Table of Contents Introduction………………………………. iii The Center of Entertainment…….. 40 Taksim Stadium………………….. 42 Chapter 1: A Brief History of the City…..… 1 Education and Worship………..… 42 Houses of Worship………………. 43 Chapter 2: The Cynosure of Intrigue…….. 4 The Graveyard…………………… 43 Red vs. White……………………… 4 Beşiktaş………………………….. 43 National Security Service.…. 5 Dolmabahçe Palace……………… 44 NKVD .…………………..… 6 Yali………………………………. 46 Enter the Nazis…………………….. 6 Bosphorus Hebrew Relief Agency… 7 Chapter 6: The Anatolian Side……….….. 48 Armenian Brotherhood……………. 9 Kadiköy………………………….. 48 Partisi al-Islam…………………… 10 Moda…………………………….. 49 Gangsters of Istanbul…………….. 11 Üsküdar………………………….. 50 Mutra………………………..…… 11 The Maiden’s Tower…………….. 51 Greeks………………………….… 11 Camlica Hill…………………..… 52 Camorra………………………….. 12 Selamsiz………………………… 52 The Water Boys………………….. 13 Sufiisn ……………………….… 53 Romani………………………….. 53 Chapter 3: The Oslek Transfer…………… 14 Apostolate to Protect Holy Relics 54 Anadolu Citadel……………….… 54 Chapter 4: Old Istanbul………………..… 23 Fatih……………………………… 23 Chapter 7: The New Turkey……………… 56 Sultanahmet “Blue” Mosque…….. 24 The Six Arrows………………….. 56 The Seven Pillars of Islam……….. 25 The Ankara Government…………. 57 Hagia Sofia………………………. 26 Money, Money, Money… ……….. 58 Topkapi Palace…………………… 28 The Government in Istanbul…..… 59 The Orient Express………………. 29 The Gendarmerie………………… 59 Sirkeci Rail Station……………… 30 The Modern Turk………………… 60 Galata Bridge……………………. 31 Egyptian Bazaar…………………. 31 Chapter 8: A Royal Heist………………… 64 Valen Aqueduct………………….. 31 Basilica Cistern………………….. 32 MAPS Grand Bazaar……………………. 34 Grand Bazaar…………………….. 34 Walls of Constantine…………….. 35 Old Istanbul…………………….. 37 Yeiliköy………………………….. 35 European Istanbul…………….… 47 Topkapi Palace…………………… 69 Chapter 5: European Istanbul……………. 38 Karaköy………………………….. 38 The Tünel………………………… 39 Sample Pera (Beyoglü)…………………… 39 file Pera Palace Hotel………………… 40 Introduction The Sublime Porte started life as a series of adventures that were set in Istanbul for a Hollow Earth Expedition game I was running a few years ago. As is my wont, I collected massive amounts of notes and pictures to try and create verisimilitude in the game I was running — a trait that I’ve had since the bad ol’ days of playing the James Bond 007 roleplaying game with my high school group in the 1980s. This focus on detail and knowing as much as I could, should the players try to trip up my plots, would serve me well in my historical studies, teaching and writing careers. After Queen of the Orient, our sourcebook to 1930s Shanghai, the question was what sourcebook would be next? I knew I didn’t want to do another London book — I’d written the original The Smoke for Victoriana and for Imperial Age. Other pulp, steampunk, and dieselpunk games have London books. We needed something different! There are a lot of places that have never been seen a setting for pulp games, and Istanbul kept coming up in conversations with other players of the Ubiquity system. Finally all that research has now been put to (I hope) good use with this book you now hold (or are reading on your device). Hos geldiniz! Scott Rhymer Albuquerque, NM Sample file 1. A Brief History of the City Byzantium. Constantinople. Istanbul, or peace afterward as they allied themselves ‘Stambol — a Turkish corruption of the with Greek city-states. Later with the Roman Greek phrase “in the city.” Key to trade Empire, but it would not be until 79 between the Mediterranean and the Black A.D. that the city officially became part of the Sea. The Gateway to the East. The Crossroads empire. of the World. In 193 A.D., their support for a pretender to The area on which Istanbul is built has been the Roman throne, Pescennius Niger, would inhabited since at least the thirteenth century lead Emperor Septimius Severus to invade. B.C. According to the Roman historian Pliny, Constantine the Great would seek to make it the city was originally a Thracian settlement the capital of a Christian Roman Empire and named Lygos. Sometime around the seventh moved his throne to the city in 330 A.D., century B.C., King Byzas of Megara, guided changing its name to Constantinople to honor by the Oracle of Delphi, colonized the area himself. When Theodosius divided the empire and gave to it its historical name: Byzantion. in two in 395 A.D., it became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, or later the Commanding the Bosphorus Straits, the city Byzantine Empire. One of the city’s greatest was essential to trade in the ancient world and monuments was built in the 500s by the the desire of empires starting with the Emperor Justinian the Great — Hagia Sophia. Persians in the sixth century B.C. Byzantium This cathedral would serve as an Orthodox allied itself with the Spartans and Athenians (and later a Catholic) church, and as a mosque against the Persian invasion of Greece and throughout its history. were later part of the Peloponnesian League. The Byzantine Empire was steadily picked Alexander the