0:00:11 > 0:00:14I'm on the edge of Anatolia.
0:00:14 > 0:00:19It's a Greek word. Greeks had lived here for thousands of years.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23In Greek, it just means "the land where the sun rises".
0:00:23 > 0:00:27But a thousand years ago, another people arrived here.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31When they met people on the road, they'd say, "Where are you going?"
0:00:31 > 0:00:35They would normally answer in Greek, "eis tin poli" - "to the city",
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and that's how this city got its new name.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41"Eis tin poli" - Istanbul.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Those people were the Turks.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58And this is the story of how Greek Constantinople became Turkish Istanbul.
0:01:03 > 0:01:10How the ancient capital of Christianity became the imperial city of Islam.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14CALL TO PRAYER
0:01:14 > 0:01:17I've come here as both historian and traveller...
0:01:18 > 0:01:24..to find that story written into the fabric of the living city.
0:01:28 > 0:01:34So far, I have uncovered its transformation from a small, pagan fishing village
0:01:34 > 0:01:38to the Christian capital of the Roman Empire.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46But that set it on a collision course with Rome itself
0:01:46 > 0:01:49and with new forces to the east.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54After 700 years,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57this place had come on an incredible journey.
0:02:02 > 0:02:09What happened over the next 400 years would define not just this city, but the world.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Now I want to get to the heart of that moment
0:02:16 > 0:02:19when global history seemed to pivot
0:02:19 > 0:02:25on the fight to possess and identify this one fickle city.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul -
0:02:29 > 0:02:33three names for one totally extraordinary city.
0:02:33 > 0:02:40It's been occupied by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Venetians and the Turks.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45It's been a world city, a cosmopolitan city, a capital of empires.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50It owes its place to its unique position astride Europe and Asia,
0:02:50 > 0:02:54but also to its history
0:02:54 > 0:02:57as a holy city and an imperial capital.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Constantinople in AD 1000 -
0:03:21 > 0:03:24the new Rome.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29For 700 years, this city had been the capital
0:03:29 > 0:03:33not just of an empire, but of a religion,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36a different kind of holy city.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Holy cities are places where men encounter the divine,
0:03:43 > 0:03:48but Constantinople was always different from Jerusalem or Mecca,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52the settings of the great dramas of the monotheistic religions.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56When Constantine the Great converted to Christianity,
0:03:56 > 0:04:02he made Constantinople the capital of his unified Christian empire -
0:04:02 > 0:04:06one faith, one empire, one emperor.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10A fusion of power and sanctity.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18This was a new idea. Jesus had been a carpenter's son
0:04:18 > 0:04:22and now this was a city of sacred emperors.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24And it defined one thing.
0:04:24 > 0:04:30The possession of Constantinople gave you God's authority to rule the world.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38Constantinople was about religion and power.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46It was a heady cocktail coveted by every empire that came after it.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52And over the centuries, two great rivals emerged
0:04:52 > 0:04:56with their own ambitions to rule the world for God -
0:04:56 > 0:05:01the Caliphs of Islam and the Popes of Rome.
0:05:05 > 0:05:12The fall of Constantinople to Islam is one of the great stories of world history,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15but what is less well known
0:05:15 > 0:05:21is that the real story of the death of Byzantium began 400 years earlier in AD 1054.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Not with a conflict between Christians and Muslims,
0:05:26 > 0:05:31but a war of words between Christians and other Christians.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41The story unfolded in the sacred heart of this city -
0:05:41 > 0:05:45its awesome cathedral, Hagia Sophia.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57It was more than 500 years old at the turn of the millennium.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01And even today,
0:06:01 > 0:06:06it's still one of the most awe-inspiring buildings on Earth.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20This was the holy of holies of Byzantine Christianity,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24the place where, ever since the fall of Rome,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27emperors had been crowned
0:06:27 > 0:06:32who claimed rightful sovereignty over every soul in Christendom.
0:06:35 > 0:06:42But in 1054, the peace of this building and that universal vision were shattered...
0:06:44 > 0:06:49..by the agents of Byzantium's resurgent, ancient rival -
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Rome.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59On July the 16th, papal legates burst into the service here in Saint Sophia
0:06:59 > 0:07:03and laid a sentence of excommunication right on the altar.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Four days later,
0:07:06 > 0:07:11the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated the papal legates.
0:07:11 > 0:07:18It seemed like just the latest skirmish in centuries of ecclesiastical bickering,
0:07:18 > 0:07:23but in fact, this time, it would bring total catastrophe to the city.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33They called it the Great Schism,
0:07:33 > 0:07:38the moment Christianity split into two rival camps.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45On one side were the Byzantines, Greek-speaking, Orthodox,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and on the other, the Latins,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53so called because they held services in Latin, not Greek.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57But their differences went far deeper than language.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01They disagreed on the fundamental nature of God.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07But that was nothing compared to the cultural differences.
