The Fourth Crusades finally won victory over the Byzantine Empire and laid their claim by renaming the city once again. The Greek translation of city ‘polis’ also laid the foundation of its latter Turkish name Istanbul, meaning ‘in the city’. Following a need to shorten names, it simply became referred to as ‘The City’, which is still used in Greek and Armenian slang. It was sporadically used until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, but holds its place in history as it appeared as the official name on coinage in the 17th and 19th centuries.Īn indication of pride, the Byzantines had several references for their great city, not least modest being ‘Queen of Cities’. However, once the Ottomans took hold of the city in 1453, Kostantiniyye was used as the highest, formal official name of the city in Ottoman Turkish. This started as simply the Arabic calqued word for Constantinople that held a familiar association to the city in the Islamic world. It remained the official name of the city throughout the Byzantine period, and was also commonly used by the west until up until the creation of the Republic of Turkey. Although Constantine’s preferred the name, Nea Roma (New Rome), it never caught local popularity. The city became known as Constantinopolis or Constantinople, meaning the “City of Constantine”, and was the capital of the Roman Empire also known as the Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire. The new transformation of Byzantium into a city worthy of capital status earned Constantine immortality by name. Byzantium was established on that very spot in 7th Century BC, named in honor of the king. With no previous settlers to contest ownership, Byzas considered them blind to bypass such a strategic location. He embarked on his destiny’s quest until stumbling on a highly strategic location between the Golden Horn, Bosphorus and Marmara Sea. As legend goes, King Byzas of the Greek Dorian city-state Megara was instructed by the Delphi oracle of Apollo to settle opposite the ‘land of the blind’. Pagan roots are attributed to the first recognized settlement of Istanbul’s historical peninsula. Trace the history of Istanbul’s names as it changed from the hands of Byzantines to Latin Crusaders, from Ottomans to Turks. The band They Might Be Giants wrote and performed a song called "Istanbul, Not Constantinople," which is the namesake for many achievements in the Civilization games involving Istanbul, Constantinople, and Byzantium.With a transient past of ownership and religions, it’s no surprise the city of Istanbul has a chronicle of names. Istanbul is home to a wonder known as the Hagia Sophia, which was built while Istanbul was Constantinople.
Byzantine citizens called themselves Romans, and their own territory the Roman Empire. As if that weren't confusing enough, what is known today as the "Byzantine Empire" was a name given to the Eastern Roman Empire after it fell. The Turkish capital was moved to the city Ankara that same year.Ĭonfusingly, the city was never named Istanbul while the entity known as the Ottoman Empire controlled the city. The city was officially renamed "Istanbul" (derived from the Greek words "eis tin polin," meaning "to the city") after the Turkish War of Independence in 1923. The city eventually was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Roman Emperor Constantine chose the city to be the capital of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire, which later became the Byzantine Empire, and the city was renamed in his honor. The city was originally a Greek city named Byzantium. Constantinople is the Byzantine capital in the Civilization games, and Byzantium is a Roman city in Sid Meier's Civilization. Istanbul, originally Constantinople and Byzantium, is the Ottoman capital in the Civilization games and a city in present-day Turkey.
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