The idea for this book has been on the road for such a long time that the debts for its creation are many. The fact that it now exists is due most immediately to Andrew Lownie, my agent; Julian Loose at Faber; and Bill Strachan at Hyperion for believing in the story, and then to the professional and enthusiastic teams at both publishers for making it happen.
For its deepest origins I am always grateful to Christopher Trillo, the champion of Istanbul, for persuading me to go there in 1973, and a small army of old friends who have advised along the way: Andrew Taylor, Elizabeth Manners, and Stephen Scoffham for proposal and manuscript reading; Elizabeth Manners again for her cover photographs of the wall paintings from the monastery of Moldovita in Rumania; John Dyson for a huge amount of help in Istanbul sourcing books and arranging photographs, and for hospitality; Rita and Ron Morton for matching hospitality in Greece; Ron Morton and David Gordon-Macleod for taking me to Mount Athos to glimpse the living Byzantine tradition; Annamaria Ferro and Andrew Kirby for translations; Oliver Poole for photographs; Athena Adams-Florou for scanning pictures; Dennis Naish for information on casting cannon; Martin Dow for advice on Arabic. To all these people I am very grateful. Last and always my deep thanks are to Jan, not only for proposal and manuscript reading, but also for surviving Turkish dog bites and the author year in, year out, with love.
I am also grateful to the following publishers for permission to reproduce substantial extracts included in this book. Material from The Tale of Constantinople by Nestor-Iskander, translated and annotated by Walter K. Hanak and Marios Philippides, courtesy Aristide D. Caratzas, Publisher (Melissa International Ltd); material from Babinger, Franz: Mehmet the Conqueror and His Time © 1978 Princeton University Press, reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.