Muhammad Al-Fatih the Conqueror
Mehmed II
(Ottoman Turkish: محمد
ثانى ; 30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481), best known as “Mehmed the Conqueror” (Turkish: Fatih Sultan Mehmet Han), 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 Eastern Roman
Empire. Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia
with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia.
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.
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 Hüma Valide
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. Sultan Murad II also sent a number of teachers for him to study
under. This Islamic education had a great impact in molding Mehmet's mindset
and reinforcing his Muslim beliefs. He was influenced in his practice of
Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science - particularly by his mentor,
Molla Gürani - and he followed their approach. The influence of Akshamsaddin
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.
After
Murad II made peace with the Karamanids in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his
12-year-old son Mehmed II.
In
Mehmed II's 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. 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), Akshamseddin, had a
rivalry with Çandarlı.
Conquest of Constantinople
The Ottoman Empire at the beginning of Mehmed II's second
reign.
Roumeli Hissar Castle, built by Sultan
Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, before the Fall of Constantinople
When
Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451 he devoted himself to strengthening
the Ottoman navy and made preparations for the taking of Constantinople. In the
narrow Bosphorus
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, except for the
captain, who was impaled and mounted as a human scarecrow as a warning to
further sailors on the strait.
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard
bearer of Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople (674–78).
As Mehmed II's army approached Constantinople, Mehmed's sheikh Akshamseddin discovered
the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the
importance of the conquest to the Islamic world and highlight his role as ghazi.
In
1453 Mehmed commenced the siege of Constantinople with an army between 80,000
and 200,000 troops, an artillery train of over seventy large field pieces, and
a navy of 320 vessels, the bulk of them transports and storeships. The city was
surrounded by sea and land; the fleet at the entrance of the Bosphorus
stretched from shore to shore in the form of a crescent, to intercept or repel
any assistance for Constantinople from the sea. In early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first,
the city's walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmed's army used the new
bombard designed by Orban,
a giant 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 route, little over one mile, with wood. Thus the
Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. About a
month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, following a fifty-seven-day siege.
After this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to
Constantinople.
When
Sultan Mehmed II 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:
The entry of Sultan Mehmed II into Constantinople,
painting by Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929)
After
the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title "Caesar"
of the Roman Empire
(Qayser-i Rûm), based on the assertion that Constantinople had been the
seat and capital of the Roman Empire since 330 AD, and whoever
possessed the Imperial capital was the ruler of the Empire. The contemporary
scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim. The
claim was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, but not by the Catholic
Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe.Gennadius Scholarius, a staunch antagonist
of the West because of the Sack of Constantinople committed by the
Western Catholics led by Latins and theological controversies between the two
Churches, had been enthroned the Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople-New Rome with all the ceremonial elements, ethnarch
(or milletbashi) status and rights of property that made him the second
largest landlord in the said empire by the Sultan himself in 1454, and in turn
Gennadius II recognized Mehmed the Conqueror as successor to the throne. 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. He was not the
only ruler to claim such a title; Frederick III, emperor of
the Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, traced his
lineage from Charlemagne, who had taken the title of Roman
Emperor when he was crowned by Pope Leo III
in 800.
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.
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 conquering the Greeks (Byzantines).
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 ruler 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 islands.
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.
The
Ottoman army advanced as far as Belgrade, where it attempted but failed to conquer the city
from John Hunyadi
at the Siege of Belgrade, on 14 July 1456. A
period of relative peace ensued in the region until the Fall of Belgrade in 1521, during the reign
of Mehmed's great-grandson, known as Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. 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 he 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.
Conquest of Morea (1458–1460)
The
Despotate of the Morea bordered the
southern Ottoman Balkans. The Ottomans had already invaded the region 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 put down the revolt. At this time,
a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with
Mehmed. 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 entered 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 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 local clans, and the area then came under the rule of Venice.
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
Emperors
of Trebizond formed alliances through royal marriages with various Muslim
rulers. Emperor John IV of Trebizond married 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 support from the Turkish beys 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 he was defeated, he
took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute.
After
John's death in 1459, his brother David came to power and 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
the Conqueror's response came in the summer of 1461. He led a sizable army from
Bursa
by land and the Ottoman navy by 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 the 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 Allah.
Having
isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants
knew he was coming, and he placed it under siege. The city held out for a month
before the emperor David surrendered on 15 August 1461.
