Fall of Constantinople

Fall of Constantinople
Part of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe
The siege of Constantinople (1453), French miniature by Jean Le Tavernier after 1455.
Date 6 April – 29 May 1453 (1 month, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) 41°01′48″N 28°56′06″E / 41.030°N 28.935°E / 41.030; 28.935 Result Ottoman victory Territorial changes Ottoman Empire annexes the remaining Byzantine territories with some exceptions; Constantinople becomes its new capital Morea, Trebizond, Theodoro and Epirus continue as Byzantine rump states until their conquests in 1460, 1461, 1475 and 1479, respectively
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Vassal: Serbian Despotate[note 1]	Byzantine Empire Genoese volunteers Venetian volunteers Papal States Kingdom of Sicily[3] Crown of Aragon (Catalan retinue) Orhan Çelebi loyalists
Commanders and leaders
Mehmed II Çandarlı Halil  Zagan Pasha Suleiman Baltoghlu (WIA) Karaca Pasha Hamza Bey Mahmud Pasha[4]	Constantine XI † Loukas Notaras  Theophilos Palaiologos † Demetrios Kantakouzenos  Giovanni Giustiniani (DOW ) Gabriele Trevisano (POW) Alviso Diedo (WIA) Gabriele Orsini del Balzo (DOW)[3][5] Cardinal Isidore (POW) Orhan Çelebi
Strength
Land forces: 100,000–130,000 in total[note 2] 45,000–50,000 Janissaries[citation needed ] 40,000 archers[citation needed] 40,000 infantry[citation needed] Various cannon and bombards Naval forces: 31 galleys 95 large row boats	Land forces: 7,000–10,000 professional soldiers 30,000–35,000 armed[7] 600 Orhan Çelebi loyalists[8] 200 archers[5] 200 archers[9] 200 Catalan retinue Naval forces: 26 ships 10 Byzantine 8 Venetian 5 Genoese 1 Aragonese 1 Anconitan 1 Provençal
Casualties and losses
200–18,000[10] (first day) Heavy: 15,000–50,000 (disputed)	4,500 killed in action (both military and civilian)[11][12][13] 30,000–50,000 civilians enslaved[14][15][16]

Part of a series on the
History of the Byzantine Empire
Preceding
Roman Empire Dominate
Early period (330–717)
Tetrarchy era Valentinianic dynasty ) Theodosian era Leonid era Justinian era Heraclian era Twenty Years' Anarchy
Middle period (717–1204)
Isaurian era Nikephorian era Amorian era Macedonian era Doukid era Komnenian era Angelid era
Late period (1204–1453)
Fourth Crusade and Latin rule Latin Empire Principality of Achaea others Byzantine successor states Nicaea Epirus/Thessalonica Trebizond Theodoro Palaiologan era Despotate of the Morea Decline of the Byzantine Empire Fall of Constantinople
Timeline
By topic
Art Government Economy Army Navy
Byzantine Empire portal
v t e

The fall of Constantinople, also known as the conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April.

The attacking

The conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire was a watershed of the Late Middle Ages, marking the effective end of the Roman Empire, a state which began in roughly 27 BC and had lasted nearly 1500 years. For many modern historians, the fall of Constantinople marks the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the early modern period.^[17][18] The city's fall also stood as a turning point in military history. Since ancient times, cities and castles had depended upon ramparts and walls to repel invaders. The Walls of Constantinople, especially the Theodosian Walls, were some of the most advanced defensive systems in the world at the time. For 800 years, the Theodosian Walls, regarded by historians as the strongest and most fortified walls in the ancient and medieval era, protected Constantinople from attack.^[19] However, these fortifications were overcome with the use of gunpowder, specifically from Ottoman cannons and bombards, heralding a change in siege warfare.^[20] The Ottoman cannons repeatedly fired massive cannonballs weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) over 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) which created gaps in the Theodosian Walls for the Ottoman siege.^[21][22]

The Byzantine Empire

Constantinople had been an imperial capital since its consecration in 330 under Roman emperor Constantine the Great. In the following eleven centuries, the city had been besieged many times but was captured only once before: the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.^[23] The crusaders established an unstable Latin state in and around Constantinople while the remainder of the Byzantine Empire splintered into a number of successor states, notably Nicaea, Epirus and Trebizond. They fought as allies against the Latin establishments, but also fought among themselves for the Byzantine throne.