Great would seize the city in apart by the advance of Islamic fighters, who Samplehis march into the Persian Empire in 334 B.C. first came out of the wastes file of Arabia in 650 and the city would experience a century of A.D. Threatened by the Muslim invaders, it 1 would paradoxically be the European under a policy called millet system. The city Crusaders that would put an end to the was a rival to the European capitals in wealth Byzantine Empire with their sacking of the and size, but by the nineteenth century, the city in 1204. For sixty years, it was part of the empire was sick. The other Great Powers Latin League and Catholicism was imposed were encroaching on the empire’s frontiers. on the city, but a weak Byzantine Empire was French and British naval power wrested reformed in 1264. This new power would Egypt and the African coast from only last a few decades, when the Ottoman Constantinople during the Napoleonic War. Turks would push through Asia minor and Serbia and Greece revolted, the latter gaining take the city in 1453. The Ottoman sultan, its independence with the aid of Britain. The Mehmet II, would begin a rule that would last Crimean War cost the Ottomans portions of until 1923, with the founding of the Republic the Balkans, and during the 1870s, Russia and of Turkey. Austro-Hungary were in conflict, hoping to peel the rest of the Balkans from the empire For 470 years, Constantinople — known now called the “Sick Man of Europe” in the locally as Istanbul — was the capital of the 1870s. Ottoman Empire. Sultan Mehmet II wanted to restore the wealth and prominence of the city In an attempt to play catch-up with the and he invited the Greek and Jewish European powers, the sultans attempted to populations that had been displaced back into modernize their nation. The end of the the city. He ordered the construction of the nineteenth century saw a vastly expensive Grand Bazaar and Topkapi Palace, as well as program to improve infrastructure by building the Faith theological college and mosque on bridges and railways to connect the city to the site of the Church of the Holy Apostles. Europe, to electrify the city and install Under Suleiman the Magnificent many of the telegraph and telephone exchanges, electric architectural treasures of the city were trams, and other modern conveniences. Much designed and built, like the Ramazan Efendi of the technical support was provided by and Galata Mevlevihanesi mosques, and the German companies, and the loans for the Cerrahi Tekke museum. Calligraphy, projects came from the German government. ceramics, weaving and other industries thrived. The Great War saw the Ottoman Empire join the Central Powers — Germany and Austro- While the sultans raised the prominence of Hungary. Their defeat and the Armistice of Islam and its culture, the city was still highly Mudros led to the occupation of the city by cosmopolitan, with large populations of Jews, the French, British, Greek and Italian forces Greeks, Armenians, Italians, Slavs and Rus. on 13 November 1918. The victors split the The Ottoman Empire stretched, at its largest city into zones of influence, although clearly extent, from the northern coast of Africa to the French and British commands, with their the border with Austro-Hungary, into Arabia, large occupational forces, were in charge. and to the border with Persia. While criminal Dozens of their warships would rest in the law for the disparate imperial populations was Straits of Bosphorus. The occupation would Samplehandled under shari’ah, many of these groups end with the turnover of thefile city to Turkish were allowed to manage their own civil laws forces on 23 September 1923. This day, 2 Liberation Day, is celebrated throughout the Events in Russia and in Europe would lead to city every year. a steady influx of immigrants and transient population that used the city as a waypoint in The new, secular government, led by Kemal their escape from the violence of the October Ataturk, wanted to create distance from the Revolution, and the rise of Nazism in imperial, Muslim past that so infused Germany and Austria. From Istanbul, White Constantinople. For this reason, it was Russians planned to retake their home with decided to replace the city with Ankara as the aid of the Allied occupational forces, capital of the new Republic of Turkey. The while Soviet spies sought out these enemies shift of administrative duties from the city led of the revolution. With the rise of Nazism, the to a collapse in the population. Prior to this, Gestapo and Jewish relief groups would add the city hosted 1.1 million residents, but by to the intrigue in the city. the end of 1924, the numbers plummeted to half a million. However, at this time, another Up until this point, the city’s official name attempt to modernize the city was underway had remained Constantinople, although many with the expansion of a military airfield into a of the denizens had referred to it as Istanbul, commercial airport in the Yeşilköy district.