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Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, previously known as Byzantium and later as Constantinople, can be described as an early modern city of the period 1500 to 1800. It was comparable with other great cities of western and central Europe during that time. This account of early modern Istanbul intends to show the city's urban features that belonged to the era. For much of the period Istanbul was one the most densely populated cities in Europe. It numbered probably 60,000 inhabitants in 1477. These people had been forcibly brought to the city from different areas of the Ottoman Empire following the Ottoman conquest in 1453. There were Muslims and non-Muslims, including Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Gypsies. By the 1600s Istanbul had more than 300,000 inhabitants. The city's economic growth and prosperity attracted the people. Many also had left their hometowns or provinces because of the civil wars in Anatolia in those years. There was a continuous flow of immigrants to Istanbul. The population reached to over half a million in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it continued to grow thereafter. The first census of 1885 recorded 875,000 individuals living in the city.

Urban Development

In the sixteenth century, the walled city of Istanbul was administratively divided into 13 districts that contained varying numbers of quarters. These districts were identified by Friday mosques, the largest mosques of the district and where Friday noon prayer was held. Friday mosques were substituted for quarter mosques over the years, and new Friday mosques were founded within the existing districts. But the number of districts remained unchanged, at least until the end of the sixteenth century. The three succeeding volumes of Istanbul vakif (pious endowment) registers of 1546, 1578, and 1596 show the development pattern over the 50 years. The first volume records 219 quarters and 244 mosques in the city in 1546. Each quarter had at least one mosque and some had two or more. The number of quarters rose with the number of mosques to 227 with 254 mosques in 1578, and 230 with 256 mosques in 1596.

The rise in the number of quarters occurred in two ways in this period: First was the appearance of a new quarter under the name of an existing mosque that was the second mosque of an existing quarter. Second was the development of a new quarter in association with a newly constructed mosque. In the latter, the new mosque generated the urban development in its surroundings, and this was normally experienced in less densely built-up areas. In the areas where the quarters could not expand, new buildings had to be fitted into the existing urban fabric. Some buildings had to be pulled down to make room for the new developments. And the quarters became denser.

Urban Production and Consumption

It was not easy to supply the city with a population approaching half a million. Istanbul had become a center of consumption but relied heavily on imports. The Ottoman authorities tried to impose controls on the system of supply, giving priority to the walled city over the other places. According to the regulations, various foodstuffs shipped to the city were to be unloaded in specific quays on the shore of Tahtakale. They were taken to some authorized depots inside the walls to be taxed and priced, and then to be distributed to wholesalers, producer-retailers, or both. For instance, many foodstuffs were brought to the Balkapan Han (literally Honey-Depot Inn), where they were to be distributed to grocers. And thus, groceries were concentrated on the area. However, often dealers smuggled goods outside markets to sell them at higher prices. Probably for this purpose, many possessed storehouses and shops in this area. As a result, the shoreline area had become highly congested. In 1579, the construction of new shops in the Tahtakale area outside the wall was prohibited.

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