0:08:14 > 0:08:20You can meet the Byzantine Emperors, appropriately enough, up in the gods.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34In this high-up part of the church, you can almost feel the air becoming a bit more rarefied.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39This is the Marble Gate and up here the Empresses would sit on their throne
0:08:39 > 0:08:41and watch the services going on down below,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45while over here, the Emperor and his entourage would arrive
0:08:45 > 0:08:48via a secret passageway from the Great Palace.
0:08:52 > 0:08:58There's no better place to get into the heads of the Byzantine side of the quarrel
0:08:58 > 0:09:03because here you can come face to face with the person who was in charge
0:09:03 > 0:09:05in the run-up to the Great Schism.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Here's Zoe.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Princess Zoe was a plain old spinster
0:09:13 > 0:09:18who, crowned Empress in the autumn of her life, discovered the joys of sex
0:09:18 > 0:09:23which she embraced with unabashed and brazen enthusiasm.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29She married three times and each husband became Emperor.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32You can see here that every time she remarried,
0:09:32 > 0:09:37they had to rub out the head and rub out the name and put a new one in.
0:09:38 > 0:09:44Now, the first husband exhausted himself taking aphrodisiacs to keep up with her,
0:09:44 > 0:09:50but her minister, the sinister John the Eunuch, set her up with his teenage brother Michael.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Zoe fell passionately and head over heels in love.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58She had her first husband murdered in her bath
0:09:58 > 0:10:03and he was still lying there when she married her teenage lover Michael
0:10:03 > 0:10:06who turned out to be actually a very good emperor.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09But he died of exhaustion
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and so she married for the third time -
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Constantine, who we see up here.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21But he had a problem. He was in love with his mistress Skleraina.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23This didn't put off Zoe at all.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28The three of them set up home happily in the Imperial Palace
0:10:28 > 0:10:33where they lived together in a very Byzantine menage a trois.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40It's a juicy story and it gets you into the heads of the Byzantine elite.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45They were refined, elegant.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49They loved strong women and they despised petty morality.
0:10:53 > 0:11:01Down the hall, you can get a sense of what they thought of their upstart western rivals.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08The Great Schism had divided Christendom
0:11:08 > 0:11:10into two warring sects -
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18But the hatred wasn't just religious. It was also cultural.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22And this graffiti here tells some of the story.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27The Byzantines had really got to know westerners
0:11:27 > 0:11:30through the arrival of the Varangian Guard,
0:11:30 > 0:11:35the new Emperor's bodyguard made up of Norsemen and Vikings
0:11:35 > 0:11:38and Anglo-Saxon mercenaries.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42This is probably some of their graffiti.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50Byzantines regarded themselves as the greatest civilisation history had ever known,
0:11:50 > 0:11:56the Roman Empire and their Emperor as Christ's own vicegerents on Earth.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00To them, the westerners were the sort of shaggy-haired axemen
0:12:00 > 0:12:03who left graffiti in their favourite church.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13Christianity was divided into two camps -
0:12:13 > 0:12:17the Greek-speaking, effete, elegant Byzantines
0:12:17 > 0:12:22and the hardy warrior culture of the Latin-speaking west.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28But an amazing twist in the tale was coming.
0:12:28 > 0:12:34Byzantium was going to need the west's hairy axemen more than ever before
0:12:34 > 0:12:38because it was now facing a war on two fronts.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Just 17 years after the schism with Rome,
0:12:43 > 0:12:49Christianity and Byzantium faced the greatest ever threat to their existence.
0:12:58 > 0:13:04To the east, the Turks were sweeping into the Empire.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11And in 1071, they destroyed the Byzantine Army.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17It was the start of a new chapter
0:13:17 > 0:13:19in Byzantium's history,
0:13:19 > 0:13:24one in which the city would face enemies to both east and west.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32No-one knew what was going to happen.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Islam had been on the march for 400 years
0:13:36 > 0:13:41and the big question now was would Christendom, would Constantinople survive.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45This was the beginning of a 400-year struggle
0:13:45 > 0:13:48in which there were not two sides, but three
0:13:48 > 0:13:53in the coming struggle that pitted the invading Turkish Muslims
0:13:53 > 0:13:59against the two feuding sects of Christendom, east and west.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05The big question now would be could they put aside their differences and unite to face the common enemy.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14This was the last chance for Christian Constantinople
0:14:14 > 0:14:17to use one enemy to fight off the other.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Of their two possible allies,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25they chose the ones who were at least Christian.
0:14:29 > 0:14:36The new Emperor, Alexios Komnenos, held his nose and sent an appeal to the Pope
0:14:36 > 0:14:40for armed forces to counter the threat of the infidel.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47He had hoped for a battalion or two of well-trained knights.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51What he got was the Crusades.
0:14:55 > 0:15:01It was as if the entire world of the west, from the Adriatic to the Straits of Gibraltar,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04had come here to Constantinople
0:15:04 > 0:15:09and the Crusades really were an extraordinary and enormous movement of people,
0:15:09 > 0:15:1580,000 of them, some in unruly mobs and some in organised, princely armies,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18but they all came here.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21It was actually the last thing the Emperor wanted.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29It was a moment of enormous potential
0:15:29 > 0:15:32and latent threat to Byzantium.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Could they harness the power of these western hordes
0:15:37 > 0:15:40or would they be overrun by them?