The Nicaeans eventually

In the summer of 1452, when Rumeli Hisarı was completed and the threat of the Ottomans had become imminent, Constantine wrote to the Pope, promising to implement the union, which was declared valid by a half-hearted imperial court on 12 December 1452.^[31] Although he was eager for an advantage, Pope Nicholas V did not have the influence the Byzantines thought he had over the Western kings and princes, some of whom were wary of increasing papal control. Furthermore, these Western rulers did not have the wherewithal to contribute to the effort, especially in light of the weakened state of France and England from the Hundred Years' War, Spain's involvement in the Reconquista, the internecine fighting in the Holy Roman Empire, and Hungary and Poland's defeat at the Battle of Varna of 1444. Although some troops did arrive from the mercantile city-states in northern Italy, the Western contribution was not adequate to counterbalance Ottoman strength. Some Western individuals, however, came to help defend the city on their own account. Cardinal Isidore, funded by the Pope, arrived in 1452 with 200 archers.^[30] An accomplished soldier from Genoa, Giovanni Giustiniani, arrived in January 1453 with 400 men from Genoa and 300 men from Genoese Chios.^[35] As a specialist in defending walled cities, Giustiniani was immediately given the overall command of the defence of the land walls by the Emperor. The Byzantines knew him by the Latin spelling of his name, "John Justinian", named after the famous 6th century Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great.^[36] Around the same time, the captains of the Venetian ships that happened to be present in the Golden Horn offered their services to the Emperor, barring contrary orders from Venice, and Pope Nicholas undertook to send three ships laden with provisions, which set sail near the end of March.^[37] From the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily arrived in Constantinople the condottiero Gabriele Orsini del Balzo, duke of Venosa and count of Ugento, together with 200 Neapolitan archers, who died fighting for the defense of the capital of the Byzantine Empire.^[5]

Meanwhile, in Venice, deliberations were taking place concerning the kind of assistance the Republic would lend to Constantinople. The Senate decided upon sending a fleet in February 1453, but the fleet's departure was delayed until April, when it was already too late for ships to assist in battle.^{[38][page needed][39]} Further undermining Byzantine morale, seven Italian ships with around 700 men, despite having sworn to defend Constantinople, slipped out of the capital the moment Giustiniani arrived. At the same time, Constantine's attempts to appease the Sultan with gifts ended with the execution of the Emperor's ambassadors.^{[31][40][41][42][43][44][45]}

The Great Chain of the Golden Horn 

Fearing a possible naval attack along the shores of the

The Ottoman Sultanate and the Eastern Roman Empire in April 1453.

Strength

The army defending Constantinople was relatively small, totalling about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreigners.

The Ottomans had a much larger force. Recent studies and Ottoman archival data state that there were some 50,000–80,000 Ottoman soldiers, including between 5,000 and 10,000

Mehmed built a fleet (crewed partially by Spanish sailors from Gallipoli) to besiege the city from the sea.^{[51][page needed]} Contemporary estimates of the strength of the Ottoman fleet span from 110 ships to 430 (Tedaldi:^{[54][page needed]} 110; Barbaro:^[53] 145; Ubertino Pusculo:^[59] 160, Isidore of Kiev^[56] and Leonardo di Chio:^[60] 200–250; (Sphrantzes):^{[55][page needed]} 430). A more realistic modern estimate predicts a fleet strength of 110 ships comprising 70 large galleys, 5 ordinary galleys, 10 smaller galleys, 25 large rowing boats, and 75 horse-transports.^[61]

Before the siege of Constantinople, it was known that the Ottomans had the ability to cast medium-sized

Having previously established a large foundry about 150 miles (240 km) away, Mehmed now had to undertake the painstaking process of transporting his massive artillery pieces. In preparation for the final assault, Mehmed had an artillery train of 70 large pieces dragged from his headquarters at Edirne, in addition to the bombards cast on the spot.^[67] This train included Orban's enormous cannon, which was said to have been dragged from Edirne by a crew of 60 oxen and over 400 men.^[62][66] There was another large bombard, independently built by Turkish engineer Saruca, that was also used in the battle.^[63][64]

Mehmed planned to attack the Theodosian Walls, the intricate series of walls and ditches protecting Constantinople from an attack from the West and the only part of the city not surrounded by water. His army encamped outside the city on 2 April 1453, the Monday after Easter.

