[sample translations]kim hyeong o, the sultan and the emperor eng

Sample Translations

Hyeong-O Kim The Sultan and the Emperor E ng l i s h

Book Information

The Sultan and the Emperor (술탄과 황제) Book21 Publishing corp. / 2012 / 62 p. / ISBN 9788950943974 For further information, please visit: http://library.klti.or.kr/node/772

This sample translation was produced with support from LTI Korea.

Please contact the LTI Korea Library for further information. library@klti.or.kr

The Sultan and the Emperor Written by Kim Hyeong-O

pp. 17-18

Author’s Foreword “Where East Beat West” They say no one listens if everyone talks, so we either do the wrong thing or go the wrong way. But there was one man whose voice was heard and whose call was heed ed as he commanded an army and an armada on the course he charted. He was Mehmed II, the 21-year-old sultan of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. His conquest of Constantinople on May 29 in the year 1453 would make waves in world history.

Four years ago when visiting Turkey, I was at the Istanbul Military Museum, where I was amazed to hear how this young man led a fleet beyond the steep Galata Hill. Since then I have been engrossed by this event.

And there was someone else. It was Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, who has captivated me with the diehard resistance he put up as his empire was collapsing around him. Was he really an addled, irresponsible and incompetent monarch?

In my four visits and one longer stay of 47 days over the past four years, I have delved exhaustively into the details of this battle through hundreds of books and other materials as well as by interviewing dozens of specialists and scholars. This experience was a foray into academia and, as such, was totally different from my two decades in politics.

It’s as if ever since January of 2009 I have been in a time warp, living in April and

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May of 1453. Even though I am in Seoul physically, I have gone back mentally and spiritually to the Constantinople of 559 years ago.

I have endeavored to describe these weighty events in a lively way while being mindful of pursuing the historical facts (with just one exception). Trials and difficulties were overcome by dedication and determination, with this book as the result. It is presented with advance appreciation for critical comments on any perceived deficiencies.

Kim Hyung-O Autumn, 2012

pp. 30-77

May 29, 1453 (Tuesday) It was a day that seemed like forever. The hour was 2:00 a.m., with the weather clear and breezy. As the moon slipped across the western sky, a meteor traced a path before falling like an arrow. Though it was still four more hours to sunup, nary a soul was asleep either within the city or without. Everyone was keenly aware that this would be the fateful denouement.

At last the morning air was rent by the thunderous report of cannon and the b lare of martial music as an 80,000-man force bore down upon them. It was a full-on assault. The thump of drums mixed with the din of destruction assailed the eardrums of the city’s people. Bells began tolling plaintively and prayerfully at the Hagia Sop hia and other churches large and small all over Constantinople. But this was soon mu ffled by the cacophony of Ottoman gunnery and the strains of their military music, le aving the city’s defenders and its citizens shuddering with fear.

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Compared to the 80,000-strong Ottoman army, the combined strength of the B yzantine regulars plus irregulars, local militias and foreigners amounted to only around 7,000. (See the “Placement of opposing forces in Constantinople.”) That meant choic es had to be made in the defensive concentrations. There was particularly fierce fighti ng to hold the targeted camp of St. Romanus and the Mesoteichion or Middle Wall, which were defended in rotation against repeated onslaughts. Those assigned to these places barely had a moment to breathe.

Women and even some nuns rushed to the wall to carry stones and draw wate r to slake the defenders’ thirst. They began boiling water in large kettles to pour dow n on enemy forces attempting to use scaling ladders.

While striking the full length of the city wall, Sultan Mehmed II attacked key points in waves, thus giving no respite to the defending forces. Before fielding his c rack troops, he sent out a vanguard consisting of the Azab irregular light infantry and warrior bands known as Bashi Bozuk.4 Rather than Turkish, the Bashi Bozuk were mercenaries from Christian countries, mostly Slavic, Hungarian, Germanic, Italian and even Greek.

Blinded by the sultan’s offer of pay and whatever spoils they could take, thes e extra forces raised swords and spears against their co-religionists. Besides swords, t hey were armed with an array of miscellaneous weapons including scimitars, catapults, muskets, ropes, ladders, clubs and axes. They were awesome with their ferocious bat tle cries, bizarre gear, assorted weaponry and stunning mobility.

The powerful guns spewed huge cannonballs, while arrows and bullets rained down overhead in the direction of the fortifications. In desperation, the Bashi Bozuk stuck to the barricades and crawled up the walls. They were as rash as boars and a s tenacious as coyotes. The defenders pushed the ladders over and, if they broke, the

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Bashi Bozuk would step on the shoulders of another soldier to cross the barrier. Eac h one’s head looked different. The ones with shaggy hair had a bit of a ponytail in t he back, and many had their hair in front shaved off. It was darkly rumored among t he Byzantine troops that they thought it was shameful to have their faces touched wh en their throats were cut by the enemy, so the hair was done so it could be grabbed 4

instead.

Behind the Bashi Bozuk came the military police with leather belts and iron hammers, and arrayed behind them were the Janissaries,5 who were the elite bodyguar ds of the sultan.QR

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For the Ottoman army, retreat was never considered an optio

n. Unless an order came for withdrawal, they had to follow the sultan’s ironclad rule to advance unconditionally. Any sign of retreat or desertion was dealt with ruthlessly.

Vastly outnumbered by the Bashi Bozuk, the defenders were in a state of cha os, falling and trampling each other. When the soldiers threw stones over the wall or heaved Greek firebombs, they were either wounded or killed outright.

There was not a moment to rest. Just when the attacking Azab and Bashi Bo zuk had mowed the way clear, the Anatolian army led by Ishak Pasha (pasha: an Ott oman title for a high military or civil official) and the European army commanded by Karadja Pasha swept in like successive waves. When the sultan’s baton was raised, martial music filled the air. This was the time for the regulars to go into action on a battlefield that resembled a huge stage on which each movement was perfectly coor dinated by the sultan himself.

Unfolding in three successive phases like a carefully crafted script, the offensi ve involved the full panoply of Ottoman regulars, irregulars, cavalry and Janissaries.

There was barely time to fit arrows to bowstrings or reload guns, let alone take a br

eather or a drink of water. As the garrison gradually wore weary, more and more of the defenders headed for the walls.

Before the battle, the diehard Byzantine soldiers took up positions as directed by the Genoese mercenary general Giovanni Giustiniani Longo. All gates to the city from the inner wall were locked and the keys were entrusted to Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. The inner wall was to be the final threshold, with no way out. This would be a fight to the finish, and they knew it. On that day and in that place there was no more petty bickering among Greeks, Venetians and Genoese. Aware of their common destiny, they were as one in the struggle to hold the city to the end. Amidst the terrific din, the faint sound of bells and prayers were the only comfort for these exhausted souls.

Bursts of fire embroidered the night sky over Constantinople as cannonballs, f laming arrows and Greek firebombs exploded wildly in the air and made the whole a rea as bright as day. Hit by flaming arrows and firebombs, horses were consumed in the surrounding conflagration with the sickening stench of burnt flesh, both animal an d human, pervading the entire area of the city.

The Ottoman army broke through the arrow-and-stone defenses, reaching the e mbankment of the moat, which shielded them, while emplacing their own archers and crossbowmen followed by the catapults. Even though arrows and stones were whizzi ng overhead, the European irregular infantrymen who had crossed the moat managed t o get their ladders up to the wall. Cannons and crossbows were shooting every which way, both inside and outside the walls. Bits of the wall were flying all over everyo ne, both friend and foe. A group of Ottomans used long hooks to drag away wooden buckets that had been piled on top of the barricades. The buckets were filled with e arth that was to be used as backfill for ruined parapets. While showering them with r ocks and arrows, the defenders dumped the water that the women had boiled.

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Thus passed another hour. Incoming projectiles from guns and crossbows struc k the walls relentlessly, and martial music resounded nonstop. When the Europeans sh owed signs of flagging, the sultan mobilized his Asian armored corps, which lunged a cross the moat to replace the ladders and scale the wall while protecting their heads with their shields. Swinging axes, some of them broke down a barrier in front of the gate, where there was intense hand-to-hand combat. Although the action was carried out bravely by 300 Ottomans, it was still so dark and confused that their cohorts wer e unaware that the defenders were readying a counterattack.

In a situation where it was hard to tell one side from the other, both went he ad to head, locked in a dreadful battle in which there was no accounting of the lives lost. Warriors of the two empires fell helter-skelter into piles of debris at the foot of the wrecked wall. It was impossible to see anything because of the dense dust and gunpowder smoke, and the moat was quickly covered with corpses.

Another hour must have passed. The sultan’s baton signalled the splitting of the heavens. Banners waved briskly. The men’s morale rose to a new high as martial music hit a crescendo. At last it was the Janissaries’ turn. After the defending army had been softened up for three hours without a moment even for a gulp of water, t he sultan’s top troops got the order to attack. For their efforts, Mehmed II had promi sed them unparalleled honors and rewards.

It was full speed ahead! The Janissaries were at the forefront, followed by re gulars, irregulars, Asians, and Europeans. There was no turning aside. But having the Janissaries in front was not the answer to everything. Even a momentary pause mea nt they would get trampled to death by the soldiers and horses coming up from behi nd. Cannonballs aimed at the walls and gates flew over the heads of the Ottoman sol diers, spreading shrapnel everywhere.

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A command post was set up near the Bachtatinian Tower (See pp. 119-120, 3 93) where the befouled Lycus River flowed into the city through the Mesoteichion. A s a last resort, the emperor came to take personal charge of the troops. When enemy fire concentrated on the imperial defenses, the 400 Genoese soldiers under the comm and of Giustiniani crossed the Lycus to reinforce the emperor’s position. From the Ga te of Charisios (Adrianople) he commanded the three Bocchiardo brothers who had be en defending the Tekfur Palace. They would later return to their original posts for a l ast stand.

Along the length and breadth of the Peribolos between the the inner and oute r walls, the emperor was trying to encourage the soldiers in battle. His sword, too, w as drawn and bloody.

A small emergency gate known as Kerkoporta was hidden about halfway up a tower where the triple Wall of Theodosius met the edge of the Blachernae Wall. Thi s gate had been sealed off a few years before, but Byzantine veterans remembered it and had it reopened for use in a raid on the Ottoman flank just before the siege beg an. The three Bocchiardo brothers from Genoa along with their subordinates escaped t hrough the gate. In their haste to get back to the city, however, the raiders failed to take the time to lock it. It was found by 50-some pursuing Ottoman soldiers who pu shed the gate into the inner courtyard and began climbing the stairway to the top of the city wall. Byzantine soldiers saw what was happening and battled to shut the gate and prevent further entry. In this encounter the Ottomans were outnumbered and wip ed out as the dawning light spread over the eastern sky.

There was an instant to heave a sigh. The Byzantines had hit bottom. Giustini ani had acquitted himself well in the front lines but fell after being mortally wounded by an arrow shot at short range. (Some sources say he was hit by a bullet or a cul

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verin, Giorgios Phrantzes claims an arrow hit his right leg, and other views are given in some handwritten book notations.) Blood spurted out through the hole in his arm or. Two days before, Giustiniani had also taken a hit from wall shrapnel, but inspired his men by rushing back to his post as soon as he was treated.

If the emperor was not holding out steadfastly at the Mesoteichion, then Giust iniani was. Yet this man of valor now cried out in unbearable pain and was down in an instant. As blood poured from his mouth, his men rushed over to him. With his hands and eyes, he got them to understand he wanted to be taken to his ship. The s oldiers knew, however, that all the gates from the inner wall to the city were locked.