0:15:51 > 0:15:54St Mary of the Mongols
0:15:54 > 0:15:58is the only Byzantine church still operational in the city.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04Historian Peter Frankopan took me there to understand what happened
0:16:04 > 0:16:10when the westerners found themselves in the capital of eastern Christianity.
0:16:13 > 0:16:19So when the first Crusaders arrive, how did it go, their first visit to Byzantium?
0:16:19 > 0:16:23The first wave that arrives here behave like football hooligans
0:16:23 > 0:16:26on tour who have had too much to drink,
0:16:26 > 0:16:31so they steal lead off the roofs of the churches, they go berserk through the city
0:16:31 > 0:16:35and riot police methods are put in place to make sure that the city stays safe.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40They're quickly shunted off across the Bosphorus to keep them out of harm's way,
0:16:40 > 0:16:45but even when they get there, they are said to impale children, to kill men, women
0:16:45 > 0:16:49without asking whether they're Muslim or Greek or Christian
0:16:49 > 0:16:54and they behave in a way that polite society in Constantinople just thinks is horrific.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Alexios, the Emperor at that time, who is the architect of the Crusades,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02has real concerns that he's let a genie out of the bottle.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09They are like country boys visiting a big, big city.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15A traveller walks into Saint Sophia and he says, "I don't even know if I'm in Heaven or I'm on Earth."
0:17:15 > 0:17:19There is a sense that the Orthodox are closer to early Christianity.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25All the great relics of Christianity are here. All of the churches are older than anywhere else in Europe.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28So this is what real Christianity looks and feels like.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33That is a source of great admiration on the one hand, but also enormous envy on the other.
0:17:33 > 0:17:40How did the relationship go from amazement and a bit of envy to wild hatred?
0:17:40 > 0:17:46I think what happens is that the Crusaders and the Latin West get their claws into the Holy Land
0:17:46 > 0:17:52and that requires a narrative that explains that they are the true heirs and defenders of Christianity.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57At that point, all the animosities start to rise against the Greeks
0:17:57 > 0:18:01and against the Orthodox clergy and against the Orthodox theology.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06Small, little problems are suddenly blown up into major sticking points
0:18:06 > 0:18:12and that poison starts to drip through into the west and it drips through very effectively,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16so that the word "Byzantine" still today has very negative connotations.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Politicians are Byzantine, taxes and things that are bad are Byzantine,
0:18:20 > 0:18:25so the Crusaders start as being Byzantium's allies at the moment of great weakness
0:18:25 > 0:18:28and become their rivals and their nemesis.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36History was taking an unexpected turn.
0:18:36 > 0:18:42The fate of this city would finally be determined not by the battle with the Turks,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45but by the battle with its own Christian allies.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Over the coming centuries,
0:18:50 > 0:18:56wave after wave of crusading Latins stampeded through here
0:18:56 > 0:18:59on their way to the Holy Land.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06And more ominously still, others were coming to stay.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21Parts of Constantinople were turning into a city within a city.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27This area is called Galata and by the mid-12th century,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29it was filled with new arrivals.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34Not Crusaders, but merchants from Amalfi, Genoa and Venice.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41It still has a distinctly Italian feel.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46People here looked different.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50They spoke different. They went to different churches.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55The Latins were the new force in Constantinople.
0:19:57 > 0:20:04But for the Byzantines, this was their world being turned upside down.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11The Latins had once just been hairy axemen.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Now they were taking Byzantine jobs
0:20:14 > 0:20:19and worming their way into its highest echelons -
0:20:19 > 0:20:22the army, the government, the imperial family.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Something, they said, simply had to be done.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39The people longed to be rid of the hated Latins
0:20:39 > 0:20:43and for that, they needed a real Byzantine prince.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46His name was Andronikos Komnenos.
0:20:49 > 0:20:55And he was well known as the most glamorous and best-looking man in the entire Empire.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00He was now 65,
0:21:00 > 0:21:06but this silver fox had the looks, the energies and the appetites of a much younger man.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11He was delighted to be crowned Emperor of Byzantium.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Xenophobic feeling was boiling against the Latins.
0:21:24 > 0:21:30And in Andronikos, they had found just the kind of unscrupulous demagogue ready to use it
0:21:30 > 0:21:32to his own advantage.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40Andronikos unleashed the mob against the Latins
0:21:40 > 0:21:43who were massacred to a man, their churches burned
0:21:43 > 0:21:48and the Emperor's popularity surged on a tide of Latin blood.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59As so often in history,
0:21:59 > 0:22:05sectarian tensions had brought to power a self-serving autocrat
0:22:05 > 0:22:07and ended in terrible violence.
