Shedding Some Darkness on the Light: Night and Night Life in 18th-Century Istanbul

  by Avner Wishnitzer, Tel Aviv University On September 8, 1790, a small group of European sailors set out for a night of merrymaking on the waters of the Bosphorus. Such nighttime sailings were common, but this group was particularly rowdy and very near the imperial palace, where the sultan, Selim III (1789–1808), was trying to sleep. The next morning, the [...]