Armenian Community of Constantinople (XV-XVII centuries)

Armenian Community of Constantinople (XV-XVII centuries)

Armenian Community of Constantinople (XV-XVII centuries)

Author: Albert Kharatyan


Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman and Byzantine (330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin (1204–1261), and the Ottoman (1453–1922) empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD[1] at ancient Byzantium, as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, and dedicated on 11 May 330. In the 12th century, the city was the largest and wealthiest European city[3] and it was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times. After the loss of its territory, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was reduced to just its capital city and its environs, eventually falling to the Ottomans in 1453. Following the Muslim conquest, the former bastion of Christianity in the east, Constantinople, was turned into the Islamic capital of the Ottoman Empire, under which it prospered and flourished again. After the founding of the modern Republic of Turkey—the successor state of the Ottoman Empire—the city was renamed Istanbul in 1923.

Constantinople was famed for its massive defenses. Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, the Byzantine city was taken only in 1204 by the Latin army of the Fourth Crusade, recovered in 1261 by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, and in 1453 conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. A first smaller wall was erected by Constantine I, which surrounded the city, prior to the construction of the Theodosian Walls, a double wall lying about 2 km (1.2 miles) to the west of the first wall, in the 5th century by Theodosius II from which the walls took their name. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes, and towers, spanning two continents.