0:22:10 > 0:22:17Unfortunately for the Byzantines, they couldn't control the dark force they had unleashed.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Andronikos wasn't as charming as he looked.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27The old swinger turned out to be a sadistic monster who launched a reign of terror.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30He murdered his 13-year-old Co-Emperor
0:22:30 > 0:22:33and then married his 12-year-old widow.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Even the Byzantines were appalled.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39When the mob turned against him, he tried to run,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43but he was captured and subjected to the most appalling torments.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46First, his teeth were pulled out one by one,
0:22:46 > 0:22:51then his hands were cut off and then he was skinned with boiling water.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Now they jeered, "You've really lost your looks."
0:22:59 > 0:23:04The rise and fall of the tyrant Andronikos had scarred for ever
0:23:04 > 0:23:07the holy streets of Byzantium.
0:23:08 > 0:23:13Now murder and bloodshed was how this city solved its problems.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19The ingredients for disaster were all coming together.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24Byzantium was embroiled in an endless, internal power struggle.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32The Latins and the Greeks were locked in a pitiless blood feud.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39And the west had got a taste for the wealth of Constantinople.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47It was a matter of time before all this resulted in cataclysm.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And that is the story of the Fourth Crusade.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02It all had an unlikely start.
0:24:09 > 0:24:16The Crusade's leader was one of the most extraordinary and sinister characters in this entire story.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19He was the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo,
0:24:19 > 0:24:24and he was as forceful and ruthless as he was wily and avaricious.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Bald as a billiard ball and as blind as a bat,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31he was already 80 years old,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34yet still as sharp and predatory as an eagle.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39And he had hated Constantinople for a very long time.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46His hatred dated back to 1172.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50The Byzantines took the side of Genoa
0:24:50 > 0:24:52in its vendetta with Venice
0:24:52 > 0:24:57and arrested every Venetian trader in the Empire.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Enrico Dandolo never forgave them.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04The Crusading Army gathered in Venice.
0:25:04 > 0:25:10They had the knights, but they needed ships to get to the Holy Land and only Dandolo had a fleet.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13For that, he had a price
0:25:13 > 0:25:16and the price was Constantinople.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23The final ingredient was Alexius Angelus,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26a Byzantine Pretender,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29who offered the Crusaders the riches of Constantinople
0:25:29 > 0:25:33in return for restoring him to his rightful throne.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40In July 1203,
0:25:40 > 0:25:46210 ships arrived outside Constantinople.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51The Venetian fleet broke into the Golden Horn
0:25:51 > 0:25:56and their sailors clambered up beams attached to the masts and on to the walls.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02Dandolo directed operations from the prow of his ship, waving a banner,
0:26:02 > 0:26:07and the blind, octogenarian Doge was one of the first ashore.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14It was a moment of triumph for Dandolo,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19but the beginning of the greatest disaster to befall Constantinople.
0:26:26 > 0:26:33Behind these gates was once one of Byzantium's oldest and most venerated monasteries.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38But I've had to get special permission to venture inside,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42such is its dangerously dilapidated condition.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54This is all that remains of St John Stoudios,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58a monastery that was one of the holiest sites in Constantinople.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Its philosophers, its artists, its scholars were some of the greatest in Christendom
0:27:03 > 0:27:07and it had a peerless collection of icons and manuscripts.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11But by the end of 1204,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15all of this was rubble and ashes.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28The desecration of Byzantine Christianity took two years to unfold.
0:27:30 > 0:27:36Golden, sacred icons, mosaics and candlesticks were ripped from their moorings,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40first by the new Emperor's own agents,
0:27:40 > 0:27:46and then when the Byzantines revolted, by the Crusaders themselves
0:27:46 > 0:27:48in an all-out sack.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54800 years of prayer by thousands of monks
0:27:54 > 0:27:59was not enough to prevent sacrilege, murder and exile.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02It was, some felt, as if God had abandoned them.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13It's not only grand buildings that tell the story of this city.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16This place is indelibly marked by that moment.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21But nowhere escaped the rampage.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27The Crusaders burst into the Church of San Sophia,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30killing everybody they encountered, except the women.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34These, they raped, especially the young virgins and the nuns.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39They brought packhorses into the church and loaded them with treasures.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44When the animals fell and broke their legs on the slippery human blood,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48they disembowelled them right there and then, just for the hell of it.
0:28:48 > 0:28:54Then the drunken knights held a homicidal orgy, inviting all the whores at the camp.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59They crowned one lascivious strumpet on the Patriarch's throne
0:28:59 > 0:29:01and there she danced half-naked
0:29:01 > 0:29:03and sang bawdy songs.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12These men had joined up to save Christendom from the Muslims.
