![]() ![]() The site is remarkable, a rough triangle upturned slightly at its eastern point like an aggressive rhino's horn and protected on two sides by sea. When some ancestor of this bird circled Constantinople on a cold day in March 1453, the layout of the city would have been familiar, though far less cluttered. ![]() From here it can survey a city of fifteen million people, watching the passing of days and centuries through imperturbable eyes. ![]() It turns lazy circles round the Suleymaniye mosque as if tethered to the minarets. A black kite swings on the Istanbul wind. I shall tell the story of the tremendous perils … of Constantinople, which I observed at close quarters with my own eyes.Įarly spring. Hasan Ali Al-Harawi, twelfth-century Arab writer May God in his grace and generosity deign to make it the capital of Islam. Constantinople is a city larger than its renown proclaims. ![]()
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