This book by Philip Mansel offers an emblematic history of Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), exploring the interaction between this multicultural capital - the city of the world's desire - and its ruling family. In 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople on a white horse, beginning an Ottoman love for the city that lasted until 1924, when the last Caliph hurriedly left on the Orient Express. For nearly five centuries, Constantinople, with its immense racial and cultural diversity, was at the center of the dramatic and often corrupt history of an extraordinary dynasty.