0:29:13 > 0:29:20Instead, they spent 50 years dividing up the spoils of Christianity's greatest city.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29Like the pirates they were, the Crusaders took what they could from the city
0:29:29 > 0:29:32and then began to look elsewhere.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38They were away on a raiding party when Michael, the Greek Emperor in exile,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40snuck back into the city.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48The Crusaders didn't bother to fight over the ruin they had left behind.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55Constantinople was once again the capital of the Roman Empire,
0:29:55 > 0:30:01but that fatally wounded Empire was now little more than the battered city itself.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14Constantinople in the 14th century AD,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18a great world empire only in name,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23its eastern territories in the hands of the Turks
0:30:23 > 0:30:25and its lands in the west
0:30:25 > 0:30:28overrun by the Latins,
0:30:28 > 0:30:34and even its own port now outsourced to Italians from Genoa
0:30:34 > 0:30:37who now overlooked Constantinople
0:30:37 > 0:30:40from their tower in Galata.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47Byzantium, once a city of half a million people,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50was now a community of less than 50,000.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55But still, they set about rebuilding the city
0:30:55 > 0:31:01and against all odds, produced one last, extraordinary cultural flowering.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07In the back streets of the Christian district Phanar,
0:31:07 > 0:31:12one lonely church contains the last poignant remnants
0:31:12 > 0:31:15of that defiant renaissance.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26It's really exciting to be here.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29These mosaics are simply awesome.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35This is really like coming to the Sistine Chapel of Constantinople.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42For 400 years, this was the Kariye Mosque
0:31:42 > 0:31:47until, in the 1950s, they removed the whitewash and found this.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52The Byzantine Church
0:31:52 > 0:31:54of Saint Saviour in Chora.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04These mosaics are part of its glorious 14th century restoration.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13Here, for a moment,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17God seemed to have returned to Byzantium.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27What really strikes you about this masterpiece of Byzantine art
0:32:27 > 0:32:30is the sheer beauty of the images.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33The faces are very delicate, exquisite.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38The reds, the blues, the greens are all still absolutely vivid
0:32:38 > 0:32:42and, of course, the glory is the Byzantine gold.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51This is often called the Byzantine Renaissance
0:32:51 > 0:32:56because the Renaissance was just beginning to blossom in Italy at this time,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59but actually, they're very different.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02The Italian Renaissance was all about realism,
0:33:02 > 0:33:07the celebration of the beautiful sensuality of the human body
0:33:07 > 0:33:09that expressed God's perfection.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12But the Byzantines didn't like that at all.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15They regarded all that nudity as pornographic,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17vulgar, disgusting.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22For them, and you can see that when you look at these amazing images,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26it was all about the celestial symbolism and the inner meaning,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29the inner truth of their sanctity.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35Each one of these pictures tells a story on a series of levels -
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Biblical scenes laced with symbols of barely penetrable,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44philosophical, mystical and political significance.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48And in true Byzantine fashion,
0:33:48 > 0:33:54the man behind all this reserved pride of place for himself.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59This is one of the most famous images in Byzantine art
0:33:59 > 0:34:03and it shows the founder of this church, Theodore Metochites,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05presenting it to Jesus Christ.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11Theodore was the Grand Logothete, the Imperial Prime Minister,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15and the richest man in the Empire after the Emperor himself,
0:34:15 > 0:34:17but he had a lot to live down.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22His father had been a notorious collaborator with the Latins
0:34:22 > 0:34:25and so, when he started on this project,
0:34:25 > 0:34:31Theodore was saying, "Look at me, I'm not my father. I'm a real, true Byzantine."
0:34:31 > 0:34:36And this is the quintessential Byzantine church.
0:34:39 > 0:34:46All that mattered to Theodore was to be seen in the light of great Byzantines before him,
0:34:46 > 0:34:51even though greatness now resided elsewhere.
0:34:51 > 0:34:58This church stands testament to the Indian summer of a glorious culture,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02turning its back on the changing world outside,
0:35:02 > 0:35:09talking to itself in its own language of arcane and mystical symbols.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Even as the state was reduced to just the city itself,
0:35:15 > 0:35:19even as enemy forces closed in from east and west,
0:35:19 > 0:35:24Byzantium remained stubbornly and defiantly obsessed
0:35:24 > 0:35:27with its own glorious past,
0:35:27 > 0:35:32a doomed empire lost in introspection.
0:35:42 > 0:35:48Constantinople was writing the last tragic chapter of its history.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54The story that had begun a thousand years before with Constantine the Great,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58the dream of a great Christian empire
0:35:58 > 0:36:03and a great Christian city spanning Asia and Europe
0:36:03 > 0:36:05was now at an end.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11But the story of Istanbul was just beginning.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13This is, after all,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16a tale of THREE cities.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34The history of this place looks completely different
0:36:34 > 0:36:37from the Muslim perspective.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49This is the heart of Muslim Istanbul,
0:36:49 > 0:36:54the oldest mosque in the city, Eyup Sultan Camii.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00It's named after one of the companions of Muhammad himself,
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Ayyub al-Ansari,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04who died and was buried here
0:37:04 > 0:37:09when the first Muslims tried to conquer Constantinople
0:37:09 > 0:37:11way back in the 7th century AD.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16CHANTING OF PRAYER
0:37:17 > 0:37:21This place isn't very well known in the west,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24but here, it's enormously important
0:37:24 > 0:37:29because it's the link between Islamic Istanbul and the prophet Muhammad himself.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The mosque is built around the tomb of Ayyub
0:37:32 > 0:37:37and Ayyub was the prophet's companion in arms and standard-bearer.