The bulk of the Ottoman army was encamped south of the Golden Horn. The regular European troops, stretched out along the entire length of the walls, were commanded by Karadja Pasha. The regular troops from Anatolia under Ishak Pasha were stationed south of the Lycus down to the Sea of Marmara. Mehmed himself erected his red-and-gold tent near the Mesoteichion, where the guns and the elite Janissary regiments were positioned. The Bashi-bazouks were spread out behind the front lines. Other troops under Zagan Pasha were employed north of the Golden Horn. Communication was maintained by a road that had been destroyed over the marshy head of the Horn.^[68]

The Ottomans were experts in laying siege to cities. They knew that in order to prevent diseases they had to burn corpses, sanitarily dispose of excrement, and carefully scrutinize their sources of water.^[30]

Byzantine dispositions and tactics

The city had about 20 km of walls (

Two tactical reserves were kept behind in the city: one in the Petra district just behind the land walls and one near the Church of the Holy Apostles, under the command of Loukas Notaras and Nicephorus Palaeologus, respectively. The Venetian Alviso Diedo commanded the ships in the harbour.^[73] Although the Byzantines also had cannons, the weapons were much smaller than those of the Ottomans, and the recoil tended to damage their own walls.^[57] According to David Nicolle, despite many odds, the idea that Constantinople was inevitably doomed is incorrect and the situation was not as one-sided as a simple glance at a map might suggest.^[74] It has also been claimed that Constantinople was "the best-defended city in Europe" at that time.^[75]

Siege

At the beginning of the siege, Mehmed sent out some of his best troops to reduce the remaining Byzantine strongholds outside the city of Constantinople. The fortress of Therapia on the Bosphorus and a smaller castle at the village of Studius near the Sea of Marmara were taken within a few days. The Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara were taken by Admiral Baltoghlu's fleet.^[76] Mehmed's massive cannons fired on the walls for weeks but due to their imprecision and extremely slow rate of fire, the Byzantines were able to repair most of the damage after each shot, mitigating the effect of the Ottoman artillery.^[77]

Despite some probing attacks, the Ottoman fleet under Baltoghlu could not enter the Golden Horn due to the chain across the entrance. Although one of the fleet's main tasks was to prevent any foreign ships from entering the Golden Horn, on 20 April, a small flotilla of four Christian ships managed to get in after some heavy fighting, an event which strengthened the morale of the defenders and caused embarrassment to the Sultan.^{[77][note 6]} Baltoghlu was most likely injured in the eye during the skirmish. Mehmed stripped Baltoghlu of his wealth and property and gave it to the janissaries and ordered him to be whipped 100 times.^[30]

Mehmed ordered the construction of a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn and dragged his ships over the hill, directly into the Golden Horn on 22 April, bypassing the chain barrier.^[77] This action seriously threatened the flow of supplies from Genoese ships from the nominally neutral colony of Pera and it demoralized the Byzantine defenders. On the night of 28 April, an attempt was made to destroy the Ottoman ships already in the Golden Horn using fire ships but the Ottomans forced the Christians to retreat with many casualties. Forty Italians escaped their sinking ships and swam to the northern shore. On orders of Mehmed, they were impaled on stakes, in sight of the city's defenders on the sea walls across the Golden Horn. In retaliation, the defenders brought their Ottoman prisoners, 260 in all, to the walls, where they were executed, one by one, before the eyes of the Ottomans.^[79][80] With the failure of their attack on the Ottoman vessels, the defenders were forced to disperse part of their forces to defend the sea walls along the Golden Horn.

The Ottoman army had made several frontal assaults on the land wall of Constantinople, but they were costly failures.

