Muhammad II

Biography: Mohammed II

Mohammed II (1432-1481), called Faith or Conqueror, was the Ottoman Turkish sultan from 1451 to 1481. His conquest of Constantinople in 1453 guaranteed the consolidation of the Ottoman Empire.

The son of Sultan Murad II (reigned 1421-1451), Mohammed II assumed full sovereignty on his father's death in February 1451. His predecessors had conquered much of the southern Balkans and had subjected the bulk of Asia Minor as well; but the continued independence of Constantinople and of other Greek territories both prolonged the life of the faded Byzantine Empire and deprived the new Turkish power of its logical capital while also posing the danger of some Christian counteroffensive from this strategic center. The ambitious young sultan therefore was determined that the final conquest of Constantinople should be his first major achievement, and he launched his great siege of this city in early April 1453.

Despite heroic resistance under the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, Constantinople was taken by storm on May 29. Mohammed II quickly restored the city's splendor and prosperity, making it the capital of an imperial Turkish regime whose coherent scale and systematic scope were the results of his own massive reorganization. In 1460 Mohammed completed the annexation of the Byzantine Peloponnesus, and in the following year he conquered the truncated empire of Trebizond, thus eliminating the last remnants of independent Greek authority.

Meanwhile, Mohammed expanded Turkish power in the Balkans. He carried out the final annexation of Serbia by 1459. His siege of Belgrade was foiled, however, in 1456 by the Hungarian hero John Hunyadi. The Hungarians further attempted, with only minimal success, to prevent the Turkish conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mohammed also subdued Walachia. He was unable to conquer Moldavia; but in 1475 he seized Caffa, Tana, and Azov, securing control of the Crimea and the northern Black Sea areas. In Albania, Mohammed carried on the struggle his father had launched; only in the late 1470s was he able to occupy the key fortresses of Albania. Alone and isolated, however, the sturdy Montenegrins resisted Turkish conquest.

Mohammed, more than any other sultan, made good the Turkish domination of Asia Minor. During the 1460s he conquered the long-independent emirate of Karaman. When Uzun Hasan, the Turkoman ruler, attempted to challenge Mohammed in eastern Asia Minor, the Sultan defeated him in the decisive battle of Otluk-beli near Terdshan on the upper Euphrates in 1472. The victory guaranteed Mohammed's Asiatic power and freed him for further conquests in Europe.

To the West, Mohammed was a source of anguish and terror. Stung by his capture of Constantinople, successive popes talked of crusades against the Turk and exhorted the European powers to join the common cause. Although such plans foundered, Mohammed faced a strong Western foe in Venice, which found Turkish disruption of its Levantine commerce intolerable. From 1463 to 1479 Venice made war on Mohammed, supporting the Albanians and the Turkomans against him and attacking his coasts. But in 1470 the Venetians lost Negroponte (Euboea), and a few years later Mohammed's forces, victorious in Albania, menaced Venice itself around the Adriatic headlands. The republic was therefore forced to accept disadvantageous peace terms. On the other hand, when Mohammed attempted to seize the island of Rhodes in 1480, it was successfully defended by the knights of St. John (Hospitalers).

But Mohammed's most daring stroke was also executed in 1480. Taking advantage of Italy's internal disorganization, he sent a fleet to the peninsula's southern shores. In August it seized Otranto and held it for a month. The panic-stricken Italian powers saw this act as the prelude to a serious effort by the Sultan, who had boasted that he would match his conquest of the "new Rome" (Constantinople) by taking the old one. But the alarm was groundless: during the following year, as he prepared a new expedition against Rhodes, Mohammed suddenly fell ill and died on May 3, 1481, leaving his empire to a period of slackness and division under his weak son and successor, Bayazid II (reigned 1481-1512).

