Sultans battle invaders in Paris show feting Turkish melting pot

Is Turkey part of Europe? That politically charged question has crept up on the fringes of a Paris exhibition, “From Byzantium to Istanbul: One Port for Two Continents.”

On display at Paris’ Grand Palais – the first in a season of Turkey-related events across France – the show dispels any doubts about the European roots of Istanbul, a city set to be a European Capital of Culture next year.

About 300 objects are presented chronologically, beginning with the prehistoric, Greek and Roman periods. Recent tunneling work for the Istanbul subway has proven to be a bonanza for archaeologists.

Amid the freshly excavated ceramics, jewelry, burial objects and decorated funeral slabs, or steles, look for a coin picturing the mythical ruler Byzas, said to have founded the city in 660 B.C.

The city’s real-life ruler Constantine the Great – the first Roman emperor to have become a Christian – rebuilt Byzantium on a magnificent scale as New Rome, and renamed it Constantinople in 330 A.D.

His most prominent successor, Justinian the Great (482-565) – codifier of Roman law, builder of the original Hagia Sophia cathedral and husband of the courtesan Theodora – led Constantinople to overtake Rome as Europe’s richest and most populous city.

Reading the labels on the chalices, reliquaries, icons and ivory carvings in the exhibit, you’ll find that many are from museums in Western Europe. That’s because in 1204, the invading Crusaders, lacking the funds to reach Jerusalem and liberate it from the infidels, attacked Constantinople instead, and took everything that wasn’t nailed or screwed down.

City’s choice

The eventual animosity between the Eastern Church and the Roman Church is no surprise. In 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II besieged the city, Constantinople preferred to be annexed by the Ottoman Empire than to be saved by the pope.

The Ottoman period, which lasted until the end of World War I, is the most richly documented in the show, and was when Istanbul, as it is now called, became the center of the Muslim world.

Mehmed II (1432-81), the conquering sultan, was a born warrior, yet he was also a tolerant and civilized man. He welcomed Muslims, Christians and Jews into his new capital, creating the melting pot that Istanbul still is today.

Under Mehmed and, later, his great-grandson Suleiman I “the Magnificent” (1494-1566), Istanbul regained its past glory. Only in the 19th century when the Ottoman Empire was driven out of its Balkan possessions, did it become known as the “sick man of Europe.”

Courtly robes

Portraits of sultans abound in the Paris show, as do courtly robes, tents, carpets, furniture, city views and manuscripts – not to mention coffee sets and water pipes. All are a testament to Istanbul’s most glorious period.

Several objects come from the city’s Topkapı Palace, the seraglio built by Mehmed II, now a museum.

The show got a low-key inauguration last month by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who opposes Turkey’s membership in the European Union. He programmed a brief visit to the exhibition with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gül, who had flown over to open the season, and kept the accompanying delegations small, according to daily Le Monde.

Setting aside that timid opening, this show is very much worth a visit.

“De Byzance a Istanbul” (From Byzantium to Istanbul) is sponsored by Aveva Group Plc, Axa SA, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Total SA. The exhibition runs through Jan. 25, 2010.