Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror of Constantinople

Mehmed II, the Conqueror
‫اﻟﺳﻠطﺎن‬‫اﻟﻔﺎﺗﺢ‬ ‫ﷴ‬‫اﻟﻐﺎزي‬‫ﺗﻌﺎﻟﻰ‬ ‫ﷲ‬ ‫رﺣﻣﮫ‬
“Constantinople (now Istanbul) will be
opened. Its prince is the best, and its army is
the best”
Authentic Prophetic Saying.
Mehmed II replied: “Mother, in my
hand is the sword of Islam, without
this hardship I should not deserve the
name of Ghazi today, and tomorrow
I’ll have to cover my face in shame
before Allah"
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Mehmed_II
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‫ﻗﺎل‬ ‫اﺑﯾﮫ‬ ‫ﻋن‬ ‫اﻟﻐﻧوي‬ ‫ﺑﺷر‬ ‫ﺑن‬ ‫ﻋﺑدﷲ‬:‫ﷲ‬ ‫رﺳول‬ ‫ﻗﺎل‬
‫وﺳﻠم‬ ‫ﻋﻠﯾﮫ‬ ‫ﷲ‬ ‫ﺻل‬:)‫اﻟﻘﺳطﻧطﯾﻧﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻟﺗﻔﺗﺣن‬‫ﻓﻠﻧﻌم‬
‫اﻷ‬‫ﻣﯾر‬‫أ‬‫ﻣﯾرھﺎ‬‫اﻟﺟﯾش‬ ‫ذﻟك‬ ‫اﻟﺟﯾش‬ ‫وﻟﻧﻌم‬(
‫اﻟﺗﺎرﯾﺦ‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﺧﯾﺛﻣﮫ‬ ‫واﺑن‬ ‫زواﺋده‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫واﺑﻧﮫ‬ ‫اﺣﻣد‬ ‫رواه‬
‫واﻟﺣﺎﻛم‬ ‫واﻟطﺑراﻧﻲ‬–‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﺷﺎھد‬ ‫ﻣﺗﻧﮫ‬ ‫ﻟﺑﻌض‬ ‫ﺣﺳن‬ ‫ﺣدﯾث‬
‫وھ‬ ‫اﻟﺻﺣﯾﺢ‬‫و‬‫اﻟﻘﺳطﻧطﯾﻧﯾﮫ‬ ‫ﺑﻔﺗﺢ‬ ‫اﻟﺗﺑﺷﯾر‬.
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From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia (Redirected from
Sultan Mehmed II) "Fatih Sultan
Mehmet" redirects here. For the
bridge that spans the Bosphorus
strait, see Fatih Sultan Mehmet
Bridge.
Mehmed II
Mehmed the Conqueror
Fatih Sultan Mehmed
Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire
Qayser-i Rûm

Sultan Mehmed II in 1479.
Portrait by Italian painter
Gentile Bellini
Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire
Reign
August 1444 ‒
September
1446
PredecessorMurad II

Successor Murad II
Reign
3 February
1451 ‒ 3 May
1481
PredecessorMurad II
Successor Bayezid II
Consort
Gülbahar
Hatun
Gülşah Hatun
Sittişah Hatun
Çiçek Hatun
Royal house
House of
Osman
Father Murad II
Mother Hüma Hatun
Born
30 March 1432
Edirne, Edirne
Province,
Turkey

Died
Burial
Religion
Tughra
Mehmed II
‫ﺛﺎﻧﻰ‬, Meḥmed
Mehmet Turkish
pronunciation:
known as
Conqueror" in
modern Turkish
3 May 1481
(aged 49)
Hünkârçayırı,
near Gebze,
Kocaeli
Province,
Turkey
Constantinople
now Istanbul,
Turkey
Religion Sunni Islam
Tughra
Mehmed II (Ottoman Turkish
Meḥmed-i s̠ ānī; Turkish
Turkish
nunciation: [ˈmeh.met]; also
known as el-Fātiḥ, ‫,اﻟﻔﺎﺗﺢ‬ "the
Conqueror" in Ottoman Turkish
Turkish, Fatih Sultan
,
Constantinople
,
Ottoman Turkish: ‫ﷴ‬
Turkish: II.
; also
, "the
Ottoman Turkish; in
Fatih Sultan

Mehmet Han; also called
Mahomet II[1][2]
in early modern
Europe), also known as
Muhammed bin Murad, Mehmed
the Conqueror, Grand Turk,
Kayser-i Rûm (Caesar of Rome)
and Turcarum Imperator, and
Fatih Sultan Mehmed[3]
(30
March 1432 – 3 May 1481), 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, he conquered
Constantinople (modern-day
Istanbul) and brought an end to
the Byzantine Empire. Mehmed
continued his conquests in
Anatolia with its reunification, and
in Southeast Europe as far west

as Bosnia. Being a highly
regarded conqueror, Mehmed 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.
Contents
• 1 Early reign
• 2 Conquest of Constantinople
• 3 Conquest of Serbia (1454–
1459)
• 4 Conquest of Morea (1458–
1460)
• 5 Conquests on the Black Sea
coast (1460–1461)
• 6 Conquest of Wallachia
(1459–1462)

• 7 Conquest of Bosnia (1463)
• 8 Ottoman Venetian War
(1463–1479)
• 9 Conquest of Karaman and
conflict with the Akkoyunlu
(1464–1473)
• 10 War with Moldavia (1475–
1476)
• 11 Conquest of Albania (1466–
1478)
• 12 Conquest of Genoese
Crimea and alliance with
Crimean Khanate (1475)
• 13 Expedition to Italy (1480)
• 14 Repopulation of
Constantinople (1453–1478)
• 15 Administration and culture
• 16 Family life
• 17 Personality
• 18 Death

• 19 Legacy
• 20 Portrayals
• 21 See also
• 22 Further reading
• 23 References
• 24 External links
Early reign
Accession of Mehmed II in Edirne,
1451
Mehmed II was born on 30 March
1432, in Edirne, then the capital

city of the Ottoman state. His
father was Sultan Murad II (1404–
51) and his mother Valide Sultan
Hüma Hatun, born in the town of
Devrekani, Kastamonu.
When Mehmed II was eleven
years old he was sent to Amasya
to govern and thus gain
experience, as per the custom of
Ottoman rulers before his time.
After Murad II made peace with
the Karaman Emirate in Anatolia
in August 1444, he abdicated the
throne to his 12-year-old son
Mehmed II. Sultan Murad II had
sent him a number of teachers for
him to study under.[4]
This Islamic education had a great
impact in molding the mindset of

Mehmed and reinforcing his
Muslim beliefs. He began to praise
and promote the application of
Sharia law.[citation needed]
He was
influenced in his practice of
Islamic epistemology by
contemporaneous practitioners of
science - particularly by his
mentor, Molla Gürani - and he
followed their approach. The
influence of Ak Şemseddin in
Mehmed's life became
predominant from a young age,
especially in the imperative of
fulfilling his Islamic duty to
overthrow the Byzantine empire by
conquering Constantinople.[5]
In his first reign, he defeated the
crusade led by János Hunyadi

after the Hungarian incursions into
his country broke the conditions of
the truce Peace of Szeged.
Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the
representative of the pope, had
convinced the king of Hungary that
breaking the truce with Muslims
was not a betrayal.[6]
At this time
Mehmed II asked his father Murad
II to reclaim the throne, but Murad
II refused. Angry at his father, who
had long since retired to a
contemplative life in southwestern
Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote, "If you
are the Sultan, come and lead
your armies. If I am the Sultan I
hereby order you to come and
lead my armies." It was only after
receiving this letter that Murad II

led the Ottoman army and won the
Battle of Varna in 1444.
Murad II's return to the throne was
forced by Çandarlı Halil Paşa, the
grand vizier at the time, who was
not fond of Mehmed II's rule,
because Mehmed II's influential
lala (royal teacher), Akşemseddin,
had a rivalry with Çandarlı.
Conquest of Constantinople
Main article: Fall of Constantinople

