ay inThe Lord of the Two Lands and the Two Seas – the achievements of “Mehmed The Conquerer”.
Mehmed II, also known as Mehmet the Conqueror (c 1432-1481) was a Turkish sultan who was best known for conquering Constantinople and ruthlessly consolidated and enlarged the Ottoman Empire with a military crusade into Asia and Europe.
Mehmed was an Ottoman Sultan who ruled first for a short time from August 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to May 1481. At the age of 21, Mehmed famously conquered Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire and Christian rule in the region. Exhaulted by Muslims and despised by Christians Mehmed II is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world. Among other things, Istanbul's Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him.
Conquering Istanbul
“Either I will conquer Istanbul or Istanbul will conquer me”.
Mehmed The Conquerer.
On the afternoon of 29 May 1453 the Sultan entered the long-desired city. Constantinople was long considered “unconquerable” so for Mehmet this was a major achievement and testament to his military skill and power. Riding a white horse, he advanced down what would be known as “the avenue of death”. The city of Constantinople was being put to the sack by the triumphant Ottoman army. According to an observer from Venice,
“…blood flowed through the streets like rainwater after a sudden storm; corpses floated out to sea like melons along a canal.” An Ottoman official, Tursun Beg, wrote that “the troops `took silver and gold vessels, precious stones, and all sorts of valuable goods and fabrics from the imperial palace and the houses of the rich. In this fashion many people were delivered from poverty and made rich.” When Mehmet reached the centre of Christianity – the Hagia Sophia – “he dismounted and bent down to pick up a handful of earth, which he poured over his turban as an act of humility before God”.
Other Achievements.
The fall of Byzantium and the foundation of a unified Islamic Empire straddling Europe and Asia for many marked the division between the Middle Ages and the modern era. After the Conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed began rebuilding and repopulating the city and founded many mosques and religious schools in the city, such as the külliye of the Fatih Mosque. Mehmed II is recognized as the first Sultan to codify criminal and constitutional law.
After the conquest Mehmed before turning to expanding the empire and the rule of the Ottomans and indeed the Muslim world. A letter written by a Knight of St John on Rhodes sent to Jerusalem to the Margrave of Brandenburg describes the situation…
“It is believed that he is preparing a new fleet from scratch, since he intends to make all the islands of the Aegean archipelago subject to him or to destroy them if he can. For his heart swells with pride and he boasts that he has equaled or surpassed the deeds of Alexander of Macedon. He also threatens that he will attempt to do what Alexander never did – push into Italy and the regions of the West with his arms and might and see whether fortune shall favor him there as it has throughout the East. This is why all Christian kings and princes should turn their minds to some sort of pact so that they may resist the ferocious power of this tyrant who has been roused to destroy Christians, unless God provides otherwise, and turn all their powers to the destruction of the Turk himself.”
Determined to rule firmly and effectively, Mehmed was often brutal and cruel. It has been said that he delighted in killing people as someone else might kill fleas. Mehmed's thirty-one year rule and numerous wars expanded the Ottoman Empire to include Constantinople, the kingdoms and territories of Asia Minor and Anatolia, Bosnia, the Balkan Penninsula (Kingdom of Serbia, Hungary and Albania), Moldovia and Greece. Mehmed left behind an imposing reputation in both the Islamic and Christian worlds. According to historian Franz Babinger, Mehmed was regarded as a bloodthirsty tyrant by the Christian world and by a part of his subjects. For him, the non-Muslim world was "war territory" ordained by the Koran to be subjected.
Death and Legacy
Mehmet died on 3 May 1481 at the age of 49 while on a campaign to invade and capture Eygpt. According to the historian Colin Heywood, "there is substantial circumstantial evidence that Mehmed was poisoned, possibly at the behest of his eldest son and successor, Bayezid." The news of Mehmed's death caused great rejoicing in Europe; church bells were rung and celebrations held. The news was proclaimed in Venice thus: "La Grande Aquila è morta!" ('The Great Eagle is dead!')
Although Mehmed II died unsatisfied in his goal to build a universal empire, he had extended Ottoman influence east as far as the Euphrates and west throughout the Balkans and even onto the Italian peninsula. “Whether reviled for his brutality and his fervor or saluted for these successes, Mehmed II, the Conqueror, affirmed the authority of the sultanate and secured the character of the Ottoman Empire. From the remains of Byzantium, he built a vibrant capital of a growing Turkish Empire which would be a major world power over the next four centuries” .
References
Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_the_Conqueror
Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople
Your Dictionary – http://biography.yourdictionary.com/mehmed-the-conqueror
The Ottomans – www.theottomans.org/english/campaigns_army/Mehmed-the-Conqueror-3.asp
Constantinople: City of the World’s Desire 1453-1924 London, John Murray, 12 October 1995, 528 pages, ISBN 0719550769 Paperback: London, Penguin, 6 November 1997
Lords of the Horizons 1998 London ISBN 0 09 999400 3 Random House
Primary Sources.
Convent of the Order of Saint John on Rhodes, 30 June 1453.
Tursun Beg. The History of Mehmed the Conqueror trans. Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1978. here…