Submission of Wallachia (1459–1462)
Portrait of Vlad (Dracula)
the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia,
1460
The
Ottomans since the early 15th century tried to bring Wallachia (Ottoman Turkish: والاچیا)
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. The two primary Balkan powers, Hungary
and the Ottomans, maintained an enduring struggle to make Wallachia their own
vassal. To prevent Wallachia from falling into the Hungarian fold, the Ottomans
freed young Vlad III (Dracula), who had spent four years as
a prisoner of Murad, together with his brother Radu,
so that Vlad could claim the throne of Wallachia. His rule was short-lived,
however, as Hunyadi 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
enemy 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 Dracula led his own contingent into Wallachia, reconquered
his native land, and killed the imposter Vladislav II.
The Night Attack of Târgovişte,
which resulted in the victory of Vlad
(Dracula) the Impaler.
In
1459, Mehmed II sent envoys to Vlad to urge him to pay a delayed tribute[27]
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. Vlad III 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.
In
the winter of 1462, Vlad III crossed the Danube and scorched the entire
Bulgarian land in the area between Serbia
and the Black Sea.
Allegedly disguising himself as a Turkish
Sipahi
and utilizing his command of the Turkish language and customs, Vlad III
infiltrated Ottoman camps, ambushed, massacred or captured several Ottomans
forces. 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].
Mehmed
II abandoned his siege of Corinth to launch a punitive attack against Vlad III
in Wallachia but suffered many casualties in a surprise night attack
led by Vlad III Dracula, who was apparently bent on personally killing the
Sultan. It is said that when the forces of Mehmed the Conqueror and Radu the
Handsome came to Târgoviste, they saw so many Turks impaled around the city
that, appalled by the sight, Mehmed considered withdrawing but was convinced by
his commanders to stay. However, Vlad's policy of staunch resistance against
the Ottomans was not a popular one, and he was betrayed by the boyars's (local
aristocracy) appeasing faction, most of them also pro-Dăneşti (a rival princely
branch). His best friend and ally Stephen III of Moldavia, who had promised
to help him, seized the chance and instead attacked him trying to take back the
fortress of Chilia . 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. Vlad eventually escaped to Hungary, where
he was imprisoned on a false accusation of treason against his overlord, Matthias
Corvinus.
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, and 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.[33]
After some battles Bosnia became tributary kingdom to the Ottomans.
On
10 July 1461, Stephen Thomas died, and 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 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)
According
to the Byzantine historian Michael Critobulus, hostilities broke out after
an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens fled to the Venetian
fortress of Coron (Koroni)
with 100,000 silver aspers from his master's treasure. The fugitive then
converted to Christianity, so Ottoman demands for his rendition were refused by
the Venetian authorities. Using this as a pretext in November 1462, the Ottoman
commander in central Greece, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, 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.
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. At the same
time, Pius II
began assembling an army at Ancona, hoping to lead it in person. Negotiations were also
begun with other rivals of the Ottomans, such as Karamanids,
Uzun Hassan
and the Crimean Khanate.
In
early August, the Venetians retook Argos and refortified the Isthmus of Corinth, restoring the Hexamilion
wall and equipping it with many cannons. 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).
In Bosnia, Matthias Corvinus seized over sixty fortified places and succeeded
in taking its capital, Jajce, after a 3-month siege, on 16 December.
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.
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. 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. However, the death of Pope Pius II on 15
August in Ancona spelled the end of the Crusade.
In
the meantime, the Venetian Republic had appointed Sigismondo Malatesta for the upcoming
campaign of 1464. He launched attacks against Ottoman forts and engaged in a
failed siege of Mistra
in August through 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 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. 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. In early
1465, Mehmed II sent peace feelers to the Venetian Senate; distrusting the
Sultan's motives, these were rejected.
In
April 1466, the Venetian war effort was reinvigorated under Vettore Cappello: the
fleet took the northern Aegean islands of Imbros,
Thasos,
and Samothrace,
and then sailed into the Saronic Gulf. 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, the capital of Peloponnese and the seat of the Ottoman
Bey, which was being
besieged by a joint force of Venetians and Greeks.[44]
Before Cappello could arrive, 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 Greeks were taken prisoner out
of a force of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself was killed.[45]
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. In 1470 Mehmed personally
led an Ottoman army to besiege Negroponte. The Venetian relief
navy was defeated and Negroponte was captured.
Scene depicts the fifth and greatest assault upon the
Shkodra Castle by Ottoman forces in the Siege of
Shkodra, 1478–79
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. 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. 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.
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 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, and they relinquished control of the Greek islands of Negroponte (Euboea)
and Lemnos.
Moreover, the Venetians were forced to pay 100,000 ducat indemnity[49]
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.
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 collectively known as Anatolian
beyliks emerged in Anatolia. Karamanids initially centered around the modern provinces of Karaman
and Konya, the most important power in Anatolia.
