To an outsider , Istabul may frist seem like a Western city. the Western dress , the many new buildings the traffic problem all make the city seem very modern . But there is another side to this great city-its rich past as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In yhe narrow back streets the bazaars and the mosques this past seems very near and real And the spectacular mosques are evidence pf the city's important role in history of Islam as well.