They ran to the embattled emperor at the emergency gate of Kerkoporta to report th e urgent situation and plead for the keys. The emperor ran over to Giustiniani and, ta king the hand of the fallen general, appealed for him to stay on at his post: “O, my woeful fate! If thou goest from here, all hope will be lost along with Constantinople itself. O, thou incomparably valiant commander, thou brilliant general filled with loyalty and patriotism! I beseech thee earnestly to remain with us. Prithee return to the fray and cleave unto thy post. Thy departure will only bestir others to desert. Are not thy wounds less than mortal? Bear up and arise as thou hast done th us far and fight for the empire as the true man thou art.”

But Giustiniani was already exhausted beyond bravery. The shadow of death h ad sapped his spirit. His once-blazing eyes had gone cold and the expression on his f ace was almost pathetic. Seeing blood continuing to flow from his mouth, the empero r was greatly disheartened.

For a while, the emperor’s mind wandered. “Ah, thou in whom I had such fa ith,” he thought. “Art thou truly the Giustiniani I had favored?” In his mind’s eye he saw the image of Giustiniani when, several days prior to the final battle, he advised

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the emperor to allow them to surrender. “Yes, from the outset thou wast not a warri or of the Byzantine Empire, but rather a mercenary from faraway Western Europe, he re only for a price!” Finally, with words of reproach seemingly forgotten, the emperor could only turn over the keys.

Once the postern gate was opened, this muscular man of courage and determi nation was helped through it by his aides, leaving a last impression of a routed soldi er of fortune. From the city, he escaped to the harbor where he was escorted aboard a ship and taken across the Golden Horn.

Some of the men thought Giustiniani’s escape was a tactical retreat in order t o defend the inner wall, but most of them realized that it portended their ultimate de feat. It was a psychological blow that quickly shook the Byzantine camp to the core.

Mercenaries who weren’t escaping were at least thinking about it. Battles erupted bet ween mercenaries around the gate in the inner wall who wanted to run away and By zantine soldiers who were trying to stop them. When reports of this disturbance in th e space between the inner and outer walls reached the sultan who was near the moat, he smiled with satisfaction.

The struggle was nearing its end. To die, to kill, to fall out, or to hold out?

The moat was already filled in and the city walls were in ruins. Many of the wall to wers had also collapsed. The soldiers of the two empires were locked in a bloody lif e-or-death battle between the walls. The walls were conspicuously pockmarked by can nonballs. Even the main tower bore the signs of bombardment. The siege towers had been hit by Greek firebombs and were engulfed in flames, and the sky was covered with thick gunsmoke.

There was also intense fighting in suburban Blachernae. Karadja Pasha took a dvantage of a lull in firing from his position on a high hill as the troops led by Zag

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anos Pasha crossed via a pontoon bridge and mounted a strong attack from lower gro und near the Golden Horn. However, Karadja was frustrated by the diehard defense p ut up by the three Bocchiardo brothers, the Janos troops, and the Venetians under Gir olamo Minotto.

The Ottoman Prince Orhan,7 who had fled to Constantinople, and his Turkish warriors joined monks in the fight for the Byzantine Empire that was unfolding near the port of Theodosius (Eleuterius). They were fighting for their very lives, because t hey would surely be killed if captured by the sultan’s forces. The Ottomans did mana ge to land, but Orhan and his men attacked before they could organize their base lin es.

Rallying his troops in a loud voice, or railing at them, the sultan took full pe rsonal command. Once again he promised rich rewards to the soldiers who would be first to breach the walls and barricades.

“The city is now ours!” the sultan cried out as he reiterated his order for the Janissaries to attack. Standing at the front was Ulubatli Hasan, a massive Janissary h eading a 30-man squad. Ripping away the fallen barricades, Hasan entered with the a ssumption that the promised reward was his. “A special place in Heaven awaits the fi rst warrior to break through to the Christian capital,” as the Prophet said long ago.

Hasan bounded up to a tower on the outer wall. Just as he was about to pla nt the Ottoman flag on top, he was taken down by a hail of arrows from a higher t ower. Grasping for the banner, he fell off the wall. The flag landed on the back of this giant of a man who had fallen to the ground amid a flurry of stones and arrows.

In death he was joined by seventeen other warriors.

It was a big loss. In terms of the wall itself, the demise of this Ottoman stal wart and his cohorts was decisive. Like water springing from a dike, the outer wall g

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ave in and the gate opened at the same time. This was probably the Topkapı (Canno n) Gate, which was also known as the commoners’ Gate of St. Romanus.8 Clouds ov er the ridge and port of Chalcedon on the Asian side were aglow, and the waves on the Sea of Marmara shimmered in the reflected sunlight. The sun was just about to come up.

Raising the flag between the gate and wall, the Janissaries advanced and behi nd them stormed the Anatolian and European regulars, followed by the Azab and Bas hi Bozuk letting out war whoops. This left the Byzantine soldiers suddenly stuck in t he passage between the inner and outer walls. From atop the outer wall, Ottoman spe ars, arrows and bullets rained down upon them like the long trailing streaks of a met eor shower lighting up the night sky.

It was the same at the palace garrison, with Ottoman banners preceding the e ntry through the gate. Although the emperor was frantically dashing back and forth, h e was not really doing anything. The situation was already totally out of control. The Genoese and Venetian mercenaries as well as the volunteers rushed around with terri fied looks on their faces, trying their best to save their skins.

“The wall is breached! The gate is open!” Here and there the cheers of the Ottomans arose in a chorus while the defenders bewailed the taking of the city with the words, “Ealo i Polis!” The earth shook and the heavens were rent with the sound of martial music, galloping hooves, and gunfire. Ottoman soldiers pushed and shoved their way into the city, each trying to be first to take advantage of the sovereign’s offer of three days of plunder.

In the morning light over Constantinople that day there were many crescent m oons. They were the white ones emblazoned on the crimson ensigns of the Ottoman military. The sultan was greatly moved by the sight of them flapping in the breeze a

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bove.

Meanwhile, the azure Byzantine standards with their engraved silver eagles we re tossed over the walls without a trace of dignity. The winged golden lion of St. M arco, emblematic of Venice as Constantinople’s main commercial base and ally, met a similar and simultaneous fate. Once the Venetian naval commander Gabriele Trevisan o could tell it was all over, he called out to order his soldiers to retreat to the Gold en Horn.

Near the postern gate of Kerkoporta, the three battle-worn Bocchiardo brothers were at the end of their tether. Paolo was captured and killed while Antonio and Tr oilo escaped to the Golden Horn harbor aboard a Genoese ship.

Girolamo Minotto and the Venetians who had been defending the Palace of Bl achernae were surrounded and captured alive. Minotto was taken prisoner along with a few high officials, while most of the others were killed.

Soldiers who had been defending the land walls near the Sea of Marmara wer e attacked from the rear by Ottomans who had entered the open gates. Many who att empted to break out of the encirclement were captured and killed. Most of the comm anders including Filippo Contarini and Demetrios Kantakuzenos were captured alive.

At one point the emperor also spotted the Ottoman flag flying on a high tow er. He tried to escape through the postern gate but the situation there had gotten out of hand. The emperor turned his horse around and raced full speed toward the Lycus stream. Because that place also seemed to have fallen, he was at a loss. Only three men accompanied the emperor--his cousin Theophilos Palaiologos, his loyal minister Johannes Dalmata, and the brave Spaniard Don Francisco who chose death over humi liation in defeat.

The three men dismounted and stood for a while at the gate, the same one th

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rough which Giustiniani escaped. As the lines of defense had completely collapsed, th is is where other would-be escapees gathered in a swarm. The emperor tried in vain to rally them. Neither the sovereign nor his officials nor the empire itself were on th eir minds. Terror was their only ruler.

Knowing he would be taken by the advancing enemy and determined to die li ke a true Greek warrior, the emperor’s cousin Theophilos cast his life to the winds a nd ran into a group of advancing Janissaries. The emperor who was deprived of his empire had also lost the will to live. Did he consider disfiguring himself lest his bod y be defiled by the enemy? Or did he decide to meet his end in a blaze of glory as a common Byzantine soldier? Whatever the case, he cast aside all his regalia includi ng his purple robe and royal crest.

“Is there not one Christian believer who will strike me through the heart with his sword?” Sighing as he said this to himself, the emperor drew his sword and spu rred his horse into the oncoming avalanche of enemy soldiers. Following him were D on Francisco, who had remained at his side, and Johannes Dalmata. Shortly they woul d disappear without a trace. That was the final exit of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last sovereign of the Byzantine Empire. (See pp. 62-66 for various records of the e mperor’s demise.)

Meanwhile, admiral of the Venetian fleet Albiso Diedo saw that the city was about to fall. He took a sailboat over to Galata,9 where he asked the local administrat ive officer Angelo Lomellino if it was all over.

“There is no time. What will become of the Genoese residents? Are you goin g to stay here and fight to the finish or are you going to give up and head out to s ea? Should you unite as one and fight the infidels, we will be with you.”

“How would it be if we send an emissary to make representations to the sult

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an? I mean, are the ships going to be allowed a peaceful exit or are the Genoese an d Venetians going to have to fight their way out?”

As a proposal, this was absurd and unrealistic. To prevent a mass exodus, Lo mellino closed all the gates in Galata. Diedo even blocked the exit of his own fleet.

It was maddening, a scramble for every moment as a host of refugees waited on the Golden Horn wharf. He yelled out to the sailors on Genoese ships moored along the Galata Wall, appealing for their help in getting out of the city.

Surrounded by Ottoman territory, Constantinople was like an island on land, w ith the sea being the only possible avenue of escape. Soon the way to the sea would be crowded with those seeking a way out.

Diedo’s sailboat reached the entry to the Golden Horn. Two burly lads took a n axe to the leather rope on the metal chain holding the boom across the area. (See pp. 399-401.) With the way clear, it put out to the Sea of Marmara and signaled oth er ships to follow. The Genoese and Venetian battleships and galleys that had berthed at the Golden Horn harbor came along and congregated at the entry to the Bosphoru s. Vividly detailed recollections of all these events are recorded in the diaries of Diedo and his cohort Nicolo Barbaro.10 Despite the danger, civilians who swam up to these ships were taken aboard.

Unfortunately, however, quite a number of those who were poor swimmers struggled i n the water and did not make it. There were also cases where people trying to climb aboard small ships with far too many passengers, causing the ships to capsize. Some stragglers were rescued by ships that left port more than an hour later.

But they could not wait any longer because Hamza Bey’s naval fleet was in pursuit right up to the wharves where the refugees would be captured or killed. Died o gave the order to leave port, with refugees left behind screaming and stomping thei

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r feet as they pleaded to be saved. “Please just take this child with you,” one woma n kept shouting as his ship managed to catch a strong northerly and put out toward t he Sea of Marmara. They had to get past the Dardanelles (formerly known as the He llespont) before reaching safety on the open sea.

The wounded Giustiniani11 was on one of the seven vessels that comprised th e main fleet. Successfully evacuated along with him was a fair number of Genoese a nd Venetians, along with Byzantine nobles and other citizens. The same day, the sulta n vowed to take the city and ordered a simultaneous land and sea attack in which th e Ottoman navy bombarded the walls from the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn.

Meanwhile, there was another concern about sailors getting into the city first to get their hands on booty. Quite a number of seamen did abandon ship with this in mind, and it created a gap in their control of the waters.

Hamza Bey was angry at being unable to prevent Diedo’s fleet from escaping and feared the sultan’s reprimand. Hurriedly gathering the seamen, he had them repla ce the unchained boom in the waters of the Golden Horn, thus cutting off the escape of any ships that had not yet gotten through. Holding many times more refugees tha n their capacity, these ships then effectively became floating prisons.

In the meantime, the city had completely fallen firmly into the sultan’s grip.

Ottoman forces poured in through gates where fighting had occurred as well as via th e Golden Gate (Altın Kapı, see p. 389)QR

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which had been used by victorious B

yzantine emperors of the past.

Joyful Ottoman voices announcing their conquest echoed in the streets everyw here. Fireworks also burst overhead but the colors were faint in the morning light.

The many people who had gathered to pray all night at the Hagia Sophia felt

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their fates were hanging by a thread. The ear-splitting Ottoman shouts and the army music seemed louder than the rumble of cannons that had been shaking the ceilings and walls. The closer they got, the more fervent became their prayers for divine merc y. In their extremity, the assemblage at the Hagia Sophia evoked an old prophecy: “This city is dedicated to and defended by Holy Mother Mary. Even if infidels penetr ate its walls and violate its sacred precincts, Michael the great angel of the Lord shal l wield a shining sword sent down from Heaven and drive them eastward and out to the Bosphorus.”

People kneeled down waiting for the angel and offering prayers through the n ight. Still…….by morning there had been no miracle. The guardian angel did not app ear. The city walls had crumbled and, before the day dawned, the Ottoman army bro ke down the Hagia Sophia’s tightly closed bronze door.

From the top of the high dome, Jesus the light of the world looked down, wi th two fingers of His right hand raised to signify His blessing and His left hand holding the Gospel. Beneath the dome were 40 windows admitting sunligh t to the cathedral below, where by that time all blessing, hope and peace had vanishe d, leaving the interior suffused with brightness, yet submerged in darkness.QR

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The occupiers who rushed into the nave were busy scooping up plunder, takin g advantage of the sultan’s allowance of a three-day free-for-all in conformity with M oslem jihadi customs. Prime targets were fair maidens and strong young men, as well as the expensive apparel worn by the nobility. They were clambering all over each other for it, to the point where they had practically lost their senses. Pretty girls were taken at knifepoint.

Some young women were ravaged and chose to die like martyrs by casting th emselves into a well outside the nave. Young priests12 who had been singing a hymn

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cut their throats before reaching the last line and fell down the front staircase. Thos e who were elderly, ill or disabled had no value as slaves and were cut down mercil essly on the spot.

The occupiers tied prisoners up with cord torn off of communion veils worn by women worshipers. They were dragged away to another place for “safekeeping” w hile the intruders went back to the cathedral to get the next batch of “booty.” Countl ess believers, both men and women, were bound up, dragged out, and marched off in lines to a future of enslavement. Their unfocused eyes were sunken and vacant.

It was thus by brute force that the occupiers took the interior of the cathedral.

As soon as they came upon sacred and precious objects, they were swept away. Can dlesticks and chandeliers, icons, altars and their ornamentations, the emperor’s throne, bejeweled vestments, fine furnishings, and more.

Even the sarcophagus of Enrico Dandolo13 was desecrated. Soldiers destroyed the long-dead Doge’s marble tomb with its engraved cap and lion emblem of St. Mar co, and what was worth taking was taken. He had long since been condemned by the furious populace of Byzantine, who had recaptured the city from the Crusaders, but this time nary a bone remained to toss to the dogs in the street.

From the Moslems’ perspective, all these things were the sacrilegious parapher nalia of idol worship and therefore they did not have the slightest qualms about enric hing themselves by taking them as plunder. It had already been 249 years since the Fourth Crusade, when precious and sacred objects were massively looted from Eastern Orthodox Christians by Western Catholic Christians. Ironically, it was Sultan Mehme d II who showed the greatest tolerance for this sublimely timeless cathedral.

Late in the afternoon, once a semblance of order was restored, the sultan took up the sword of Mohammad and rode into the defenseless city astride a white horse

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as a symbol of victory. Protected by the Solak unit of imperial guards, he declared an end to the war of conquest for the glory of God. Viziers and mullahs followed on foot. Fluttering proudly overhead were the green banners of Islam and the crimson e nsign of the sultan.

“Allah’u’Akbar (God is great)!”

From then on, Mehmed was known as Fatih, “the Conquerer.”

Greeting the sultan as he passed through the Charisios Gate was a dense line of corpses of Byzantine soldiers and citizens. Bodies were scattered here and there a round the arched city gates. The hooves of the sultan’s steed passed over dead soldie rs with swords still in their hands, young women with white feet exposed to the sunl ight, and army horses struck down by arrows.

On passing through the gate, he was amazed by the cathedrals and other edifi ces symbolic of bygone splendor. Yet along the roadways were vacant lots, houses an d buildings were in disrepair, and untended vineyards were overgrown with weeds. As the sultan passed by, his hopes were tempered by disappointment. Moreover, he was disturbed to see the ongoing pillaging of the city as soldiers continued burning and l aying waste to everything in their path.

The sultan’s first destination was none other than St. Sophia. It stands over fi ve kilometers from Charisios Gate, along the main roadway. Dismounting in front of the great cathedral, he showed his humbleness and gratitude to God by gathering a h andful of earth and sprinkling it over his turban.

Next he entered the Hagia Sophia caathedral and strutted up to the altar. From a distance came the ear-grating sound of a chunk of the marble floor being hit by a hammer. The sultan yelled out to a soldier: “Hey, why are you breaking up the marble?”

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“For my faith. Isn’t this the den of the heathens?”

“It’s enough for you to have prisoners as slaves and booty. Churches are not up for plunder and destruction. All the buildings in this city belong to me. Who do you think you are to even sit on a brick in this magnificent temple? Not even the d oor handles are to be touched unless I say so.”

According to Doukas the historian, the sultan pointed his sword at the soldier, who was dragged out of the cathedral and left in a heap. Terrified and trembling be lievers who had not yet been captured as slaves sat huddled in a corner. The sultan gently bid them to return to their homes, whereupon several priests came out from th e secret passageway behind the altar and begged for his compassion. The sultan sent them on their way as well.

As the sultan admired the abundance of richly colored mosaics, he directed th at the great cathedral be converted into a mosque. This was duly announced from the pulpit by an attending ulama, a scholar of Islamic law.

“Allah’u’Akbar la illaha illara Muhammad an rasul’u’llah!” (God is great, God is one, and Muhammad is his messenger!)

The sultan adjusted his collar, ascended the stone altar, paid homage to the G od who had vouchsafed his victory, and offered a prayer of gratitude.

“Prepare for formal worship here on Holy Friday (May 1),” he commanded.

Exiting the Hagia Sophia, the sultan traversed the Hippodrome to the imperial palace. Once a venue for horse and chariot racing and circus performances, all that w as left of the circular arenaQR

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were the Obelisk and a few dilapidated columns.

The palace’s grand halls and corridors were in a seriously deteriorated state due to B yzantine neglect and pillaging by Ottoman soldiers. On seeing this, the sultan could n ot help pausing to reflect on it as he quietly recited a melancholy couplet by Saadi, t

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he thirteenth-century Persian poet, lamenting the loss of empire: In the palace of emperors, only spiders labor over their draperies.

And a lone owl calls plaintively, as it guards the tower of Afrasiab.

20 People who were close by would later attest to the fact that the sultan had tears in his eyes at the time.

Thus the curtain came down pathetically on a city which had served as an im perial capital for longer than any other in world history. Thenceforth it would no lon ger be KĹ?nstantinoupolis, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It was to be known fo rmally as Kostantiniyye, the capital of a greatly different empire, until the time-honor ed popular name of Istanbul finally became official in the Turkish republic of the twe ntieth century.

May 30, 1453 (Wednesday) Although the walls had fallen and the empire was conquered, there were strong aftereffects. The price of refusing to surrender was misery and oppression. Things were m uch better than the first day, but even on the second day there were intermittent insta nces of massacres, abuse, rape and pillage.

One tragedy begat another. Byzantine soldiers who had left the walls the day before tried to get home to save their families, but most of them encountered Ottoma n forces on the way and were beheaded. All the ways and byways were filled with c rying children who had lost their parents. Even these youngsters were taken off by O ttoman soldiers to sell into slavery. Newborn babies were thrown out into public squa

res.

Occasionally a soldier would show some humanity and let a captured child or woman go free. It did not make much difference, though, because they would soon fall into someone else’s hands.

Survivors were all in a state of terror. Some of them could not tell if it was real or a dream. It was as if one morning things got crazy, and they were wandering wide-eyed through the streets and alleyways.

There are people who recorded these dreadful scenes either as actual witnesses or through the testimony of others (see the appended references). What follows is fr om sources acknowledged by later scholars as substantially objective. The stories enca psulate the various accounts of incidents on the first and second days after subjugatio n. (Included as well are some of the situations that occurred on May 29.)

After the walls fell and from the moment they set foot inside, the Ottoman s oldiers became wonton butchers and plunderers. All they wanted was to be first to re deem the sultan’s pledge of gold, girls and gemstones in a city rich with the potentia l spoils of war. War-weary themselves, they were in one sense looking for compensati on. Rationality didn’t enter into it. It was hatred and hostility that held sway over the fallen fortress.

At first they had no sense that the war was over. They were jumpy because, fo r all they knew, they could be ambushed by Byzantine commandos or pockets of defe ated soldiers hiding in isolated buildings or in the maze of back alleys. So anyone th ey ran into in the street was cut down, be it man or woman, young or old. As a res ult, a river of blood ran from the steep Petra Hill all the way to the Golden Horn.

Gradually, however, the mindless massacres tapered off as the city was compl etely pacified. With Byzantine hold-outs few in number, there was very little resistan

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ce. The area had been effectively demilitarized.

Now the occupiers could concentrate on plunder. Whether prisoners to use as slaves, or valuables, each one wanted to be the first and get the most. They began s crounging around in every nook and corner for escapees and hidden treasure. A sort of comradeship was shown by planting a little pennant beside buildings that had alrea dy been plundered, so latecomers would not go there for nothing.

Ottoman soldiers who had climbed over barricades or entered the city through the Kerkoporta, or postern gate, routed the Venetian garrison at the imperial palace, which they then pillaged. Gold, silver and jewels, books and relics, household decorat ions, marble…nothing anywhere was left untouched. The bazaar as well as many larg e buildings and homes were almost totally ransacked. Houses that once may have loo ked livable were trashed beyond recognition.

Not even libraries were spared. What happened to each book was decided by its cover rather than its contents. Those that appeared salable were set aside and bundle d, while most of the ones that looked religious or questionable for any other reason were consigned to the flames. The surviving volumes were weighed in a scale and m arketed for pennies.

Those who were dead and buried were not safe either. Tombstones were vand alized

and graves were desecrated. Churches with many valuable sacred objects were

prime fodder for the occupiers. The elegant churches around the Blachernae Wall, th e Church of St. Georgios next to the Gate of Charisios, and the Monastery of St. Jo h a n n e s i n P e t r a a l l h a d c o m m u n i o n ve s s e l s o f go l d a n d s i l v e r w h i c h were ideal targets for looters. Crucifixes were ripped off spires and thrown onto the gro und after any jewels had been gouged out.

The Chora Church in the vicinity of the land wall (now the Kariye Museum;

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chora meant “suburban” or “countryside” in Byzantine Greek) was exceptional in that its mosaics and frescoes were left untouched. (Later, like the Hagia Sophia, it would b e painted grey and restored.) However, its gold and silver communion vessels were st olen and the Virgin Hodegetria14,

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, a miraculous object of popular adoration, wa

s hacked into four sections which were taken away separately. Originally in a church next to the old imperial palace, the painting had been moved to this location close t o the wall in order to boost the morale of soldiers in combat.

The occupiers also forced their way into monasteries and nunneries. Some you ng nuns chose to die as martyrs rather than suffer defilement. Most monks and elder nuns, however, observed the traditional Orthodox virtue of submissiveness and did n ot put up much resistance to being taken captive.

The Church of the Holy Apostles15,

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, which had been the city’s second

largest cathedral after the Hagia Sophia, managed to escape unscathed. Even its sacre d objects remained intact. Given its position on a major street, this historic edifice co uld have been a perfect target for pillaging, but the sultan forestalled major destructio n by posting guards in front.

The Hagia Sophia was closely associated with the erstwhile empire and was th us to be converted into a mosque. Perhaps the sultan thought that retaining a major c hurch such as the Holy Apostles would be symbolic of freedom of faith. Not long af terwards, it was designated as the Greek Orthodox headquarters.

