AUTHOR’S NOTE

In writing about a complex past, inconsistency of language is inevitable. I use the name “Istanbul” throughout this book, even though before 1930 or so, many locals and most foreigners knew it as a version of “Constantinople.” I use the word “Muslims” to describe people who would have used that label in the Ottoman era, regardless of their level of religious devotion. Many of these people would later come to call themselves Turks. People of Greek Orthodox heritage in Istanbul have long distinguished themselves from Greek-speakers who live in Greece, and I make a similar distinction in English. I call the former “Greeks” and the latter “Hellenes.” I refer to the present stiklâl (Independence) Avenue as the “Grande Rue,” a term that many people continued to use in the interwar years, even after the street had officially been given its current name.

I generally spell Turkish words in the Turkish fashion. I make exceptions for idiosyncratic spellings found in written sources, which I have left unaltered, and for terms and names that have English equivalents (hence, pasha rather than paa). I refer to some historical characters—especially Turkish Muslims—by one or more given names up until the time they adopted an inheritable family name, around 1934. Before then, individuals were normally referred to by a first name plus an honorific, such as “Pasha” for generals or senior administrators, “Bey” or “Efendi” for men of rank, and “Hanım” for similarly placed women. “smet Pasha” would therefore be the equivalent of “General smet,” while “Halis Bey” would be something like “Mr. Halis.”

I mainly use the cardinal directions to describe the layout of Istanbul, even though a glance at a map will show this to be inaccurate; there are few geographical features that run strictly east–west or north–south. The hilltop neighborhood once called Pera can be subdivided into many different subsections today, and most of them are now contained within the municipal district of Beyolu.

Of course, if a reader is trying to track down the characters and locales in this book, these finer points of usage need not be a hindrance. Istanbul is, after all, a very forgiving place.