Istanbul : City of a Hundred Names

Straddling the Bosphorus, Istanbul is a place in which East literally meets West, the only major city in the world that actually exists on two continents. Connecting Europe and Asia, this much-fought-over trading center has had many names: Byzantium, Nova Roma, Constantinople, to name but a few. It has been the capital of two of history's most powerful empires - the Byzantine and the Ottoman - and now stands as the largest city of one of the few secular Muslim nations in the world, a state that hopes to enter the European Union. Women in Istanbul have taken to the streets to protest traditional Islamic laws regarding their rights while others, often dressed in chadors, remain faithful to the past. In Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names, Webb's ability to distill gesture, color, and contrasting cultural tensions into a single, beguiling frame is used to full effect in presenting his vision of Istanbul: an urban cultural center rich with the incandescence of its past, a city of minarets and pigeons rising to the heavens during the dawn call to Muslim prayers, yet also a city of ATM machines and designer jeans. Turkish author Orhan Pamuk contributes a text excerpted from Istanbul, his critically acclaimed portrait of the city.