Naval forces stationed in the Golden Horn entered the Gate of the Plateia and swept through the warehouses in the vicinity of the wall. With the em pire’s supplies already exhausted, there was no way its storehouses could meet their expectati ons.

Some of them ran into a line of women who had scampered from the street

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corner toward the Church of Theodosia.16 It was Tuesday, which happened to be the commemoration day of Saint Theodosia. Even though the sun had been up for quite a while, the candles still burned bright. Each believer inside and outside the church who was there for the occasion helped fill the garden and enclosure with fresh roses.

In this place alone did the scent of flowers overpower the smell of gunpowder.

But this did not last long. The raspy breath of the occupiers was heard all ar ound the church. Women who could not get into the church were herded into one pla ce and taken away in groups. Then they kicked the door open, took the worshippers alive, and made off with the valuables.

Other sailors ascended a hill, where they joined up with their comrades who had come up from the land wall. Together they looted the Monastery of Christ Panto krator (Pantokrator: the omnipotent ruler), the neighboring Monastery of Christ Pantepoptes (Pantepoptes: the all-seeing), and an auxiliary chapel. The remaini ng sailors entered the Horeia Gate and, after burning the market, moved on to the Hi ppodrome and the Acropolis.

Meanwhile, the naval forces that had been holding the line on the Sea of Ma rmara forced their way into the abandoned imperial palace and ransacked it inside an d out, leaving nothing but a ruin. They also totally devastated churches such as the magnificent Nea Ekklesia, which had been built almost six centuries before by Empero r Basil I. By sunset on the day of conquest, there was not much left to loot. In two m ore days the sultan would call a halt, but the plunderers did not seem to care. By the n they were busy dividing up and dealing out the spoils, and doing head counts of c aptives for the slave trade. A nation with a thousand years of culture had been wiped out in a single morning of madness.

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But there were areas that managed to escape the worst of the maelstrom. So me villages were early to raise the white flag of surrender and gave over the keys to their gates. The residents and defenders of Samatya and Stoudion by the port of Th eodosiusQR

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surrendered when they heard that the land wall had been breached.

They opened the gate for the Ottoman seamen under Hamza Bey, who had come ash ore at two small landings on the Sea of Marmara. As a result, their churches, their li ves and their valuables were untouched.

The Gate of Eis Pegas (in Latin “Porta Puteau�), now known as the Cibali Gate, in the area of the Golden Horn, was also voluntarily opened by the residents, and tr oops under Cebe Ali Bey entered without a fight. (The gate’s present name is derive d from the name of this commander. In 2003 a private group called the Fatih Associa tion placed a plaque on the gate to commemorate the 550th anniversary of the conque st.)

Churches in the Petrion and Ingun Panar districts on the inward side of the G olden Horn were likewise able to preserve the foundation of their faith. It was said t hat they would later show empathy for the people from other districts who had been taken captive by collecting money to redeem them from slavery.

There were also cases where the sultan was merciful to diehard resisters. One involved the Cretan shipmen who held three of the defensive towers (Basil, Leo and Alexius) in the Golden Horn Wall. It seems that they were unaware that the city ha d been occupied, and someone reported their resistance to the sultan. Praising them fo r their courage, he said they could pack their belongings and depart peaceably by sea.

The Cretans hesitated for a while but, once they were certain of the situation, they accepted the offer, came down from the wall, and set out for their homeland.

The Genoese autonomous district of Galata opened its gate without resistance

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and surrendered, and hence was not plundered. According to an agreement with the su ltan, the privileges that had been accorded them by the Byzantine emperor were ackn owledged on condition that they abide by the law and pay taxes, but Galata would n ot be recognized as a separate city-state. In addition, it was ordered that the walls an d towers be dismantled, and the Catholic church be converted into a mosque. It was further ordered that the Galata Tower, with its iron chain blocking entry into the Gol den Horn, be torn down immediately. The sultan would long remember the duplicity of the Genoese, who claimed neutrality while aiding Byzantium. Once in Ottoman ha nds, however, Galata Tower17 was turned over for use by an administrative superinten dent and the sultan’s garrison, effectively changing its purpose from external to intern al observation.

As for the number of citizens slaughtered after the fall of Constantinople, there is substantial variation depending on who reported it and when. However, Michael Kr itobulos and most other historians with credibility in this area put the figure at aroun d 4,000. This was approximately a tenth of the population, which could not be descri bed as a massacre of epic proportions. The number of fatalities was relatively low be cause the occupying forces found it much more profitable to take captives for sale as slaves than to smear their blades with the blood of those who did not put up strong resistance.

After the conquest of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II turned his sword inw ard.

He pursued a vendetta against court viziers, purging all officials judged to have

opposed or impeded the war effort or who gave aid and comfort to the enemy. Unq uestionably the first target was Grand Vizier Halil ÇandarlĹ Pasha. On June 18, 1453, t he sultan left Istanbul and four days later arrived in Edirne (Adrianople), whereupon he had Halil arrested and disentitled. Zaganos Pasha was appointed as his successor.

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(Same sources say the appointment went to Mahmud Pasha; the office of prime minis ter is also said to have been unfilled a year or so later.) Accused of treasonous collu sion with the Byzantines and of accumulating a fortune in bribes, Halil was subjected to torture and beheaded18 in August of that year. No memorial was allowed, and all his property was confiscated. These draconian measures probably had more of an uns ettling effect on the royal court than the sultan expected.

Except for Zaganos Pasha, Mahmud Pasha, and Ishak Pasha, most of the vizie rs from the time of Sultan Murad II were categorically down and out. Ironically, thos e who survived to serve in high positions were largely non-Turkish converts to Islam.

May 31, 1453 (Thursday) After the fall of the city on May 29, no one among the Byzantine citizens saw the e mperor again. Yet for a while they did not believe that he was dead. Or rather they did not want to believe it. As the second day wore on, however, the fact of the matt er became ever more evident. And such was the word from the palace, which was n ow under new management.

From Day 1, the sultan was most concerned about the fate of the emperor. S oldiers had brought in the head of the renegade Ottoman Prince Orhan, but what the sultan really wanted to see was the face on the severed head of Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. This was because of his belief that, if the emperor survived, the seed s could be planted for a retaliatory attack by sympathetic Christian nations of the We st or the frustration of his own ambitions for further expansion.

Some said he escaped, some said he was in hiding, and some said he died in battle, but all reports were unconfirmed. Loukas Notaras, the former Byzantine prime

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minister, was captured and interrogated, but he replied that he did not know because he and the emperor were not fighting in the same location. Annoyed as he was, the sultan ordered the army to issue an all-points bulletin to be on the lookout for the e mperor’s whereabouts, dead or alive.

Soldiers scoured the walls, the moats, the fields and the streams. In their sear ch for the emperor, they checked the clothing on dead bodies and even washed the b lood off their faces just to be sure. Some time later, two of the sultan’s infantry guar dsmen appeared saying they had killed and beheaded the emperor.

“Your Majesty, we have killed the emperor. We were in a rush for spoils, and left the body in a heap of other bodies by the fallen wall. A while ago we went ba ck for his head, and here it is.”

A cleanly washed head was laid out before the sultan. He summoned Loukas Notaras and other captive Byzantine officials and asked them to identify it.

“Look carefully and tell the truth. Is this your sovereign Byzantine emperor, o r is it not?”

After a close examination, Notaras said in a trembling voice, “Yes, it is. Ther e is no mistake. This is indeed the countenance of the emperor.”

Other Byzantine officials also exchanged glances and nodded. Once again the sultan questioned the soldiers who brought the severed head.

“Was there anything particular about the apparel and insignia?”

One of the soldiers seemed hesitant as he set out a slipper taken off the bod y’s foot. There was nothing special about the clothing and accessories, but there was an embroidered eagle on the slipper. Was he not fearful enough to take his slipper of f and throw it way? Notaras and the other officials saw it and confirmed that it was the traditional emblem of the emperor.

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The sultan was quite satisfied and rewarded the two soldiers generously. Then he ordered that the severed head be put on a pillar beside the Augustaion Square.19 After a time, it was to be stuffed and mounted before being sent for exhibition in th e palaces of the major Moslem countries.

Yet many of the common people of the Byzantine Empire did not believe the story that came out of the sultan’s camp. That was because no one had ever seen t he head displayed on the pillar in the square. And even if someone had seen it, ther e would be testimony that it was a face completely different from the countenance of the emperor. Therefore, the sentiment was that the story was politically motivated pl ayacting.

But among the commoners, there were other matters of concern in the empero r’s case involving a spate of rumors that no one knew were true or false.

They pri

marily concerned these points, on which they were guardedly hopeful: 

A body was discovered wearing a slipper bearing the eagle insignia. The sultan mandated burial in a secret place and in accordance with Byzantine imperial customs.



To avoid the humiliation of capture, the emperor asked several of his men on the battlefield to take his life. Since none could muster the courage to do so, he cast aside all symbols of sovereignty in order not to be identified. Then, with sword uplifted, he made a final heroic lunge into enemy lines.



Knowing the city had fallen, the emperor said “I have no more reason to live” and made a dash for the enemy position, dying in a blaze of glory. He fought courageously to the end as a worthy emperor, choosing “death as the path to life.” He was martyred together with his city, shrouded by broken bits of its wall.



Standing alone, the emperor rode a white horse into battle. Not until he had killed sixty of the sultan’s infantry guardsmen and ten of his commanders did he break his

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spear and sword. Looking heavenward, the emperor cried out, “Lord almighty! Take mercy on Thy people and take pity on Constantinople!” At that moment, the blade of an enemy soldier cleaved the air and the emperor’s head arose to the heavens.



The emperor is, in fact, alive and in a place no one can find. Holy Mother Mary sent an angel down to breathe life into the dying monarch.

Much of this is material for an elegy. Some of it sounds wholly exaggerated,

like the stuff of legends. Speculative and dubious at best, these ideas did not emerg e until 200-400 years after the emperor’s death. Perhaps they are indications of the By zantine people’s respect and affection for him in his lifetime. Given the lack of credi ble evidence, however, the details of his death remain mysterious.

Meanwhile, the Byzantines wondered about the whereabouts of Ca rdinal and Papal Legate to Constantinople Isidore of Kiev, who had undertaken responsibility for the defense of the Acropolis. A credible source claimed to have seen him and gave this account: “Assisted by loyal subordinates, the cardinal doffed his purple cape and swapp ed clothing with an ordinary soldier. The Latin soldier who took his place laid low b ut was soon caught by the Ottomans and beheaded. Taken as a trophy, the head suffe red the indignity of being stuck on a spear and paraded through the streets. Later the cardinal was taken prisoner, but survived only by having made a sacrificial lamb out of this unwitting soul.20

June 1, 1453 (Friday) As confusion abated, new systems were put in place. As if following a carefully craft ed script, the sultan moved to establish the rule of law and order in the empire he h

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ad conquered.

The sultan made repeated pronouncements assuring the citizens of personal saf ety, religious freedom, and property rights within certain limits. Gradually, the city set tled down. People who had hidden to avoid being spotted by Ottoman soldiers came out into the streets again and went back to their homes. Even some who had escaped from Constantinople began returning to their families in the city. To keep the peace, he forbade excessive actions by the soldiery and imposed control over traffic in the city.

For the Hagia Sophia, a total makeover was in store. Its name was changed t o Ayasofya, and minarets would quickly reach skyward in place of the cross that had sat atop its dome. Almost in a twinkling of an eye the church was fitted out as a m osque and opened for worship on Holy Friday, with an imam leading prayers from th e minbar (a stepped pulpit on the right side of the mihrab). The mihrab, a circular n iche indicating Mecca as the direction of prayer, was also rushed to completion.