Further Reading

A contemporary biography by an admiring Greek supporter, Kritoboulos, who concentrates on the conquest of Constantinople, was translated by Charles T. Riggs as History of Mehmed the Conqueror (1954). The only full-length study is in German. There is no comprehensive account of Mohammed's entire career in English, but a concise general treatment can be found in A. W. Ward and others, eds., The Cambridge Modern History, vol. 1 (1903). His major role in the capture of Constantinople is discussed in such accounts of that episode as Edwin Pears, The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1903; repr. 1968), and Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (1965).

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5min Related Video: Muhammad II

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Mehmed II

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(born March 30, 1432, Adrianople, Thrace, Ottoman Empire — died May 3, 1481, near Constantinople) Ottoman sultan (1444 – 46, 1451 – 81). His father, Murad II, abdicated in his favour when Mehmed was 12 but reclaimed the throne two years later in the aftermath of a Christian Crusade. Mehmed regained the throne when his father died (1451) and began to plan the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul), the feat for which he is most renowned. In 1453 he captured the city and undertook returning it to its previous level of grandeur. In the next 25 years he conquered large sections of the Balkans. Under his reign, criminal and civil laws were codified in one body of law; he collected a library of Greek and Latin works and had eight colleges built.

For more information on Mehmed II, visit Britannica.com.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Muhammad II

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Muhammad II or Mehmet II (Muhammad the Conqueror), 1429-81, Ottoman sultan (1451-81), son and successor of Murad II. He is considered the true founder of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He completed the conquest of the Byzantine Empire by successfully storming (1453) Constantinople after a 50-day siege, for which he constructed the largest cannons the world had yet known. Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI fell in its defense. Muhammad moved his capital from Adrianople to Constantinople and restored the greatness of that city by settling there the populations of other conquered towns. To Greek and Armenian citizens of Constantinople he granted the privileges that they were to enjoy throughout Ottoman rule, including the freedom to practice Orthodox Eastern Christianity. The Church of Hagia Sophia became a mosque. Muhammad then conquered the Balkan Peninsula, taking Greece, Bosnia, and several Venetian possessions in the Aegean islands. The khan of Crimea became his ally and vassal. However, his further advance was checked at Belgrade by John Hunyadi, in Albania by Scanderbeg until 1478, and in Rhodes by the Knights Hospitalers under Aubusson. In Asia, Muhammad annexed the empire of Trebizond, ended most independent Turkish dynasties, and subdued the emirate of Karamania, putting to death its ruling family, who were Seljuk Turks. In 1480 he captured Otranto, in Italy, but the expedition had no results. Muhammad was a patron of learning and an accomplished linguist as well as a great commander. His son, Beyazid II, succeeded him. For a contemporary account of Muhammad II, see Kritoboulos, A History of Mehmed the Conqueror (tr. 1954).

History 1450-1789: Mehmed II

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Mehmed II (Ottoman Empire) (1432–1481; ruled 1444–1446 and 1451–1481), seventh ruler of the Ottoman dynasty. In 1444 the Ottoman sultan Murad II (ruled 1421–1444, 1446–1451), having concluded one treaty with Hungary and Serbia and another with the central Anatolian state of Karaman, abdicated, leaving the throne to Mehmed, his twelve-year-old son born to a slave woman in Edirne. Mehmed II's short initial reign began, and largely continued, badly. Seeing Murad's abdication as an opportunity not to be missed, John Hunyadi, the voyvoda of Transylvania, and King Vladislav I of Hungary promptly attacked. Murad, recalled to lead the army, defeated them at the battle of Varna (1444), and withdrew once more to a life of contemplation.

Mehmed was faced not merely with outside enemies but also with those from within. The janissary revolt of 1446, probably caused by arrears in pay, brought his first reign to an end. The grand vizier (the chief minister of the sultan), Çandarli Halil, from the influential Turkish Çandarli family who had dominated the position of grand vizier under Murad II, was apparently involved in ensuring Murad's return to the throne and Mehmed's departure to Manisa, the town in southwest Anatolia where he was to spend the next few years.

