Descripion of costantinople, the capital city of byzantium in arabic sources

Abstract

This study aims to give a general discription of Constantinople, the capital city of Byzantium, depending upon the Arabic sources written before the XVth century, i. e. before the Ottoman Conquest. The name of the city in Arabic sources is generally mentioned as al-Qustantîniyya. Beside Bizantiyya it is very clear that Istanbul also has been used before XVth century. The historical sources mainly mention the campaigns of the muslim Arabs to siege and to attempt to capture Constantinople during the early Islamic centuries. On the other hand the geographical sources give the topographic and physical description of the city: The walls, the Bosphorus, St. Sophia and other churches and monastries, the imperial palaces, the Hippodrome, obelisks and statues and also some aspects of social life. A remerkable attention was given to the Byzantine capital city in some stories and legends like Sîrat al-Antar, Sîrat al-Amîra Dhât al-Himma (Dhu’l-Himma, Delhemma) and the story of ‘Umar al-Nu‘mân which is the longest part of the One Thousand and One Night.