The book is dedicated to the most mysterious city connecting Europe and Asia — Istanbul. The heir of ancient Byzantium, the city became the successor of the great Constantinople — the capital of the largest Orthodox empire of the Middle Ages, turning into the center of the Ottoman Empire and an attraction for Muslims from all over the world. The everyday life of Istanbul in its brilliant era, the life of palace dwellers and janissaries, the activities of merchants and the concerns of the poor are vividly revealed in the book by the greatest French historian Robert Mantran.