Wearing a turban adorned with black and white crane feathers, the sultan asce nded the pulpit.

He lifted his sword and raised his voice, saying: “Praise be to Alla

h, the Lord of the world!�

Those in attendance suddenly raised their hands as well, and let out a loud c heer. With this, the Ayasofya was reborn as the Ulu Cami, or the Grand Mosque, of Istanbul. Instead of hymns, it now reverberated at intervals five times daily with the azan (call to prayer) chanted by the muezzin.

More than anything else, the citizens were worried about being able to keep t heir faith. They were all the more disturbed by rumors of Ottoman soldiers ridiculing the Orthodox religion by using vestments stolen from churches as horse blankets and by putting Turkish hats on crosses and parading them around their camps. But, as h

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e had promised, the sultan recognized Orthodox believers and retained some of their churches.

As part of the sultan’s program for post-war rule, he supported the monk Geo rgios Scholarios Gennadios21 as the new ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. Genn adios was adamantly opposed to union between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Cath 32

olic churches.

At first hesitant, Gennadios was persuaded by the sultan to accept the appoint ment as ecumenical patriarch. His formal installation as Patriarch Gennadios II on Janua ry 6, 1454, was held in accordance with Byzantine tradition. Substituting for the emper or, the sultan crowned him with a mitre, presented the instrument of appointment and a crucifix, and proceeded to read out a special decree in his behalf: “May good fortune be with thee… . None shall cause thee distress or

di

sturbance. Thou shalt be subjected neither to unjust demands nor to oppression. Taxes shall be wholly exempt. Thou shalt lead the bishops, and be

endowed with all

privileges like unto previous ecumenical patriarchs... .”

After the ceremony, Gennadios mounted the steed bestowed by the sultan and set out for the Church of the Holy Apostles. As the Hagia Sophia was to be a mos que from this day forward, this other church was to serve as the substitute headquart ers of the Orthodox faith. Although his role was largely symbolic, Patriarch Gennadios II had nonetheless become the spiritual leader of the entire Greek community. As such, he wrote a book on the Orthodox faith and presented it to the sultan.

Meanwhile, the sultan kept an eye on the prisoners and picked the ones he w anted. They were primarily from the upper echelons of Byzantine society and officiald om. The sultan was relatively lenient toward them. Most noblewomen received a gift of money so they could be restored to their families and were promptly released. Ha

ndsome youths and beautiful maidens, however, were retained for the harem. 22 The ot her young men were also freed if they renounced their religion. They were also offer ed commissions in the Ottoman army, but only a very few accepted.

It was for the Italian prisoners that the sultan reserved his harshest treatment.

He was particularly unforgiving toward Venetians, who had raised the flag bearing th e Lion of St. Mark atop the city towers, and fought actively on behalf of the Byzant ines. Girolamo Minotto, the bailo of Venice in Constantinople, was executed along wi th his son and seven commanders. Also beheaded were Don Pedro Giuliano, the admi nistrator of Catalonia, together with four or five of his people. Archbishop Leonardo of Chios, discovered and captured alive, was held in an Ottoman camp until

he was

ransomed by Genoese merchants who rushed over from Galata to save their country men. (Six weeks after the fall, Leonardo left an emotional yet self-serving record of his experiences in Chios.)

On exempting Grand Duke Loukas Notaras and two or three Byzantine courtie rs from prisoner-of-war status, the sultan released them with courtesy. However, Notar as was inconsolable. This is briefly what the chroniclers had to say: Each of the captives fared differently, but Grand Duke Loukas Notaras ended up worst of all. After the conquest, the sultan was going to appoint Notaras to the post of governor-general. But the sultan was alerted that he was untrustworthy because of his dual citizenship in Genoa and Venice and the fact that he had vast holdings in Italian banks. Yet the sultan was eager to give him a try. At a banquet, someone piqued the sultan’s interest by saying that Notaras had a fine-looking son aged 14. The sultan immediately sent a eunuch to the Grand Duke’s home, ordering that the son be brought forth. Notaras had already lost two sons in war and could not bear to see another one suffer.

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He therefore refused to let him go. The sultan then sent military police to go after Notaras, his son, and his son-in-law. As Notaras continued to resist, the sultan ordered all three of them beheaded. To spare his son and son-in-law the sight of his beheading, Notaras asked that they be taken first. Afterwards, without hesitation, he bowed down before the executioner’s blade. The next day, nine more Greek noblemen met a similarly tragic end, but that was not the end of the tragedy. Notaras’ widow, who had suddenly lost her husband, son, and son-in-law, was to be dragged off to Edirne as a captive for sale as a slave, but took ill on the way and was buried where she died.

The case of Giorgios Phrantzes,23 on the other hand, was entirely different. He had been an intimate of the emperor and was taken captive the day the city fell. Yet he, in particular, seems to have elicited special treatment from the sultan, who commanded that he stay in the Palace of Blachernae. To find out why, we need to take a closer look.

On June 1, the fourth day after the conquest, the sultan attended the Islamic Friday worship service at the Ayasofya (the former Hagia Sophia) and then looked around the city, surveying its fortifications and palaces. There was barely a trace of its thousand-year glory.

The scars of war were deep. Wrecked walls, a ruined public square, scorched churches, burned-out marketplaces, weeds and other signs of neglect made it look less like a single city than a hodgepodge of deserted villages. The sultan ordered the quick repair and restoration of damaged buildings and facilities.

At dusk, the sultan headed toward his camp outside the city. After he had eaten and his attendants were dismissed, he withdrew a key from his breast pocket. With it, he opened a strongbox and carefully removed a scroll. It was a disclosure handwritten three days earlier

by Phrantzes, the emperor’s confidant.

On the day Constantinople fell, he was captured near Pēgē Gate (Silivri Kapı) and

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brought before the sultan.

“What has become of the emperor?”

“I know not.”

“If thou knowest not, then who would know? Thou wast the confidant of the emperor 35 and close to Halil as well. Whether thou keepest thy head or not shall be decided here and now. Art thou ready?”

With his life on the line, it occurred to Phrantzes that the emperor kept a journal. It was said to be hidden in a secret vault, but the problem was the time it would take for the sultan’s men to find it. But perhaps it was already found. In that case, the journal should be intact and in the safe. It could have been lost or burned without the sultan having seen it. That had to be prevented. At the moment a Janissary was flailing a scimitar over his head, Phrantzes shouted out: “Wait. Take this key. It is the key to the vault, given to me by the emperor today at dawn. And take my head if you will, but I wish that my lord’s journal be left for future generations.”

“What? Thou sayest he had a journal?”

Having halted the execution, the sultan arose from his seat. With Phrantzes in front of him, they approached the vault to confirm whether or not it held the emperor’s journal.

The palace courtyard was already overgrown with weeds, and the emperor’s living quarters were a mess. At the time of the fall, sentries were to have been posted. They were a bit late, because this was the first place the occupiers broke into.

Everything had been turned upside down and inside out. Nothing was undamaged,

not even the doors, tables, and chairs. Here and there on curtains, clothing, balustrades and other furnishings were signs of fresh blood. It must have been agonizing for Phrantzes, whose emperor was gone without leaving even the tiniest trace.

He paused for a while. In fact, there was a secret passage beneath the emper or’s bed that led to the vault, but he deliberately took a longer way because he want ed to sense the presence of the emperor while seeing just a bit more of the royal ho usehold.

“Now this is just ridiculous,” the sultan snapped at Phrantzes impatiently.

“But here we are,” Phrantzes said.

Phrantzes entered a room that had already been ransacked by Ottoman soldiers with axes and iron hammers. Outwardly the room did not look different from others in the palace.

Phrantzes felt the wall. Moving the edge of a torn curtain aside, he kept feeling the wall until he reached an inconspicuous tile which he removed to reveal a small opening. This was the keyhole.

The sultan grabbed the key out of Phrantzes’ hand and opened the door to the vault.

Filled with curiosity and expectation, the guards were wide-eyed but instantly disappointed.

Even the sultan seemed to appear surprised. Is this all the Byzantine Empire had to hide?

There was no sign of tampering, yet the little vault itself was completely empty.

Forget gold, silver and other treasure, there wasn’t even so much as a copper coin. There was just a bundle wrapped with purple silk with something square inside. Inside the wrapping was a small parchment-bound volume. After dismissing his attendants, the sultan opened the cover.

Written in Greek on the first page were these lines and a signature: “Should it come to pass that our much beloved Byzantine Empire be

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vanquished by invading foes, it is our hope as emperor that what is recorded in this diary shall forever remain as testament to the greatness of its spirit as a nation and to the nobility of the souls of its people as our subjects.”

Dragasēs Palaiologos Heaving a heavy sigh, the sultan closed the cover and put the journal back inside the vault. He locked it and placed the key in his breast pocket.

“Move the vault to my camp.”

The guards took it out with care. After it was moved to the sultan’s encampment, the sultan ordered the door to be secured.

Three days later, on the first day of June, the sultan was sitting alone in his camp as he opened the journal. Since he had studied Greek when younger, reading it presented no problems. The diary began with this sentence: “On Monday the day after Easter, the enemy came…”

From there, he carried on with his perusal of the emperor’s diary, scrutinizing it without interruption until finally finishing it at 10:00 o’clock at night.

The sultan sat motionless for quite some time. At about midnight, he parted the screen of his tent, gazed up to the sky, and muttered the emperor’s prayer: “O, lord Yahweh! Dost Thou not hearken unto the hooves of the enemies’ horses? I earnestly beseech Thee one last time. Holy Mother Mary, pray unto Thy sacred empire from the swords and spears of the entrusted unto the Lord, take Thou pity upon

the Lord to protect

heathens. With all things being

us and take us unto Thy bosom. Amen.”

37

Then he vowed, “As sultan of the Ottoman Empire with its dreams of world conquest, I shall write memoranda in response to the emperor’s diary to correct his misjudgments and reveal his foolishness. An exposition of the faith and philosophy that led these two empires to battle shall thus be transmitted to future generations with no additions and no subtractions.”* *

Although the sultan’s memoranda date from the end of the war, in this book they are

correlated with the emperor’s journal and occasionally take the form of diary entries in order to highlight historical factuality and enhance dramatic tension.

The sultan bid a page to summon Phrantzes, who was waiting in a nearby tent. This is what was said: “Phrantzes, you scoundrel! It was Thy stupid faithfulness that drove the emperor to death and this city to ruin. Lest my subjects fall into that kind of idiocy and ignorance, I shall write memoranda of my own. All the world shall know why this city had to be conquered.

I

shall keep Thy head intact until my story is told.”

Once again, after Phrantzes was dismissed, the sultan unfolded the emperor’s journal and spread it out. On examining the first entry, dated April 2, 1453, he yelled out for the page.

“Bring me good writing materials for my memoranda.” Soon the page brought blank parchment and the sultan penned the first sentence. This is how his memorada began: “It was a humble beginning in the year 1299, when our forefather Osman I f ounded the nation…..”

38

pp. 80-93

April 2, 1453 (Monday) 39 The Emperor’s Journal Monday, the day after Easter. The enemy has come. It has been known for over a m onth already that the Ottoman army has been advancing on Constantinople along vari ous routes. Even so, it is fortunate that the holy Easter

mass of the Orthodox faith

could be conducted yesterday without incident. Both myself and our subjects, howev er, were uneasy throughout the special Easter worship services.

Advance parties of Ottomans have been spotted for the first time today in fro nt of the city walls. We sent a squad outside the gate to take preemptive action. Sev eral of the enemy were killed and there were many casualties. However, even more Ottoman troops gradually arrived in front of the walls to join up with the advance pa rties, so we hastened to call the men back inside. We destroyed the moat bridge and the bascule bridge, and all the city gates were secured. Further, we directed the Gen oese sapper Bartolomeo Soligo to install an iron chain across the entrance to the Gol den Horn to serve as a boom. (See pp. 107, 399-401.)QR

Code 10

From the time the Rumeli Hisarı24 (Rumeli Fortress, see pp. 341-347)QR

Code 7

was built, across from the Anadolu Hisarı (Anatolian Fortress), an enemy attack on Constantinople has been anticipated. Despite all pretenses to the contrary, Rumeli Hisarı was clearly conceived as a forward base for that purpose. But even the moderate an d balanced perspective of seasoned ministers such as Halil Ç andarlı Pasha proved po

werless to temper the ambitions of this rash upstart of a ruler.