0:37:37 > 0:37:43And he died here in one of the first Arab Islamic sieges of Constantinople.
0:37:47 > 0:37:53Twice, the followers of Muhammad besieged this city, for four years each time,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56and for one reason above all.
0:37:58 > 0:38:03The prophet himself had always predicted the Islamic conquest of Constantinople.
0:38:03 > 0:38:09He said it would be a beautiful conquest by beautiful armies, by a beautiful conqueror.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15And so this mosque has one central message to Muslims
0:38:15 > 0:38:19that this city was always destined to fall to Islam.
0:38:22 > 0:38:28But they would have to wait 700 years for that beautiful army and that beautiful conqueror.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36They came in the end from a completely unexpected place
0:38:36 > 0:38:41and that's the foundation myth of Turkish history.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46IN TURKISH:
0:38:54 > 0:38:59Yusuf Duru is one of the last meddah in Turkey,
0:38:59 > 0:39:06storytellers who have passed on history, folklore and morality tales for generations.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25Since the 1500s, men in this city have gathered during Ramadan
0:39:25 > 0:39:29to hear about the great journey of their ancestors
0:39:29 > 0:39:31into the lands we now call Turkey.
0:39:51 > 0:39:57The foundation myth of modern Turkey rests on the shoulders of one man above all.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16This is one of the great epic poems of Turkish history.
0:40:16 > 0:40:22It tells the story of a 13th century Turkish chieftain named Osman
0:40:22 > 0:40:25who ruled just a little bit of Anatolia.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36Osman goes to see a holy man named Edebali
0:40:36 > 0:40:40to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage.
0:40:40 > 0:40:46Edebali says "no", but at this very moment, the moon emanates from Edebali's chest
0:40:46 > 0:40:49and merges into Osman's chest.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53And out of this fusion
0:40:53 > 0:40:55grows a giant tree
0:40:55 > 0:41:01whose branches overshadowed the great mountain ranges of the world, the Caucasus and the Balkans,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05the great rivers, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Danube, the Nile,
0:41:05 > 0:41:10and these branches overshadow one great city -
0:41:10 > 0:41:12Constantinople.
0:41:22 > 0:41:30Osman and Edebali's daughter spawned a dynasty that ruled this city until 1922, the Ottomans.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42Out of a small Anatolian principality,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Osman created an expansionist, warrior dynasty
0:41:46 > 0:41:50and under his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53his domain grew into an empire.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03By the mid-15th century,
0:42:03 > 0:42:07the transcontinental Ottoman Empire dwarfed the Byzantine.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14And it was closing in on Byzantium from every direction.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30This is Anadoluhisari, the Anatolian Castle.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34The Ottomans already possessed all of this - Anatolia
0:42:34 > 0:42:38and far to the west in Europe, they had conquered the Balkans,
0:42:38 > 0:42:44but this castle right here on the Bosphorus was as close as they'd got to Constantinople
0:42:44 > 0:42:48when the throne was inherited by Sultan Mehmed II.
0:42:48 > 0:42:55But he was just 19 years old and even his own ministers thought he wasn't up to the job.
0:42:58 > 0:43:05But that teenager was none other than the man they call today Fatih the Conqueror,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09the man who would put an end to Constantinople.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14Mehmed was no mere callow teenager.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16He was a supreme manipulator,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21schooled in the cut-throat world of the Ottoman court and a brilliant military strategist.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26He was also a sophisticated and cosmopolitan aesthete
0:43:26 > 0:43:30who could read philosophy in Greek, Latin and Hebrew
0:43:30 > 0:43:35and write passionate love poems to his concubine mistresses in courtly Persian.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38When he was painted by the Italian Bellini,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42the portrait shows his ferocious, delicate intelligence
0:43:42 > 0:43:44and his boundless ambition.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47He wanted to be the new Alexander the Great.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52For Mehmed, there could only be one empire, the Ottoman,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54one religion, Islam,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56one emperor, himself,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00and one capital, Constantinople.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Mehmed II was a greater figure than anyone suspected
0:44:08 > 0:44:13and he set about the conquest of the world's greatest city
0:44:13 > 0:44:16not with the recklessness of youth,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20but with devastating and ruthless efficiency.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27The Bosphorus is only 700 yards across here
0:44:27 > 0:44:34and Mehmed's first bold move was to build a castle right on Byzantine territory.
0:44:34 > 0:44:40And there it is - Rumelihisari, the castle on the Roman side.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45But Mehmed had another name for it. The Throat Cutter.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47It soon lived up to its name.
0:44:49 > 0:44:55When an Italian Venetian ship, commanded by a Captain Rizzo, sailed along here,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58Mehmed's castle told him to stop.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05He defied it and ignored the warning.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09They were blasted out of the water by Mehmed's cannons.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14The entire crew were beheaded, except for poor Captain Rizzo,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18who was impaled with a stake up his rectum
0:45:18 > 0:45:26and left out here as a human scarecrow to warn Europe Mehmed II meant business.
