Mehmed II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Mehmed II Ottoman Period |
|
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Preceded by Murad II Murad II |
Ottoman Sultan 1444–46 1451–81 |
Succeeded by Murad II Bayezid II |
Mehmed II (Ottoman Turkish: محمد ثانى Meḥmed-i sānī, Turkish: II. Mehmet), (also known as el-Fatih (الفاتح), "the Conqueror", in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmet) (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople, bringing an end to the medieval Byzantine Empire. From this point onward, he claimed the title of Caesar in addition to his other titles. Mehmed II is considered the most excellent commander, the most intelligent and the greatest sultan of the Ottoman Empire by various historians.
Contents |
[edit] Early reign
Mehmed II was born in Edirne capital city of the Ottoman state, on March 30, 1432. His father was Sultan Murad II (1421–51) and his mother Huma Hatun was a daughter of Abd'Allah of Hum, Huma meaning a girl/woman from Hum. When Mehmed II was 11 years old he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience, as per the custom of Ottoman rulers before his time. After Murad II made peace with the Karaman Emirate in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son Mehmed II.
During his first reign, Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne in anticipation of the Battle of Varna, but Murad II refused. Enraged at his father, who had long since retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote: "If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." It was upon this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army in the Battle of Varna in 1444. It is said Murad II's return was forced by Chandarli Khalil Pasha, the grand vizier of the time, who was not fond of Mehmed II's rule, since Mehmed II's teacher was influential on him and did not like Chandarli. Chandarli was later executed by Mehmed II during the siege of Constantinople on the grounds that he had been bribed by or had somehow helped the defenders.
[edit] Conquest of the Byzantine Empire
In 1451 Mehmed II reclaimed the throne upon his father's death. Two years later he brought an end to the Byzantine Empire by capturing its capital during the Siege of Constantinople.[1] After this conquest, he conquered the Despotate of Morea in the Peloponnese in 1460, and the Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia in 1461. The last two vestiges of Byzantine rule were thus absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Constantinople bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country; as the Ottoman state was internationally recognized as an Empire for the first time.
Some modern scholars believe that the following tale is merely one of a long series of attempts to portray Muslims as morally inferior, and point to the story of Saint Pelagius as its probable inspiration.[2] Steven Runciman recounts that during the siege of Constantinople Mehmed II promised his men "the women and boys of the city." Upon its conquest, he ordered the 14-year-old son of the Grand Duke Loukas Notaras be brought to him for his personal pleasure. When the father refused to deliver his son to such a fate he had them both decapitated on the spot.[3]. This story was originally recorded by Doukas, a Byzantine Greek living in Constantinople at the time of the fall of the city, but does not appear in accounts by other Greeks who witnessed the conquest. However, Doukas was frequently hostile towards Notaras, so there was no reason for him to praise his dignity; nevertheless, his hatred for the occupying Ottoman Turks and their Sultan could have been bigger.
Other explanations for this alleged departure from Mehmed II's nominal amnesty were that Loukas Notaras, a treasury official, had attempted to ingratiate himself with Mehmed II by retaining money from the Byzantine treasury as a gift for the Sultan. Mehmed II was neither impressed nor grateful, instead suggesting it should have been used for the defense of the city and viewed it as treason.
It is said that when Mehmed stepped into the Palace of the Caesars, founded over a thousand years before by Constantine the Great, he uttered the famous line of Persian poetry: "The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars; the owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab."
After the Fall of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of Roman Emperor, since Byzantium was the nominal succesor of the Roman Empire after the transfer of the capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 AD. Mehmed also had blood lineage to the Byzantine imperial family, as his predecessors like Sultan Orhan I had married Byzantine princesses. However, he was not the only ruler to claim such a title, as there was the Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, whose emperor, Frederick III, traced his titular lineage from Charlemagne who obtained the title of Roman Emperor when he was crowned by Pope Leo III in 800.
Reference is made to the prospective conquest of Constantinople in an authentic hadith, attributed to a saying of the Prophet Muhammad. "Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!"[4]
[edit] Conquests in Asia
 |
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
The conquest of Constantinople allowed Mehmed II to turn his attention to Anatolia. Mehmed II tried to create a single political entity in Anatolia by capturing Turkish states called Beyliks and the Greek Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia and allied himself with the Golden Horde in the Crimea. Uniting the Anatolian Beyliks was first accomplished by Sultan Bayezid I, more than fifty years earlier than Mehmed II but after the destructive Battle of Ankara back in 1402, the newly formed Anatolian unification was gone. Mehmed II recovered the Ottoman power on other Turkish states. These conquests allowed him to push further into Europe.
[edit] Conquests in Europe
With Anatolia secure and Constantinople as his capital, Mehmed II advanced into Europe. Mehmed II thought of himself as the heir to the Roman Empire and, as a result, adopted the title "Kayser-i-Rûm" (Roman Caesar) and invaded Italy in 1480. The intent of his invasion was to capture Rome and reunite the Roman Empire for the first time since 751, and, at first, looked like he might be able to do it with the easy capture of Otranto in 1480. However, a rebellion led by an Albanian named George Kastrioti Skanderbeg in Albania between 1443 and 1468 and later in 1480 cut into his military links, allowing a massive force led by Pope Sixtus IV (1471–84) to defeat and evict his army in 1481. He led successful campaigns against small kingdoms in the Balkans. Mehmed II advanced toward Eastern Europe as far as Belgrade, and attempted to conquer the city from John Hunyadi at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. He also came into conflict with his former vassal, Prince Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia in 1462 at the Night Attack. In 1475, the Ottomans suffered a defeat at the hands of Stephen the Great (1457–1504) of Moldavia at the Battle of Vaslui. In 1476, Mehmed II defeated the Moldavian army at the Battle of Valea Albă. His conquests led to the increase of the empire.