After Rumeli Hisarı was completed, I was sometimes troubled by hearing thin gs. More than once in the quiet hours of dawn, I would jump up from my bed with a start, thinking the wind had carried the sound of the Ottoman muezzins chanting t he azan 160 kilometers away in Adrianople (Edirne).

They belong to a barbarian tribe. This was evident in our experience of the Hexamilion attack in 1446 and during the construction of Rumeli Hisarı last year. Su bjecting the innocent to savage beatings, they are no better than stampeding beasts. A fleeting moment in the hands of these heathens is all it will take to devastate the ti meless Christian civilization of Constantinople. We must be prepared to die honorably and protect the empire from their beastly claws.

Regardless what anyone says, we are the agent of God and the sovereign of t he Byzantine Empire, symbolizing divine rule and centrality. As long as we dwell alo ng the Bosphorus, we believe any Byzantine subject will always have a sense of prid e in being a part of a Christian nation. This is quite apart from mundane riches and glory.

Let us have courage. The Lord said He will not test us beyond our ability to endure. In the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28 in the year 312, Constantine the Great is said to have been assured of victory when he beheld a bright cross abov e the sun, after which the severed head of Roman Emperor Maxentius (reigned 306-3 12) was hung high on the tip of a spear. The cross was supposedly emblazoned with the words In hoc signo vinces, meaning “In this sign, thou shalt prevail.” Afterwards he moved the imperial capital to Constantinople, declaring, “We have followed the mandate of God.”

40

Holy Mother Mary, wherefore dost Thou burden us with such travail? Upon t he day commemorating the Lord’s resurrection, heathens have raised their swords and spears and ridden forth upon their horses. We beseech Thee to show unto us a mira cle. This city was built by the will of God and its people serve the Lord. Do Thou protect them from the fangs and claws of the beasts. On the day before his eternal r est, Constantine the Great was baptized. Doffing his purple robe and donning garb of pure white, it was thus that he repaired unto the bosom of the Lord. We also shall l ay all things down before the Lord in trust. Ten emperors before us have borne the name Constantine and have been cherished by the Lord. Have Thou compassion upon Thy lamb, Holy Mother Mary, and do Thou make entreaties unto the Lord on our be half.

April 2, 1453 (Monday)

[March 22, 857 on the Islamic Calendar25]

The Sultan’s Memorandum It was a humble beginning. Osman I, the father of our nation, broke free from the d omination of the Seljuk Turks and established a new Ottoman state in the northwest of Anatolia. At that time, however, as the smallest of the ten feudal principalities that comprised the Seljuk Empire, it was only a borderland tribal entity of little account.

Osman occupied a border area near Constantinople and at first had good relati ons with the Byzantines. We desired peace and security. From spring until autumn we had a nomadic life in the hills and dales, then in winter we would come down to t

41

he villages and trade with the Byzantine folk. There were also times when we protect ed them from external attack.

But the Christians are despicable. They are not to be trusted. The Crusaders c ontinually brought war upon us. And they fight each other day and night over religio n, even though they say they believe in the same God.

That was the sin that led to

this war, a jihad for righteousness.

O, emperor, you must clearly recall the Fourth Crusade. The Christians who were supposed to be protected were instead made the objects of the Crusaders’ intimi dation and dissipation. Were those Christians not sacrificed by your own people? (The Fourth Crusade, from 1204 to 1261, overran Constantinople and established a Latin kingdom.)

And, more than once, did they not break truce agreements that they them

selves wanted? As soon as I was inaugurated for the first time as sultan nine years a go, you held me in contempt because of my youth (12) and instigated an attack on u s by Karaman from the east. (Karaman was a principality in south-central Turkey, nor th of the Taurus Mountains.) Breaking a 10-year truce agreement even before the ink was dry, they called up a crusade, crossed the Danube, and attacked us. That was th e Battle of Varna.26,

QR Code 22

The battle was started and lost by you Christians. They

acted like despicable hypocrites, and their faith was nothing like what I had heard a bout from my mother when I was young. The clear difference between us is that we keep our promises, and you do not.

To reiterate, this war was brought on by yourselves. With vigilant hostility, yo u were looking for a chance to attack us. You incited neighboring countries to join t he crusaders in violating our territory. In addition, Byzantium gave political asylum to those disaffected with us. And it is as clear as day that in the future you will inflic

42

t any harm, be it large or small, upon our Ottoman Empire. Therefore, this is a war for our right to defend ourselves, and an Ottoman counterattack against Byzantine pol icies of deception. We shall no longer put up with intolerable actions committed agai nst us in the name of the Crusades, and severe chastisement shall await any and all who would pose a threat.

43 The conquest of Constantinople was presaged by the ambitions for world hege mony long cherished by the Ottoman Empire and its successive sultans. The empire’s founder and first sultan (Osman Ghazi, reigned 1299-1326) made this evident from t he first year, when he encroached upon Byzantine territory. My great-grandfather (Bay ezid I, the fourth sultan, reigned 1389-1402) and my late father (Murad II, the sixth sultan, reigned 1421-1444 and 1446-1451) were particularly ambitious in that regard. I believe it was with this long-term vision in mind that my father had me rigorously educated and trained by contemporary masters of statesmanship, scholarship, and marti al arts.

In the hadith27, it is recorded: “Kostantiniyye (referred to as Constantinople be low) must be conquered. How magnificent must be the commanders and soldiers who conquer that city.� So it is. Just as there is but one sun in the sky and but one Go d in Heaven, there must be but one sovereign ruler in this world. That is to be me.

O, aged emperor, look reality in the face! Constantinople is a sunset city. The downfall of the Byzantine Empire is but a matter of time. The empire is a dying h orse surrounded by masses of beasts and ravens drawn to its smell. The weak fall pr ey to the strong. Siege, assault, and a sudden choking of its lifeline are the destiny o f this city. If not done by me, then someone else will do it.

But if the Byzantine Empire falls to someone other than us, there will never

be peace. That is because others may be scoundrels who have neither the will nor th e way to keep the peace.

This is a task that only I, having received the revelation of God, can do. Do es anyone call me a rash upstart? I have seen more sunrises than Alexander the Grea t, and I have far more men at arms that he did. As sultan, I am prepared. In my chi ldhood and youth, I learned of the world under excellent teachers and had experience at affairs of state and in warfare as well.

Twenty-one is the age by which there is a sufficiency of learning from books and in the comprehension of universal principles. Scholars and specialists, each the most capable in their fields, acted as my personal tutors. Science and philosophy, astr onomy and astrology, Islamic and Greek literature. Nothing was omitted. (See pp. 351 -356.)

The entire world is unequal to my ambition. In accordance with the revelation of the Prophet, I shall concentrate on world conquest. I believe my late father name d me after the Prophet Muhammad because it was his wish that I carry forth this hol y war. It is something that can be done only by one who cherishes culture and civili zation. O, emperor, worry not. It is not to destroy civilization that we have come. W e have come here so that a more brilliant civilization can flower above the existing o ne. Good stock makes for good grafting.

So now is the beginning. Your men killed the men I sent as advance parties.

I will not forgive that. It shall be punished a hundred fold, nay, a thousand fold.

Allah, vouchsafe unto this young Sultan Mehmed the strength and the courage to fulfill the mission of the Prophet Muhammad. Glory be to God!

44

April 6, 1453 (Friday) The Emperor’s Journal The enemy’s attack has begun. The firing of the large cannons signaled the start of t he war. How many28 do they really have? Booms louder that I imagined have shaken our foundations. But we have an impregnable fortress. In the thousand years since b eing built, it has not been breached even once. Why then is it that the signs are inau spicious and I have feelings of foreboding?

It was yesterday, April 5, that the enemy leader Sultan Mehmed II arrived, ab out an hour before sunrise. He is no more than 21 years of age. A greenhorn 27 yea rs my junior.

But let us not look lightly upon him or view him with contempt. Since his y ears of childhood and youth, he has served as governor-general of Amasya and Manis a and has been well groomed for the succession. In August of 1444, at the age of 12, he became the youngest sultan in Ottoman history, but was displaced by his father t wo years later. Then in February, 1451, upon his father’s death, he once again ascend ed the throne.

First to myself and then to the other sovereigns of Europe, Mehmed II was j ust a rash upstart. Later, once we saw his outrageous and incomprehensible behavior, our view of him changed. In our estimation, he now counts as a serious troublemaker who is capable of anything. Secret agents planted inside the Ottoman palace have fr equently sent us danger signals to that effect.

Mehmed II was in many ways a figure in marked contrast to his father Mura

45

d II, who was possessed of considerable gentlemanliness. Although Murad also had hi s eyes and hands on Constantinople, he was gentle by nature and preferred peace inst ead of war. He pulled no punches when it was necessary to defend his own country, but he did not undertake any unjustified ventures. He tried to show good faith in ob serving treaties concluded with Christian countries.

46 Although he exacted full retribution when the Christian countries violated treati es and broke their promises, he was also a man who knew how to put down his sw ord if the losers sent an emissary seeking peace. There was little in the way of griev ances among the peoples of his own dependencies or of Byzantium. He was relativel y impartial and conscionable. He knew how to issue mature judgments. At the minim um, he showed a reasonable and amicable attitude to Christianity and to Christians. H e was essentially a different kind of person from his scoundrel of a son.29 Mehmed II has meanwhile sent several deputations demanding peace on condit ion of surrender. But a crow can never befriend a hawk. I am all too familiar with t heir foul ploys and ambitions. Even if we can give ground on other things, Constanti nople is the one thing that is out of the question. It can absolutely not fall into ene my hands or beneath heathen jackboots.

How strong is the enemy in terms of manpower? 30 After first hearing the gall oping horses of the advance party on April 2, the number has been swelling day and night at a geometric progression. According to reports, it ranges anywhere from 70,0 00 to 300,000. In the past few days, the enemy’s tents have been springing up like mushrooms after the rain. It’s as if the horizon is covered with the horns of the devi l. At night it becomes a huge city that never sleeps. Just as an estimate, it seems the y have more tents than we have people.

In the meantime, do not our Byzantine forces31, including the Genoese and Ve netian allies, add up to seven to eight thousand at the most? Common people residing outside the city have been called in, but still we are far from the enemy headcount.

Adding in the women and children, we are no more than 50,000.

Even if we mobili

ze to the maximum, the number is not enough to cover the entire length of the city walls (20.8 kilometers). It’s beyond the soldiers’ ability to even cover the land walls (6.4 kilometers).

What, oh what, has become of all the territory of the once-flourishing empire?

Had the plateaus of Anatolia had not been taken by the Ottoman Turks, it should n ot have come to this. Once the main source of men and provisions for the army, An atolia has now become Ottoman territory. I suppose a considerable number of the ene my deployed in front of the walls are from there.

But we will definitely not say we are outnumbered. If we go to war armed with the conviction that one of ours can deal with a hundred of theirs, then I believe God will come to our rescue. You can die for the sake of survival, or you can surv ive in spite of the specter of death.

“And he said, ‘O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be unto you; be strong, yes, be strong!’” (Daniel 10:19)

47

The Sultan’s Memorandum How we have waited for this moment! I have been led to this city by intense anticip ation. At last our army has it completely encircled. O, ye brave men of mine, the pr oud Ghazi (Islamic warriors)! Ever victorious, you have come face to face with the g ates of Theodosios. Our foes are felled by your very presence, and they are awe-struc k by the brilliance of our encampment in the night season.

