Mehmed the Conqueror

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1444-1446, 1451-1481)

• Born: March 30, 1432
• Birthplace: Adrianople, Ottoman Empire (now Edirne, Turkey)
• Died: May 3, 1481
• Place of death: Hunkârçayırı, near Maltepe, Ottoman Empire (now in Turkey)

Mehmed II expanded Ottoman territory and reunited a fragmented empire following lengthy civil strife. His greatest achievement was the seizure, sacking, and rebuilding of the Byzantine Empire’s capital Constantinople, marking an end to Christian rule in Asia Minor and a virtual end to the Middle Ages.

Early Life

Mehmed (meh-MEHT) II was the third son of Sultan Murad II and, possibly, Devlet Hatun, a slave girl of non-Muslim origin. Mehmed’s father voluntarily retired from his throne in 1444, yielding the reins of government to his twelve-year-old son.

Mehmed’s early years were spent in the harem, the women’s quarters, of the Edirne palace. Under the tutelage of Murad’s grand viziers (chief ministers), Mehmed was sultan from August of 1444 to May of 1446, after his father’s abdication. Mehmed lost his first reign, however, when Murad was recalled to his throne to lead an army against an advancing coalition of Hungarian, Byzantine, Venetian, and papal forces at Varna, now in Bulgaria.

Mehmed’s second accession as the seventh sultan of the Ottoman Empire was on February 18, 1451. After his initial training, Mehmed became a provincial governor and was in charge of Rumelia, the European (Balkan) portion of the empire. In December, 1447, or January, 1448, Mehmed had a son with a slave girl named Gülbahar. The child was to become Sultan Bayezid II . In 1449, Mehmed’s father arranged Mehmed’s marriage to Sitt Hatun, a wealthy girl, without prior consultation. Another son, Mustafa, was born, possibly from this marriage, in 1450.

Life’s Work

Mehmed’s thirty-year rule was marked by a series of major conquests but also some setbacks. His crowning glory, for which he had been preparing both diplomatically and militarily since his accession, was the fifty-day siege of the Byzantine Empire’s capital, Constantinople, in April and May of 1453, earning the sultan the sobriquet Fatih (the conqueror). The Ottomans managed this climactic event by breaching the walls of the city with very heavy artillery and through skillful strategy by land and water, including the building of forts to control the naval approaches to the city. Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus was killed on the battlefield.

Mehmed moved his capital to the city from Adrianople and also repopulated it after a long decline. This had been only the beginning of his military conquests, however. In rapid succession, the sultan launched campaigns in Serbia, the Black Sea region, Moldavia, Trabzon, Morea (now Peloponnese, Greece), Amastrias, Wallachia, Lesbos, Bosnia, Hungary, Albania, Karaman, Euboea, Transylvania, Crimea, and points in between. Despite this sizable extension of Ottoman territory in the Balkans, Anatolia, the Black Sea region, and the Aegean, it was not always smooth sailing for Mehmed. He was repulsed at Belgrade in 1456 and in Hungary in 1474. Also, after repeated attacks, the well-fortified island of Rhodes stood firm. Even Albania could not be subjugated until 1479, after the death of its hero, Skanderbeg (George Kastrioti). Otranto, now in Italy, barely remained under Ottoman rule for a few months following Mehmed’s death.

In the meantime, Mehmed founded a system of secondary-level palace schools to educate Christian boys, ages eight to eighteen, who were selected from among the brightest and sturdiest of their age through the devshirme, the levy of conscripts who were not Turkish, in the Balkans. Following their conversion to Islam, these students emerged from the palace schools as soldiers or officials. Some of them also learned skills such as shipbuilding and architecture.

Mehmed regularized the millets semiautonomous nations or communities on a religious basis. There were four millets initially: the Muslim, which had priority, the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Gregorian, and the Jewish. The Catholic millet was not established until the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent. Each was under the jurisdiction of its own religious head and subject to its own legal system. They were expected to be loyal to the sultan, with their heads being responsible for the good behavior of their coreligionists. They also had to pay the appropriate taxes.

Mehmed also created an artillery corps, which was critical in many sieges. In cases of need, he managed to stay on the right side of the elite Janissary (infantry) corps, when there were rumblings in their ranks. He lavished them with gifts and even demobilized some of the war-weary men.

Mehmed was also skillful in public administration, establishing state monopolies and confiscating Muslim charitable foundations for the benefit of the imperial treasury. His land reform enabled the administration to regain direct control of thousands of villages that had lapsed into private hands, and he codified the functions of public officials. He legalized the custom of fratricide, by which an heir-presumptive was entitled to eliminate his siblings who were potential political rivals in the interest of avoiding civil strife on account of the succession. For this reason, the sultan had ordered the drowning of his own infant brother.

Mehmed clearly had a complex personality. He was wary, ruthless, calculating, vengeful, and cruel at times, but also magnanimous, being very tolerant in religious matters, for example. He was a patron of the arts, a poet, and an accomplished linguist, demonstrating competence in Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Persian, and even some Italian and Serbian. He ordered the building of mosques and other public facilities, and he was an accomplished gardener. His Topkapi Saray (Topkapi Palace) at the entrance of the Bosporus remained the chief domicile of sultans for centuries.

His death occurred at the start of yet another military campaign. Mehmed left two sons, Bayezid II and Cem (or Jem), but his favorite son, Mustafa, died during illness in 1475. Some have accused Bayezid, who was on bad terms with his father, of killing his father, who died, ostensibly, from a sudden, acute ailment.

Significance

The fall of Constantinople, signifying the end of millennial Christian rule in Asia Minor and the close of the Middle Ages, was significant in many ways. With the Byzantine Empire’s fall, Mehmed managed to extend the Ottoman Empire substantially in the Balkans, the Black Sea region, Central Europe, the Caucasus, the Arabian peninsula, and North Africa. In fact, the overthrow of the Byzantines marked the real beginning of the Ottoman Empire, even though by that time, six other sultans had girded themselves with the sword of Osman, the founder of the dynasty.

These often-successful military feats, dependent on an expanded army and a large navy, were paralleled by civilian accomplishments. These involved the ruling institution and Ottoman policy toward the increasing number of non-Turkish and non-Muslim minorities in the far-flung empire. The booty from conquests and the collection of tribute funded much public spending. An Islamic military theocracy was thus launched toward a long period of dynamic expansion and development.

Bibliography

Babinger, Franz. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Translated by Ralph Manheim Edited by William C. Hickman. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978. An authoritative annotated biography of the sultan that focuses on diplomacy and military and political history. Appendices, glossary, illustrations, and index.

Beg, Tursun. The History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Translated by Halil Inalcik and Rhoads Murphey. Minneapolis, Minn.: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1978. A summary English translation of the original Turkish version by a member of Mehmed’s inner circle. Appendix, glossary, chronology, map, and Turkish-text index.

Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1481. Istanbul, Turkey: Isis Press, 1990. A detailed chronological narrative of the empire’s political and military history, based on a thorough analysis of primary sources. Glossary, bibliography, maps, and index.

Inalcik, Halil. “Istanbul: An Islamic City.” Journal of Islamic Studies 1 (1990): 1-23. A well-known Turkish scholar describes the early years of Constantinople as the Ottoman capital and Mehmed’s urban policies.

McNeese, Tim. Constantinople. New York: Chelsea House, 2003. Concise and basic account of the circumstances that led to the imperial city’s siege in 1453.

Nicolle, David. Constantinople, 1453. London: Osprey, 2000. Military history of the city’s siege, fall, and aftermath. Chronology, bibliography, appendix, and index.

Runciman, Steven. The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. 1965. Reprint. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. A thoroughly researched and detailed account by a celebrated British historian. Appendix, bibliography, map, and illustrations.