=How do two important cities, Istanbul and lsfahan, reflect their culture and society?
1 Answer
Because of their past
Explanation:
As any great cities, such as Rome, Paris, London, Athens, etc., these cities have a vast amount of history behind them, which leads them to be cultural centers.
Istanbul
Istanbul was firstly named Byzantion (or Byzantium), and was colonized by the Greeks in 657 B.C. It was a really unimportant and insignificant city at the time. This of course all changed when Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium, and renamed it Constantinople.
This, of course, became the seat of power for the Eastern Roman Empire (or the Byzantine Empire), wherein Greek culture flourished. There were wondrous monuments built during the time of the Byzantines, such as the Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, the Church of the Seven Apostles, the Theodosian walls, etc., it simply radiated culture, and it stood proudly as one of the bastions preventing Muslim incursions into the European heartland.
This, of course, all ended when in 1453 Mehmed II of the Ottoman sultanate conquered the city, and moved the capital from Adrianople (or Edirne), to Constantinople, and renamed it to Istanbul (the city was also still referred by it's original name as well, but in Turkic, this being Konstantiniyye).
The Ottomans treated their new home with care, and they changed many of the Greek Orthodox churches into mosques (like the Hagia Sophia, which is obviously still today a mosque.) The city flourished with wealth all the way up until the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1522 – 1566), wherein it then fell into a steady decline.
The decline is attributed to battles, such as that of Lepanto (1571), Siege of Vienna (1683), lack of technological advancements, and unsuitable rulers. Anywho, the "sick man of Europe" was falling along with the splendor of it's biggest city, Istanbul, and it continued so up until WW1, wherein the Ottoman Empire was abolished.
In modern day Istanbul, there is this weird fusion of both Greek and Turkic that is maybe somewhat heated, but I believe the significance of its culture and its importance as a city has been elaborated upon, so let's move to Isfahan.
Isfahan
It is unknown when the city was founded, as there are traces of it being a city in prehistory. Anywho, the city is mostly known for it being a significant place during the Achaemenid Empire (or the Persian Empire), wherein King Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great), wished to make it so that there was religious toleration. You must know that at that time, Persians practiced a religion known as Zoroastrianism (http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-persian-empire-religion-social-structure.html).
At any rate, since Cyrus promoted diversity in the city, there were multiple cultures located in the city (like in Constantinople), even Jews went to live in Isfahan rather than in Jerusalem.
The city maintained it's importance, but it remained less so than other Persian cities up until the reign of the Safavids (1501–1736). This was so, due to Shah Abbas I (reigned 1588–1629), making Isfahan the capital, and it had a golden age, wherein "this new importance ushered in a golden age for the city, with architecture, prestige, and Persian culture flourishing. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city was also settled by thousands of deportees and migrants from the Caucasus that Abbas I and other Safavid rulers had settled en masse in Persia's heartland. Therefore, many of the city’s inhabitants were of Georgian, Circassian, and Daghistani descent." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isfahan)
Basically, the city remained important despite it being sacked in the 1700's, and in the modern day remains a cultural landmark, for the same reasons as Constantinople