They found the Turks coming right up under the walls and seeking battle, particularly the Janissaries ... and when one or two of them were killed, at once more Turks came and took away the dead ones ... without caring how near they came to the city walls. Our men shot at them with guns and crossbows, aiming at the Turk who was carrying away his dead countryman, and both of them would fall to the ground dead, and then there came other Turks and took them away, none fearing death, but being willing to let ten of themselves be killed rather than suffer the shame of leaving a single Turkish corpse by the walls.^[53]

After these inconclusive attacks, the Ottomans sought to break through the walls by constructing tunnels to

As to surrendering the city to you, it is not for me to decide or for anyone else of its citizens; for all of us have reached the mutual decision to die of our own free will, without any regard for our lives.[note 8]

Around this time, Mehmed had a final council with his senior officers. Here he encountered some resistance; one of his Viziers, the veteran

Preparations for the final assault began in the evening of 26 May and continued to the next day.^[87] For 36 hours after the war council decided to attack, the Ottomans extensively mobilized their manpower for the general offensive.^[87] Prayer and resting was then granted to the soldiers on 28 May before the final assault would be launched. On the Byzantine side, a small Venetian fleet of 12 ships, after having searched the Aegean, reached the Capital on 27 May and reported to the Emperor that no large Venetian relief fleet was on its way.^[88] On 28 May, as the Ottoman army prepared for the final assault, mass religious processions were held in the city. In the evening, a solemn last ceremony of Vespers was held in the Hagia Sophia, in which the Emperor with representatives and nobility of both the Latin and Greek churches partook.^[89] Up until this point, the Ottomans had fired 5,000 shots from their cannons using 55,000 pounds of gunpowder. Criers roamed the camp to the sound of the blasting horns, rousing the Ghazis.^{[90][page needed]}

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday 29 May, the offensive began.

With Giustiniani's Genoese troops retreating into the city and towards the harbour, Constantine and his men, now left to their own devices, continued to hold their ground against the Janissaries. Constantine's men eventually could not prevent the Ottomans from entering the city and the defenders were overwhelmed at several points along the wall. Janissaries, led by Ulubatlı Hasan, pressed forward. Many Greek soldiers ran back home to protect their families, the Venetians retreated to their ships and a few of the Genoese escaped to Galata. The rest surrendered or committed suicide by jumping off the city walls.^[93] The Greek houses nearest to the walls were the first to suffer from the Ottomans. It is said that Constantine, throwing aside his purple imperial regalia, led the final charge against the incoming Ottomans, perishing in the ensuing battle in the streets alongside his soldiers. The Venetian Nicolò Barbaro claimed in his diary that Constantine hanged himself at the moment when the Turks broke in at the San Romano gate. Ultimately, his fate remains unknown.^{[note 10]}

After the initial assault, the Ottoman army fanned out along the main thoroughfare of the city, the Mese, past the great forums and the Church of the Holy Apostles, which Mehmed II wanted to provide as a seat for his newly appointed patriarch to better control his Christian subjects. Mehmed II had sent an advance guard to protect these key buildings. The Catalans that maintained their position on the section of the wall that the emperor had assigned them, had the honor of being the last troops to fall. The sultan had Pere Julià, his sons and the consul Joan de la Via, amongst others, beheaded.

A few civilians managed to escape. When the Venetians retreated over to their ships, the Ottomans had already taken the walls of the Golden Horn. Luckily for the occupants of the city, the Ottomans were not interested in killing potentially valuable slaves but rather in the loot they could get from raiding the city's houses, so they decided to attack the city instead. The Venetian captain ordered his men to break open the gate of the Golden Horn. Having done so, the Venetians left in ships filled with soldiers and refugees. Shortly after the Venetians left, a few Genoese ships and even the Emperor's ships followed them out of the Golden Horn. This fleet narrowly escaped prior to the Ottoman navy assuming control over the Golden Horn, which was accomplished by midday.^[93]

The army converged upon the Augusteum, the vast square that fronted the great church of Hagia Sophia whose bronze gates were barred by a huge throng of civilians inside the building, hoping for divine protection. After the doors were breached, the troops separated the congregation according to what price they might bring in the slave markets.^{[citation needed]} Ottoman casualties are unknown but they are believed by most historians to be severe due to several unsuccessful Ottoman attacks made during the siege and final assault.^{[citation needed]} The Venetian Barbaro observed that blood flowed in the city "like rainwater in the gutters after a sudden storm" and that bodies of Turks and Christians floated in the sea "like melons along a canal".^[53]

Atrocities

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Mehmed II "permitted an initial period of looting that saw the destruction of many Orthodox churches", but tried to prevent a complete sack of the city.^[7] The looting was extremely thorough in certain parts of the city. On 2 June, the Sultan found the city largely deserted and half in ruins; churches had been desecrated and stripped, houses were no longer habitable, and stores and shops were emptied. He is famously reported to have been moved to tears by this, saying, "What a city we have given over to plunder and destruction."^[95]