The Second Reign, 1451–1481

When Murad II died in February 1451, Mehmed came to the throne for the second time. He immediately turned his sights to the conquest of Constantinople, the capital of the crumbling Byzantine Empire. His advisers were divided over the plan. The grand vizier Çandarli Halil, who was described by both the contemporary Greek historian Ducas and the Ottoman chronicler of the period Aşikpaşazade as a friend of the Byzantines, was opposed to any attack on the city. However, Zaganos Pasha, a Greek convert to Islam who had been Mehmed's tutor while in Manisa, urged conquest.

On 29 May Constantinople fell, and with it the Genoese colony of Galata, whose leaders signed an agreement with Mehmed, now known as Fatih, the Conqueror, under which they retained various trading privileges. The Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine capital was seen by Western contemporaries as an unprecendented disaster. Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, referred to the loss as that of one of the two eyes of the church. Contemporary Latin accounts spoke of the death of a center of learning, the destruction of the holy relics, and the desecration of the great churches. There was a general terror that within a short space of time, Mehmed, this new Caligula, as one Latin contemporary described him, would ride his horse through the streets of Rome with the very survival of Christendom hanging in the balance. While the fall of the city was thus seen by Western contemporaries as an event of great significance, its importance was more symbolic than actual, for the Ottomans had already absorbed most Byzantine territory, reducing the once great empire to a small strip of land around the city.

Although the Ottoman conquest is sometimes taken as signaling the beginning of a decline in Latin trade in Turkish territory, this was by no means the case, and there is no evidence to suggest that Ottoman policy under Mehmed II was designed to discourage or destroy Latin trading relations. On the contrary, his economic policy shows both continuity with that of his predecessors and the importance he attached to his relations with the Latin trading states. The Genoese, too, continued to have close relations with the Ottoman ruler and, while in the immediate aftermath of the conquest there was some interruption of trade as merchants removed themselves prudently to the Aegean islands to watch developments, they were soon back, and trade continued unabated.

Reputation As Ruler

Mehmed had in fact a considerable interest in encouraging commercial activity and went to great lengths to rebuild Constantinople and recreate it as a thriving commercial center. He set out to repopulate the city, forcefully moving populations in from various parts of his empire, and embarked on an impressive building program, which included the Fatih Cami, the Mosque of the Conqueror, begun in 1463. He was also, according to contemporary accounts, a man of letters, who had various learned scholars at his court. A Latin contemporary, Giacomo Languschi, commented on his interest in ancient history and reported that Ciriaco of Ancona, who had resided also at the court of Murad II, read to him daily from the works of Herodotus and Livy.

A great statesman, Mehmed was much interested in the administration of his empire and in tightening control over the running of the state. He was described by Nicola Sagundino, a native of Negroponte who wrote a report on the Ottoman ruler for Alfonso V, the king of Aragon, in 1454, as having examined with great care the administrative system of his state on coming to power, and as having instituted the necessary improvements. His aim was to centralize power in his own hands, and for this he chose for high office those tied to him personally as slaves, not those from the old established families, such as that of the Çandarli. The former grand vizier, Halil Çandarli, was arrested after the capture of Constantinople and later put to death. Such a drive for control aroused opposition, and Mehmed's policies of confiscating land, issuing new coinage, and increasing taxation proved unpopular.

He was also a military leader of considerable acumen, and during his reign the territory of the state continued to increase both in the European and the Asian sections of his empire. In Europe he took Athens (1458), Serbia (1459), the Morea (1460), and Bosnia (1464). During the war with Venice (1463–1479) he conquered Negroponte (1470). In Anatolia, Trabzon fell in 1461. In the east, he defeated the Aq-Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan in 1473 and Karaman in 1468. Crossing the Black Sea he captured the Genoese trading colony of Cafa (1475) and reduced the Crimea to vassal status. In 1480 the Ottomans besieged Rhodes, and Ottoman forces landed at Otranto, withdrawing a year later. In May 1481 Mehmed II died and was succeeded by his son Bayezid II (ruled 1481–1512).

