Mehmed II (Ottoman Turkish: ‫محمد ثانى‬, romanized: Meḥmed-i s̱ ānī; Turkish: II.

Mehmed, pronounced [icinˈdʒi ˈmehmet]; 30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481), commonly known
as Mehmed the Conqueror (Ottoman Turkish: ‫ابو الفتح‬, romanized: Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit. 'the Father of
Conquest'; Turkish: Fâtih Sultan Mehmed), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August
1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481.

In Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian
incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged.
When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he strengthened the Ottoman Navy and made
preparations to attack Constantinople. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought
an end to the Byzantine Empire. After the conquest, Mehmed claimed the
title caesar of Rome (Ottoman Turkish: ‫روم قیصر‬, romanized: qayṣar-i Rūm), based on the fact that
Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the surviving Eastern Roman Empire since its
consecration in 330 AD by Emperor Constantine I.[5] The claim was soon recognized by
the Patriarchate of Constantinople, albeit not by most European monarchs. Mehmed II viewed the
Ottoman state as a continuation of the Roman Empire for the remainder of his life, seeing himself as
"continuing" the Empire rather than "replacing" it.

Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far
west as Bosnia. At home, he made many political and social reforms. He encouraged the arts and
sciences, and by the end of his reign, his rebuilding program had changed Constantinople into a
thriving imperial capital. He 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 life and first reign[edit]

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 (1404–1451) and his mother Hüma Hatun, a slave of uncertain origin.[6][7][8]

When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya with his two lalas (advisors) to
govern and thus gain experience, per the custom of Ottoman rulers before his time.[8] Sultan Murad II
also sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had a great impact in
molding Mehmed'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.[citation needed]

After Murad II made peace with Hungary on 12 June 1444,[9] he abdicated the throne in favour of his
12-year-old son Mehmed II in July[10]/August[9] 1444.

During Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian
incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged in
September 1444.[9] Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the representative of the Pope, had convinced the king
of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal.[citation needed] At this time Mehmed II
asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. According to the 17th-century
chronicles,[11] 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." Then, Murad II led the Ottoman army and won
the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444.[9] Halil Inalcik states that Mehmed II did not ask for his
father. Instead, it was Çandarlı Halil Pasha's effort to bring Murad II back to the throne.[10][11]

In 1446, while Murad II returned to the throne, Mehmed retained the title of sultan but only acted as
a governor of Manisa. Following the death of Murad II in 1451, Mehmed II became sultan for the
second time. Ibrahim II of Karaman invaded the disputed area and instigated various revolts against
Ottoman rule. Mehmed II conducted his first campaign against İbrahim of Karaman; Byzantines
threatened to release Ottoman claimant Orhan.[9]

Conquests[edit]
Conquest of Constantinople[edit]
Main article: Fall 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 [12]
When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he devoted himself to strengthening the
Ottoman navy and made preparations for an attack on 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,[13] except for the captain, who was
impaled and mounted as a human scarecrow as a warning to further sailors on the strait.[14]

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, had
died during the first Siege of Constantinople (674–678). As Mehmed II's army approached
Constantinople, Mehmed's sheikh Akshamsaddin[15] 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.[15]

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,[16] 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.[13] 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.[13] 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:[17][18][19][20]

The spider is curtain-bearer in the palace of Chosroes,

The owl sounds the relief in the castle of Afrasiyab.
Some Muslim scholars claimed that a hadith in Musnad Ahmad referred specifically to Mehmed's
conquest of Constantinople, seeing it as the fulfillment of a prophecy and a sign of the approaching
apocalypse.[21]
 The entry of Sultan Mehmed II into Constantinople, painting
by Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929)
After the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of 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.[22] The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim.[23][24] The claim was not
recognized by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe, but was recognized by
the Eastern Orthodox Church. Mehmed had installed Gennadius Scholarius, a staunch antagonist of
the West, as the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople with all the ceremonial elements, ethnarch
(or milletbashi) status, and rights of property that made him the second largest landlord in the empire
after the sultan himself in 1454, and in turn, Gennadius II recognized Mehmed the Conqueror as the
successor to the throne.[25][26]

Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos 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 of the Balkans. The younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha, became admiral of
the Ottoman fleet and sanjak-bey of the Gallipoli. He eventually served twice as Grand Vizier under
Mehmed's son, Bayezid II.[27]

After the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed would also go on to conquer the Despotate of Morea in
the Peloponnese in two campaigns in 1458 and 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).[28][29][30]

Conquest of Serbia (1454–1459)[edit]

Further information: List of campaigns of Mehmed the Conqueror and Ottoman Serbia
 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.[31]

Conquest of the Morea (1458–1460)[edit]

15th century portrait of Mehmed II (1432–1481), showing

Italian influence
Main article: Ottoman conquest of the Morea
The Despotate of the Morea bordered the southern Ottoman Balkans. The Ottomans had already
invaded the region under Murad II, destroying the Byzantine defenses – 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. The chronic instability and the tribute payment to the
Turks, after the peace treaty of 1446 with Mehmed II, resulted in an Albanian-Greek revolt against
them, during which the brothers invited Ottoman troops to help put down the revolt.[32] At this time, a
number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed.[33] 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. The
capital Mistra fell exactly seven years after Constantinople, on 29 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.[34] 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 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.[35]