Looting was carried out on a massive scale by sailors and marines who entered the city via other walls before they had been suppressed by regular troops, who were beyond the main gate. According to David Nicolle, the ordinary people were treated better by their Ottoman conquerors than their ancestors had been by Crusaders back in 1204, stating that only about 4,000 Greeks died in the siege, while according to a Venetian Senate report, 50 Venetian noblemen and over 500 other Venetian civilians died during the siege.^[96] Many of the riches of the city were already looted in 1204, leaving only limited loot to the Ottomans.^[97]

Other sources claim far more brutal and successful pillaging by the Ottoman invaders. Leonard of Chios made accounts of the atrocities that followed the fall of Constantinople stated the Ottoman invaders pillaged the city, murdered or enslaved tens of thousands of people, and raped nuns, women and children:

All the valuables and other booty were taken to their camp, and as many as sixty thousand Christians who had been captured. The crosses which had been placed on the roofs or the walls of churches were torn down and trampled. Women were raped, virgins deflowered and youths forced to take part in shameful obscenities. The nuns left behind, even those who were obviously such, were disgraced with foul debaucheries.^[98]

During three days of pillaging, the Ottoman invaders captured children and took them away to their tents, and became rich by plundering the imperial palace and the houses of Constantinople. The Ottoman official Tursun Beg wrote:

After having completely overcome the enemy, the soldiers began to plunder the city. They enslaved boys and girls and took silver and gold vessels, precious stones and all sorts of valuable goods and fabrics from the imperial palace and the houses of the rich... Every tent was filled with handsome boys and beautiful girls.^[99]

If any citizens of Constantinople tried to resist, they were slaughtered. According to

As soon as the Turks were inside the City, they began to seize and enslave every person who came their way; all those who tried to offer resistance were put to the sword. In many places the ground could not be seen, as it was covered by heaps of corpses.[100]

The women of Constantinople suffered from rape at the hands of Ottoman forces.^[101] According to historian Philip Mansel, widespread persecution of the city's civilian inhabitants took place, resulting in thousands of murders and rapes.^[14] The vast majority of the citizens of Constantinople (30,000–50,000) were forced to become slaves.^{[14][16][102][15][103]}

"They made the people of the city slaves and killed their emperor, and the gazis embraced their pretty girls", confirm Ottoman Chroniclers.^[104]

According to Nicolas de Nicolay, slaves were displayed naked at the city's slave market, and young girls could be purchased.^[105] The elder refugees in the Hagia Sophia were slaughtered and the women raped.^[106] George Sphrantzes says that people of both genders were raped inside Hagia Sophia. According to Steven Runciman most of the elderly and the infirm/wounded and sick who were refugees inside the churches were killed, and the remainder were chained up and sold into slavery.^[107]

"Everywhere there was misfortune, everyone was touched by pain" when Mehmed entered the city. "There were lamentations and weeping in every house, screaming in the crossroads, and sorrow in all churches; the groaning of grown men and the shrieking of women accompanied looting, enslavement, separation, and rape."^[108] Mehmed entered the Hagia Sophia, "marveling at the sight" of the grand basilica. Witnessing a Ghazi wildly hammering at the marble floor, he asked what he was doing. "It is for the Faith!" the Ghazi said. Mehmed cut him down with his Kilij: "Be satisfied with the booty and the captives; the buildings of the city belong to me."^[109]

During the festivities, "and as he had promised his viziers and his other officers," Mehmed had the "wretched citizens of Constantinople" dragged before them and "ordered many of them to be hacked to pieces, for the sake of entertainment."^{[110][page needed][111]}

Byzantine historian Doukas claims that, while drunk during his victory banquet, the Sultan ordered the Grand Duke Loukas Notaras to give his youngest son to him for his pleasure. He replied that "it would be far better for me to die than hand over my own child to be despoiled by him." Mehmed was enraged after hearing this and ordered Loukas to be executed. Before his death, Notaras supposedly said that "Him who was crucified for us, died and arose"' and urged his horrified sons to reject the advances of Mehmed and not fear the outcome. Their father's words encouraged them, and they were also "were ready to die". They are also said to have been executed.^[112] However, American researcher and professor Walter G. Andrew doubts the authenticity of this story, citing the similarities with the earlier story of Saint Pelagius, he states that, "it is likely that Doukas's tale owes more to Saint Pelagius and a long history of attempts to portray Muslims as morally inferior than to anything that actually happened during the conquest of Constantinople/Istanbul."^[113]

