İstanbul’s 8,500-year legacy in political, socioeconomic and cultural fields is being told in a new book launched this week as part of the İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture program.
Put together by an İstanbul-based NGO called the Türk Kültürüne Hizmet Vakfı (Foundation of Service to Turkish Culture), the book “Kültürler Başkenti İstanbul” also has an English version, titled “Istanbul the Capital of Cultures.” Both versions of the book were launched at a gala on Wednesday at the Caferağa Medresesi in Sultanahmet.
The book aims to show the fact that “İstanbul has always been a center for economic, commercial and cultural connections from the past to the present day,” the İstanbul 2010 agency says about the book on its website.
Şerafettin Yılmaz, the president of the foundation, said during Wednesday’s gala that the book was an effort to “recount the little-known story of İstanbul’s 8,500-year history,” the Anatolia news agency reported.
The book is divided into four chapters, titled “From Ancient Ages to the Post-Roman Period,” “Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) Period,” “The İstanbul of the Ottoman Era” and “Republican Years and İstanbul.” The 1,440-page volume brings together the writings of 76 researchers and specialists on İstanbul’s history, accompanied by a rich collection of around 1,000 photographs.
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