Istanbul

Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), on the Bosphorus straddling Europe and Asia in modern Turkey, became the capital of the Ottoman Empire after its conquest by Mehmed II in 1453 and the seat of the Ottoman caliphate and the Shaykh al-Islam. The chief jurist Ebussuud Efendi (d. 1574) served there, and the polymath Katib Celebi (d. 1657) and the reformer Said Nursi (d. 1960) were active in the city.