Aftermath

Mehmed himself knocked over and trampled on the altar of the Hagia Sophia. He then ordered a muezzin ascend the pulpit and sound a prayer.[121]^[122] The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque,^[123] but the Greek Orthodox Church was allowed to remain intact and Gennadius Scholarius was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople. This was once thought to be the origin of the Ottoman millet system; however, it is now considered a myth and no such system existed in the fifteenth century.^[124][125]

The fall of Constantinople shocked many Europeans, who viewed it as a catastrophic event for their civilization.

In the past we received our wounds in Asia and in Africa—in foreign countries. This time, however, we are being attacked in Europe, in our own land, in our own house. You will protest that the Turks moved from Asia to Greece a long time ago, that the Mongols established themselves in Europe and the Arabs occupied parts of Spain, having approached through the straits of Gibraltar. We have never lost a city or a place comparable to Constantinople

— Pope Pius II[128]

The

With the capture of Constantinople, Mehmed II had acquired the future capital of his kingdom, albeit one in decline due to years of war. The loss of the city was a crippling blow to Christendom, and it exposed the Christian West to a vigorous and aggressive foe in the East. The Christian reconquest of Constantinople remained a goal in Western Europe for many years after its fall to the Ottoman Empire. Rumours of Constantine XI's survival and subsequent rescue by an angel led many to hope that the city would one day return to Christian hands. Pope Nicholas V called for an immediate counter-attack in the form of a crusade,^{[citation needed]} however no European powers wished to participate, and the Pope resorted to sending a small fleet of 10 ships to defend the city. The short lived Crusade immediately came to an end and as Western Europe entered the 16th century, the age of Crusading began to come to an end.

For some time Greek scholars had gone to

A severed head that was claimed to belong to Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos was found and presented to Mehmed and nailed onto a column. While standing before the head, the sultan in his speech said:^[134]

Fellow soldiers, this one thing was lacking to make the glory of such a victory complete. Now, at this happy and joyful moment of time, we have the riches of the Greeks, we have won their empire, and their religion is completely extinguished. Our ancestors eagerly desired to achieve this; rejoice now since it is your bravery which has won this kingdom for us.

The news spread rapidly across the Islamic world. In Egypt "good tidings were proclaimed, and Cairo decorated" to celebrate "this greatest of conquests." The Sharif of Mecca wrote to Mehmed, calling the Sultan "the one who has aided Islam and the Muslims, the Sultan of all kings and sultans,". The fact that Constantinople, which was long "known for being indomitable in the eyes of all," as the Sharif of Mecca said, had fallen and that the Prophet Muhammad's prophecy came true shocked the Islamic world and filled it with a great jubilation and rapture.^[135]

Third Rome

Legends

There are many legends in Greece surrounding the Fall of Constantinople. It was said that the partial lunar eclipse that occurred on 22 May 1453 represented a fulfilment of a prophecy of the city's demise.^[138]

Four days later, the whole city was blotted out by a thick fog, a condition unknown in that part of the world in May. When the fog lifted that evening, a strange light was seen playing about the dome of the Hagia Sophia, which some interpreted as the Holy Spirit departing from the city. "This evidently indicated the departure of the Divine Presence, and its leaving the City in total abandonment and desertion, for the Divinity conceals itself in cloud and appears and again disappears."^[139]

For others, there was still a distant hope that the lights were the campfires of the troops of John Hunyadi who had come to relieve the city. It is possible that all these phenomena were local effects of the cataclysmic 1452/1453 mystery eruption which occurred around the time of the siege. The "fire" seen may have been an optical illusion due to the reflection of intensely red twilight glow by clouds of volcanic ash high in the atmosphere.^[140]

Another legend holds that two priests saying

29 May 1453, the day of the fall of Constantinople, fell on a Tuesday, and since then Tuesday has been considered an unlucky day by Greeks generally.^[144]

