Origins of the name "Istanbul"

It s like the recent catalogue of monuments of the City,that the mayor offered to the children of elementary schools ,in order to learn about the monuments of Istanbul.
Agia Sophia was not included!! How do you know this? Infact I am greek, I wont cry for this. If turks dont care Agia Sophia, you may have some chance to convert it back to Church. If Turks respect and know It well, They force goverment for converting it back to Mosque.

@ Mortaza

I really dont have any agony about converting Agia Sophia to a church (or a mosque) !
I just wish that such monuments -which are cultural heritage of the whole planet-would be respected,and not "erased" by stupid nationalism.

@ Bashibozuk

Do u have "the Great para-Etymological Dictionary" in your Library?

Riza =the lands were soldiers gather?
 Too small name ,too big meaning!

In fact "Riza" in greek means "root",used also for the  foot of the mountains.

Tibarene ?? In greek its not "Trabizond",its "Trapezous".
Do you know "trapezium" ? Geometry ?

PS:i am sure you have a theory about "Anadolu".
It s obviously ,not derived from greek "Anatoli"=East,
but fro man ancient Hittite word.



Edited by Digenis - 29-Jun-2006 at 15:32

Yes..ready to collapse,
fashion shows inside it,..
but money is money.
Trillions of turkish Lira!

Do u have "the Great para-Etymological Dictionary" in your Library?

It s obviously ,not derived from greek "Anatoli"=East, but fro man ancient Hittite word.

First of all what we need to understand is that Ancient Hellens used Hellenified versions of foreign toponyms,cities,names,sometimes totally different ,sometimes not.For example ,the name Darios for the Persian dara.The Hellenic word Hettaios,or in english Hittite, for the Hebrew Heth.

 During the period of the Old kingdom  ,the Hittites were mainly focusing their military operations in   Northern Mesopotamia due to existence of significantly powerfull enemies such as the Hurrites ,and the Giamads in Syria.There were Hittitian colonies in Syria and maybe in Palestine ,but not in Western Asia Minor.If again we accept the fact that Troy was located near the Straits of Hellispontos,the only organized State west of Hattusa and of the Hittitian State was the kingdom of Troy,as described in the Homer's Illiad and Odyssey.The only shore that the Hittites reached was the Southern,an area where Hellens did not found any colonies,with the domination over Arzava.During the New Kingdom,a period of political instability and foreing invasions ,the only serious Western threat was from Arzava,which was in the mainland of Asia Minor.The whole epicenter of politics and strategic campaings was the area of Syria,Northren Mesopotamia and Taurus mountains,due to the fact that all possible enemies were in that specific area ,such as the Egyptians ,the Assyrians,the Mitanni etc.The Ahigiava ,a Western power mentioned in scripts since the reign of Supiluliumas (1375 B.C),were in the fact the Ahaioi ,Hellens from the Hellenic mainland who had founded colonies in the Western shore of Asia Minor.So,we see Hittitian presence in the Southern  shore of Asia Minor,e.g the city of Tarsa(later Tarsos) and no Ahigiavan colonies,colonies of the Ahaioi while there were no major cities in the Western shores,where the Ahigiavan presence,again the presence of the Ahaioi, was strong.

Before the Hittites,the Luvians had under their influence and control the area from Kizuvatna in the East (North of Tarsos) to Luka and a part of  Karia in the West.But still,they had not reach the shores of Western Asia Minor.

The Phrygians were the only ones from the people of the "Aegean Immigration",which "officialy" ended the rule of the Hittites in the region, who managed to found a form of State.The Phrygian State had as it's Western border the river Maiandrus,not the shores of Western Asia Minor.The only ones that managed to really reach the shores were the Lydians.But the Hellenic presence in the area had already been known and later established since the Ahigiava.In fact some of the colonies were founded in the last years of the Mycenean Era.

So the only Western State which ruled in the shores,was the kingdom of Troy ,which was destroyed by the Ahaioi(Ahigiava).

As for the names,the Hellens ,as mentioned above ,used Hellenified versions for foreign names ,e.g Lykia for the Luka,Asia for the Asuva.The name Ahigiava could actually come from the Hellenic Ahaioi and not the other way around.And that's all.

Edited by Spartakus - 29-Jun-2006 at 18:31

Wasn't the same person who started these funny celebrations(so many faked moustaches!) for the conquest of the city in 29th May?

Pontic cities are all decended from Greek names because they are decended from Alexander's empire (I think)

Originally posted by mamikon The theory is as follows: Greeks (as well as Armenians) usually referred to "Constantinoupolis" as "Polis". "into the city", in Greek translates into "is tin Polin", which to the ears of Turks may have been similar to "is tan bulis" or "Istanbul".

This is how i have known the name Istanbul to have eventuated.  Which most sources seem to ascertain/confirm.

Originally posted by Cyrus Shahmiri As I mentioned several times Istanbul is a very Persian word which means exactly "Land Bridge", I hope you at least know that Afghanistan means "Land of Afghans" and its capital Kabul means "Mountain Bridge".

This sounds kinda feasible, ie that they "may" have borrowed from the Persian language, considering an estimated 60-65% of the words in Turkish were of foreign origin (predominately Arabic and Persian (source = lexicorient.com/e.o/turkish.htm)) but it doesn't stick, because the Turkish language was being revamped, ie cleansed and purged of it's foreign words, round about the same time the city was officially named Istanbul.  They obviously opted to go with the bastardised/corrupted version of the greek term, "eis tin poli", because of familiarity.

Originally posted by bg_turk Most of the Turks do not care about the name of the city or they think it is a Turkish name.

what do they think it means in Turkish?
If the Turks can't come up with an etymology of the word, then they can't claim ownership, i would've thought.

Originally posted by erkut too many city names in Anatolia(ewen the name of anatolia) greek. but itsnt a big deal. ewen the names were chineese it wouldnt change the owners of the cities.

hehe.. well true to a point, but the major concern here is plagiarism.

Originally posted by Bulldog I don't know why some Greeks have such a problem, there traces in Anatolia are via Colonising already existing civillisations and invasion. The fact is, they weren't very good at being tolerant and granting rights and there was a huge justice and social inequality.

wow.. is that why Byzantium was the longest surviving empire ever to have existed??
If that was the case, it would've crumbled well before the Mongols invaded.

Elinn

Edited by Bulldog - 19-Jul-2006 at 07:10