Sultan Mehmed II's entry into
Constantinople, painting by Fausto
Zonaro (1854-1929)
When Mehmed II ascended the
throne in 1451 he devoted himself
to strengthening the Ottoman
Navy, and in the same year made
preparations for the taking of
Constantinople. In the narrow
Bosporus Straits, the fortress
Anadoluhisarı had been built by
his great-grandfather Bayezid I on
the Asian side; Mehmed erected
an even stronger fortress called
Rumelihisarı on the European
side, and thus gained complete
control of the strait. Having
completed his fortresses, Mehmed
proceeded to levy a toll on ships

passing within reach of their
cannon. A Venetian vessel
ignoring signals to stop was sunk
with a single shot and all the
surviving sailors beheaded,[7]
except for the captain whose living
body was impaled and mounted
as a human scarecrow as a
warning to further sailors on the
strait.[8]
Earlier there had been two sieges
during the 7th and 8th centuries by
the Muslims on account of the
hadith. One of the Muslim losses
was Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the
companion and standard bearer of
Muhammad. During the siege his
tomb was located by Mehmed's
sheikh Akşemseddin.[9]
After the

conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp
Sultan Mosque at the site, by
which he wanted to emphasize the
importance of the conquest to the
Islamic world and highlight his role
as ghazi.[9]
In 1453 Mehmed commenced the
siege of Constantinople with an
army between 80,000 to 200,000
troops and a navy of 320 vessels,
though the bulk of them were
transports and storeships. The city
was now surrounded by sea and
land; the fleet at the entrance of
the Bosphorus was stretched from
shore to shore in the form of a
crescent, to intercept or repel any
assistance from the sea for the
besieged.[7]
In early April, the

Siege of Constantinople began.
After several failed assaults, the
city's walls held off the Turks with
great difficulty, even with the use
of the new Orban's bombard, a
cannon similar to the Dardanelles
Gun. The harbor of the Golden
Horn was blocked by a boom
chain and defended by twenty-
eight warships.
On 22 April, Mehmed transported
his lighter warships overland,
around the Genoese colony of
Galata and into the Golden Horn's
northern shore; eighty galleys
were transported from the
Bosphorus after paving a little over
one-mile route with wood. Thus
the Byzantines stretched their

troops over a longer portion of the
walls. A little over a month later,
Constantinople fell on 29 May
following a fifty-seven day siege.[7]
After this conquest, Mehmed
moved the Ottoman capital from
Adrianople to Constantinople.
Roumeli Hissar Castle built by the
Sultan Mehmed II between 1451
and 1452, before he conquered
Constantinople [10]
When Mehmed stepped into the
ruins of the Boukoleon, known to
the Ottomans and Persians as the
Palace of the Caesars, probably

built over a thousand years before
by Theodosius II, he uttered the
famous lines of Saadi:[11][12][13][14]
The spider weaves the curtains in
the palace of the Caesars
the owl calls the watches in the
towers of Afrasiab.
After the conquest of
Constantinople, Mehmed claimed
the title "Caesar" of the Roman
Empire (Qayser-i Rûm). However,
this claim was not recognized by
Christian Europe. Mehmed's claim
rested with the concept that
Constantinople was the seat of the
Roman Empire, after the transfer
of its capital to Constantinople in
330 AD and the fall of the Western
Roman Empire. Mehmed also had

a blood lineage to the Byzantine
Imperial family; his predecessor,
Sultan Orhan I had married a
Byzantine princess, and Mehmed
claimed descent from John
Tzelepes Komnenos.[15]
He was
not the only ruler to claim such a
title, as there was the Holy Roman
Empire in Western Europe, whose
emperor, Frederick III, traced his
titular lineage from Charlemagne
who obtained the title of Roman
Emperor when he was crowned by
Pope Leo III in 800 – although
never recognized as such by the
Byzantine Empire.[citation needed]
Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI
died without producing an heir,
and had Constantinople not fallen

to the Ottomans he likely would
have been succeeded by the sons
of his deceased elder brother.
Those children were taken into the
palace service of Mehmed after
the fall of Constantinople. The
oldest boy, renamed Has Murad,
became a personal favorite of
Mehmed and served as Beylerbey
(Governor-General) of the
Balkans. The younger son,
renamed Mesih Pasha, became
Admiral of the Ottoman fleet and
Sanjak-bey (Governor) of the
Province of Gallipoli. He
eventually served twice as Grand
Vizier under Mehmed's son,
Bayezid II.[16]

After the Fall of Constantinople,
Mehmed would also go on to
conquer the Despotate of Morea in
the Peloponnese in 1460, and the
Empire of Trebizond in
northeastern Anatolia in 1461. The
last two vestiges of Byzantine rule
were thus absorbed by the
Ottoman Empire. The conquest of
Constantinople bestowed
immense glory and prestige on the
country. There is some historical
evidence that, 10 years after the
conquest of Constantinople,
Mehmed II visited the site of Troy
and boasted that he had avenged
the Trojans by having conquered
the Greeks (Byzantines).[17][18][19]
Conquest of Serbia (1454–1459)

Further information: List of
campaigns of Mehmed the
Conqueror
Ottoman miniature of the Siege of
Belgrade, 1456
Mehmed II's first campaigns after
Constantinople were in the
direction of Serbia, which had
been an Ottoman vassal state
since the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.
The Ottoman rulers had a
connection with the Serbian
Despotate: one of Murad II's wives
was Mara Branković, and he used
that fact to claim some Serbian
lands. That Đurađ Branković had

recently made an alliance with the
Hungarians, and had paid the
tribute irregularly, may have been
important considerations. When
Serbia refused these demands,
the Ottoman army set out from
Edirne towards Serbia in 1454.
Smederevo was besieged, as was
Novo Brdo, the most important
Serbian metal mining and smelting
center. Ottomans and Hungarians
fought during the years till 1456. In
that year, the Ottoman army
advanced toward Eastern Europe
as far as Belgrade, and attempted
but failed to conquer the city from
John Hunyadi at the Siege of
Belgrade.

Following Hunyadi's victory over
Mehmet II at the Siege of
Belgrade on 14 July 1456, a
period of relative peace began in
the region. The sultan retreated to
Edirne, and Đurađ Branković
regained possession of some
parts of Serbia. Before the end of
the year, however, the 79-year old
Branković died. Serbian
independence survived him for
only two years, when the Ottoman
Empire formally annexed his lands
following dissension among his
widow and three remaining sons.
Lazar, the youngest, poisoned his
mother and exiled his brothers, but
died soon afterwards. In the
continuing turmoil the oldest
brother Stefan Branković gained

the throne but was ousted in
March 1459. After that the Serbian
throne was offered to Stephen
Tomašević, the future king of
Bosnia, which infuriated Sultan
Mehmed. He sent his army which
captured Smederevo in June
1459, ending the existence of the
Serbian Despotate.[20]
Conquest of Morea (1458–1460)
The Despotate of the Morea was
bordering the southern Ottoman
Balkans. The Ottomans had
already invaded these areas under
Murad II, destroying the Byzantine
defences—the Hexamilion wall at
the Isthmus of Corinth in 1446.
Before the final siege of
Constantinople Mehmed ordered

Ottoman troops to attack the
Morea, the despots, Demetrios
Palaiologos and Thomas
Palaiologos, brothers of the last
emperor, failed to send any aid.
Their own incompetence resulted
in an Albanian-Greek revolt
against them, during which they
invited in Ottoman troops to help
them put down the revolt. At this
time, a number of influential
Moreote Greeks and Albanians
made private peace with
Mehmed.[21]
After more years of
incompetent rule by the despots,
their failure to pay their annual
tribute to the Sultan, and finally
their own revolt against Ottoman
rule, Mehmed came into the
Morea in May 1460. Demetrios

ended up a prisoner of the
Ottomans and his younger brother
Thomas fled. By the end of the
summer the Ottomans had
achieved the submission of
virtually all cities possessed by the
Greeks.
A few holdouts remained for a
time. The island of Monemvasia
refused to surrender and it was
first ruled for a brief time by a
Catalan corsair. When the
population drove him out they
obtained the consent of Thomas to
submit to the Pope's protection
before the end of 1460. The Mani
Peninsula, on the Morea's south
end, resisted under a loose
coalition of the local clans and

then that area came under
Venice's rule. The very last
holdout was Salmeniko, in the
Morea's northwest. Graitzas
Palaiologos was the military
commander there, stationed at
Salmeniko Castle (also known as
Castle Orgia). While the town
eventually surrendered, Graitzas
and his garrison and some town
residents held out in the castle
until July 1461, when they
escaped and reached Venetian
territory.
Conquests on the Black Sea
coast (1460–1461)
Further information: List of
campaigns of Mehmed the
Conqueror

