Istanbul has always been a place where stories and histories collide and crackle, where the idea is as potent as the historical fact. From the Qu'ran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, and overspills its boundaries - real and imagined. In this epic biography, author Bettany Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities.