What's new

[Cyprus Times] 28 March 1930: Istanbul is officially renamed Istanbul

eski-istanbul-1a-e1522216750339.jpg


Today Istanbul is renamed Istanbul


The city was called Istanbul from its foundation (658/7 BC) until 330 AD. Byzantium. In 196 AD, and for a short time, it also received the name Augusta Antonina from Emperor Septimius Severus, in honour of his son, Antonius.

Emperor Constantine I, at its inauguration in 330, renamed it Nova Roma (New Rome), a name that did not prevail, as the city quickly became known as Constantinople (City of Constantine), after the name of its founder. As the historian Socrates Scholasticus delivers in his Ecclesiastical History, the name New Rome was established by law and seems to have reflected a rhetorical parallel between Rome and Constantinople. Other names attributed to it are "Basileousa", "Basilis of the Cities", "Megalopolis" and "Eptalophos", while reference is also made to the name "Florentia".

Constantinople was the official name until 1923. Today it is known throughout the world as Istanbul, as it was officially renamed by the Turkish Republic on 28 March 1930.

The etymology of the term is not known with certainty. The most widely accepted view is that it derives from the Greek words "εις to Polis". It is also considered likely that given its importance and size, its inhabitants simply called it "Polis", as it is often called to this day by Greeks.

The name Istanbul, along with its variants Istinbol or Istanbol, was used during the Seljuk Sultanate and the early Ottoman period, while the pronunciation of the name as "Istinboli" is attested according to sources from the late 14th century.

According to another version, the term Istanbul derives from the word Islambul, meaning city of Islam, although this hypothesis seems to run up against the fact that the name was used before it became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.




The slightly variant name Islam-bol, which translates as "where Islam abounds", seems to have been given to the city by Muhammad II and is found in documents from the 15th century, as well as in a firman of 1760/1 - which was ultimately not implemented - according to which it should have been the official name of the city. The name Constantinople (Ottoman Turkish قسطنطينيه, Konstantiniyye) was in parallel use mainly in official Ottoman documents, literary works, and coinage. It was in use mostly in scholarly circles, while various variants of the name Istanbul dominated everyday communication. There is even an American song that was a big hit, related to the controversy, "Istambul, not Constantinople".

Source: wikipedia.org


Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times

Source[/URL]

 
Back
Top