The death of Suleiman the magnific in 1566 pronounced both the capstone and the turning point of the Ottoman Empire’s fortunes. Istanbul, which had reached a glowing height under his reign, now faced a period of transition. The conglomerate was still vast, important, and fat, but cracks began to appear beneath the golden face. This occasion traces the history of Istanbul during the ultimate

When Constantinople fell in 1453, the world stood at the crossroads of two periods. The megacity, formerly called Rum by Muslims and New Rome by Christians, had endured centuries of siege and struggle, only to be eventually taken by the Banquettes under Mehmed II. But the story of Constantinople did n't end with its subjection. rather, the megacity was revived. The Banquettes converted it into Istanbul,

When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century CE, Constantinople—known to the outside world as Rum—stood alone as the last bastion of Roman greatness. The fall of Rome to barbarian invasions in 476 CE shifted the balance of power eastward, leaving Constantinople as the sole heir of imperial majesty. For centuries, the city would serve as the capital of the Byzantine Empire, a realm both Roman and Greek, Christian and imperial. But the Middle ages were not kind to empires, and Rum would face

When one speaks of Rum in the medieval imagination, the megacity that towers over all others is Constantinople, the shining heart of the intricate Conglomerate. To the Romans it was Nova Roma — the New Rome — while to the Greeks it was simply Konstantinoupolis, the megacity of Constantine.

The story of Rum begins long before it was known by that name, long before its minarets and polls pierced the skyline, long before its hosts of soldiers thundered through its gates. The megacity we now associate with “ Rum ” — a name that in Islamic chronicles would come to mean the lands of Rome and latterly Byzantium has its roots in the small Greek colony of Byzantium, innovated on the edge of Europe and Asia, where mainlands, swell, and conglomerates would meet and disaccord. To understand Rum, one must first understand Byzantium, the seed from which it grew, and the strategic genius of its position that would ultimately make it the covetousness of the world.

The palace corridors were filled with the morning light, golden shafts discovering through altitudinous arched windows, falling across the polished marble bottoms where intricate patterns lustered noiselessly like woven vestments of tableware. The former night’s silence had been broken only by the murmurs of dreams and hushed whispers of the guards

The days in Troy passed with an uneasy meter, a strange admixture of dazing festivity and rumored dread. Helen, still radiant as ever, felt the golden pen of the palace closing around her. Though she was adored by the people of Troy, she also tasted the silent judgment

Snow White sat up sluggishly, bewildered yet smiling, as though awakening from a long dream. Her aspect met the Napoleon’s, and in that moment, commodity passed between them — a recognition of hearts meant to meet, of lives fated to intertwine. And the glass replied, “ Snow White, who lives, is still the fairest of them all. ”