Impact on the Renaissance

The migration waves of

Ottomans used the Arabic transliteration of the city's name "Qosṭanṭīniyye" (القسطنطينية) or "Kostantiniyye", as can be seen in numerous Ottoman documents. Islambol (اسلامبول, Full of Islam) or Islambul (find Islam) or Islam(b)ol (old Turkic: be Islam), both in Turkish, were folk-etymological adaptations of Istanbul created after the Ottoman conquest of 1453 to express the city's new role as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. It is first attested shortly after the conquest, and its invention was ascribed by some contemporary writers to Mehmed II himself.^[146]

The name of Istanbul is thought to be derived from the Greek phrase īs tīmbolī(n) (Greek: εἰς τὴν πόλιν, translit. eis tēn pólin, "to the City"), and it is claimed that it had already spread among the Turkish populace of the Ottoman Empire before the conquest. However, Istanbul only became the official name of the city in 1930 by the revised Turkish Postal Law.^{[147][148][149]}

Primary sources

For the fall of Constantinople, Marios Philippides and Walter Hanak list 15 eyewitness accounts (13 Christian and 2 Turkish) and 20 contemporary non-eyewitness accounts (13 Italian).^[150]

Eyewitness accounts

1. Mehmed Şems el-Mille ve'd Din
   , Sufi holy man who gives an account in a letter
2. Tursun Beg, wrote a history entitled Tarih-i Abu'l Fath
3. George Sphrantzes, the only Greek eyewitness who wrote about it, but his laconic account is almost entirely lacking in narrative
4. Leonard of Chios, wrote a report to Pope Nicholas V
5. Nicolò Barbaro, physician on a Venetian galley who kept a journal
6. Angelino Giovanni Lomellini, Venetian podestà of Pera who wrote a report dated 24 June 1453
7. Jacopo Tetaldi, Florentine merchant
8. Isidore of Kiev, Orthodox churchman who wrote eight letters to Italy
9. Benvenuto, Anconitan consul in Constantinople
10. Ubertino Puscolo
    , Italian poet learning Greek in the city, wrote an epic poem
11. Eparkhos and Diplovatatzes, two refugees whose accounts has become garbled through multiple translations
12. Nestor Iskander
    , youthful eyewitness who wrote a Slavonic account
13. Samile the Vladik, bishop who, like Eparkhos and Diplovatatzes, fled as a refugee to Wallachia
14. Konstantin Mihailović, Serbian who fought on the Ottoman side
15. a report by some Franciscan prisoners of war who later came to Bologna

Non-eyewitness accounts

1. Doukas, a Byzantine Greek historian, one of the most important sources for the last decades and eventual fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans
2. Laonikos Chalkokondyles, a Byzantine Greek historian
3. Michael Kritoboulos, a Byzantine Greek historian
4. Makarios Melissourgos
   , 16th-century historian who augmented the account of Sphrantzes, not very reliably
5. Paolo Dotti, Venetian official on Crete whose account is based on oral reports
6. Fra Girolamo's letter from Crete to Domenico Capranica
7. Lauro Quirini, wrote a report to Pope Nicholas V from Crete based on oral reports
8. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini
   (Pope Pius II), wrote an account based on written sources
9. Henry of Soemmern, wrote a letter dated 11 September 1453 in which he cites his sources of information
10. Niccola della Tuccia, whose Cronaca di Viterbo written in the autumn of 1453 contains unique information
11. Niccolò Tignosi da Foligno, Expugnatio Constantinopolitana, part of a letter to a friend
12. Filippo da Rimini, Excidium Constantinopolitanae urbis quae quondam Bizantium ferebatur
13. Antonio Ivani da Sarzana, Expugnatio Constantinopolitana, part of a letter to the duke of Urbino
14. Nikolaos Sekoundinos
    , read a report before the Venetian Senate, the Pope and the Neapolitan court
15. Giacomo Languschi, whose account is embedded in the Venetian chronicle of Zorzi Dolfin, had access to eyewitnesses
16. John Moskhos, wrote a poem in honour of Loukas Notaras
17. Adamo di Montaldo, De Constantinopolitano excidio ad nobilissimum iuvenem Melladucam Cicadam, which contains unique information
18. Ashikpashazade, included a chapter on the conquest in his Tarih-i al-i Osman^[151]
19. Neshri, included a chapter on the conquest in his universal history^[151]
20. Evliya Çelebi, 17th-century traveller who collected local traditions of the conquest^[151]

Notes

References