A bas-relief of Mehmed the
Conqueror in Yevpatoria, Ukraine
Previous emperors of Trebizond
made alliances by having royal
marriages with various Muslim
rulers. So did emperor John IV by
forging alliances. He gave his
daughter to the son of his brother-
in-law, Uzun Hasan, khan of the
Ak Koyunlu, in return for his
promise to defend Trebizond. He
also secured promises of help

from the Turkish emirs of Sinope
and Karamania, and from the king
and princes of Georgia. The
Ottomans were motivated to
capture Trebizond or to get an
annual tribute. In the time of
Murad II they first attempted to
take the capital by sea in 1442,
but high surf made the landings
difficult and the attempt was
repulsed. While Mehmed II was
away laying siege to Belgrade in
1456, the Ottoman governor of
Amasya attacked Trebizond, and
although defeated, took many
prisoners and extracted a heavy
tribute.
After John's death in 1459, his
brother David came to power and

misused these alliances. David
intrigued with various European
powers for help against the
Ottomans, speaking of wild
schemes that included the
conquest of Jerusalem. Mehmed II
eventually heard of these
intrigues, and was further
provoked to action by David's
demand that Mehmed remit the
tribute imposed on his brother.
Mehmed's response came in the
summer of 1461. He led a sizable
army from Bursa from land and
the Ottoman navy from the sea,
first to Sinope, joining forces with
Ismail's brother Ahmed (the Red),
he captured Sinope and ended the
official reign of the Jandarid

dynasty, although he appointed
Ahmed as the governor of
Kastamonu and Sinope, only to
revoke Ahmed's appointment the
same year. Various other
members of the Jandarid dynasty
were offered important functions
throughout the history of the
Ottoman Empire. During the
march to Trebizond, Uzun Hasan
sent his mother Sara Khatun as an
ambassador; while they were
climbing the steep heights of
Zigana on foot, she asked sultan
Mehmed why he was undergoing
such hardship for the sake of
Trebizond. Mehmed replied:
Mother, in my hand is the sword of
Islam, without this hardship I

should not deserve the name of
ghazi, and today and tomorrow I
should have to cover my face in
shame before
Having isolated Trebizond,
Mehmed quickly swept down upon
it before the inhabitants knew he
was coming, and
siege. The city held o
month before the emperor David
surrendered on 15 August 1461.
Conquest of Wallachia (1459
1462)
This article contains wording
that promotes the subject in a
subjective manner
imparting real information
Please remove or replace such
, and today and tomorrow I
shame before Allah.[22]
Having isolated Trebizond,
was coming, and placed it under
. The city held out for a
Conquest of Wallachia (1459
promotes the subject in a
subjective manner without
imparting real information
, and today and tomorrow I
placed it under
ut for a
Conquest of Wallachia (1459–
promotes the subject in a
without
imparting real information.

wording and instead of making
proclamations about a subject's
importance, use facts and
attribution to demonstrate that
importance. (November 2014)
The Night Attack of Târgovişte,
which resulted in the victory of
Vlad (Dracula) the Impaler.
The Ottomans since the early
1400s tried to bring Wallachia
under their control by putting their
own candidate on the throne, but
each attempt ended in failure. The
Ottomans regarded Wallachia as a
buffer zone between them and the
Kingdom of Hungary and for a

yearly tribute did not meddle in
their internal affairs. Between the
two primary Balkan powers,
Hungary and the Ottoman there
was an enduring struggle to make
Wallachia their own vassal. To
prevent Wallachia from falling into
the Hungarian fold, the Ottomans
freed young Vlad III (the great
Vlad III Dracula), who had spent 4
years as a prisoner of Murad,
together with his brother Radu. As
a small boy, Vlad's brother Radu
was taken hostage from
Wallachian knyaz and was
harassed by Mehmed and his
father Murad II; they later made
him a favorite of Mehmed, so that
Vlad could claim his throne of
Wallachia back. However, this rule

was short-lived as Hunyadi himself
now invaded Wallachia and
restored his ally Vladislav II, of the
Dănești clan, to the throne.
Vlad III Dracula fled to Moldavia,
where he lived under the
protection of his uncle, Bogdan II.
In October 1451, Bogdan was
assassinated and Vlad fled to
Hungary. Impressed by Vlad's vast
knowledge of the mindset and
inner workings of the Ottoman
Empire as well as his hatred
towards the Turks and new Sultan
Mehmed II, Hunyadi reconciled
with his former rival and tried to
make Vlad III his own adviser, but
Vlad refused.

In 1456, three years after the
Ottomans had conquered
Constantinople, they threatened
Hungary by besieging Belgrade.
Hunyadi began a concerted
counter-attack in Serbia: while he
himself moved into Serbia and
relieved the siege (before dying of
the plague), Vlad III Dracul led his
own contingent into Wallachia,
reconquered his native land and
killed the imposter Vladislav II.
Portrait of Vlad (Dracula) the
Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, 1460

Later that year, in 1459, Ottoman
Sultan Mehmed II sent envoys to
Vlad to urge him to pay a delayed
tribute[23]
of 10,000 ducats and 500
recruits into the Ottoman forces.
Vlad III Dracula refused and had
the Ottoman envoys killed by
nailing their turbans to their heads,
on the pretext that they had
refused to raise their "hats" to him,
as they only removed their
headgear before Allah.
Meanwhile, the Sultan sent the
Bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha, to
make peace and, if necessary,
eliminate Vlad III.[24]
Vlad III
Dracula set an ambush; the
Ottomans were surrounded and
almost all of them caught and

impaled, with Hamza Pasha
impaled on the highest stake, as
befit his rank.[24]
In the winter of 1462, Vlad III
crossed the Danube and
devastated the entire Bulgarian
land in the area between Serbia
and the Black Sea, for letting the
Ottomans stay near the frontier of
Wallachia and thus for contributing
to the invasion of the Ottomans to
Wallachia. Disguising himself as a
Turkish Sipahi and utilizing his
fluent command of the language
and customs, he infiltrated
Ottoman camps. Vlad III
ambushed, massacred or
captured several Ottomans forces,
then announced his impalement of

over 23,000 captive Turks. In a
letter to Corvinus dated 2
February, he wrote:
I have killed peasants men and
women, old and young, who lived
at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where
the Danube flows into the sea, up
to Rahova, which is located near
Chilia, from the lower Danube up
to such places as Samovit and
Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks
without counting those whom we
burned in homes or the Turks
whose heads were cut by our
soldiers.... Thus, your highness,
you must know that I have broken
the peace with him [Mehmed
II].[25][unreliable source]

Mehmed II abandoned his siege of
Corinth to launch a punitive attack
against Vlad III in Wallachia[26]
but
suffered many casualties in a
surprise night attack led by Vlad III
Dracula, who was apparently bent
on personally killing the Sultan.[27]
When the forces of Mehmed and
Radu the Handsome came to
Tirgoviste, they saw thousands of
Turks impaled around the isolated
city. Appalled by the
sight[speculation?]
, Mehmed
considered a withdraw but was
convinced by his commanders to
stay. However, Vlad's idea of a
new crusade war against the
Ottomans was not very popular,
Vlad was betrayed by pro-Dăneşti
boyars and his best friend

Stephen The Great who had
promised to help him in his
crusade, but instead attacked him
from the other side trying to
conquer Chilia back. Vlad III had
to retreat to the mountains. After
this, the Ottomans captured the
Wallachian capital Târgoviște and
Mehmed II withdrew, having left
Radu as ruler of Wallachia.
Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey who
served with distinction and wiped
out a force 6,000 Wallachians and
deposited 2,000 of their heads at
the feet of Mehmed II, was also
reinstated, as a reward, in his old
gubernatorial post in Thessaly.[28]
Vlad eventually escaped to
Hungary, where he was

imprisoned on a false accusation
of treason against his overlord.
Conquest of Bosnia (1463)
Mehmed II's ahidnâme to the
Catholic monks of the recently
conquered Bosnia issued in 1463,

granting them full religious
freedom and protection.
The despot of Serbia Lazar
Branković died in 1458 after which
a civil war broke out among his
heirs that resulted in the Ottoman
conquest of Serbia in 1459.
Stephen Tomašević, son of the
king of Bosnia, tried to bring
Serbia under his control but
Ottoman expeditions forced him to
give up his plan and Stephen fled
to Bosnia, seeking refuge at the
court of his father.[29]
After some
battles Bosnia became tributary to
the Ottomans.
On 10 July 1461, Stephen
Thomas died. Stephen Tomašević
succeeded him as King of Bosnia.

