The city of Istanbul has been known through the ages under a large number of different names. Besides its modern Turkish name, the most notable are Byzantium, Constantinople and Stamboul, but there are also others. Each of them is associated with different phases of its history and with different languages. This page gives a survey of the history of these names and their use in various modern languages.

Names in historical sequence

Byzantium

Byzantion (Βυζάντιον), Latinized as Byzantium, was the first known name of the city. It was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and, according to legend, named after their king Byzas, originally *Βύζαντς, probably an Illyrian name.^[1] Megara (Greek: Μέγαρα (Big Houses); see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. ... Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 710s BC 700s BC 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC - 660s BC - 650s BC 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC Events and trends 668 BC - Egypt revolts against Assyria 668 BC - Assurbanipal succeeds Esarhaddon as king of... According to a Greek legend, Byzas was a Greek colonist (reported by some to be a leader or even a king) from the Doric colony of Megara in Ancient Greece, who consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. ... The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in pre-Roman times. ...

Much later, the name Byzantium became common in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire, the "Byzantine" Empire, whose capital the city had been. This usage was introduced only in 1555 by the German historian Hieronymus Wolf, a century after the empire had ceased to exist. During the time of the empire itself, the name of Byzantium was only used rarely. It has been suggested that Eastern Roman Empire be merged into this article or section. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Further information: Byzantium

Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city, which, according to legend, was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas (Βύζας or Βύζαντας in Greek). ...

Augusta Antonina

Augusta Antonina was a name given to the city during a brief period in the 3rd century AD. It was conferred to it by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (193-211) in honour of his son Antonius, the later emperor Caracalla.^[2] Lucius Septimius Severus (b. ... Caracalla (April 4, 186 – April 8, 217) was Roman Emperor from 211 – 217. ...

New Rome

When Roman emperor Constantine the Great made the city the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, 330, he conferred on it the name Nova Roma Νέα Ῥώμη 'New Rome'. He also undertook a major construction project, essentially rebuilding the city. Other names of this period included ἡ Νέα, δευτέρα Ῥώμη 'the New, second Rome', Alma Roma Ἄλμα Ῥώμα, Βυζαντιάς Ῥώμη, ἑῴα Ῥώμη 'Eastern Rome', Roma Constantinopolitana.^[3] Head of Constantines colossal statue at Musei Capitolini Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[1] (February 27, 272–May 22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or (among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic[2] Christians) Saint Constantine, was a Roman Emperor, proclaimed Augustus by his troops on... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (132nd in leap years). ... Events May 11 - Constantine I refounds Byzantium, renames it New Rome, and moves the capital of the Roman Empire there from Rome. ...

The term "New Rome" lent itself to East-Western polemics, especially in the context of the Great Schism, when it was used by Greek writers to stress the rivalry with (the original) Rome. New Rome is also still part of the official title of the Patriarch of Constantinople. For the later Papal Schism in Avignon, see Western Schism. ... The Patriarch of Constantinople is the Ecumenical Patriarch, ranking as the first among equals in the Eastern Orthodox communion. ...

Constantinople

Constantinople ("City of Constantine") was the name by which the city became soon more widely known instead of Nova Roma, in honour of its eponymic founder. The Greek form is Kōnstantinoupolis (Κωνσταντινούπολις); the Latin form is Constantinopolis. It is first attested in official use under emperor Theodosius II (408-450).^[2] It remained the principal official name of the city throughout the Byzantine period, and the most common name used for it in the West until the early 20th century. An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... Theodosius II Flavius Theodosius II (April, 401 - July 28, 450 ). The eldest son of Eudoxia and Arcadius who at the age of 7 became the Roman Emperor of the East. ...

Some Byzantine writers would vary the use of the names Byzantium and Constantinople depending on religious historical context; Byzantium was associated with the city's pagan roots, while Constantinople was associated with Christianity. Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch...

Further information: Constantinople

Map of Constantinople. ...