At the instigation of certain of my father’s intimates, I was removed as sultan after two years. I was in effect sent into exile to serve as governor-general of Mani sa, but not even for a moment did this sacred task slip my mind. The Battle of Kos ovo of 1448, in which I participated with my late father, and the Albanian expedition of 1450 further enkindled my ambition.

When I was restored to the throne upon the death of my father Murad II, my attention was unquestionably focused on the ultimate demise of Constantinople. Whet her awake or asleep, it was all I could think of. Like an island in the heartland of t he Ottoman Empire, it must be cast into the sea before we will be at ease. Only this will enable the building of a world empire. The peace and order of Islam as predict ed by the Prophet can be maintained. Constantinople is a “thorn in the craw.” Only a fter eliminating it can anything else be swallowed. And mark my word, it will be eli minated.

Bayezid I, my great-grandfather, was known popularly as Yıldırım (thunderbolt) in recognition of the lightning-fast mobility of his troops and the furious speed of hi s battles both in Europe and Asia. In the speed of my own world conquests, I also i ntend to be worthy of such a distinction.

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Everything has been prepared end-to-end and planned in meticulous detail. Unl ike under my late father Murad II, when just the land access was blocked, this time the sea lanes have been blocked as well. As long as the fortress of Rumeli Hisarı on the European side holds a sword over the Bosphorus, there is no way reinforcements can come in to the enemy side from the region of the Black Sea. On the diplomati c front, we have concluded treaties of friendship with countries that might otherwise i mpede our conquest.

For this day, we have developed new types of ordnance and assembled all ma nner of serviceable weapons and equipment. Since last winter, all munitions factories within our territory have been working nonstop every day. There has been a steady o utput of spears, swords, bows, arrows, guns, axes, helmets, armor, combat boots, shiel ds, and crossbows.

All types of military ships have been built for us at the experienced shipyards along the coasts of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. At the same time we have recruited skillful sailors, seamen and marine technicians from various places in Europ e and Asia.

I have paid particular attention to the development of siege weapons because I consider the greatest reason for the failure of previous sultans to conquer Constantin ople was the deficiency of weapons to knock the walls down. What they had for batt ering rams did not do the job. Therefore, a new supergun called the ‘Urban’ has bee n developed with the immense firepower needed to deal with what have been called t he impregnable Walls of Theodosios.

With considerable input of manpower and monetary resources, the huge supercannon was transported from Edirne to outside the walls of Constantinople. It took ab

49

out two months to get here. An advance team consisting of 50 technicians and 200 l aborers prepared the required roads and bridges for its passage. This new item in the Ottoman arsenal was loaded on 30 carts and dragged to this location by 60 head of cattle. Just to keep the carts steady on the roads required two thousand people.

On March 23 I left Edirne and, together with the last contingent, arrived at t he outer perimeter of Constantinople on April 5. It was from the naval base at Gelib olu (Gallipoli) and the entire expanse of Ottoman territory and its dependencies that my men converged on Constantinople. They came by land and by sea, on foot and o n horseback and on battleships. They were already in place by the time I got here. I ncluded among them were scholars and Moslem leaders who would do their part to b oost the men’s fighting spirit. They were over 80,000 strong, but must have looked more like 200,000 or 300,000 to the cowardly Byzantine emperor and his people.

Before the first attack, I sent an emissary to the Byzantine palace to advise t hat they surrender, but at the end of the day the addled emperor disregarded our gest ure of compassion. For that, the price shall be paid dearly in blood and in death.

There is no use to move now. You are completely surrounded, as helpless as rats dipped into poison. As long as you do not surrender, there is no way out for yo u alive. Not by sea, not by land, not even underground. Today is Friday, our Islamic day of rest. As our cannonades begin to shake heaven and earth, we embark upon t his holy war with a firm footfall. May glory be to God! There is no other god but Allah!

ENDNOTES: 4

Azab: Sent into battle ahead of regulars, these were an irregular local militia of l

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ight infantrymen. They were voluntary rather than mercenary, although they did seek t he spoils of war. In wartime they were exempt from taxes and also served as sappers.

They did not get along well with the Janissaries.

Bashi Bozuk: Irregular infantry whose name literally meant “head bashers,” they would charge enemy lines and in hand-to-hand fighting they dropped shields and swords to hit the foe on the head with marble clubs. To look more fearsome, they shaved their own heads except for the back and knocked out their front teeth. Instead of armor, they wore leather in the shape of unusual animals. Their wounded and scarred appearance inspired terror, which cleared the way for faster movement.

5

Janissaries: An infantry division whose name was derived from the words for “N

ew Army,” this was the sultan’s personal security detail. It was called the backbone o f the Ottoman forces and as such it was rigorously trained and tightly disciplined. Th eir hallmark was a white felt cap. Although it was initially comprised of young Chris tian captives, it was reorganized under Murad II. Christian families were required to donate their eldest sons to the army. This started in the Balkans then expanded to An atolia. Young men thus secured would be sent to Istanbul for reprogramming as devo ut Moslems devoted to the empire as their homeland, the army as their family, and t he sultan as their sovereign patron. If they were especially attractive or talented, they would fall under the Devshirme system for assignment as pages to the sultan or pos sible elevation to positions as government technicians or civil officials. Most, however, were placed with the sultan’s corps of bodyguards. They were brought up as Islamic warriors. They were provided with individual quarters in encampments but were not allowed to marry or indulge in alcohol. Leading a life of abstinence, they owed their obedience and loyalty solely to the sultan. From the seventeenth century, the Janissar ies became a political power unto themselves. They subverted traditional Ottoman offi

51

cialdom and frequently fomented rebellions that resulted in the deposition or assassinat ion of sultans. The Janissaries were instituted by Sultan Orhan in 1326 and abolished

by Mahmud II in 1826.

6

Greek Fire: A semi-fluid incendiary weapon similar in principle to napalm, suppose

dly invented in the mid seventh century by Kallinikos, a Syrian-born Greek architect.

It was fired through a tube or sometimes mixed with mud to form a solid round bo mblet that could be thrown like a grenade. It would ignite on impact, creating an int ense flame that could not be extinguished with water. It is thought to have consisted of sulfur, resin, naphtha, and potassium nitrate. As the precise formula including prop ortions of the various ingredients were closely guarded state secrets, there is no recor d and it remains shrouded in mystery. It was deployed in land, sea, subterranean and cave warfare, proving valuable in the defense of Constantinople. Initially it was used in the four-year rolling marine battle between the Arabs and Constantinople that last ed from 673 to 677. The Arab expeditionary forces set up a naval blockade of the B osphorus, putting a stranglehold on the Byzantine Empire. Unable to sustain the cumu lative losses due to the Byzantine use of Greek fire, they turned their fleet around an d retreated. When the Russian navy attacked Constantinople in 941, it too was annihil ated in the same way. Seeing this weapon for the first time, the Russians are said to have called it “lightning from heaven.�

7

Ĺžehzade Orhan: An Ottoman prince who fled to the Byzantine Empire out of fear for his life during the process of succession from Murad II to Mehmed II. His pater

nity and kinship with Mehmed remain uncertain. He is said to have been a grandson of Emir Suleyman (the fifth sultan, reigned 1402-1409) and a distant cousin of Mura d II (father of Mehmed II)

while others claim he was a nephew of Mehmed II, i.e.,

the son of his brother. As for his death, some say he committed suicide at the time

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of the fall of Constantinople while others say he was killed. Many chronicles indicat e that he disguised himself as an Orthodox monk and attempted to escape but was id entified, captured and beheaded on the spot.

8

There are several different views regarding the first gate (or wall) entered by the Ottoman army. This is inevitable considering that it was a transient event witnessed

from different vantage points. In this book we accept the view of Prof. Peridun of th e University of Istanbul. He maintains that the place was near the TopkapÄą in the Me soteichion Wall (now known as Millet Caddesi together with a roadway). Perigun says the soldiers who went over the ruined wall gained the upper hand over their Byzanti ne adversaries and opened the gate from inside.

9

Galata: A Venetian dependency situated on the north shore of the Golden Horn ac

ross from Constantinople. It was founded in 390 BCE when Celts from Northern Eur ope crossed the Mediterranean. Some say the name originates from the Greek word g alaktos meaning milk and referring to the white color of their skin while others claim it is related to calata, the Italian word for stairway. Venetians secured its autonomy i n 1267 and began settling there. Now it is called Galata or Pera, which is Greek for “the other side.�

10

Nicolo Barbaro: A physician and scion of a patrician family from Venice, he wa

s aboard the large galley under the command of Trevisano. He went to Constantinopl e in October, 1452. Knowledgeable and keenly observant, he left a diary of the battle to take and defend the city. This is regarded as a valuable resource written from the western point of view.

11

Giustiniani expired two days after escaping to the island of Chios aboard a galle

y. There are clear differences in the way he is evaluated. To some Genoese he was a n ill-starred hero, but to Greeks and Venetians he is viewed as a coward who ran aw

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ay from the breached defense lines and thus was a major contributor to defeat. Archb ishop Leonardo also criticized him as a poor leader who lost confidence and became dispirited at a decisive moment.

12

In later times, a legend arose regarding the martyrdom of the priests. When the

soldiers reached the altar, the priests are said to have taken the holy chalice into the sanctuary, whereupon the wall suddenly opened just long enough to allow their entry and then closed tightly behind them. The Greek Orthodox emperor was said to have promised earlier that they would be kept there safely until the Hagia Sophia is recon verted from a mosque to a church. Perhaps this legend is based on the fact that the nave and the rear of the archbishop’s residence were connected by an old passageway through which some of the priests could have escaped.

13

Enrico Dandolo: The personification of the Venetian Republic’s ambition and pros

perity. Born in 1107, he became Doge (governor-general for life) at the age of 85. It is said that he was blinded in 1172 under Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, who was a ngered by his preoccupation with the interests of Venice during the Constantinople ex pedition. According to another explanation, his vision was seriously impaired as a con sequence of a head injury. Despite his advanced age, he played the decisive role in t he sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and in the subsequent establis hment of a Latin Empire. As a result, the pope was so infuriated that Dandolo was e xcommunicated, but he could not be bothered because of his other concerns. Soon a papal pardon had to be issued. With murder and mayhem his business, Dandolo was able to excise three-eighths of Byzantine territory before dying in Constantinople in 1 205. Under the restored Byzantine Empire, Dandolo’s tomb in the Hagia Sophia was desecrated. The remains were thrown to dogs, and even they turned up their noses. A plaque engraved in large Latin letters still marks the former location of the tomb on

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the southeast side of the second gallery opposite the Deisis Mosaic.

14

Hodegetria: An icon or sacred image, the name of which means “She who sho

ws the way.” Holy Mother Mary is depicted holding her right hand toward the child Jesus held in her bosom. This is a pictorial representation of the Gospel of St. John Chapter 2 Verse 5: “His mother said unto the servants, ‘Do thou whatsoever He saith.’”

The infant Jesus

symbolizes ‘the true way to salvation’ while Mary’s extended hand symbolizes ‘the act of showing the way.’ According to Byzantine tradition, the icon was first painted by Saint Luke, the author of Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Luke. On seeing it, the Holy Mother is supposed to have said, “This painting shall bring my blessings forevermore.” Removed to Constantinople in the mid-fifth century, it became the archetype of Eastern Orthodox icons and a model for many other Hodegetria.

15

The Church of the Holy Apostles: Known in Greek as Agioi Apostoloi and in T

urkish as Havariyun Kilisesi, it was located on the street from Charisios Gate (present ly Edirnekapı or Adrianople) that ran to Ayasofya (the Hagia Sophia) and the old imp erial palace.