[edit] Administrative actions
Mehmed II amalgamated the old Byzantine administration into the Ottoman state, as he gathered Italian artists, humanists and Greek scholars at his court, kept the Byzantine Church functioning, ordered the patriarch to translate the Christian faith into Turkish and called Gentile Bellini from Venice to paint his portrait.[5] He was extremely serious about his efforts to continue the Roman Empire, with him as its Caesar, and came closer than most people realize to capturing Rome and conquering Italy. Mehmed II also tried to get Muslim scientists and artists to his court in Constantinople, started a University, built mosques e.g. the Fatih Mosque, waterways, and the Topkapı Palace.
Mehmed II's reign is also well-known for the tolerance with which he treated his subjects, especially among the conquered Byzantines, which was very unusual for Europe in the Middle Ages. Within the conquered city he established a millet or an autonomous religious community, and he appointed the former Patriarch as essentially governor of the city. However, his authority extended only to the Orthodox Christians of the city, and this excluded the Genoese and Venetian settlements in the suburbs, and excluded the coming Muslim and Jewish settlers entirely. This method allowed for an indirect rule of the Christian Byzantines and allowed the occupants to feel relatively autonomous even as Mehmed II began the Turkish remodeling of the city, eventually turning it into the Turkish capital, which it remained until the 1920s.
[edit] Details
It is claimed that Mehmed II spoke six languages when he was 21 years old (the age at which he conquered Constantinople).[6] After the fall of Constantinople, he founded many universities and colleges in the city, some of which are still active. Mehmed II is also recognized as the first Sultan to codify criminal and constitutional law long before Suleiman the Magnificent (also "the Lawmaker" or "Kanuni") and he thus established the classical image of the autocratic Ottoman sultan (padishah). Mehmed II's tomb is located at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul; the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is also named after him.
[edit] The Firman on the Freedom of the Bosnian Franciscans
"I, the Sultan Khan the Conqueror,
hereby declare the whole world that,
The Bosnian Franciscans granted with this sultanate firman are under my protection and I command that:
No one shall disturb or give harm to these people and their churches! They shall live in peace in my state. These people who have become emigrants, shall have security and freedom. They may return to their monasteries which are located in the borders of my state.
No one from my empire notable, viziers, clerks or my maids will breake their honours and will not give any harm to them!
No one shall insult, put in danger or attack these lives, properties, and churches of these people!
Also, what and those these people have brought from their own countries have the same rights...
By declaring this firman, I swear on my sword by the holy name of Allah who has created the ground and sky, Allah's prophet Mohammed, and 124.000 former prophets that; no one from my citizens will react or behave the opposite of this firman!"
This oath firman, which has provided independence and tolerance to the ones who are from another religion, belief, and race was declared by Mehmed II the Conqueror and granted to Angjeo Zvizdovic of the Franciscan Catholic Monastry in Fojnica, Bosnia Herzegovina after the conquest of Bosnia Herzegovina on May 28th of 1463. The firman has been recently raised and published by the Ministry of Culture of Turkey for the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman State. The edict was issued by the Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror to protect the basic rights of the Bosnian Christians when he conquered that territory in 1463. The original edict is still kept in the Franciscan Catholic Monastery in Fojnica.
This document, is the oldest human rights declaration, since the Cyrus cylinder. In 1971, the United Nations published a translation of the document in all the official U.N. languages. A replica of the Cyrus Cylinder has reportedly been on display at United Nations headquarters in New York City as a tribute to Cyrus' display of respect and tolerance. Mehmed II's oath was entered into force in the Ottoman Empire at May 28, 1463 which is 326 years before French Revolution at 1789, 485 years before UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 1948, 490 years before the European Convention on Human Rights at 1953, 513 years before the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 513 years before the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and 538 years before the Council of Europe’s Frame Work Convention for the Protection of National Minorities at 1995.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.abcgallery.com/list/2001july16.html
- ^ Andrews, Walter G.: The Age of Beloveds, Duke University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8223-3424-0
- ^ Runciman, Steven (1990). The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge University Press, 150–153. ISBN 0-521-39832-0.
- ^ Haddad, GF. Conquest of Constantinople (english). Retrieved on 4, 2006. Retrieved on August, 2006.
- ^ http://www.abcgallery.com/list/2001july16.html
- ^ Norwich, John Julius (1995). Byzantium:The Decline and Fall. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 413–416. ISBN 0-679-41650-1.
- Lord Kinross (1977). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise And Fall Of The Turkish Empire. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-688-08093-6.
[edit] See also
| Sultans of the Ottoman Empire | |
|---|---|
| Rise (1299–1453) | Osman I - Orhan I - Murad I - Bayezid I - Mehmed I - Murad II - Mehmed II |
| Growth (1453–1683) | Bayezid II - Selim I - Suleiman I - Selim II - Murad III - Mehmed III - Ahmed I - Mustafa I - Osman II - Murad IV - Ibrahim I - Mehmed IV |
| Stagnation (1683–1827) | Suleiman II - Ahmed II - Mustafa II - Ahmed III - Mahmud I - Osman III - Mustafa III - Abdul Hamid I - Selim III - Mustafa IV - Mahmud II |
| Decline (1828–1908) | Abdülmecid - Abdülâziz - Murad V - Abdul Hamid II |
| Dissolution (1908–1923) | Mehmed V - Mehmed VI |
