Besiktas

Besiktas is a municipality (belediye) of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered on the north by Sariyer and Sisli, on the west by Kagithane and Sisli, on the south by Beyoglu, and on the east by the Bosphorus. Directly across the Bosphorus is the municipality of Üsküdar.

The Besiktas municipality includes a number of important sites along the European side of the Bosphorus, from Dolmabahçe Palace in the south to Bebek in the north. The municipality also includes many inland (and relatively expensive, upper-middle class) neighborhoods such as Levent and Etiler. Some of its other well-known neighborhoods include Yildiz, Kuruçesme, Ortaköy, and Arnavutköy.

Besiktas' historic centre is Çarsi, which adjoins the small Abbasaga Park. The Barbaros Boulevard, which runs in south-north direction, is a major street serving as a feeder for the inner-city motorway O-1 on the Bosphorus Bridge, and terminating in Zincirlikuyu Junction, an important bus transport hub.

Name

The words besik tas means "cradle stone" in Turkish.

According to one story, there was a Byzantine church where Besiktas now is with the name Kounopetra, Greek for "stone cradle". The church was built to honor a relic, a stone reportedly taken from the stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was born. This stone was later removed to Hagia Sophia and disappeared during the Fourth Crusade, possibly to be sold in Europe's relics market.

According to another story, a cleric from an Aya Menas (Saint Menas) Church where Besiktas now is returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with a cradle-shaped stone used in the baptism of Jesus and placed it in the church.

According to yet another story, the name is a corruption of bes tas, Turkish for "five stones", referring to stone pillars used for mooring ships in the time of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha.

he Bosphorus has been settled for a long time, and there are many places of historical interest in Besiktas. This stretch of the Bosphorus shore is somewhat sheltered from the strong northeasterly winds that bring storms to Istanbul, and thus it forms a good mooring place for ships.

In Byzantine times, the area was called Diplokionion, meaning "double pillar" in Greek.

In ancient times the villages on the Bosphorus shore were isolated communities in the forest that lined the water-side. The Bosphorus, however, was prominent in the history and mythology of the ancient Greeks, and villages like Besiktas would have had their place in traditional tales such as Jason and the Argonauts. In the Byzantine era churches and a monastery were built and the tradition of having a summer palace on the Bosphorus was begun by the Byzantines with their Ayios Mamas palace complex. The Bosphorus settlements however, being outside the city walls, were vulnerable to raiders from the Black Sea coasts and little of this architecture or the statuary that would have decorated it so gloriously has survived.

In the Ottoman period, once the emperors had established control of the Black Sea coasts the Ottoman navy was docked in the Bosphorus and the Bosphorus villages became safe and attractive again. One man in particular, the legendary sailor Barbarossa, built his palace and mosque in Besiktas, making it his home. By now Besiktas was an established Bosphorus crossing for caravans trading across Anatolia and along the Silk Road, and of course for the great Ottoman armies.

This coast was of course very attractive to the Ottoman rulers, who built hunting lodges and then great palaces in the area, and the Besiktas district contains some of the most important and attractive Ottoman buildings. The area was thus the scene of great intrigues of the late Ottoman period such as the dethronement of Sultan Abdülaziz at Dolmabahçe Palace in a coup in 1876, the announcement of the founding of the Ottoman parliament in 1908, and the deposing of Sultan Abdul Hamid II at Yildiz Palace in 1909.

Following the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the Ottoman ruling family was deported and the palaces and mansions along the coast were emptied out. Some were given to new government ministries, some used as schools and other public buildings, other were pulled down.

Today, it is widely accepted by the residents of the municipality that the most significant resident of Besiktas was Zübeyde Hanim, the mother of the Turkish national hero Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who lived in the old quarter at the core of Besiktas municipality, literally right next to the then headquarters of the Besiktas J.K..

Besiktas is also an important transport junction with ferries going to the Asian side and dozens of busses departing from there