Mehmed II's reign represents the firm establishment of a major Islamic empire with the flourishing city of Constantinople, later to become the most populous city in Europe, as its imperial capital. The Ottoman Empire was to be a dominant political and commercial presence in the Mediterranean world for many years to come.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Doukas. Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks. Translated by Harry J. Magoulias. Detroit, 1975. Covers the period 1204 to 1462.

Kritovoulos. History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Translated by Charles T. Riggs. Westport, Conn., 1970. Translation of the history written by the Greek who was governor of Imbros from 1456 to 1466.

Secondary Source

Babinger, Franz. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton, 1978. Detailed biography.

—KATE FLEET

Wikipedia: Mehmed II

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"Fatih Sultan Mehmet" redirects here. For the bridge that spans the Bosphorus strait, see Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge.

Mehmed II
Ottoman Sultan


Reign	1444–46
Reign 2	1451–81
Period	Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Full Name	Fatih Sultan Mehmet
Ottoman Turkish	محمد الثانى
Predecessor	Murad II
Successor	Murad II
Predecessor 2	Murad II
Successor 2	Bayezid II
Royal House	House of Osman
Dynasty	Ottoman Dynasty
Valide Sultan	Hüma Hatun
Religious beliefs	Sunni Islam

Mehmet II (Ottoman Turkish: محمد الثانى Meḥmed-i s̠ānī, Turkish: II. Mehmet),(also known as el-Fātiḥ (الفاتح), "the Conqueror", in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmet; Known as Mahomet II^[1]^[2] in early modern Europe) (March 30, 1432, Edirne – May 3, 1481, Hünkârçayırı, near Gebze) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Rûm until the conquest) for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire. Mehmet continued his conquests in Asia, with the Anatolian reunification, and in Europe, as far as Belgrade. Administrative actions of note include the amalgamation the old Byzantine administration into the Ottoman state. It is notable that Mehmet II is not considered the first Turkic origin ruler of Constantinople. Before him, the Christian Leo IV the Khazar was a de jure Roman Emperor. Beside Turkish; he spoke French, Latin, Greek, Persian, Arabic and Hebrew.^{[citation needed]}

1 Wives and children
2 Early reign
3 Conquest of Constantinople
4 Conquests in Asia
5 Conquests in Europe
6 Administrative actions
7 Details
8 Death
9 Freedom of the Bosnian Franciscans
10 See also
11 Further reading
12 References
13 External links

Wives and children

He had several wives: Valide Sultan Amina Gul-Bahar , an Orthodox Greek woman^[3] of noble birth from the village of Douvera, Trabzon,^[3] who died in 1492, the mother of Bayezid II, and Gevher Sultana; Gulshah Hatun; Sitti Mukrime Hatun^[4]; Hatun Çiçek; Helene Hatun, who died in 1481, daughter of Demetrios II Palaiologos, the Despot of Morea; briefly Anna Hatun, the daughter of the Emperor of Trebizond; and Hatun Alexias, a Byzantine princess. Another son of his was Djem Zizim, who died in 1495.

Early reign

Mehmed II was born in Edirne, the then-capital city of the Ottoman state, on March 30, 1432. His father was Sultan Murad II (1404–51) and his mother Valide Sultan Hüma Hatun, born in Devrekani county of Kastamonu province, was a daughter of Abd'Allah of Hum (Huma meaning a girl/woman from Hum). When Mehmed II was 11 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.

During his first reign, Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne in anticipation of the Battle of Varna, but Murad II refused. Enraged 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 upon this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army in the Battle of Varna in 1444.

It is said Murad II's return to the throne was forced by Chandarli Khalil Pasha, the grand vizier at the time, who was not fond of Mehmed II's rule, since Mehmed II's teacher was influential on him and did not like Chandarli. Chandarli was later executed by Mehmed II during the siege of Constantinople on the grounds that he had been bribed by or had somehow helped the defenders.

