For a bried, shining moment the city of pergamum set out to rival Athens in splendour and artistic prominence; the world's mpst famous architects, sculptors and intellectuals gethered there, and its llibrary is said to have contained 20,000 volumes, From 281 to 133 BCE, five generations of the Attalid dynasty ruled western Anotolia as far south as the Mediterranean coast from Pergamumi but when King Attalus III died it was discovered that, uniquely in history, he had willed his kingdom to Rome.

John Freely is to Istanbul what Augustus Hare was to Rome in the nineteenth century. For forty-three years he has known, explored, loved and illuminated his adopted city. To walk the streets, to climb the hills, to visit the mosques, palaces and remains of Istanbul with Freely is to learn first-hand the multi-faceted history of the New Rome, and of the Turkish imperial capital that succeeded it. He knows every nook and cranny, knows who lived where and when, and knows the people who live there now.

İstanbul'un camileri İslam mimarisinin görkemini temsil eder. Camiler, kentin silueti üzerinde yükselen kubbeleriyle, kudretli Osmanlı sultanlarının hayalleriyle tutkularını yansıtırken, bir yandan da bu yapıları inşa etmiş olan mimarların parlak başarısını ortaya koyarlar. Bu kitap bu yapıları tarihsel, dinsel ve toplumsal bağlamda ele alıyor. Aynı zamanda, Osmanlı camilerinin ilk Osmanlı başkenti olan Edirne ve Bursa'daki, 14. yy'a ait örneklerinden, İstanbul'un 1453'teki fethinden sonra inşa edilen ve da

İstanbul ile özdeşleşmiş bir yapı olan Ayasofya, her şeyden önce boyutlarıyla ve mimari kuruluşuyla etkileyicidir. Yapıldığı dönemin dünyasında hiçbir bazilika Ayasofya´nın kubbesinin boyutunda bir kubbe ile örtülü değildi ve böylesine bütünlüklü bir iç mekana sahip değildi. Kapsamlı bir rehber olarak hazırlanan eser, bu muhteşem yapının inşa öyküsünü anlatmakta ve bol miktarda renkli görsel malzemeyle mimari özelliklerini, mozaiklerdeki ikonografiyi ve Osmanlı döneminde geçirdiği değişiklikleri gözler önün

The monumental church of Hagia Sophia, or Holy Wisdom, built on the direct order of the Emperor Justinian in only five years, was inaugurated and consecrated on 27th December 537. For over 900 years, until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as the most prestigious building of the Byzantine empire and the centre of Orthodox Christianity, and was known as the Megale Ekklesia (great church). For almost 500 years thereafter it was the gem of the Muslim world and the Ottoman Empire, ans was used as t