Note 477 — Chapter IV · BAYEZID THE OSMANLIS INHERIT THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Shehabeddin, fol. 72 rº, writes Istanbul; Sherefeddin, iv. 37, is transcribed by Petits de la Croix Istanbol; Arabshah, p. 124, transcribed by Vattier Estanbol. Wylie, i. 156, n. 2, gives the time-worn popular derivation from εἰς τὴν πόλιν; also Telfer, in his edition of Schiltberger, p. 119. Why go so far afield? Istambul is a natural contraction of Constantinople. As the Greeks pronounced this long word, the syllables stan and pol bore the stress, and were naturally put together for a shortened form. As for the initial I, which has troubled the philologists, its explanation is easy to one who knows the Osmanlis. They cannot to this day pronounce an initial St without putting I before it.