The Encyclopedias of Istanbul
The main purpose of this article is to develop a general survey on the literature of city guides which have been written about Istanbul in a variety of languages. In fact, the term “city guide” in its Turkish sense has not been very well defined, nor is the boundary clear enough to enable an academic classification. In this article, I have tried to provide a restricted definition of the “city guide”, including encyclopedias, books and selected writings whose primary concern is to present the city in terms of both its physical and cultural features. Based on this definition, I have examined major studies on Istanbul. However, tourist guides, city maps, journals and travel accounts that were written before the middle of the 19th century have not been included in this article. In order to establish a connection between the studies included this article, I have sometimes strayed from this definition.
Ü. SERDAR SERDAROĞLU
