Architecture as a Background of a Historical Novel: At the Gates of Konstantinople

As stated in the presentation of the work, At the Gates of Constantinople is actually a historical novel about the Turkish Middle Ages. The author is Hikmet Temel Akarsu, a writer with an architectural education. Let us convey it with the presentation of the book: “A work which focuses on the adventure of the free Turkoman tribes who reach the gates of Constantinople, the capital of the then world empire Byzantium, after conquering all of Asia Minor starting with the Battle of Manzikert in a short time like five years.”

The most important aspect of the novel that reflects the classical characteristics of the “knight romances”, is that it reconciles events with their background in an architectural and urban context and offers us detailed façades from the “medieval” Constantinople. In the novel At the Gates of Constantinople, it is possible to find some characteristics of the city and architecture of the period in a stylized way about the Byzantine cities of Nicaea, Izmit (Nikomedia), and Istanbul (Constantinople). The important settlements that predominantly constitute the plateau and the themes of the book are the capital cities of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople (Istanbul), and Nicaea, and thereby their architecture and landscape.

Through this novel, the history and the places/buildings of the city can be read with a completely different perspective.

Keywords: Anatolia, Architectural background, Architecture, Asia Minor, Battle of Malazgirt (Marzikert), Byzantine, Constantinople, Hagia Sophia Church, Hippodrome, Medieval, Mese, Monumental buildings, Nicaea walls, Nikaia, Nikomedia, Prinkipo, Spatial sepiction, Turkish State, Urban spaces, Yedikule dungeons. INTRODUCTION