In 1461, Stephen Tomašević
made an alliance with the
Hungarians and asked Pope Pius
II for help in the face of an
impending Ottoman invasion. In
1463, after a dispute over the
tribute paid annually by the
Bosnian Kingdom to the
Ottomans, he sent for help from
the Venetians. However, none
ever reached Bosnia. In 1463,
Sultan Mehmed II led an army into
the country. The royal city of
Bobovac soon fell, leaving
Stephen Tomašević to retreat to
Jajce and later to Ključ. Mehmed
invaded Bosnia and conquered it
very quickly, executing the last
Bosnian king Stephen Tomašević
and his uncle Radivoj. Bosnia

officially fell in 1463 and became
the westernmost province of the
Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Venetian War (1463–
1479)
Main article: Ottoman–Venetian
War (1463–79)
According to the Byzantine
historian Michael Critobulus,
hostilities broke out because of the
flight of an Albanian slave of the
Ottoman commander of Athens to
the Venetian fortress of Coron
(Koroni) with 100,000 silver aspers
from his master's treasure. The
fugitive then converted to
Christianity, and demands for his
rendition by the Ottomans were

therefore refused by the Venetian
authorities.[30]
Using this as a
pretext, in November 1462,
Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, the
Ottoman commander in central
Greece, attacked and nearly
succeeded in taking the
strategically important Venetian
fortress of Lepanto (Nafpaktos).
On 3 April 1463 however, the
governor of the Morea, Isa Beg,
took the Venetian-held town of
Argos by treason.[30]
The new alliance launched a two-
pronged offensive against the
Ottomans: a Venetian army, under
the Captain General of the Sea
Alvise Loredan, landed in the
Morea, while Matthias Corvinus

invaded Bosnia.[31]
At the same
time, Pius II began assembling an
army at Ancona, hoping to lead it
in person.[32]
Negotiations were
also began with other rivals of the
Ottomans, such as Karamanids,
Uzun Hassan and the Crimean
Khanate.[32]
In early August, the Venetians
retook Argos and refortified the
Isthmus of Corinth, restoring the
Hexamilion wall and equipping it
with many cannons.[33]
They then
proceeded to besiege the fortress
of the Acrocorinth, which
controlled the northwestern
Peloponnese. The Venetians
engaged in repeated clashes with
the defenders and with Ömer

Bey's forces, until they suffered a
major defeat on 20 October and
were then forced to lift the siege
and retreat to the Hexamilion and
to Nauplia (Nafplion).[33]
In Bosnia,
Matthias Corvinus seized over
sixty fortified places and
succeeded in taking its capital,
Jajce after a 3-month siege, on 16
December.[34]
Ottoman reaction was swift and
decisive: Mehmed II dispatched
his Grand Vizier, Mahmud Pasha
Angelović, with an army against
the Venetians. To confront the
Venetian fleet, which had taken
station outside the entrance of the
Dardanelles Straits, the Sultan
further ordered the creation of the

new shipyard of Kadirga Limani in
the Golden Horn (named after the
"kadirga" type of galley), and of
two forts to guard the Straits,
Kilidulbahr and Sultaniye.[35]
The
Morean campaign was swiftly
victorious for the Ottomans; they
razed the Hexamilion, and
advanced into the Morea. Argos
fell, and several forts and localities
that had recognized Venetian
authority reverted to their Ottoman
allegiance.
Sultan Mehmed II, who was
following Mahmud Pasha with
another army to reinforce him, had
reached Zeitounion (Lamia) before
being apprised of his Vizier's
success. Immediately, he turned

his men north, towards Bosnia.[35]
However, the Sultan's attempt to
retake Jajce in July and August
1464 failed, with the Ottomans
retreating hastily in the face of
Corvinus' approaching army. A
new Ottoman army under
Mahmud Pasha then forced
Corvinus to withdraw, but Jajce
was not retaken for many years
after.[34]
However, the death of
Pope Pius II on 15 August in
Ancona spelled the end of the
Crusade.[32][36]
In the meantime, for the upcoming
campaign of 1464, the Republic
had appointed Sigismondo
Malatesta, he launched attacks
against Ottoman forts, and

engaged in a failed siege of Mistra
in August–October. Small-scale
warfare continued on both sides,
with raids and counter-raids, but a
shortage of manpower and money
meant that the Venetians
remained largely confined to their
fortified bases, while Ömer Bey's
army roamed the countryside.
In the Aegean, the new Venetians,
tried to take Lesbos in the spring
of 1464, and besieged the capital
Mytilene for six weeks, until the
arrival of an Ottoman fleet under
Mahmud Pasha on 18 May forced
them to withdraw.[37]
Another
attempt to capture the island
shortly after also failed. The
Venetian navy spent the

remainder of the year in ultimately
fruitless demonstrations of force
before the Dardanelles.[37]
In early
1465, Mehmed II sent peace
feelers to the Venetian Senate in
1465. Distrusting the Sultan's
motives, these were rejected.[38]
In April 1466, Vettore Cappello the
Venetian war effort was
reinvigorated: the fleet took the
northern Aegean islands of
Imbros, Thasos and Samothrace,
and then sailed into the Saronic
Gulf.[39]
On 12 July, Cappello
landed at Piraeus, and marched
against Athens, the Ottomans'
major regional base. He failed to
take the Acropolis and was forced
to retreat to Patras. Patras, being

the capital of Peloponnese and the
seat of the Ottoman Bey, was
being besieged by the joint forces
of Venetians and Greeks.[40]
Before Cappello could arrive
there, and as the city seemed on
the verge of falling, Ömer Bey
suddenly appeared with 12,000
cavalry, and drove the
outnumbered besiegers off. Six
hundred Venetians and a hundred
were taken prisoner out of a force
of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself
was killed.[41]
Cappello, who
arrived some days later, attacked
the Ottomans, but was heavily
defeated. Demoralized, he
returned to Negroponte with the
remains of his army. There
Cappello fell ill and died on 13

March 1467.[42]
In 1470 Mehmed
personally led an Ottoman army to
besiege Negropont, the Venetian
navy was defeated and Negropont
captured.
Scene depicts the fifth and
greatest assault upon the Shkodra
Castle by Ottoman forces in the
Siege of Shkodra, 1478–9
In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed
marched with a large army against
the Albanians. Under their leader,
Skenderbeg, they had long
resisted the Ottomans, and had
repeatedly sought assistance from

Italy.[31]
Mehmed II responded by
marching again against Albania
but was unsuccessful. The winter
brought an outbreak of plague,
which would recur annually and
sap the strength of the local
resistance.[39]
Skanderbeg himself
died of malaria in the Venetian
stronghold of Lissus (Lezhë),
ending the ability of Venice to use
the Albanian lords for its own
advantage.[43]
After Skanderbeg
died, some Venetian-controlled
northern Albanian garrisons
continued to hold territories
coveted by the Ottomans, such as
Žabljak Crnojevića, Drisht, Lezha,
and Shkodra—the most
significant. Mehmed II sent his
armies to take Shkodra in 1474[44]

but failed. Then he went
personally to lead the siege of
Shkodra of 1478-79. The
Venetians and Shkodrans resisted
the assaults and continued to hold
the fortress until Venice ceded
Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in
the Treaty of Constantinople as a
condition of ending the war.
The agreement was established
as a result of the Ottomans having
reached the outskirts of Venice.
Based on the terms of the treaty,
the Venetians were allowed to
keep Ulcinj, Antivan, and Durrës.
However, they ceded Shkodra
(which had been under Ottoman
siege for many months), as well as
other territories on the Dalmatian

coastline, as well as relinquished
control of the Greek islands of
Negroponte (Euboea) and
Lemnos. Moreover, the Venetians
were forced to pay 100,000 ducat
indemnity[45]
and agreed to a
tribute of around 10,000 ducats
per year in order to acquire trading
privileges in the Black Sea. As a
result of this treaty, Venice
acquired a weakened position in
the Levant.[46]
Conquest of Karaman and
conflict with the Akkoyunlu
(1464–1473)
During the post-Seljuks era in the
second half of the middle ages,
numerous Turkmen principalities
which are collectively known as

Anatolian beyliks emerged in
Anatolia. Initially Karamanids
centered around the modern
provinces of Karaman and Konya,
was the most important power in
Anatolia. But towards the end of
the 1300s, Ottomans began to
dominate on most of Anatolia,
reducing the Karaman influence
and prestige.
İbrahim II of Karaman was the
ruler of Karaman, during his last
years, his sons began struggling
for the throne. His heir apparent
was İshak of Karaman, the
governor of Silifke. But Pir Ahmet,
a younger son, declared himself
as the bey of Karaman in Konya.
İbrahim escaped to a small city in

western territories where he died
in 1464.
İshak of Karaman was at the time
of his father's death a local
governor in Silifke. When he tried
to march to his capital Konya, he
learned that his younger brother
Pir Ahmet had also put a claim on
the throne. This resulted in an
interregnum in the beylik.
Nevertheless, with the help of
Uzun Hasan, the sultan of the
Akkoyunlu (White Sheep)
Turkmens, he was able to ascend
to the throne. However his reign
was short. Because Pir Ahmet
appealed to Ottoman sultan
Mehmet II for help. He offered
Mehmet some territory which

