Part II - The Little Ice Age Crisis

Summary

Introduction to Part II: The Freezing of the Bosphorus

In February 1621, the chronicler İbrahim Peçevi observed a “very rare event.” After several days of taking ice, the Istanbul Bosphorus had frozen over completely. For a brief window of time, a bridge of ice covered the narrow strip of water separating Europe and Asia, uniting the two continents and the two halves of the empire. In memory of the occasion, Peçevi quoted a poem composed that year:

By the will of God, the winter in Istanbul this year has been colder than any winter since the world began. Between Üsküdar and Istanbul it has frozen, the sea gone dry…Who has seen so many walk over the ice on the sea fearless as though it were dry land?