Visions of Constantinople: The City and Its Peoples

Visions of Constantinople: The City and Its Peoples lead image

Constantinople, modern Istanbul stands at the conjunction of Europe and Asia. Founded on the site of Byzantium by Constantine in 330 CE its significance religiously, politically, and culturally in the succeeding centuries from its foundation cannot be over-emphasised. But what did this ‘vision’ mean to various peoples – the Romans, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, and the Ottomans, who inhabited the city after 1453, up to the modern era when Turkey was modernised by Kemal Atatürk after 1922. The city had a profound effect on all who encountered it, and its legacy and vibrancy still attract travellers today, to modern Istanbul.

We are calling for papers on any topic from any period, from 330 CE-2021 CE about what Constantinople or Istanbul has meant to those who have encountered it, for good or ill,  and to those who lived there; and how Constantinople has impacted on the religious, cultural, and political landscape over the centuries.

The editors of this proposed volume, Dr Jill Mitchell (Balkan History Association), Dr Susan Fern (Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford) and Dr Vladimir CreČ›ulescu (University of Bucharest, Faculty of History) are interested in receiving expressions of interest (300-word abstract plus a 100-word author biography) for essays to be considered for inclusion in the above work to be published by Peter Lang (Series “South-East European History”) under the auspices of the Balkan History Association.