0:45:30 > 0:45:37The great confrontation that had been brewing for 400 years was finally at hand.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43And the odds were stacked heavily in the Ottomans' favour.
0:45:45 > 0:45:51Their ancestors had once been a gnat on the side of the Byzantine elephant.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56Now Constantinople was just an enclave within the Ottoman Empire.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02The last Byzantine emperor was named, fittingly,
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Constantine.
0:46:06 > 0:46:12As Mehmed II approached, Constantine asked for a summary of the city's defences.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17When he heard the answer, he is said to have wept.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22The Theodosian walls were still formidable,
0:46:22 > 0:46:29but there weren't enough defenders to man them. They were a motley crew - adventurers, mavericks,
0:46:29 > 0:46:36monks with crossbows, Venetian sailors, quixotic knights and an eccentric, John the German,
0:46:36 > 0:46:42who was really from Scotland. The sort of desperadoes who fight in desperate wars.
0:46:42 > 0:46:49There were only 5,000 of them against 200,000 Turks and the biggest cannons in Europe.
0:46:51 > 0:46:58The Byzantines had no choice but to put their trust in the city's ancient physical defences,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02which had seen off so many invaders before.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07Constantinople's chief protection had always been the sea
0:47:07 > 0:47:14and its most formidable maritime barrier still survives in the naval museum.
0:47:20 > 0:47:26It's really amazing to actually see this famous piece of Constantinople's defence right here.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28I'm quite excited.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33When the city was in danger, this huge chain was winched up
0:47:33 > 0:47:37from two towers on either side of the Golden Horn.
0:47:37 > 0:47:43While it was up, no one could break through and besiege Constantinople on all four sides.
0:47:43 > 0:47:50Now, in 1453, Mehmed II had to get past this in order to take the city
0:47:50 > 0:47:54and he came up with a rather amazing solution.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07What happened is the stuff of Istanbul legend.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14A ghost that still haunts the contemporary city.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20The site where Mehmed executed his most daring manoeuvre
0:48:20 > 0:48:24is now the bustling heart of Istanbul.
0:48:34 > 0:48:41This penthouse restaurant in Taksim Square is the best place to see what really happened
0:48:41 > 0:48:44in the great Turkish siege of 1453.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49Now if you look out here, you can see the city of Constantinople.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54Mehmed had brought up his huge Turkish army to besiege the city,
0:48:54 > 0:48:58but he could only besiege it from the land side.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04Then he brought up his fleet, but he couldn't use it to enter that little channel over there.
0:49:04 > 0:49:10That's the Golden Horn. He couldn't get in because the Byzantines had put the huge chain
0:49:10 > 0:49:13right across this narrow channel there.
0:49:13 > 0:49:18Mehmed was infuriated. He launched constant attacks. All of them failed.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22He was so angry, he rode his horse into the sea in frustration
0:49:22 > 0:49:26and threatened to execute his own admiral.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30But then he came up with a great idea. He waited for nightfall
0:49:30 > 0:49:37and when it came they laid rollers right across this piece of land here.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41And thousands of slave and oxen, in an amazing feat of engineering,
0:49:41 > 0:49:46moved his entire fleet from the Bosphorus there
0:49:46 > 0:49:50all the way over here to the Golden Horn over there.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54When the Byzantines awoke the next morning,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58their most terrible nightmare had come true.
0:49:58 > 0:50:05The entire Ottoman fleet was in the Golden Horn and they were surrounded on every side.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11The last nights of Constantinople saw fervent prayer
0:50:11 > 0:50:13and terrible omens.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18God, they feared, was finally leaving His city.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23The Ottoman guns pulverised the city for over a month.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29And yet still the tenacious defence of the walls continued.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33By dawn on the 29th of May, 1453,
0:50:33 > 0:50:41the city walls had been under sustained bombardment by the Ottoman cannons for over a month.
0:50:41 > 0:50:47Whenever they smashed a hole, the people of Constantinople worked night and day to repair the damage,
0:50:47 > 0:50:54but now the Ottoman war cries of the huge army outside the walls told them one thing -
0:50:54 > 0:50:56the final storm was coming.
0:50:57 > 0:51:03The dying moments of the Byzantine city played out just near where I am standing.
0:51:04 > 0:51:11One of Mehmed's big cannons finally brought down an entire section of wall.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16He sent in assault after assault, first his irregulars, then his Bashi-Bazouks,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19and, finally, the elite Janissaries.
0:51:19 > 0:51:25After more than a millennium, the great walls of Byzantium had finally come tumbling down.
0:51:25 > 0:51:31Without the protection of the walls, the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion.
0:51:31 > 0:51:36The last bastion of classical antiquity had fallen.
0:51:36 > 0:51:41Constantine XI, the namesake of the city's founder,
0:51:41 > 0:51:47turned to his companions and said, "Come, men, let us fight the barbarians."