Other Byzantine names

Besides Constantinople, the Byzantines referred to the city with a large range of honorary appellations, such as the "Queen of Cities" (Βασιλίς τῶν πόλεων). In popular speech, however, the most common way of referring to it came to be simply The City (Greek: hē Polis, ἡ Πόλις, Modern Greek: i Poli, η Πόλη). This usage, still current today in colloquial Greek, also became the source of the later Turkish name, Istanbul (see below). Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ...

Kostantiniyye

Kostantiniyye (Arabic القسطنطينية, al-Qusṭanṭiniyah, Ottoman Turkish قسطنطينيه Kostantiniyye) is the name by which the city came to be known in the Islamic world. It is an Arabic calqued form of Constantinople, with an Arabic ending meaning 'place of' instead of the Greek element -polis. After the Ottoman conquest of 1453, it was used as the most formal official name in Ottoman Turkish, and remained in use throughout most of the time up to the fall of the empire in 1923. However, during some periods Ottoman authorities favoured other names (see below). Ottoman Turkish (Turkish: or , Ottoman Turkish: ‎ ) was the variant of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire. ... // In linguistics, a calque (pronounced ) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: verbum pro verbo) or root-for-root translation. ...

Istanbul

The modern Turkish name İstanbul (IPA: [istambul] or colloquial [ɨstanbul]) is attested (in a range of different variants) since the 10th century, at first in Armenian and Arabic and then in Turkish sources. It derives from the Greek phrase "εις την Πόλιν" or "στην Πόλη" [(i)stimboli(n)], both meaning "in the city" or "to the city".^[4] It is thus based on the common Greek usage of referring to Constantinople simply as The City (see above). The incorporation of parts of articles and other particles into Greek placenames was common even before the Ottoman period, Navarino for earlier Avarino,^[5] Satines for Athines, etc.^[6] Similar examples of modern Turkish placenames derived from Greek in this fashion are İzmit, earlier İznikmit, from Greek Nicomedia, İznik from Greek Nicaea ([iz nikea]), Samsun (s'Amison = "se + Amisos"), and İstanköy for the Greek island Kos (from is tin Ko). The occurrence of the initial i- in these names may partly reflect the old Greek form with is-, or it may partly be an effect of secondary epenthesis due to the phonotactic structure of Turkish. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Ä°zmit (ancient Nicomedia) is a city in [[Turkey], administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality . ... Nicomedia (modern Ä°zmit, also known as Iznik) was founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia at the head of the Gulf of Astacus (which opens on the Propontis) in 264 BC. The city has ever since been one of the chief towns in this part of Asia Minor. ... Ä°znik (which derives from the former Greek name Νίκαια, Nicaea) is a city in Turkey which is known primarily as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Christian church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital... Samsun, Turkey Samsun (Greek: Σαμψούντα Sampsoúnta) is a city in northern Turkey, on the coast of the Black Sea, with a population of 396,900 as of 2004. ... Port and city view of Kos town on the island Kos. ... In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (, from Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

İstanbul was the common name for the city in normal speech in Turkish even since before the conquest of 1453, but in official use by the Ottoman authorities, other names such as Kostantiniyye were preferred in certain contexts. Thus, Kostantiniyye was used on coinage up to the late 17th and then again in the 19th century. The Ottoman chancelery and courts used Kostantiniyye as part of intricate formulae in expressing the place of origin of formal documents, such as be-Makam-ı Darü's-Saltanat-ı Kostantiniyyetü'l-Mahrusâtü'l-Mahmiyye^[7] In 19th century Turkish bookprinting it was also used in the impressum of books, in analogy to the foreign use of Constantinople. At the same time, however, İstanbul too was part of official language, for instance as part of the titles of the highest Ottoman military commander (İstanbul ağası) and the highest civil magistrate (İstanbul efendisi) of the city.^[8] İstanbul and several other variant forms of the same name were also widely used in Ottoman literature and poetry.^[2]

