Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World

If you're planning a trip to Istanbul, this book will add immeasurably to the experience. It covers the grand sweep of history from the ancient greek settlements to the present day in a much shorter book than other options I considered. I started reading a month prior to my trip and finished it while I was there (you will want to bring it with you for reference). Amidst the gripping historical story, Madden seemlessly gives the reader background on both the well known and lesser known (but fascinating) sites you can visit in this captivating city. It was invaluable and really was the key for me to fully enjoy, appreciate, and sense the historic atmosphere, wonder and mystery of this place on the shores of the Bosphorus. It turned a holiday into an adventure.

I booked a last minute trip to Istanbul and wanted a good quick history of the city. If I had had a little more notice I probably would have started with the longer Bettany Hughes book. But I certainly didn't regret opting for this shorter history. The book is incredibly easy to read without feeling that too much detail is being left out, and is an invaluable guide to The City.

The history of Istanbul can be retold many times over by different historians, and with each version, the reader or audience will continue to be enchanted. This assertion is borne out by the fact that 2017 produced two beautiful modern accounts of the history of Istanbul. The first (that I read) is Bethany Hughes’ ‘Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, Da Capo Press). Madden’s is the second. Madden’s 358-page book is considerably shorter than Hughes’ 637 pages (inclusive of a 3-page appendix), but in some ways it is more manageable and easier to follow and digest than Hughes’ version, a version so splendid in its elegant charm and descriptions, and in spite of the coarser words of modern English. Ultimately, the difference may be just one of style. But there are differences of facts. Madden says that when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Western Roman Empire, he sent a marriage proposal to Empress Irene (spelt ‘Eirene’ by Hughes), she rebuffed him, whereas, Hughes said that it was Eirene who sent the proposal of marriage to Charlemagne. There are many differences in the spelling of ancient names. Hughes’ ‘Haghia Sophia’ is ‘Hagia Sophia’ in Madden. The storyline by Madden is leaner and more structured, and so, if the reader is reading to find out the history of the Eastern Roman Empire, Madden is the probably the more helpful one. In the course of dappling into the details of the personalities and the secondary storyline of the development of Christianity and Islam (as well as the role and fate of the Jews) in that region, Hughes’ work is extremely enlightening.