0:51:47 > 0:51:51Then he threw himself into where the fighting was thickest.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56The last of the Roman emperors was never seen again.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09In this one place, on this one day,
0:52:09 > 0:52:14the grinding tectonic plates of history seemed suddenly to shift.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20The descendants of nomadic Steppe horsemen were now in possession
0:52:20 > 0:52:24of the ancient capital of civilisation.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33For Greeks, this is still the defining tragedy of their history.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39Greek legend says that as the Turkish troops burst in to the church of San Sophia,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44swords drawn, the priests conducting the last service
0:52:44 > 0:52:48calmly turned and disappeared into the walls.
0:52:48 > 0:52:55They will return when Constantinople is Christian again to continue the service.
0:53:01 > 0:53:07The rest of the congregation were marched away to death or slavery.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11But this was not to be the end for Hagia Sophia.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18When Mehmed arrived to inspect the church of San Sophia,
0:53:18 > 0:53:22he found one of his Turkish soldiers trying to prise marble off the floor.
0:53:22 > 0:53:27He hit him with his sword, saying, "I gave you the treasure and the people,
0:53:27 > 0:53:33"but the buildings are mine. From now on, the church of San Sophia will be the Great Mosque
0:53:33 > 0:53:36"of Aya Sofya."
0:53:39 > 0:53:44The 800-year-old prophecy of Muhammad had come true.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49"Verily, you shall conquer Constantinople.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53"What a beautiful leader will that leader be."
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Mehmed II was now that promised leader.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04The Crusaders had come here to pillage and destroy.
0:54:04 > 0:54:11The Ottomans were here to fulfil the destiny of God's capital city.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16To make it the capital of Islam.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18CALL TO PRAYER
0:54:28 > 0:54:33A new city was about to be born out of the ashes of Constantinople,
0:54:39 > 0:54:45with the skyline and the soundtrack for which it is famed throughout the world.
0:54:48 > 0:54:54The Ottomans brought with them the minarets that define Islamic architecture.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00But the great domes were inspired by Hagia Sophia.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Because this is what the Muslims had come here for,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10the thing that all this architecture stood for,
0:55:10 > 0:55:17the Byzantine vision of a universal empire, blessed by God.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24But their approach to Holy Empire was subtly different.
0:55:24 > 0:55:29They replaced Byzantium's stifling orthodoxy
0:55:29 > 0:55:33with a bewildering diversity of religious belief.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Ottoman Islam was infused with mysticism,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41poetry, ancient spirituality.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47This was the religion of the whirling dervish,
0:55:47 > 0:55:54followers of the great poet of love, Rumi, who danced themselves into a trance of divine love.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03Mehmed II was so open to un-Islamic ideas
0:56:03 > 0:56:07that he sometimes shocked his own adherents.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11He was seen once or twice in Istanbul's churches,
0:56:11 > 0:56:16prompting outlandish rumours that he was about to convert to Christianity.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27Mehmed II learned from the fate of Byzantium.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32His empire would not shut itself off from outside influences.
0:56:35 > 0:56:43He set about rebuilding this city on lines that were international and surprisingly inclusive.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49After two centuries of war,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52blockade and depopulation,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Istanbul's markets were once again thriving.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00Sultan Mehmed followed a deliberate policy
0:57:00 > 0:57:06of attracting to Istanbul and settling here peoples from all over the world,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10regardless of their creed or nationality.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14So from the east he attracted Christian Armenians,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17Muslim Arabs, Kurds,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22and from Western Europe he attracted Jews and Arabs
0:57:22 > 0:57:26fleeing from the repressions of the intolerant Christians.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31Not only that, but from the Balkans, Albanians, Greeks, Serbs, Bosnians.
0:57:31 > 0:57:38And he succeeded, he and his successors, in making Istanbul the refuge of the world.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47It's the culmination of a story heavy with irony.
0:57:47 > 0:57:53The Emperor Constantine's great Christian capital had been brought to its knees
0:57:53 > 0:57:55by the actions of Christians
0:57:55 > 0:57:59and brought back to life by the vision of Muslims.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04Thousands upon thousands had given their lives in the struggle,
0:58:04 > 0:58:09but one character had emerged gloriously intact.
0:58:09 > 0:58:17The city had suffered two centuries of disasters, culminating in total cataclysm.
0:58:17 > 0:58:23But it wasn't the end. True, the Byzantine civilisation was all but destroyed,
0:58:23 > 0:58:27but the city managed to beguile its new conquerors.
0:58:27 > 0:58:32And their embellishments restored it to what it was always meant to have been -
0:58:32 > 0:58:38the sacred, imperial capital of a faith and an empire.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41The city of the world's desire.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47Next time, I'm going to explore that Ottoman capital,
0:58:47 > 0:58:50the creation of a legendary city,
0:58:50 > 0:58:55from which larger-than-life emperors ruled as caliphs of Islam
0:58:55 > 0:58:59until the end of the First World War.
0:59:20 > 0:59:22Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd