Mehmet the Conqueror
Great PeopleThe Boy Who Was Cast Aside
Mehmet the Second was born on 30 March 1432. He first wore the crown at just twelve years old, but older statesmen soon pushed him aside, and his first reign (1444-1446) ended in humiliation. He returned to the throne in 1451 with something to prove.
A Scholar Who Dreamed of the World
Mehmet was no ordinary prince. He studied the campaigns of Alexander the Great and the Caesars of Rome, and he dreamed not of a mere kingdom but of a world empire. Throughout his life he was both a conqueror and a patron of learning.
The Impossible City
Before him stood Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and the last living remnant of the Roman state that Augustus had founded in 27 BC, some fifteen hundred years earlier. It was ringed by the Theodosian land walls, built around AD 413, which no army had breached in a thousand years. In Islamic tradition, a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad foretold that the city would fall to a blessed commander and a blessed army. A few thousand defenders faced one of the largest armies of the age.
The Siege of 1453
Mehmet's masterstroke was artillery. A cannon-founder named Orban had offered his services to the Byzantine emperor first in 1452, but the emperor could not pay him or supply the bronze, so Mehmet hired him instead and funded the casting of a giant bombard at Edirne. The siege lasted 53 days, from 6 April to 29 May 1453. To slip his fleet past the great chain sealing the Golden Horn, Mehmet hauled roughly seventy warships overland across a hill in a single night on 22 April. When the ancient walls finally cracked under gunpowder, the age of the impregnable fortress ended, and on 29 May 1453 the city fell. It was a brutal medieval siege, and it should not be romanticized.
Caesar of Rome and a Rebuilt Capital
With the fall of the city, the last living remnant of the Roman state passed into history and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire came to an end. Mehmet, only twenty-one, was hailed as Fatih, 'the Conqueror,' and took the title Kayser-i Rum, Caesar of Rome. Rather than leave the city in ruins, he set about rebuilding it, gathering scholars, artists and books from East and West. In 1454 he re-established the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and let the conquered keep their faith, repopulating the city with Muslims, Christians and Jews.
A World Capital and a Wider Legacy
The rebuilt city, now Istanbul, became the heart of an empire that would straddle three continents and remain its capital until 1922. Around 1480 Mehmet even summoned the Venetian master Gentile Bellini to paint him from life. As Greek scholars fled westward carrying their manuscripts, they contributed to the flowering of the Renaissance, one current among many. Mehmet died in 1481.
Key Dates to Remember
- 30 March 1432 — Mehmet II is born
- 1444-1446 — First reign: crowned at twelve, then deposed
- 1451 — Mehmet returns to the throne
- 6 April - 29 May 1453 — The 53-day siege of Constantinople
- 22 April 1453 — Roughly 70 ships hauled overland into the Golden Horn
- 29 May 1453 — Constantinople falls; the Eastern Roman Empire ends
- 1454 — Greek Orthodox Patriarchate re-established
- 1481 — Mehmet the Conqueror dies