When the Byzantine Empire and the shattered city of Constantinople finally fell to Mehmet the Conqueror and his Ottoman army in 1453, shockwaves reverberated throughout Western Europe and the whole Christian world. Yet Mehmet was a visionary. Just as Constantine had done over a millennium earlier, refounding Byzantium as his new capital, a new Rome, Mehmet was determined to restore the city’s fortunes and place it on an even higher pedestal.

He issued a rallying call for people of all races and religions to come and live and work in the city. It was an open door policy based on tolerance and freedom designed to invite skills, creativity, and energy. As a 15th century pasha advised the Sultan, trade would set Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire on the road to success:

“Look with favour on the merchants in the land; always care for them; let no one harass them… for through their trading the land becomes prosperous and by their wares cheapness abound in the world; through them the excellent fame of the Sultan is carried to surrounding lands and by them the wealth within the land is increased.”

Within a few decades a whole host of foreign firms had stepped over the welcome mat and set up shop. Armenians flourished as jewellers, craftsmen, and traders. Jews became successful perfumers, blacksmiths, and bankers. Italians were busy importing silk, paper, and glass. Even the English were invited to the party when in 1579 the Sultan Murad III wrote to Elizabeth I welcoming English merchants to come and operate in his free trade empire.

Many of these businesses operated out of the covered bazaar built by Mehmet the Conqueror, which still stands at the very heart of the Grand bazaar in Istanbul. You can still sense something of the sights, smells, and sounds of what old Constantinople must have been like if you take some time to explore this labyrinthine city within a city. Down the slope to the Spice Bazaar the lanes are crammed with tiny shops and workshops full of artisans banging out their respective trades. They give a small hint of the cornucopia of goods that once came to the imperial capital, from every corner of the globe.

For centuries the Ottoman Empire was the middleman of the world, its famed merchants uniting three continents - Europe, Africa, and Asia, as far east as China. The bounty of the world didn’t arrive only by sea. All roads led to Constantinople. Caravans of camels and mules up to 2,000 strong arrived every month converging from all points of the horizon - Poland to Arabia, France to Persia.

Constantinople had been a magnet for both goods and people long before the Turks arrived. A regular stopping place for Christian pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem, once the Byzantine emperor Justinian built the Haghia Sophia in the 6th century, the capital itself became a site of pilgrimage and a top tourist destination. The Haghia Sophia wasn’t any old place of worship, it was the greatest church in Christendom for almost a thousand years. Converted to a mosque by Mehmet the Conqueror, today it stands as a breathtaking museum open to people of all faiths.