John Freely

'The best travel guide to Istanbul' - The TimesPractical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.This is the 2009 revised and updated edition of the classic guide to Istanbul, originally published thirty-seven years previously, which continues to inform and enchant visitors.Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city.Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveller will want to see.

The Irish-American physicist, academic and traveller John Freely wrote more than sixty lively books on travel, history and science before he died in 2017, aged 90. But It was Istanbul, where he emigrated with his family in 1960 to take up a post teaching physics at the American Robert College, that turned him into a writer. His first book, 'Strolling Through Istanbul' – written with his fellow academic Hilary Sumner-Boyd – was an instant success when it was published in 1972 and has never been out of print since. With the exception of Oguz, so thin that he was known as The Ghost because he barely cast a shadow, everyone in John Freely's rumbustious memoir, including the author himself, is larger than life. Bohemian Istanbul was a haven for myriad misfits who found their feet in the city. Clamorous, glamorous, eccentric, cosmopolitan and frequently outrageous, they included the 'berserker' Peter Pfeiffer, a resourceful exile with three passports; Aliye Berger, the beautiful queen of bohemian Pera; the writer James Baldwin and, fleetingly, the future Pope John XXIII. This elegy for a lost world encapsulates the flavour of their daily life and nightly excesses. Well lubricated with lemon vodka and Hill Cocktails served by Sumner-Boyd's gloomy housekeeper, 'Monik Depressive', the Freely crowd weave their way from the Galatasaray fish market and the taverns of Çiçek Pasaji to the Russian restaurant Rejans, and frequently on to the Freely household on the Bosphorus hills, where a party will soon be in full swing and eggnog flowing freely. 'Stamboul Ghosts' is lllustrated with Ara Guler's poignant black-and-white photographs, which make of Freely's beloved city an evocative stage-set.

First published in 2005. Long acknowledged to be the 'best travel guide to Istanbul' (Times of London) this classic of travel literature is now available in a larger format in hardback binding. The work is both a useful and informative guide to the city with major useful monuments described in detail in terms of the history and architecture. Although the main emphasis of the book is on the Byzantine and Ottoman Antiquities, the city is not treated as a museum in the context of a living city. Itineraries are arranged so that each one takes the visitor to a different part of Istanbul.

Throughout the 1960's John Freely and Hilary Sumner-Boyd explored every alley, cove and monument of their adopted home of Istanbul in between their teaching jobs. They created a legendary guidebook, covering 1,500 years of Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, to a city that was still innocent of tourists. But the passages that were too personal, too capricious, too idiosyncratic, too indulgent of eccentric personalities, too melancholically obsessed with lost monuments, too wrapped up in the love of mid-afternoon banter, too indulgent of musicians, dancers, gypsies, dervish, drunks, beggars, fishermen, poets, fortune-tellers, folk healers, mimics and prostitutes were cut from their scholarly guidebook. Stamboul Sketches is a slim book compiled from these editorial floor off-cuts. Inspired by travelling in the footsteps of Evliya Celebi, the Puck-like Pepys who wrote about 17th century Istanbul, Stamboul Sketches is a beautiful, quirky portrait of a city caught like a bird on the wing, so much changed but so much the same.

Blue Guides: Complete Cultural Guides -- Long-awaited new edition of the Blue Guide to this fascinating city, which straddles Europe and the Orient and whose history goes back to the days of ancient Greece. Superb coverage of all the major monuments, Classical, Christian and Islamic, with details on how to get around a busy city, what to eat and where to stay. Illustrations to inform rather than to decorate: maps, diagrams, floor plans, architectural details, photographs. -- "Often plagiarised by other guide writers, Blue Guides have always been a gold standard for accuracy and depth" Daily Telegraph. "Guide books in the grand tradition of thoroughness and objectivity" Georgia Review.

This book is a history of the architecture produced in Turkey under the Ottoman Empire. It focuses on extant buildings in the Republic of Turkey, particularly those in Istanbul and the empire's earlier capitals in Bursa and Edirne. The book begins with a brief history of the Ottoman Empire, followed by an outline of the main features of Ottoman architecture and its decoration, then a brief biography of the great Ottoman architect Sinan. Successive chapters follow the development of Ottoman architecture from 1453 until 1923. The book is intended for the general reader with an interest in architecture, especially that of the Ottoman Turks, whose culture has left its mark not only on Turkey, but in the Balkans and throughout the Middle East.

Aladdin's Lamp is the fascinating story of how ancient Greek philosophy and science began in the sixth century B.C. and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others. John Freely explains how, as the Dark Ages shrouded Europe, scholars in medieval Baghdad translated the works of these Greek thinkers into Arabic, spreading their ideas throughout the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain, with many Muslim scientists, most notably Avicenna, Alhazen, and Averro s, adding their own interpretations to the philosophy and science they had inherited. Freely goes on to show how, beginning in the twelfth century, these texts by Islamic scholars were then translated from Arabic into Latin, sparking the emergence of modern science at the dawn of the Renaissance, which climaxed in the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century.

The Cyclades are the quintessential Greek isles, renowned for the beauty of their seascapes, their historical monuments and a unique way of life deeply rooted in the remote past of the Aegean. Over the course of more than 7,000 years the Cyclades have seen a succession of civilizations, the earliest of them perpetuated in legends such as that of Atlantis, which has been identified with volcanic Santorini. The islands are arrayed around their sacred centre on Delos, where Leto was said to have given birth to the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, children of Zeus. Dionysos was born on olive-embowered Naxos, where he fell in love with Ariadne, and myths relate that Poseidon was the protector of Tinos, whose mid-summer festival of the Virgin is celebrated with the folk-dances and songs for which the Cyclades are famous. In this comprehensive guide to the Cyclades, John Freely describes the immemorial past and timeless present of these enchanting islands, which still await discovery.

First published in 2005. Long acknowledged to be the 'best travel guide to Istanbul' (Times of London) this classic of travel literature is now available in a larger format in hardback binding. The work is both a useful and informative guide to the city with major useful monuments described in detail in terms of the history and architecture. Although the main emphasis of the book is on the Byzantine and Ottoman Antiquities, the city is not treated as a museum in the context of a living city. Itineraries are arranged so that each one takes the visitor to a different part of Istanbul.

A remarkable tale of empire and exile, restoring to vivid life one of the most extraordinary and colourful figures of medieval history.

The traveller gets exactly what he needs, and in a handy format. THE TIMES The author seems to have covered every road in the country, and has something of interest to say about virtually every site. COUNTRY LIFE Istanbul is the only city in the world that stands astride two continents, spreading across from Europe into Asia at the southern end of the Bosphorus, the incomparably beautiful strait linking the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara in northwestern Turkey. This Companion Guide to Istanbul goes as far as the region around Marmara from the Bosphorus to the Dardanelles, which flows into the Aegean past the historic ruins of Troy on its Asian shore.Revised and updated for this new edition, the book is a guide to the Byzantine and Ottoman monuments and to the many other places of great historic interest around the Marmara, including Edirne, Bursa and Iznik, ancient Nicaea, as well as the renowned archaeological site of Homeric Troy. It is also an introduction to Turkey itself and to its people and their way of life, which they are more than willing to share with the traveller who takes the time to become acquainted with them. JOHN FREELY has lived and worked on America's east coast, in Britain, and around the Mediterranean, but is long-time Professor of Physics at the University of the Bosphorus, Istanbul, and has been resident for many years in Turkey. His understanding of the land and its people has made him a respected interpreter of Turkey ancient and modern.

Freely provides detailed maps and itineraries for extended excursions. Sized to fit with ease into a backpack or a glove box, this useful compendium is suitable for all travelers to that part of the world.-Booklist

Istanbul's history is a catalogue of change, not least of name, yet it has managed to retain its own unique identity. John Freely captures the flavour of daily life as well as court ceremonial and intrigue. The book also includes a comprehensive gazetteer of all major monuments and museums. An in-depth study of this legendary city through its many different ages from its earliest foundation to the present day - the perfect traveller's companion and guide.