He married Valide Sultan Amina Gul-Bahar, of Greek descent^[3] of noble birth from the village of Douvera, Trabzon,^[3] who died in 1492. She was the mother of Bayezid II.

Conquest of Constantinople

Main article: Fall of Constantinople

When Mehmet 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 Asiatic side; Mehmed erected an even stronger fortress called Rumelihisarı on the European side, and thus having complete control the strait. Having completed his fortresses, Mehmet proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel refusing signals to stop, was sunk with a single shot.^[5]

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.^[5]

Map of Constantinople and its land walls and harbor.

In early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. After several fruitless assaults, the city's walls held off the Turks with little difficulty, even with the use of the new Urban'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 April 22, Mehmed transported his lighter warships overland, around the Genoese colony Galata and onto 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 after a fifty-three day siege.^[5] After this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople.

Mehmed II enters Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro

It is said that 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 Persian poetry:

The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;

the owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab.

After the Fall of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of "Caesar" of Rome (Kayser-i Rûm), although this claim was not recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople, or 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, as his predecessors like Sultan Orhan I had married a Byzantine princess. 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.

Steven Runciman recounts a story by the Byzantine historian Doukas, known for his colorful and dramatic descriptions,^[6] in which Mehmed II, upon the conquest of Constantinople, was said to have ordered the 14-year old son of the Grand Duke Lucas Notaras brought to him for his personal pleasure. When the father refused to deliver his son to such a fate he had them both decapitated on the spot.^[7] Another contemporary Greek source, Leonard of Chios, professor of theology and Archbishop of Mytilene, tells the same story in his letter to Pope Nicholas. He describes Mehmed II requesting for the 14 year old handsome youth to be brought "for his pleasure" ^[8].

Reference is made to the prospective conquest of Constantinople in an authentic hadith, attributed to a saying of the Prophet Muhammad. "Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!"^[9] Ten 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)^[10].

Conquests in Asia

The conquest of Constantinople allowed Mehmed II to turn his attention to Anatolia. Mehmed II tried to create a single political entity in Anatolia by capturing Turkish states called Beyliks and the Greek Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia and allied himself with the Golden Horde in the Crimea. 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 was the White Sheep Turcomans. With the leadership of Uzun Hasan, this Turcoman kingdom gained power in the East but because of their strong relations with the Christian powers like Empire of Trebizond and the Republic of Venice and the alliance between Turcomans and Karamanoğlu Tribe, Mehmed saw them as a threat to his own power. He led a successful campaign against Uzun Hasan in 1473 which resulted with the decisive victory of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Otlukbeli.

Conquests in Europe

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.

Mehmed II advanced toward Eastern Europe as far as Belgrade, and attempted to conquer the city from John Hunyadi at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. Hungarian commanders successfully defended the city and Ottomans retreated with heavy losses but at the end, Ottomans occupied nearly all of Serbia.

In 1463, after a dispute over the tribute paid annually by the Bosnian kingdom, Mehmed invaded Bosnia and conquered it very quickly, executing the last Bosnian king Stjepan Tomašević.

He also came into conflict with and was defeated by his former vassal, Prince Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia in 1462 at the Night Attack. Then, Mehmed II helped Radu, the brother of Vlad, to take the revenge of the Ottoman military losses and Radu managed to take the control of Wallachia in the same year. Vlad lost all his power and escaped from his country.

In 1475, the Ottomans suffered a great defeat at the hands of Stephen the Great of Moldavia at the Battle of Vaslui. In 1476, Mehmed won a victory against Stephen at the Battle of Valea Albă and nearly destroyed all of the relatively small Moldovian army. Then, he sacked the capital of Suceava, but could not take the castle of Târgu Neamţ, nor the citadel of Suceava. With a plague running in his camp and food and water being very scarce, Mehmed was forced to retreat as Stephen was reinforcing his army and Dracula, turning from exile, was marching with a 30,000-strong army to aid the Moldavians.