But towards the end of the 14th century, Ottomans began to dominate on most of
Anatolia, reducing the Karaman influence and prestige.
İbrahim II of Karaman was the ruler of
Karaman, and 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. The competing claims to the throne resulted in an
interregnum in the beylik. Nevertheless, with the help of Uzun Hasan,
the sultan of the Akkoyunlu (White Sheep) Turkmens,
İshak was able to ascend to the throne. His reign was short, however, as Pir
Ahmet appealed to sultan Mehmet II for help, offering Mehmet some territory
that 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. Pir Ahmet kept his promise and ceded a part of the beylik
to the Ottomans, but he was uneasy about the loss. So during the Ottoman
campaign in the West, he recaptured his former territory. Mehmet returned,
however, and captured both Karaman (Larende) and Konya 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.
The Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473 is considered by
many historians as one of the largest of the 15th century in terms of tactics,
technology, and manpower.
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 that resulted in 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.
Uniting
the Anatolian beyliks was first accomplished by Sultan Bayezid I,
more than fifty years before Mehmed II but after the destructive Battle of
Ankara in 1402, the newly formed unification was gone. Mehmed II
recovered Ottoman power over the other Turkish states, and these conquests
allowed him to push further into Europe.
Another
important political entity that 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)
In
1456, Peter III Aaron agreed to pay the Ottomans an
annual tribute of 2,000 gold ducats to ensure his southern borders, thus
becoming the first Moldavian ruler to accept the Turkish demands. His successor
Stephen the Great rejected Ottoman suzerainty
and a series of fierce wars ensued. 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. 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. 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".
Finally
Stephen faced the Ottomans in battle. The Moldavians luring the main Ottoman
forces into a forest that was set on fire, causing some casualties. According
to another battle description, the defending Moldavian forces repelled several
Ottoman attacks with steady fire from hand-guns.[58]
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[59]
and began forming another army. The Ottomans were unable to conquer any of the
major Moldavian strongholds (Suceava, Neamț,
Hotin)
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. The threat of Stephen to
Wallachia nevertheless 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. 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
while Skanderbeg was alive, even though he twice (1466 and 1467) led the
Ottoman armies himself against Krujë.
After Skanderbeg died in 1468, the 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 and
their leader, Skenderbeg, who had long resisted the Ottomans, and had
repeatedly sought assistance from Italy. For the Albanians, the outbreak of the
Ottoman–Venetian War offered a golden opportunity to reassert their
independence; for the Venetians, the Albanians 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.
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);
they also attacked Elbasan but failed to capture it. 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. The Ottomans failed 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. 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.
The Albanians were left to their own devices and were gradually subdued over
the next decade.
After
Skanderbeg died, Mehmed II personally led the siege of Shkodra in 1478-79, of which
early Ottoman chronicler Aşıkpaşazade (1400–81) wrote, "All the
conquests of Sultan Mehmed were fulfilled with the seizure of Shkodra."
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)
A
number of Turkic peoples, collectively known as the Crimean
Tatars, had 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 to the Dniester
River, but they were unable to take control over the commercial Genoese towns called Gazaria (Genoese colonies), which had been
under Genoese control since 1357. After the conquest of Constantinople, Genoese
communications were disrupted, and when the Crimean Tatars asked for help from
the Ottomans, they responded with an invasion of the Genoese towns, led by Gedik Ahmed
Pasha in 1475, bringing Kaffa
and the other trading towns under their control. After the capture of the
Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Meñli I Giray
captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman suzerainty over
the Crimean Khans and allowing them to rule as tributary
princes of the Ottoman Empire. 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)
A bronze medal of Mehmed the Conqueror by Bertoldo di Giovanni, 1480
An
Ottoman army under Gedik Ahmed Pasha invaded Italy in 1480, capturing Otranto.
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 in
Italy. 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 the
appeal. The Republic of Venice did not, however, as it had
signed an expensive peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1479.
In
1481 king Ferdinand I of Naples raised an army 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 Ottomans the sending reinforcements to Otranto. So 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, built by order of Sultan
Mehmed II in Constantinople, 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 messenger of Allah."
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. 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. 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).
Mehmed
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. 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. The population was about 60% Muslim,
20% Christian, and 10% Jewish.
Mehmed's
ambitious rebuilding program changed the city by the end of his reign into a
thriving imperial capital. According to the contemporary Ottoman historian Neşri,
"Sultan Mehmed created all of Istanbul". Fifty years later,
Constantinople had again become the largest city in Europe.