İshak refused to cede. With
Ottoman help, Pir Ahmet defeated
İshak in the battle of Dağpazarı.
İshak had to be content with Silifke
up to an unknown date.[47]
He kept
his promise and ceded a part of
the beylik to Ottomans. But he
was uneasy about the loss. So
during the Ottoman campaign in
the West, he recaptured his former
territory. However, Mehmet
returned and captured both
Karaman (Larende) and Konya,
two major cities of the beylik, in
1466. Pir Ahmet berely escaped to
the East. A few years later,
Ottoman vizier (later grand vizier)
Gedik Ahmet Pasha captured the
coastal region of the beylik.[48]

Battle of Otlukbeli is considered
one of the largest battle of the
15th century in terms of tactics,
technology and manpower by
many historians, 1473
Pir Ahmet as well as his brother
Kasım escaped to Uzun Hasan's
territory. This gave Uzun Hasan a
chance to interfere. In 1472, the
Akkoyunlu army invaded and
raided most of Anatolia. (This was
the reason behind the Battle of
Otlukbeli in 1473.) But then
Mehmed led a successful
campaign against Uzun Hasan in
1473 which resulted with the

decisive victory of the Ottoman
Empire in the Battle of Otlukbeli.
Before that, Pir Ahmet with
Akkoyunlu help had captured
Karaman. However Pir Ahmet
couldn't enjoy another term.
Because immediately after the
capture of Karaman, the
Akkoyunlu army was defeated by
the Ottomans near Beyşehir and
Pir Ahmet had to escape once
more. Although he tried to
continue his struggle, he learned
that his family members had been
transferred to İstanbul by Gedik
Ahmet Pasha, so he finally gave
up. Demoralized, he escaped to
Akkoyunlu territory where he was
given a tımar (fief) in Bayburt. He
died in 1474.[49]

Uniting the Anatolian beyliks was
first accomplished by Sultan
Bayezid I, more than fifty years
earlier than Mehmed II but after
the destructive Battle of Ankara
back in 1402, the newly formed
Anatolian unification was gone.
Mehmed II recovered the Ottoman
power on other Turkish states.
These conquests allowed him to
push further into Europe.
Another important political entity
which shaped the Eastern policy
of Mehmed II were the White
Sheep Turcomans. Under the
leadership of Uzun Hasan, this
kingdom gained power in the East;
but because of their strong
relations with the Christian powers

like the Empire of Trebizond and
the Republic of Venice and the
alliance between the Turcomans
and the Karamanid tribe, Mehmed
saw them as a threat to his own
power.
War with Moldavia (1475–1476)
Sultan Mehmed II smelling a rose,
from the Sarayı Albums, c. 1480
CE

In 1456, Peter III Aaron, agreed to
pay the Ottomans an annual
tribute of 2,000 gold ducats, in
order to ensure his southern
borders, thus becoming the first of
the Moldavian rulers to accept the
Turkish demands.[50]
His
successor Stephen the Great
rejected Ottoman suzerainty and a
series of fierce wars ensued.[51]
Stephen tried to bring Wallachia
under his sphere of influence and
so supported his own choice for
the Wallachian throne. This
resulted in an enduring struggle
between different Wallachian
rulers backed by Hungarians,
Ottomans and Stephen. An
Ottoman army under Hadim
Pasha was sent in 1475 to punish

Stephen for his meddling in
Wallachia however, the Ottomans
suffered a great defeat at the
Battle of Vaslui. After the disaster
of the Battle of Vaslui, the Sultan
Mehmed II assembled a large
army and entered Moldavia in
June 1476. Meanwhile groups of
Tartars from the Crimean Khanate
(the Ottomans' recent ally) were
sent to attack Moldavia. Romanian
sources may state that they were
repelled,.[52]
Other sources state
that joint Ottoman and Crimean
Tartar forces "occupied
Bessarabia and took Akkerman,
gaining control of southern mouth
of Danube. Stephan tried to avoid
open battle with the Ottomans by

following a scorched-earth
policy".[53]
Finally Stephen faced the
Ottomans in battle it began with
the Moldavians luring the main
Ottoman forces into a forest that
was set on fire, causing some
casualties to the attacking
Ottoman army in the forest.
According to another battle
description, the defending
Moldavian forces repelled several
Ottoman attacks with steady fire
from hand-guns.[54]
The attacking
Turkish Janissaries were forced to
crouch on their stomachs instead
of charging headlong into the
defenders positions. Seeing the
imminent defeat of his forces,

Mehmed charged with his
personal guard against the
Moldavians, managing to rally the
Janissaries, and turning the tide of
the battle. Turkish Janissaries
penetrated inside the forest and
engaged the defenders in man-to-
man fighting.
The Moldavian army was utterly
defeated (casualties were very
high on both sides), and the
chronicles say that the entire
battlefield was covered with the
bones of the dead, a probable
source for the toponym (Valea
Albă is Romanian and Akdere
Turkish for "The White Valley").
Ștefan cel Mare retreated into the
north-western part of Moldavia or

even into the Polish Kingdom[55]
and began forming another army.
The Ottomans were unable to
conquer any of the major
Moldavian strongholds (Suceava,
Neamț, Hotin)[52]
and were
constantly harassed by small
scale Moldavians attacks. Soon
they were also confronted with
starvation, a situation made worse
by an outbreak of the plague and
the Ottoman army returned to
Ottoman lands. However the
threat of Stephen to Wallachia
ceased.
Conquest of Albania (1466–
1478)

Portrait of George Kastrioti
Skanderbeg, prince of League of
Lezhë.
The Albanian resistance led by
George Kastrioti Skanderbeg
(İskender Bey), an Albanian noble
and a former member of the
Ottoman ruling elite, curbed the
Ottoman expansion deeper into
Europe between 1443 and 1468.
Skanderbeg had united the
Albanian Principalities in a fight
against the Empire in the League
of Lezhë in 1444. Mehmed II
couldn't subjugate Albania and

Skanderbeg while the latter was
alive, even though twice (1466
and 1467) he led the Ottoman
armies himself against Krujë. After
the death of Skanderbeg in 1468,
Albanians couldn't find a leader to
replace him and Mehmed II
eventually conquered Krujë and
Albania in 1478.
In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed
marched with a large army against
the Albanians. Under their leader,
Skenderbeg, they had long
resisted the Ottomans, and had
repeatedly sought assistance from
Italy.[31]
For the Albanians, the
outbreak of the Ottoman–Venetian
War offered a golden opportunity
to reassert their independence; for

the Venetians, they provided a
useful cover to the Venetian
coastal holdings of Durazzo and
Scutari. The major result of this
campaign was the construction of
the fortress of Elbasan, allegedly
within just 25 days. This
strategically sited fortress, at the
lowlands near the end of the old
Via Egnatia, cut Albania effectively
in half, isolating Skenderbeg's
base in the northern highlands
from the Venetian holdings in the
south.[43]
However, following the
Sultan's withdrawal Skanderbeg
himself spent the winter in Italy,
seeking aid. On his return in early
1467, his forces sallied from the
highlands, defeated Ballaban
Pasha and lifted the siege of the

fortress of Croia (Krujë) attacked
Elbasan but failed to capture
it.[56][57]
Mehmed II responded by
marching again against Albania.
He energetically pursued the
attacks against the Albanian
strongholds, while sending
detachments to raid the Venetian
possessions to keep them
isolated.[56]
The Ottomans failing
again to take Croia, and they
failed to subjugate the country.
However, the winter brought an
outbreak of plague, which would
recur annually and sap the
strength of the local resistance.[39]
Skanderbeg himself died of
malaria in the Venetian stronghold
of Lissus (Lezhë), ending the
ability of Venice to use the

Albanian lords for its own
advantage.[43]
The Albanians were
left to their own devices, and were
gradually subdued over the next
decade.
After Skanderbeg died, the final
act of his Albanian campaigns was
the troublesome siege of Shkodra
in 1478-9, the final siege that
Mehmed II led personally and of
which early Ottoman chronicler
Aşıkpaşazade (1400–81) wrote,
"All the conquests of Sultan
Mehmed were fulfilled with the
seizure of Shkodra."[58]
Some
Venetian-controlled northern
Albanian garrisons continued to
hold territories coveted by the
Ottomans, such as Žabljak

