Istanbul

‘Richard Tillinghast’s Istanbul is a well-wrought and admirably clear guide to the history and present-day reality of the Turkish city.’
Condé Nast Traveller

‘One of the best insights into Istanbul that has ever been written’ 
Turkish Travel Blog

Istanbul was known in Byzantine times as the ‘Queen of Cities’ and to the Ottoman Turks as the ‘Abode of Felicity’. Steeped in Istanbul’s history, Tillinghast takes his readers on a voyage of discovery through this storied city, where he is as comfortable talking about Byzantine mosaics and dervish ceremonies as Iznik ceramics and the imperial mosques. Illuminating Istanbul’s great buildings with tales that bring Ottoman and Byzantine history to life, Tillinghast is adept at discovering both what the city remembers and what it chooses to forget.

RICHARD TILLINGHAST first visited Istanbul in the early 1960s and is the author of some fifteen travel books. His poems have been published in the The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He divides his time between the Big Island of Hawaii and the Tennessee mountains.