Two
centuries later, the well-known Ottoman itinerant Evliya Çelebi
gave a list of groups introduced into the city with their respective origins.
Even today, many quarters of Istanbul, such as Aksaray
and Çarşamba, bear the names of the places of
origin of their inhabitants. 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. This measure apparently had no great success,
since French voyager Pierre Gilles writes in the middle of the 16th
century that the Greek population of Constantinople was unable to name any of
the ancient Byzantine churches that had been transformed in mosques or been
abandoned. This shows that the population substitution had been total.
Administration and culture
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
the Ahdname of Milodraž 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. 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[74]
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.
Creating an imperial central government
Mehmed
the Conqueror consolidated power by building his imperial court, the divan,
with officials who would be solely loyal to him and allow him greater autonomy
and authority. Under previous sultans the divan had been filled with members of
aristocratic families that sometimes had other interests and loyalties than
that of the sultan. Mehmed the Conqueror transitioned the empire away from the Ghazi
mentality that emphasizes
ancient traditions and ceremonies in governance and
moved the empire towards a centralized bureaucracy largely made of officials of
devşirme
background. Additionally, Mehmed the Conqueror took the step of converting the
religious scholars who were part of the Ottoman madrasas
into salaried employees of the Ottoman bureaucracy who were loyal to him. This
centralization was possible and formalized through a kanunname,
issued during 1477–1481, which for the first time listed the chief officials in
the Ottoman government, their roles and responsibilities, salaries, protocol
and punishments, as well as how they related to each other and the sultan.
Once
Mehmed had created an Ottoman bureaucracy and transitioned the empire from a
frontier society to a centralized government, he took care to appoint officials
who would help him implement his agenda. His first grand vizier was Zaganos
Pasha, who was of devşirme background as opposed to an aristocrat, and Zaganos
Pasha’s successor, Mahmud Pasha Angelović, was also of devşirme background.
Mehmed was the first sultan who was able to codify and implement kanunname
solely based on his own independent authority. Additionally, Mehmed was able to
later implement kanunname that went again previous tradition or precedent. This
was monumental in an empire that was so steeped in tradition and could be slow
to change or adapt. Having viziers and other officials who were loyal to Mehmed
was an essential part of this government because he transferred more power to
the viziers than previous sultans had. He delegated significant powers and
functions of government to his viziers as part of his new policy of imperial
seclusions. A wall was built around the palace as an element of the more closed
era, and unlike previous sultans Mehmed was no longer accessible to the public
or even lower officials. His viziers directed the military and met foreign
ambassadors, two essential parts of governing especially with his numerous
military campaigns.
Family life
Mehmed
II had five wives :
- Gülbahar Hatun (m. 1446), sister of Mustafa Pasha;
- Sittişah Hatun (m. 1449), daughter of Süleyman Bey, the sixth ruler of Dulkadir State;
- Çiçek Hatun (m. 1458), sister of Ali Bey;
- Hatice Hatun (m. 1451-53), daughter of Zagan Pasha.
Children :
- Bayezid II — son with Gülbahar
- Sultan Cem — son with Çiçek
- Şehzade Mustafa — son with Gülşah
- Gevherhan Hatun — daughter with Gülbahar
Personality
On
his accession as conqueror of Constantinople, aged 21, Mehmed was reputed to be
fluent in several languages, including Turkish, Serbian,
Arabic,
Persian, Greek
and Italian.
At
times, he assembled the Ulama, or learned Muslim teachers, and caused them to discuss
theological problems in his presence. During 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 territorial extent of the Ottoman Empire upon the death
of Mehmed II.
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge over the Bosporus
Straits in Istanbul, built in the 20th century
In
1481 Mehmed marched with the Ottoman army to a new campaign, but upon reaching Maltepe,
Istanbul he became ill. 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. According to the
historian Colin Heywood, "there is substantial circumstantial evidence
that Mehmed was poisoned, possibly at the behest of his eldest son and
successor, Bayezid.
The
news of Mehmed's death caused great rejoicing in Europe; church bells were rung
and celebrations held. The news was proclaimed in Venice thus: "La Grande
Aquila è morta!" ('The Great Eagle is dead!')
Legacy
After
the Conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed 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.
Mehmed's
thirty-one year rule and numerous wars expanded the Ottoman Empire to include
Constantinople, the Turkish kingdoms and territories of Asia Minor, Bosnia,
the Kingdom of Serbia, and Albania.
Mehmed left behind an imposing reputation in both the Islamic and Christian worlds.
According to historian Franz Babinger, Mehmed was regarded as a
bloodthirsty tyrant by the Christian world and by a part of his subjects.
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.
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