Crnojevića, Drisht, Lezha, and
Shkodra—the most significant.
Mehmed II sent his armies to take
Shkodra in 1474[44]
but failed.
Then he went personally to lead
the siege of Shkodra of 1478-79.
The Venetians and Shkodrans
resisted the assaults and
continued to hold the fortress until
Venice ceded Shkodra to the
Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of
Constantinople as a condition of
ending the war.
Conquest of Genoese Crimea
and alliance with Crimean
Khanate (1475)
Main article: Crimean Khanate

A number of Turkic peoples, now
collectively known as the Crimean
Tatars, have been inhabiting the
peninsula since the early Middle
Ages. After the destruction of the
Golden Horde by Timur earlier in
the 15th century, the Crimean
Tatars founded an independent
Crimean Khanate under Hacı I
Giray, a descendant of Genghis
Khan.
The Crimean Tatars controlled the
steppes that stretched from the
Kuban and to the Dniester River,
however, they were unable to take
control over the commercial
Genoese towns called Gazaria
(Genoese colonies). Who were
under Genoese control since

1357. After the conquest of
Constantinople, the Genoese
communications were disrupted
and when the Crimean Tatars
asked for help from the Ottomans,
an Ottoman invasion of the
Genoese towns led by Gedik
Ahmed Pasha in 1475 brought
Kaffa and the other trading towns
under their control.[59]:78
After the
capture of Genoese towns, the
Ottoman Sultan held Meñli I Giray
captive,[60]
later releasing him in
return for accepting Ottoman
suzerainty over the Crimean
Khans and allowing them rule as
tributary princes of the Ottoman
Empire.[59]:78[61]
However, the
Crimean Khans still had a large
amount of autonomy from the

Ottoman Empire while the
Ottomans directly controlled the
southern coast.
Expedition to Italy (1480)
Main article: Ottoman invasion of
Otranto
A bronze medal of Mehmed the
Conqueror by Bertoldo di
Giovanni, 1480
An Ottoman army under Gedik
Ahmed Pasha invaded Italy in
1480. The Ottoman army captured
Otranto in 1480, Because of lack
of food, Gedik Ahmed Pasha

returned with most of his troops to
Albania, leaving a garrison of 800
infantry and 500 cavalry behind to
defend Otranto. It was assumed
he would return after the winter.
Since it was only 28 years after
the fall of Constantinople, there
was some fear that Rome would
suffer the same fate. Plans were
made for the Pope and citizens of
Rome to evacuate the city. Pope
Sixtus IV repeated his 1471 call
for a crusade. Several Italian city-
states, Hungary and France
responded positively to this. The
Republic of Venice did not, as it
had signed an expensive peace
treaty with the Ottomans in 1479.

In 1481 an army was raised by
king Ferdinand I of Naples to be
led by his son Alphonso II of
Naples. A contingent of troops
was provided by king Matthias
Corvinus of Hungary. The city was
besieged starting 1 May 1481.
After the death of Mehmed on 3
May, ensuing quarrels about his
succession possibly prevented the
sending of Ottoman
reinforcements to Otranto. So in
the end the Turkish occupation of
Otranto ended by negotiation with
the Christian forces, permitting the
Turks to withdraw to Albania, and
Otranto was retaken by Papal
forces in 1481

Repopulation of Constantinople
(1453–1478)
Further information: History of
Istanbul
Historical photo of Fatih Mosque.
It was built by order of Sultan
Mehmed II in Constantinople, as
the first imperial mosque built in
the city after the Ottoman
conquest.
After conquering Constantinople,
when Mehmed II finally entered
the city through what is now
known as the Topkapi Gate, he
immediately rode his horse to the

Hagia Sophia, which he ordered to
be protected. He ordered that an
imam meet him there in order to
chant the Muslim Creed: "I testify
that there is no god but God. I
testify that Muhammad is the
Prophet of Allah."[62]
The Orthodox
cathedral was transformed into a
Muslim mosque through a
charitable trust, solidifying Islamic
rule in Constantinople.
Mehmed’s main concern with
Constantinople had to do with
rebuilding the city’s defenses and
repopulation. Building projects
were commenced immediately
after the conquest, which included
the repair of the walls,
construction of the citadel, and

building a new palace.[63]
To
encourage the return of the
Greeks and the Genoese who had
fled from Galata, the trading
quarter of the city, he returned
their houses and provided them
with guarantees of safety.
Mehmed issued orders across his
empire that Muslims, Christians,
and Jews should resettle in the
City; he demanded that five
thousand households needed to
be transferred to Constantinople
by September.[63]
From all over the
Islamic empire, prisoners of war
and deported people were sent to
the city; these people were called
"Sürgün" in Turkish (Greek:
σουργούνιδες).[64]

He restored the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate (6 January 1454) and
established a Jewish grand rabbi
and an Armenian patriarch in the
city. In addition, he founded, and
encouraged his viziers to found a
number of Muslim institutions and
commercial installations in the
main districts of Constantinople.
Such as the Rum Mehmed Pasha
Mosque built by the Grand Vizier
Rum Mehmed Pasha. From these
nuclei, the metropolis developed
rapidly.
Hagia Sophia was converted into
a mosque by Sultan Mehmet II,

after the conquest of Istanbul,
1453
According to a survey carried out
in 1478, there were then in
Constantinople and neighbouring
Galata 16,324 households and
3,927 shops, an estimated
population of 80,000.[65]
About
60% Muslim, 20% Christian and
10% Jewish.[66]
Mehmed's ambitious rebuilding
program changed the city by the
end of his reign into a thriving
imperial capital.[9]
According to the
contemporary Ottoman historian
Neşri "Sultan Mehmed created all
of Istanbul".[9]

Fifty years later, Constantinople
had become the largest city in
Europe.
Two centuries later, Ottoman
traveler Evliya Çelebi gave a list of
groups introduced into the city with
their respective origins. Even
today, many quarters of Istanbul,
such as Aksaray, Çarşamba, bear
the names of the places of origin
of their inhabitants.[64]
However,
many people escaped again from
the city, and there were several
outbreaks of plague, so that in
1459 Mehmet allowed the
deported Greeks to come back to
the city.[64]
This measure
apparently had no great success,
since French voyager Pierre Gilles

writes in the middle of the 1500s
that the Greek population of
Constantinople was unable to
name any of the ancient Byzantine
churches which had been
transformed in mosques or been
abandoned. This shows that the
population substitution had been
total.[67]
Administration and culture
Main article: Millet (Ottoman
Empire)

Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror
with patriarch Gennadius II
depicted on a 20th-century mosaic
Mehmed II introduced the word
Politics into Arabic "Siyasah" from
a book he published and claimed
to be the collection of Politics
doctrines of the Byzantine
Caesars before him. He gathered
Italian artists, humanists and
Greek scholars at his court,
allowed the Byzantine Church to
continue functioning, ordered the
patriarch Gennadius to translate
Christian doctrine into Turkish,
and called Gentile Bellini from
Venice to paint his portrait. He
collected in his palace a library
which included works in Greek

and Latin. Mehmed invited Muslim
scientists such as Ali Qushji and
artists to his court in
Constantinople, started a
University, built mosques (for
example, the Fatih Mosque),
waterways, and Istanbul's Topkapı
Palace and the Tiled Kiosk.
Around the grand mosque that he
constructed, he erected eight
madrasas, which, for nearly a
century, kept their rank as the
highest teaching institutions of the
Islamic sciences in the empire.
Mehmed II allowed his subjects a
considerable degree of religious
freedom, provided they were
obedient to his rule. After his
conquest of Bosnia in 1463 he

issued a firman to the Bosnian
Franciscans, granting them
freedom to move freely within the
Empire, offer worship in their
churches and monasteries, and to
practice their religion free from
official and unofficial persecution,
insult or disturbance.[68][69]
His
standing army was recruited from
the Devshirme, a group that took
first-born Christian subjects at a
young age and destined them for
the sultan's court. The less able,
but physically strong, were instead
put into the army or the sultan's
personal guard, the Janissaries.
Within Constantinople, Mehmed
established a millet or an
autonomous religious community,

and appointed the former
Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius as
religious leader for the Orthodox
Christians[70]
of the city. His
authority extended to all Ottoman
Orthodox Christians, and this
excluded the Genoese and
Venetian settlements in the
suburbs, and excluded Muslim
and Jewish settlers entirely. This
method allowed for an indirect rule
of the Christian Byzantines and
allowed the occupants to feel
relatively autonomous even as
Mehmed II began the Turkish
remodeling of the city, turning it
into the Turkish capital, which it
remained until the 1920s.
Family life

