Istanbul

Istanbul, on the Bosporus straddling Europe and Asia in modern Turkey, stands on the site of the Greek colony of Byzantium. Constantine refounded it as Constantinople in 330, and as capital of the eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire it received Justinian's Hagia Sophia, designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus and dedicated in 537. Mehmed II conquered the city in 1453, and it was the Ottoman capital until 1922, seat of the Ottoman caliphate and of the Shaykh al-Islam. The astronomer Ali Qushji died there in 1474, the chief jurist Ebussuud Efendi (d. 1574) served there, and the polymath Katib Celebi (d. 1657) and the reformer Said Nursi (d. 1960) were active in the city.