After the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the various alternative names besides İstanbul became obsolete in the Turkish language. With the Turkish Postal Service Law of March 28, 1930, the Turkish authorities officially requested foreigners to cease referring to the city with their traditional non-Turkish names (such as Constantinople, Tsarigrad, etc.) and to adopt Istanbul as the sole name also in their own languages.^[9] Letters or packages sent to "Constantinople" instead of "Istanbul" were no longer delivered by Turkey's PTT, which contributed to the eventual worldwide adoption of the new name. Similarly, letters or packages that were sent to "Smyrna" instead of Izmir, "Angora" instead of Ankara, "Trebizond" instead of Trabzon, and other ancient city names were no longer delivered; a measure which forced the quick worldwide recognition of the modern Turkish names of every prominent city in the country. A postal, telegraph, and telephone (or PTT) is or was a government agency responsible for postal mail, telegraph, and telephone services in many countries worldwide other than North America and Japan. ... Shows the Location of the Province Ä°zmir Izmir from space, June 1996 Izmir (Turkish spelling Ä°zmir, contraction of its former name Smyrna), the second-largest port (after Ä°stanbul) and the third most populous city (2,409,000 in 2000) of Turkey, is located on the Aegean Sea near the Gulf... Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the countrys second largest city after Ä°stanbul. ... Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond (Modern Greek: Τραπεζούντα, Trapezoúnta; Ancient Greek: , Trapezoûs), is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. ...

Stamboul

Stamboul or Stambul is a variant form of İstanbul. Like Istanbul itself, forms without the initial i- are attested from early on in the Middle Ages, first in Arabic sources of the 10th century and Armenian ones of the 12th. Some early sources also attest to an even shorter form Bulin, based on the Greek word Poli(n) alone without the preceding article.^[10] (This latter form lives on in modern Armenian.)

Stamboul was used in Western languages as an equivalent of İstanbul, until the time it was replaced by the official new usage of the Turkish form in the 20th century. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, English-speaking sources often used Constantinople to refer to the metropolis as a whole, but Stamboul to refer to the central parts located on the historic peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.^[11] View of Golden Horn from Eyup Sultan Cemetery The Golden Horn (in Turkish Haliç, in Greek Khrysokeras or Chrysoceras or Χρυσοκερας) is an estuary dividing the city of Istanbul. ... Bosphorus - photo taken from International Space Station. ...

Islambol

Islambol or Islambul, literally full of Islam, was a folk-etymological adaptation of Istanbul created after the Ottoman conquest of 1453 to express the city's new role as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman empire. It is first attested shortly after the conquest, and its invention was ascribed by some contemporary writers to Sultan Mehmed II himself.^[2] Some Ottoman sources of the 17th century, most notably Evliya Çelebi, describe it as the common Turkish name of the time. Between the late 17th and late 18th centuries, it was also in official use. The first use of the word "Islambol" on coinage took place in 1703 (1115AH) during the reign of Sultan Ahmed III. The term Kostantiniyye still appears, however, into the nineteenth century. Folk etymology or popular etymology is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... Mehmed II (Ottoman Turkish: محمد ثانى , Turkish: ), (also known as el-Fatih (الفاتح), the Conqueror, in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmet) (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. ... Evliya Çelebi (اوليا چلبي; also known as DerviÅŸ Mehmed Zılli) (March 25, 1611–1682) was the most famous Ottoman traveler, having journeyed throughout the territories of the Ottoman Empire and the neighbouring lands over a period of forty years. ... Sultan Ahmed III Köçeks at a fair. ...

Other Ottoman names

Like the Byzantines, the Ottomans used to refer to the city by a range of other honorary appellations. Among them are Dersaadet (در سعادت 'Gate of Felicity'), Derâliye (در عاليه) or Bâb-ı Âlî باب عالی 'The Sublime Porte', or Pâyitaht (پایتخت, 'The Seat of the Throne'). The 'Gate of Felicity' and the 'Sublime Porte' were literally places within the Ottoman Sultans' Topkapı Palace, and were used metonymically to refer to the authorities located there, and hence for the Ottoman government as a whole. This usage is mirrored in the use of Sublime Porte or simple The Porte in Western diplomacy before the 20th century. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In rhetoric, metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word with which it is associated. ... Synonym of the government of the Ottoman Empire. ...

Further information: Porte

Synonym of the government of the Ottoman Empire. ...

Historical names in other languages

Many peoples neighboring on the Byzantine Empire used names expressing concepts like "The Great City", "City of the Emperors", "Capital of the Romans" or similar.

Slavic

East and South Slavic languages referred to the city as Tsarigrad or Carigrad, 'City of the Emperor', from the Slavonic words tsar ('Caesar') and grad ('city').Cyrillic:Цариград. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις (Basileus Polis), 'the city of the emperor [king]'. The term is still occasionally used in Bulgarian, whereas it has become archaic in Russian. In Czech language (West Slavic) this Slavic name is used in the form Cařihrad (used in 19th century, now only occasionally). It was also borrowed from the Slavic languages into Romanian in the form Ţarigrad.  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... Tsargrad (Old Church Slavonic: Цѣсарьградъ, Church Slavonic: Царьгра̀дъ, Russian: , Bulgarian: Ца̀риград (Tsarigrad), Romanian: Å¢arigrad, Ukrainian: , Serbian: Цариград (Carigrad), also rendered as Czargrad and Tzargrad; see Tsar) is a historic Slavic name for the city of Constantinople, which is modern-day Istanbul in Turkey. ... Tsar (Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian цар, Russian  , in scientific transliteration respectively car and car ), occasionally spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English, is a Slavonic term designating certain monarchs. ... Caesar (plural Caesars), Latin: Cæsar (plural Cæsares), is a title of imperial character. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... // In linguistics, a calque (pronounced ) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: verbum pro verbo) or root-for-root translation. ... Czech (čeÅ¡tina []) is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian (Kashubian), and Lusatian Sorbian. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) comprise the languages of the Slavic peoples. ...

Further information: Tsargrad

Tsargrad (Old Church Slavonic: Цѣсарьградъ, Church Slavonic: Царьгра̀дъ, Russian: , Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian: Цариград (Tsarigrad or Carigrad in the Latin alphabet), Romanian: Ţarigrad, Ukrainian: , also rendered as Czargrad and Tzargrad; see Tsar) is a historic Slavic name for the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire and eventually its eastern half...

Germanic

The medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the Byzantine empire through their expansion through eastern Europe (Varangians) used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr (from mikill 'big' and garðr 'city'). This name lives on in the modern Icelandic name Mikligarður and Faroese Miklagarður. The name Viking is a loan from the native Scandinavian term for the Norse seafaring warriors who raided the coasts of Scandinavia, Europe and the British Isles from the late 8th century to the 11th century, the period of European history referred to as the Viking Age. ... Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the 11th century chronicle of John Skylitzes. ... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ...

Persian and Arabic

Besides Kustantiniyyah, Persian, Arabic and other languages of the Islamic world used names based on the title Cesar ('Emperor'), as in Persian Kayser-i Zemin,^[2] or on the ethnic name Rum ('Romans'), as in Arabic Rūmiyyat al-kubra ('Great City of the Romans') or Persian Taxt-e Rum ('Throne of the Romans').^[10] Persian (Local names: فارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi)* is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ...

Hebrew

In Hebrew, the city was sometimes referred to as "Kushta" קושתא, probably an alteration of Kostantiniyye.

Modern languages

Most modern Western languages have adopted the name Istanbul for the modern city during the 20th century, following the current usage in the Turkish Republic. However, many languages also preserve other, traditional names. Greeks continue to call the city Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολη Konstantinupoli in Modern Greek) or simply "The City" (η Πόλη i Poli). Languages that use forms based on Stamboul include Russian, Lithuanian, Albanian, and Kurdish. Armenian uses Bolis, based on the Greek Poli(s) 'City'. Icelandic preserves the old Norse name Mikligarður. The Kurdish language is a language spoken in the region called Kurdistan, including Kurdish populations in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. ...

Further information: List of names in European languages

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

See also

• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) was the title to a song originally performed by The Four Lads in 1953, and was written by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon. ...

Bibliography

• Demetrius John Georgacas, "The Names of Constantinople", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 78:347-367 (1947) at JSTOR

Notes