Sultanahmet, Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula

For anyone who has visited Istanbul and been awed by the millennia-deep heritage of its Sultanahmet district, one might for a moment think this part of the city has always looked this way. That, however, is far from the case. In this fascinating book, Pinar Aykaç exposes meticulously through maps and drawings and text how the district was gradually transformed into what many now regard as an open-air museum. Tracing the positive and negative consequences of this process she terms ‘urban musealization,’ Aykaç explains the changes in political motivation—Tanzimat westernizing reforms, the heroic secular vision of Ataturk’s Republic, colonialist designs by European architects, and today Erdogan’s contentious ‘Muslimification’ strategy—to reveal how built heritage is continually shaped by wider forces. The more the Sultanahmet district is stripped back to showcase the splendours of the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Sultanahmet Mosque and such like, what is achieved is not visual clarity but, rather, increasingly complex and overlapping cultural readings. This book captures the paradox brilliantly. -- Murray Fraser, University College London