Cities 07

Battuta’s account of Constantinople gives an impression of a highly segregated city both with respect to the city and the outside world, and also in regard to areas within the city itself. In particular, he recounts that “when we reached the first of the gates of the king’s palace, we found it guarded by about a hundred men.” The guards were hesitant to permit their entry as they supposed Battuta and his companions to be Muslim. This paranoia towards strangers is perhaps in part due to the geographical location on which Constantinople sits. It is one of the few passages between the eastern and western worlds having the Black Sea to the north and the Marmora Sea to the south. Because of this location, they received many visitors not all of whom were kind including crusaders set on claiming the area. Battuta remarks that “the city is at the foot of a hill that projects about nine miles into the sea, and its breadth is the same or more. On top of the hill is a small citadel and the sultan’s palace. This hill is surrounded by the city wall, which is a formidable one and cannot be taken by assault on the side of the sea.”
A part from barriers separating Constantinople from the outside world, Battuta describes areas within the city serving to partition it. For example, the river is used as a natural barrier separating the slums of foreigners from the “sultan, his officers of state, and the rest of the population.” He describes the slums of the west side in writing: “The bazaars in this section are good, but overlaid with all kinds of filth, and traversed by a small, dirty and filth-laden stream. Their churches too are dirty and mean.” He notes that there once used to be a bridge traversing the river but it had fallen and now transportation between the east and west sides is done solely with boats. It is possible that they did not rebuild the bridge for economic reasons but it could also be the case that they chose not to rebuild it to make crossing it that much more difficult thus perpetuating the segregation of the two river banks. Tension between the two sides of the city is remarked when Battuta, regarding the Christian Franks in the slums of the east, writes “They are required to pay a tax every year to the King of Constantinople, but they often rebel against his authority and then he makes war on them until the pope restores peace between them.” This statement raises a political characteristic of Constantinople and is revealing of a hierarchy in which the pope sits over the king in power and influence. Another excerpt revealing of the political structure of Constantinople follows: “When he [the pope] is at a distance of four nights’ journey from the town the king goes out to meet him and dismounts before him; when he enters the city, the king walks on foot in front of him, and comes to salute him every morning and evening during the whole period of his stay in Constantinople until he departs.” Battuta describes a separation of role and location of men and women in the city. He notes that the majority of the venders and artisans are women. The fact that women are primarily involved in the production and sales of goods is perhaps indicative of most men taking on the role of military, religion, and politics. With respect to physical separation of men and women, Battuta writes: “inside it [the great church] is another church exclusively for women, containing more than a thousand virgins consecrated to religious devotions and still a greater number of aged and widowed women.”

Jonathan Little