Originally built to house the tomb of Constantine I, it would later be t

he burial place of successive emperors and empresses. Even after the fall of Constanti nople, it was spared most of the destruction that befell other churches and was used as the seat of Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Gennadios II. After his appointme nt by Sultan Mehmed II, the body of an Ottoman soldier was found in the front cou rtyard. The patriarch felt uncomfortable and soon moved to the small Church of Pam makaristos (the present Fethiye Camii, the Mosque of the Conquest). This would be t he headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church for the next century. Even before the conquest, this church had been partially damaged by an earthquake and then collapsed as the result of a major temblor in 1461. From 1463 to 1471, as directed by Mehm

55

ed II, it was rebuilt as Fethiye Camii where the final resting places of himself and h is consort are located. May of 2012 marked the completion of a fairly faithful restora tion that took six and a half years, about the length of time it took to construct the original mosque.

16

The Church of Theodosia: Built in memory of Theodosia, who was martyred fo

r protecting a holy image at the time of the first iconoclastic persecution in the year 726. The location was along the Golden Horn, near the Byzantine Theodosia Gate (n ow known as Ayakapı). Byzantine architectural style is retained, and Turks refer to it as the Gül Camii or Rose Mosque. On May 29, Saint Theodosia’s day of commemoration, when the faithful gathered with roses in their hands, the Byzantine Empire collapsed. After the conquest, the Ottoman forces came to this church and, seeing the mass of roses, dubbed it the Rose Church. For quite some time it was rumored that the emperor was laid to rest in a coffin adorned with roses and buried at the foot of a column on the right side of t he nave.

17

Galata Tower: First built in 528 by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, it was reconstructed in

1348 by the Genoese colonists and renamed Christea Turris (Tower of Christ). There was another different tower known as Megalos Pyrpus (Great Tower) which was located at the entrance to the Golden Horn and had been a point of connection for the iron sea chain; it was destroyed in 1203 during the Fourth Crusade. Galata Tower has also been through a lot, including fires and earthquakes, thus necessitating a succession of renovations and reconstructions. The present tower stands on a site 35 meters above sea level and is 62.59 meters in height, or 66.9 meters including the ornament on top. In 1630 a man named Hezârfen Ahmed Ç elebi put on a pair of home-made wings and flew six kilometres from the top of tower across to Ü sküdar Hill on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. He is recorded as the first person in Turkish history to make such a crossing by air. The tower offers a 360º

56

panoramic view, taking in the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, the Sea of Marmara, the Golden Horn, and the entire span of Istanbul, both old and new. It remains as a silent testament to the land battle waged by Mehmed II for Constantinople and its subsequent centuries as the city of Istanbul.

18

Various sources give different dates for the arrest and execution of Halil Pasha.

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One is Mehmed the Conquerer and His Time by Franz Babinger, published in 1953 a nd marking the 500th anniversary of the conquest. He says Halil was arrested on the third day after the fall and was transferred to Edirne, where he was executed on July 10. Other sources record the arrest as occurring on the day after the conquest. For t his book, I have accepted the view Halil Inalc覺k presented in his paper Mehmed the Conqueror (1431-1481) and His Time, dated 1960.

19

The Augustaion: A great public square built by Constantine the Great on the mo

del of the ancient square of Byzantium. Situated at its eastern end were the Hagia So phia and the Senate. In 532 Emperor Justinian I had the Augustaion reconstructed, as it had been seriously damaged during the Nika Riots. The brass-clad Column of Just inian in the square was 50 meters high, about the same height as the Hagia Sophia, a nd on top was an equestrian statue of the emperor. The column survived the Ottoman conquest, but the statue was melted down in the early sixteenth century and shortly afterwards the column was destroyed, too.

20

Disguised as an ordinary soldier, Cardinal Isidore was soon captured. His identity

was unknown to the Ottoman soldiers, and he was sold cheap to Genoese merchants in Galata as a slave, only to regain his freedom shortly thereafter. In the clothing of a commoner, he traversed many places and had many experiences. While staying in Crete, he wrote five letters detailing the fall of Constantinople. Later he went to Rom e, where he made attempts to organize a crusade to extirpate the Ottomans, but failed

and died, disillusioned, in 1463. Most chroniclers have recorded that Isidore escaped from his post in the guise of a beggar’s rags, but this book tends to agree with Chedomille Mijatovich, who had a more reasonable description of his escape as a “com mon soldier.”

21

Georgios Scholarios Gennadios: Elevated by the sultan to the post of ecumenica

l patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church after the conquest. Although he had been a n adamant proponent of unifying the Greek and Latin churches in his earlier years, h e suddenly became an equally staunch opponent. This also put him in opposition to t he emperor, to whom he wrote: “If you insist on union, Greek Orthodoxy will suffer repeated schisms and ultimate annihilation. Should the Byzantine Empire be destroye d, it will be a fate decreed by God and a punishment meted out by Him to the Byz antine people.” When Constantinople was about to fall, Gennadios retreated to his cell in the Pantokrator Monastery.

One band of occupiers looted the building while anot

her took the monks captive and sold them into slavery. The sultan subsequently summ oned Gennadios, who by that time had already been sold to a wealthy Turkish house hold in Edirne. Mehmed dispatched a delegation to escort him back to Constantinople.

22

Harem: A Turkish variant of the Arabic word harīm, meaning “a forbidden place

or person.” It generally refers to palace concubines or the women of a household, in the sense of “an area forbidden to males.” Islam observes strict separation of the se xes. As it says in the Koran, “When asking something of your wives, it must be fro m behind a curtain. Wives may show their faces with impunity only to their parents, children, brothers and sisters, close relatives and female Moslems, and to their slave s.” The concept of a harem based on this teaching affected not just the wives of the Prophet, but Islamic society in general. While segregated in the harem, Medieval Isla mic women did participate in family and religious events, but eschewed outings excep

58

t for visits to the hamam (public bath). In royal and noble households, harem women were notably supervised and managed by eunuchs. Whether black or white, all eunuc hs were slaves. In the royal house, only the emperor could enter the harem, which w as under the thumb of the sultan’s mother (valide sultan). Among the women of the harem there was endless conflict involving jealousy and conspiracy. Harem customs in the Ottoman Empire became known to the rest of the world through visits by Europ eans and by reading “One Thousand and One Nights” (also known as “Arabian Night s”). With the abdication of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1909, the women who had bee n in the harem were returned to their homes, thus effectively abolishing it as an insti tution. One can catch a glimpse of what remains of the former harem when passing t he Gate of Felicity to the third courtyard at Topkapı Palace in Istanbul.

23

Georgios Phrantzes: Also known as Sphrantzes, he started out as the secretary of

Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and later served the succeeding emperor, Constantine XI, who was three years his junior. The emperor regarded Phrantzes as his closest friend and counselor, one to whom he could entrust all confidential matters. Although personally opposed to the union of the Eastern and Western churches, he deferred to the policy of his sovereign. After the fall of Constantinople, Phrantzes was taken captive and lived as a slave in the home of the sultan’s horse trainer. Eighteen months later he was able to buy his freedom with a loan from a Greek source. Meanwhile, the emperor’s godson and two goddaughters had been taken to the sultan’s palace. The younger girl fell ill in the harem and died, while the boy resisted the sultan’s desires and was killed. Phrantzes then entered a monastery where, as a monk, he wrote Chronicon Minus (Minor Chronicle) consisting of his recollections on the demise of the Byzantine Empire. More than an eyewitness account, his work provides an insider’s perspective that makes it a valuable contemporaneous resource. It

59

survives in original and expanded forms, but neither of them specify his whereabouts on the day of the fall, or the place where he was captured.

24

Rumeli Hisarı: A fortress built on the shore of the European side of the Bosph

orus. The Turkish word for Bosphorus is Boğaz, meaning ‘throat’ and referring to the fact that it is a narrow strait between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Rat her ominously, the sultan initially named this fortress Boğaz Kesen, or ‘Throat Cutter.’

25

The Islamic Calendar: The lunar calendar used in the Islamic world, also known

as the Muhammadan Calendar, the Hegira Calendar and, in Turkish, the Hicri Calen dar. It starts on July 7 of the year 622, the day the Prophet Muhammad fled persecut ion in Mecca and set out for Medina. This became the first day of the first month i n the first year of the new calendar. One year in this calendar is 10-11 days shorter than in the solar calendar, and every 30 years there are 11 intercalary years (when th e year has 355 days). For the sake of convenience in this book, however, the sultan’s memoranda are dated in the western calendar.

26

Battle of Varna: This occurred in November of 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulg

aria. The pope and the Byzantine emperor both thought this was a superb opportunity to strike a blow at the Ottoman Empire, but it backfired. Sixty-thousand troops unde r Sultan Murad II totally routed the 20,000 men of the Polish-Hungarian alliance (als o known as the ‘Varna Crusaders’) under Wladislaw III and János Hunyadi. Wladisla w was killed in action. The Islamic side viewed this battle as the last crusade.

27

Hadith: Literally ‘sayings,’ with reference to the body of recorded traditions of t

he life, words and actions of Muhammad. It is recognized by Moslems as second onl y to the Koran as an authoritative legal and doctrinal foundation.

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28

The recorded amount of cannonry mobilized by the Ottomans varies from one so

urce to another. Phrantzes says each of 14 heavy artillery companies had four cannon; Barbaro put it at nine companies. Montaldo said there were altogether about 200 can non. Mijatovich stated that there was a total deployment of 69 cannon including 56 o f medium caliber, 12 of large caliber, and one supergun known as the Basilica. Altho ugh Tetaldi mentioned that there were also 10,000 small guns, this is an exaggerated figure; Prof. Peridun estimates the actual number to have been approximately 500. Phr antzes, Doukas and Barbaro were as one in their testament that “never has there been artillery of such strength.” The artillery was completely in position as of April 11.

29

The emperor’s personal commentary on Murad II derives in large part from the

writings of the historian Michael Doukas. Unlike Mehmed, Murad did appear to be a humanist. One Ottoman record contains this anecdote about him: “Before the drought of 1450, when the siege of Kuruye was broken, an advisor proposed a wintertime m ilitary action. Whereupon Murad replied, ‘Even if you were to give me 50 such fortr esses, I would not trade one of my men for them.’” At that time, when the sultan h eld absolute power of life or death over his men, this was a highly exceptional and s ignificant statement to for him to have made.

30

The British historian Steven Runciman (1965) and Edwin Pears (1903) referred to

contemporaneous writers on Ottoman Turkish troop strength and came up with aggregate numbers. They figured 80,000 or less at the lower end and 400,000 or more at the upper end, respectively. Reference has also been made to these sources: Michael Doukas (over 400,000), Laonikos Chalkokondyles (400,000), Michael Kritobulos (300,000 excluding camp orderlies), Bishop Leonardo of Chios (300,000 including Janissaries), Georgios Phrantzes (262,000), Tetali (140,000 fighters plus 30,000-40,000 cavalry for a total of 200,000), Barbaro (150,000),

61

Czerula (80,000), Morterman (80,000), Babinger (maximum 80,000 on the assumption that it would have been impossible to obtain a greater number of fighters, given the population structure of the Ottoman Empire at the time). Most sources generally agree that there were 12,000 elite Janissaries. Contemporary Turkish scholars, however, believe the actual totals were much lower. As an authority in this area, Prof. Peridun estimates the number of regulars 62

at 40,000.

31

In late March of 1453, Emperor Constantine instructed Phrantzes to provide the

aggregate figures for all the city’s battle-ready personnel, including monks. The result s consisted of 4,983 Greeks and somewhat fewer than 2,000 foreigners. The emperor was astonished and ordered that the survey results be kept secret. Eyewitnesses have presented similar figures. Bishop Leonardo recorded 6,000 Greeks and 3,000 Italians.

Other recorders were Tetaldi (6,700), Dolphine (6,000-7,000), and Doukas (under 8,00 0). The twentieth-century historian Steven Runciman calculated the city had a defense force of 7,000.

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