Istanbul from the view of muslim travellers before the conquest

The subject of pre-conquest Muslim travelers is a less studied subject. Historically corresponding to the Byzantine period of the Middle Ages, some travelers traveled through Istanbul themselves, others benefit from the writings of persons who came here as ambassador, for commerce or prisoner exchange. Previous travelbooks were mostly translated into Turkish through western languages. In this study, the chapters of travelbooks relating to Istanbul of Harun Bin Yahya, Mesudi, Herevi, Idrisi, Ibn Battuta and El Verdi were translated from Arabic to Turkish. Issues as Islamic civilization in its historical process, Byzantine-Islamic political relations, Istanbul in Arab-Islamic literature were also examined. The issues such as the aims of the travelers, the boundaries of their travels, how they funded their travels and the difficulties they encountered during the travel also mentionned in the study. It is natural that travelbooks, which are the text of the observations of the travelers, contain subjective interpretations. Therefore, the influence of their culture on their descriptions and evaluations is inevitable. In this regard, the impressions on Istanbul before the conquest of the travelers raised in a Muslim culture is the starting point of this study.