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Prophet
Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) promised his followers in the Arabian Desert that
they would one day conquer the most powerful and legendary city of the day,
Constantinople. For centuries, it seemed like an impossible task. The city is
incredibly well-defended, being a peninsula with a giant wall on it’s land side
that deterred most conquerors. The city was laid siege to by Muslim armies
during the Umayyad Caliphate, but those sieges were unable to defeat her
mammoth walls.
When
the Ottoman Empire sprang up in the early 1300s as a small Turkish beylik in
Western Anatolia, it threatened the security of the Byzantines and their
capital, Constantinople. By the time Sultan Mehmed II takes the throne in 1451,
the Ottomans have expanded to control land in both Europe and Asia, thus
surrounding the city of Constantinople. Sultan Mehmed made it his goal from the
moment he took the throne to finally capture the legendary city. He ordered the
building of a fortress on the Bosporus Strait, north of Constantinople to
control ship movement in and out of the city. To honor the Prophet who declared
the Muslims would conquer Constantinople, Mehmed had the fortress built in a
way that it’s shape spelled out “Muhammad” in Arabic when seen from above.
On
April 1st, 1453, Mehmed and his Ottoman army of over 100,000 soldiers arrived
at the walls of Constantinople. The sight that greeted them must have been
terrifying. The inner walls of Constantinople were 5 meters thick at their base
and 12 meters high. 20 meters away from the inner wall was the outer wall,
which was 2 meters thick and 8.5 meters tall. In addition to this, the
Byzantines had a giant iron chain installed in the Golden Horn, a small inlet
to the north of the city. This would prevent a navy from sailing to the weaker
northern coast of the city and attacking from there. The Byzantines had a clear
defensive advantage before the battle began. Despite being outnumbered and
outgunned, the Byzantines were confident of their impending victory.
Mehmed
offered the defenders the option to surrender and remain in possession of their
property, lives, and families in peace, but this offer was refused by the
Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI. Thus, Mehmed began the attack on the city on
April 6th. Despite the best effort of the Ottoman soldiers, and the bombardment
of the world’s biggest cannons, the city held out for weeks. On April 22nd,
Mehmed ordered the Ottoman navy to be carried over land to bypass the chain in
the Golden Horn. Over one night, 72 ships were carried over land and put into
the Golden Horn, threatening the city from the north.
It
seemed that the battle of the city would soon be over as the Muslims clearly
had the upper hand. On April 28th, Mehmed halted all attacks and allowed his
army to spend the day praying and making duaa to Allah for victory. He even led
the army in salah personally. The next day, on April 29th, the army began a
final assault on the city walls and before the morning was over, the walls were
conquered and the city was taken.
Perhaps
the most important part of this historical event was Mehmed II’s treatment of
the defeated Byzantines. He did not kill the residents of the city and in fact
encouraged them to stay in Constantinople by absolving them of taxes. He
insisted that the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate stay in the city and rule the
Christians of the city on his behalf. While to the rest of Europe, the idea of
religious tolerance was a foreign concept, Mehmed followed the Islamic
principles on treatment of non-Muslims and gave religious freedom and rights to
the Christians of Constantinople. His abilities in battle and his virtuous
qualities earned him the nickname “al-Fatih” or “the Conqueror”.
Sources:
Freely,
J. (2009). The Grand Turk. New York: Overlook Press.
Ochsenwald,
W., & Fisher, S. (2003). The Middle East: A History. (6th ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
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