During the nineteenth century, Istanbul was to witness many changes that were to alter the lives of its citizens. New fashions arrived from Europe, new political ideas and concepts of state began to permeate the political circles of the capital, and even views on how a city should be laid out altered. Yet for all this innovation, Istanbul remained the lively, disorganised, chaotic and dynamic metropolis it had always been, and novelties arrived, were absorbed and became part of the Ottoman fabric just as they always had. What was different was the increasing political and financial weakness that delivered the empire into the rapacious hands of western imperialism, which squeezed ever tighter round the Ottoman windpipe until, with the First World War, all hope of survival was gone.

The traditional city

While much changed in the life of the city during the nineteenth century, much remained the same. Fire and plague constantly assailed the population of the late Ottoman empire and drove them to distraction. Mahalle life continued much as it always had: those who sat behind the steamed-up windows of the coffee house in their entaris