ABSTRACT
THROUGHOUT THIS STUDY I HAVE BEEN TRACING THE THREE PRIMARY ASPECTS of the Ottoman Empire that appeared contrary to the ideal of the growing British Empire. We have seen how the world of the harem provided a complex counterimage of domesticity; how the treatment of the Greeks inspired ambivalent reactions to similar British systems; and how Turkey’s failure to industrialize and modernize exposed a persistent anxiety as well as pride in Britain’s changing economy. In addition to these characteristics, the capital city of Constantinople itself acted as a rich locus around which resonant images of empire clustered. As with the other elements of the Ottomans identified above, many Westerners found the real city of Constantinople, as well as its historical associations, both attractive and repulsive. With its famous geography straddling two continents and its Byzantine and Turkish historical associations, Constantinople provided writers, travelers, and antiquarians with a host of topics about which to think and write.