Mehmed II invaded Italy in 1480. The intent of his invasion was to capture Rome and "reunite the Roman Empire", and, at first, looked like he might be able to do it with the easy capture of Otranto in 1480 but Otranto was retaken by Papal forces in 1481 after the death of Mehmed.

A rebellion in Albania between 1443 and 1468 led by George Kastrioti Skanderbeg (İskender Bey), an Albanian noble and a former member of the Ottoman ruling elite, prevented the Ottoman expansion into the Italian peninsula. Skanderbeg had been sent to Albania as the highest representative of the Ottoman Empire in the region by Mehmed's father Murad II, but he rebelled and united the Albanian princes in a fight against the Empire.

These military conflicts between the Ottomans and the European forces showed that the Ottoman presence in Europe was not a temporary situation. During the reign of Mehmed II, the Balkan forces were not completely surpassed by the Ottoman war machine, but could not stop it either.

Administrative actions

Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II The Conqueror by Gentile Bellini, 1480
70 x 52 National Gallery, London

Mehmed II amalgamated the old Byzantine administration into the Ottoman state. He first 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, kept the Byzantine Church functioning, ordered the patriarch to translate the Christian faith into Turkish and called Gentile Bellini from Venice to paint his portrait. He was extremely serious about his efforts to continue the Roman Empire, with him as its Caesar, and came closer than most people realize to capturing Rome and conquering Italy. Mehmed II also tried to get Muslim scientists and artists to his court in Constantinople, started a University, built mosques e.g. the Fatih Mosque, waterways, and the Topkapı Palace.

Mehmed II's reign is also well-known for the religious tolerance with which he treated his subjects, especially among the conquered Christians, which was very unusual for Europe in the Middle Ages. However, his army was recruited from the Devshirme. This group took Christian subjects at a young age. They were split up: those regarded as more able were destined for the sultans court, the less able but physically strong were put into the army or the sultan's personal guard - the Janissaries.

Within the conquered city, Mehmed established a millet or an autonomous religious community, and he appointed the former Patriarch as essentially governor of the city. His authority extended only to the Orthodox Christians of the city, and this excluded the Genoese and Venetian settlements in the suburbs, and excluded the coming 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, eventually turning it into the Turkish capital, which it remained until the 1920s.

Details

Mehmed II spoke seven languages (including Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Latin) when he was 21 years old (the age at which he conquered Constantinople).^[11]^[12] After the fall of Constantinople, he founded many universities and colleges in the city, some of which are still active. Mehmed II is also recognized as the first Sultan to codify criminal and constitutional law long before Suleiman the Magnificent (also "the Lawmaker" or "Kanuni") and he thus established the classical image of the autocratic Ottoman sultan (padishah). Mehmed II's tomb is located at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul; the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is also named after him.

Reverse of the 1000 lira banknote (1986-1992)

Mehmed II's portrait was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 1000 lira banknotes of 1986-1992.^[13]

Mehmed II is the eponymous subject of Rossini's 1820 opera Maometto II.

Death

On May 3, 1481, Mehmed II mysteriously died at the age of 52. It is said from a poisoning instigated by his son Bayezid.^[14]

Freedom of the Bosnian Franciscans

Mehmed II's Firman on the freedom of the Bosnian Franciscans

"I, the Sultan Khan the Conqueror,

hereby declare the whole world that,

The Bosnian Franciscans granted with this sultanate firman are under my protection. And I command that:

No one shall disturb or give harm to these people and their churches! They shall live in peace in my state. These people who have become emigrants, shall have security and liberty. They may return to their monasteries which are located in the borders of my state.

No one from my empire notable, viziers, clerks or my maids will break their honour or give any harm to them!

No one shall insult, put in danger or attack these lives, properties, and churches of these people!

Also, what and those these people have brought from their own countries have the same rights...

By declaring this firman, I swear on my sword by the holy name of Allah who has created the ground and sky, Allah's prophet Mohammed, and 124.000 former prophets that; no one from my citizens will react or behave the opposite of this firman!"

This oath firman, which has provided independence and tolerance to the ones who are from another religion, belief, and race was declared by Mehmed II the Conqueror and granted to Angjeo Zvizdovic of the Franciscan Catholic Monastery in Fojnica, Bosnia and Herzegovina after the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 28 of 1463.^[15]^[16] The firman has been recently raised and published by the Ministry of Culture of Turkey for the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman State. The edict was issued by the Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror to protect the basic rights of the Bosnian Christians when he conquered that territory in 1463. The original edict is still kept in the Franciscan Catholic Monastery in Fojnica.

It is one of the oldest documents on religious freedom. Mehmed II's oath was entered into force in the Ottoman Empire on May 28, 1463. In 1971, the United Nations published a translation of the document in all the official U.N. languages.

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: The Fall of Constantinople. Aleph Et Taw. ISBN 2868398162.
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

^ "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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d The Nature of the Early Ottoman State (ottoman empire lasted 1300-1920), Heath W. Lowry, State University of New York Press (SUNY Press), p.153
^ Wedding portrait http://nauplion.net/M2-SittHatun.jpg
^ ^a ^b ^c Silburn, P. A. B. (1912).
^ Crowley, Roger (2006). Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453. Oxford: A.P.R.I.L. Publishing.
^ Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople 1453. Cambridge University Press, 1965.
^ J.R. Melville Jones, trans., "The Siege of Constantinople 1453: Seven Contemporary Accounts"
^ Haddad, GF. "Conquest of Constantinople". http://www.sunnah.org/msaec/articles/Constantinople.htm. Retrieved August 4 2006.
^ TURKS :: Ottomans
^ Norwich, John Julius (1995). Byzantium:The Decline and Fall. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 413–416. ISBN 0-679-41650-1.
^ Runciman, Steven (1965). The Fall of Constantinople: 1453. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 56. ISBN 0-521-39832-0.
^ Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Banknote Museum: 7. Emission Group - One Thousand Turkish Lira - I. Series & II. Series. – Retrieved on 20 April 2009.
^ Kohen, Elli; History of the Turkish Jews and Sephardim: Memories of the past golden age, University Press of America, (2007) p. 19
^ Croatia and Ottoman Empire, Ahdnama, Sultan Mehemt II
^ Light Millennium: A Culture of Peaceful Coexistence: The Ottoman Turkish Example; by Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin IHSANOGLU

External links

Regnal titles
Mehmed II House of Osman Born: March 30, 1432 Died: May 3, 1481[aged 49]
Preceded by Murad II	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1444 – 1446	Succeeded by Murad II
Preceded by Murad II	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Feb 3, 1451 – May 3, 1481	Succeeded by Bayezid II
Titles in pretence
Preceded by Self-appointed	— TITULAR — Caliph of Islam Feb 3, 1451 – May 3, 1481	Succeeded by Bayezid II

v • d • e Sultans of the Ottoman Empire by era

Rise (1299–1453)	Osman I · Orhan · Murad I · Bayezid I · Mehmed I · Murad II · Mehmed II

Growth (1453–1683)	Bayezid II · Selim I · Suleiman I · Selim II · Murad III · Mehmed III · Ahmed I · Mustafa I · Osman II · Murad IV · Ibrahim · Mehmed IV

Stagnation (1683–1827)	Suleiman II · Ahmed II · Mustafa II · Ahmed III · Mahmud I · Osman III · Mustafa III · Abdülhamid I · Selim III · Mustafa IV · Mahmud II

Decline (1828–1908)	Abdülmecid I · Abdülaziz · Murad V · Abdülhamid II

Dissolution (1908–1923)	Mehmed V · Mehmed VI · Abdulmecid II

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