Here is a clip that claims innocence, but is ridden with political and religious implications. And did I mention it’s from Tiny Toons, one of my favorite cartoons from childhood?
Btw, did anybody notice that there’s a Muslim pig there?
On another note, I have recently been interested in Byzantine history. Here’s my take on the Istanbul-Constantinople naming controversy.
For starters, Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire, btw, never called itself by that name. It called itself the Roman Empire. The Emperor Constantine also never called Constantinople as Constantinople. He called it Nova Roma. Prior to that new name, it was called Byzantium.
The Turks took Constantinople on 1253 from the Greeks (Byzantines called themselves Romans, but they spoke Greek). Yet contrary to popular belief, Istanbul became the official name of the city only after 1930 during the formation of The Republic of Turkey. Prior to that, the city was known by a variety of names including Konstantiniyye (Arabic for Constantine’s place), etc. Istanbul was also what the Turks called Constantinople before the conquest.
According to the song, a long time ago [about 70 years actually] it was called Constantinople; now it is Istanbul.
Yet for all this concern on names, I must say that the Greeks (Byzantines) won the war on names against the Turks. Istanbul is taken from the Greek word meaning “the city” or “down town”.
Btw, I prefer the old name Byzantium to Constantinople. Istanbul to me sounds like a desert barbarian’s exclamation on finally coming to a city, and ruling it to boot. IMO, The Republic of Turkey should have settled on Konstantiniyye.
