Was Istanbul ever besieged during the reign of the Ottomans?

by KnownJunk

After the conquest of Constantinople the Turks renamed the city and made it their capitol. Was it ever besieged afterwards?

bosth

Sort of.

During the Balkan Wars, Bulgaria was engaged in a protracted fight against the Ottoman army at Çatalca (transcribed at the time as Chataldja). However, you might quibble as to whether this constitutes a "siege of Istanbul" on two points:

  1. This encounter is usually described as a battle rather than a siege, although the Çatalca Lines were indeed a series of fortifications that Bulgaria ultimately failed to take.
  2. Çatalca is not exactly Istanbul; it's more like the outskirts of the city, although today Çatalca is part of the Municipality of Istanbul and it was part of the Province (vilayet) of Istanbul in 1913.