is possessed by the reader. That being the case, a lack of that basic knowledge will leave the reader often wondering how each sub-chapter or topic ties in with the next, how or why a certain action took place and what were the long term consequences. For example, she provides an adequate basic discussion of the religious debates that took place during much of the Byzantine period, but neglects to discuss how the Byzantine Empire lost control of it’s land and wealth until it was little more than a city state. An explanation of certain battles, tax problems, etc. would have been in order to put much of her writing in proper context.
Her strongest suit are the chapters dealing with the city under the Ottoman Empire. Captured in 1575, its fall to the Ottomans was considered a great disaster by the Western powers who did little if anything to support the city during the siege. As the base for further Islamic expansion, she provides a good discussion of the white slave trade, the wealth of the city, etc. Seminal events, such as the destruction of the Janissaries is covered in six pages without an adequate explanation of the previous attempts at military reform by other Sultans. Certainly, the palace intrigues could have been covered better especially the “reign of women” which led to the decline of the central Ottoman power.
This is a noble effort, but it simply tries to cover too much while assuming a basic knowledge of the reader. Will I keep this book in my personal library? No, not even as a resource to be consulted from time to time.