Mehmed II had four wives:
1. Emine Gülbahar Hatun (m.
1446), daughter of an Albanian
Bey;[71][72]
2. Gülşah Hatun (m. 1451),
daughter of İbrahim II of
Karaman;
3. Sittişah Hatun (m. 1449),
daughter of Süleyman Bey, the
sixth ruler of Dulkadir State;[73]
4. Çiçek Hatun (m. 1458),
daughter of an Anatolian Bey of
Turkoman origin.
He had 3 sons; Bayezid II, Sultan
Cem, and Mustafa, and one
daughter; Gevherhan.
Personality

On his accession as conqueror of
Constantinople, aged 21, Mehmed
was reputed fluent in several
languages, including Turkish,
Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Greek
and Latin.[15][74]
At times, he assembled the
Ulama, or learned Muslim
teachers, and caused them to
discuss theological problems in his
presence. In his reign,
mathematics, astronomy, and
Muslim theology reached their
highest level among the
Ottomans. Mehmed himself was a
poet writing under the name "Avni"
(the helper, the helpful one) and
he left a divan (a collection of

poems in the traditional style of
classical Ottoman literature).
Death
The tomb of Mehmed II (d.1481) in
Fatih, Istanbul
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge over
the Bosporus Straits in Istanbul
was built in the 20th century
In 1481 Mehmed marched with the
Ottoman army to a new campaign
but when reaching Maltepe,

Istanbul, the place was later called
Hünkar Çayırı (Field of the Sultan)
he became sick and after some
days he died on 3 May 1481, at
the age of forty-nine, and was
buried in his türbe in the cemetery
within the Fatih Mosque
Complex[75]
The cause of his death
is believed to be poisoning, but on
whose behalf it was is disputed.
Mehmed's primary doctor, Yakub
Pasha, a Jewish convert to Islam,
was suspected of administering
poison to Mehmed over a period
of time. Yakub Pasha was killed a
short time later during the revolt of
the Janissaries. Another source
states that: "The likeliest possibility
is that Mehmed was also poisoned
by his Persian doctor. Despite

numerous Venetian assassination
attempts over the years, the finger
of suspicion points most strongly
at his son, Bayezit."[76]
The news
of Mehmed's death caused great
rejoicing in Europe, church bells
were rung and celebrations held,
the news was proclaimed in
Venice as: "La Grande Aquila é
morta!" ('The Great Eagle is
dead!')[77][78]
Legacy
After the fall of Constantinople, he
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, long before

Suleiman the Magnificent; he thus
established the classical image of
the autocratic Ottoman sultan.
His thirty-one year rule and
several wars expanded the
Ottoman Empire to include
Constantinople, and the Turkish
kingdoms and territories of Asia
Minor, Bosnia, Kingdom of Serbia,
and Albania. Mehmed left behind
an imposing reputation in both the
Islamic and Christian worlds.
According to the 20th Century
historian, Franz Babinger,
Mehmed was regarded as a
bloodthirsty tyrant by the Christian
world and by a part of his
subjects.[79]
Mehmed is the
eponymous subject of Rossini's

1820 opera Maometto II. Istanbul's
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge
(completed 1988), which crosses
the Bosporus Straits, is named
after him; and his name and
picture appeared on the Turkish
1000 lira note from 1986 to
1992.[80][81]
Portrayals
• Sultan Mehmed II Fetih was
portrayed by Sami Ayanoğlu (tr)
in Turkish film İstanbul'un
Fethi (tr) (1951).
• Devrim Evin plays Mehmed II in
Turkish film Fetih 1453 (2012).
His childhood is portrayed by
Ege Uslu.

• Mehmet Akif Alakurt plays
Mehmed II in Turkish serie
Fatih (2013) .
• Dominic Cooper portrays
Mehmed II in the action horror
film Dracula Untold.
See also
Military history of the Ottoman
Empire portal
General
Sultan, Byzantine Empire,
Ottoman Empire. The
Ottomans: Europe's Muslim
Emperors
Events
Expansion of the Ottoman
Empire, Decline of the

Byzantine Empire, Fall of
Constantinople, Battle of Varna
Locations
Turkey, Fatih Sultan Mehmet
Bridge
Other
Cem (His younger son)
Further reading
• Babinger, Franz, Mehmed the
Conqueror and his Time.
Princeton NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-
691-01078-1
• İnalcık; Halil, Review of
Mehmed the Conqueror and his
Time
• Dwight, Harrison Griswold,
Constantinople, Old and New.

New York: C. Scribner's Sons,
1915
• Hamlin, Cyrus, Among the
Turks. New York: R. Carter &
Bros, 1878
• Harris, Jonathan, The End of
Byzantium. New Haven CT and
London: Yale University Press,
2010. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
• Imber, Colin, The Ottoman
Empire. London:
Palgrave/Macmillan, 2002.
ISBN 0-333-61387-2
• Philippides, Marios, Emperors,
Patriarchs, and Sultans of
Constantinople, 1373-1513: An
Anonymous Greek Chronicle of
the Sixteenth Century.
Brookline MA: Hellenic College

Press, 1990. ISBN 0-917653-
16-5
• Nehme, Lina Murr, 1453,
Mahomet II impose le Schisme
Orthodoxe. Lebanon, Aleph &
Taw, 2003. ISBN 2-86839-816-
2.
References
General information
• Lord Kinross (1977). The
Ottoman Centuries: The Rise
And Fall Of The Turkish
Empire. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-
688-08093-6.
• Murr Nehme, Lina (2003).
1453, Fall of Constantinople:
Muhammad II imposes the

Orthodox Schism. Aleph Et
Taw. ISBN 2-86839-816-2.
• Silburn, P. A. B. (1912). The
evolution of sea-power.
London: Longmans, Green and
Co.
• Dyer, T. H., & Hassall, A.
(1901). A history of modern
Europe From the fall of
Constantinople. London: G. Bell
and Sons.
• Fredet, Peter (1888). Modern
History; From the Coming of
Christ and Change of the
Roman Republic into an
Empire, to the Year of Our Lord
1888. Baltimore: J. Murphy &
Co. Page 383+
Footnotes

1.
 "Dates of Epoch-Making
Events", The Nuttall
Encyclopaedia. (Gutenberg
version)
  Related to the Mahomet
archaisms used for Mohammad.
See Medieval Christian view of
Muhammad for more information.
  İslam ve Osmanlı Hukuku
Külliyatı-1: Kamu Hukûku Yazar:
Ahmet Akgündüz (in Turkish)
   ‫اﻟدوﻟﺔ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻣﺎء‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻧﻌﻣﺎﻧﯾﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﺷﻘﺎﺋﻖ‬
‫ﺻﻔﺣﺔ‬ ،‫اﻟﻌﺛﻣﺎﻧﯾﺔ‬52‫اﻟدوﻟﺔ‬ ‫ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ‬ ‫ﻋن‬ ً‫ﻼ‬‫ﻧﻘ‬
‫ﺻﻔﺣﺔ‬ ،‫اﻟﻌﺛﻣﺎﻧﯾﺔ‬43
  ‫د‬ ،‫اﻟﻌﺻور‬ ‫ﻋﺑر‬ ‫اﻹﺳﻼﻣﯾﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﻔﺗوح‬.‫ﻋﺑد‬
‫ﺻﻔﺣﺔ‬ ،‫اﻟﻌﻣري‬ ‫اﻟﻌزﯾز‬358-359
  ‫ّﺔ‬‫ﯾ‬‫اﻟﻌﻠ‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﺔ‬ ‫ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ‬‫ﺗﺄﻟﯾف‬ ،‫اﻟﻌﺛﻣﺎﻧﯾﺔ‬:
‫ﺗﺣﻘﯾﻖ‬ ،‫اﻟﻣﺣﺎﻣﻲ‬ ‫ﺑك‬ ‫ﻓرﯾد‬ ‫ﷴ‬ ‫:اﻷﺳﺗﺎذ‬ ‫اﻟدﻛﺗور‬

‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷرة‬ ‫اﻟطﺑﻌﺔ‬ ،‫اﻟﻧﻔﺎﺋس‬ ‫دار‬ ،‫ﺣﻘﻲ‬ ‫إﺣﺳﺎن‬:
1427‫ھـ‬-2006‫ﺻﻔﺣﺔ‬ ،‫م‬ : 157 ISBN
9953-18-084-9
  Silburn, P. A. B. (1912).
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/
b03l2shc
  The Sultan of Vezirs: The
Life and Times of the Ottoman
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  The Routledge Companion
to Medieval Warfare, Jim
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  The Sultan of Vezirs:,
Théoharis Stavrides, page 22
  East and West in the
Crusader States: Krijna Nelly
Ciggaar, Adelbert Davids, Herman
G. B. Teule, page 51
  The Lord of the Panther-
Skin, Shota Rustaveli, page xiii
  Norwich, John Julius (1995).
Byzantium:The Decline and Fall.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-679-41650-1.
  Lowry, Heath W. (2003).
The Nature of the Early Ottoman
State. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
p. 115-116.
  Michael Wood (1985). In
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University of California Press.

pp. 38–. ISBN 978-0-520-21599-3.
Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  Kader Konuk (21 September
2010). East West Mimesis:
Auerbach in Turkey. Stanford
University Press. pp. 78–.
ISBN 978-0-8047-7575-5.
  John Freely (1 October
2009). The Grand Turk: Sultan
Mehmet II - Conqueror of
Constantinople and Master of an
Empire. Overlook. pp. 95–.
ISBN 978-1-59020-449-8.
  Miller, William (1896). The
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Servia, and Montenegro. London:
G.P. Putnam's Sons. Retrieved
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  "Vlad the Impaler second
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  Adrian Axinte. "Dracula:
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Student paper for Romanian
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  Mehmed the Conqueror and
his time pp. 204-5
  Dracula: Prince of many
faces - His life and his times p.
147
  Babinger 1992, p. 207
  J. V. A. Fine, The Late
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  Setton 1978, p. 241
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  Shaw 1976, p. 65
  Setton 1978, p. 248
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(1969), p. 326
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  Setton 1978, p. 273
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  Prof. Yaşar Yüce-Prof. Ali
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  Müller-Wiener 1977, p. 28
  The Ottomans and the
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  A History of Islamic
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  Wedding portrait,
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  1453: The Holy War for
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Islam and the West, Roger
Crowley, 2005
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  Minorities and the
destruction of the Ottoman
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WC Hickman, translated from the
original German by R Manheim),
Princeton University Press, 1992,
p. 432.
  ‫ﺗﺄﻟﯾف‬ ،‫اﻟﻌﺛﻣﺎﻧﯾﺔ‬ ‫ّﺔ‬‫ﯾ‬‫اﻟﻌﻠ‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﺔ‬ ‫ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ‬:
‫ﺗﺣﻘﯾﻖ‬ ،‫اﻟﻣﺣﺎﻣﻲ‬ ‫ﺑك‬ ‫ﻓرﯾد‬ ‫ﷴ‬ ‫:اﻷﺳﺗﺎذ‬ ‫اﻟدﻛﺗور‬
‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷرة‬ ‫اﻟطﺑﻌﺔ‬ ،‫اﻟﻧﻔﺎﺋس‬ ‫دار‬ ،‫ﺣﻘﻲ‬ ‫إﺣﺳﺎن‬:
1427‫ھـ‬-2006‫ﺻﻔﺣﺔ‬ ،‫م‬ : 177-178
ISBN 9953-18-084-9

81.  Central Bank of the
Republic of Turkey
Museum: 7. Emission Group
One Thousand Turkish Lira
Series &
on 20 April 2009.
External links
Wikisource
1905 New International
Encyclopedia
Mohammed II
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• Contemporary portraits
• Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of
Mahomet The Second,
Extinction Of Eastern Empire
by Edward Gibbon
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& II. Series. – Retrieved
on 20 April 2009.
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Mehmed II at
Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of

Mehmed the Conqueror
House of Osman
Born: 30 March 1432 Died: 3 May
1481
Regnal titles
Preceded b
y
Murad II
Sultan
of the
Ottoma
n
Empire
1444–
1446
Succeeded b
y
Murad II
Sultan
of the
Ottoma
n
Empire
3
Succeeded b
y
Bayezid II

Februar
y 1451 –
3 May
1481
Titles in pretence
Preceded b
y
Constantin
e XI
Caesar
of the
Roman
Empire
Succeeded b
y
Bayezid IINew title
Self-
proclaimed
Caliph
of Islam
• v
• t
• e
Ottoman Sultans / Caliphs
• Dynasty
• Family tree (detailed)

• Family tree (simplified)
• Line of succession
• Osman I
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• Ibrahim
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Murad V
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Abdülmecid II (Caliph only)
Category
Related templates: Claimants
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• WorldCat
• VIAF: 86538783
• LCCN: n80090247
• ISNI: 0000 0001
0851 459X
• GND: 118583166
• SELIBR: 321367
• BNF: cb13328343j
only)
Claimants
86538783
n80090247
0000 0001
118583166
321367
cb13328343j

(data)
• ULAN: 500354839
• MusicBrainz:
ba01c2d1-0170-
4a0a-8761-
98013af51990
• NLA: 35602354
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• Today Updated with: Ottoman sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent's tomb found in
Hungary
• DAILY SABAH WITH AGENCIES BUDAPEST Published 23 hours ago

•
• The remains of the tomb of
Suleiman the Magnificent, who
died in 1566 while his troops were
besieging the fortress of Szigetvar
in southern Hungary, have "in all
likelihood" been found, a
Hungarian historian said on
Wednesday.
Norbert Pap said the tomb is
believed to have been built over
the spot where Suleiman's tent

stood and where he died. Pap, head
of the department of Political
Geography, Regional and
Development Studies at the
University of Pecs in Hungary,
said objects suggesting it was
Suleiman's tomb were found
during the dig, as well as other
historical evidence, although more
excavations are needed to confirm
the find.
"We have data which all points in
the same direction," Pap said at a
presentation of the latest findings.
"That is why we say 'in all
certainty,' because there is no sign
pointing in another direction. But
more confirmation is needed, as
this is a very delicate topic."

Until his death at age 71, Suleiman
was the Ottoman Empire's longest-
ruling sultan. The Turks greatly
expanded their dominance in the
Balkans, the Middle East and
northern Africa during his 46-year
reign.
What is believed to be the sultan's
tomb is located in the former
Ottoman settlement of Turbek,
which was destroyed in the 1680s.
The settlement's discovery was
announced by Pap in 2013.
Historians believe Suleiman's heart
and internal organs were buried in
the tomb and his body taken back
to Constantinople, as Istanbul was

then known. His death at Szigetvar
was kept secret for 48 days to
prevent his troops from giving up
the fight.
Szigetvar was defended by locals
led by Croatian-Hungarian
nobleman Miklos Zrinyi. The siege
was a pyrrhic victory for the Turks
and delayed their ultimately
unsuccessful advance toward
Vienna for decades.
Pap said some other structures near
the tomb, all still underground, are
likely to be a small mosque and a
dervish monastery. He said
excavation work at the site would
restart in April.

The site near Szigetvar, which was
under siege by Suleiman's
Ottoman army when he died,
includes a "sultan-like structure",
researchers said at a news
conference in Budapest.
"Hexagonal structures found
during the excavation proves that
this site is a sultan-like structure,"
Ali Uzay Peker, a Turkish
academic from Middle East
Technical University's architecture
department, said. "The mosque and
the shrine were built side by side.
The fact that a minaret could not
be found during the first
excavation indicates that this is a
shrine. At this stage we can say
that we found the site of

Suleiman's shrine."
Suleiman was the longest reigning
sultan of the Ottoman Empire and
presided over its golden age for 46
years. As well as military
conquests in Europe, the Middle
East and North Africa, he
instituted major legislative reforms
and was a keen patron of the arts
and technology.
"Evliya Çelebi, who visited the
region in 1664, states that a shrine,
mosque and Ottoman compound
were in the region," Pap said,
outlining the evidence for naming
the site as Suleiman's tomb. "A
Hungarian noble also painted the
monuments in the region around

the same time. According to a
scientific study we conducted
based on these two pieces of
information, we detected a
compound belonging to the
Ottoman era as well as the site
where Suleiman the Magnificent's
internal organs were buried."
What is thought to be the sultan's
tomb is located in a former
Ottoman settlement that was
destroyed in the 1680s and
rediscovered in 2013.
It is believed Suleiman's organs
were buried in Hungary and his
body taken back to his capital,
where it is still entombed at the
Suleymaniye Mosque, one of
Istanbul's best-known sights.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister
Yalçın Akdoğan said the discovery
was "important for us spiritually,
just as important as the discovery
of other Ottoman monuments in
the region."
He said the search for Suleiman's
remains had been going on for the
last 120 years and pledged the
government's continued support
for the project.
•

Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror of Constantinople

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