William Collins To The City Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul.

by Alexander Christie-Miller

William Collins To The City Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul ABISBOOK William Collins.

416 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2025

Reviews

[Laurie]

Very good work for understanding the political climate and movements in contemporary Türkiye as they play out in Istanbul. I have a much greater understanding of how Erdogan gained and maintains political power. Interviews with many people, including Kurds and women on how they view life in contemporary Istanbul as told through explorations of neighborhoods bordering the Theodosian Walls of old Constantinople.

[Emilie]

Known simply as “the city” by the Greeks, Istanbul’s sweeping 2,500 year history makes a daunting subject. As a bridge between continents, a force in global trade, a bastion of art & culture - and - on top of that, one which has exchanged hands a fair few times, I was expecting this to be more of a whistle stop tour of names I couldn’t pronounces and dates I’d forget almost as soon as I’d read them. I was relieved to find this a much more intimate portrait of Istanbul.

From the love for stray animals to a tea consumption which rivals the British, I enjoyed how these observations get drawn back to the socio-political forces which shape them. The strays, for example, mark old community lines after Ataturk’s reforms sought to move Turkey away from local ties. Though, in the early 20th century, there was a particularly brutal attempt to get rid of these residual marks of the old order, they are still universally loved and have even more of a celeb status in their communities now that they have instagram accounts!