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FROM BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE to OTTOMAN KOSTANTINIYYE: CREATION ofa COSMOPOLITAN CAPITAL and VISUAL CULTURE UNDER SULTAN MEHMED II
The Siege of Constantinople in 1453, according to Kritovoulos
The Fall of Constantinople
Siege of Constantinople from Bibliothèque nationale mansucript Français 9087 (folio 207 v). The Turkish army of Mehmet II attacks Constantinople in 1453.
Constantinople, Siege and Fall of
The Ottoman sultan Mehmed II resolved as early as autumn 1451 to attack Constantinople, but officially proclaimed his intent only in Jan. 1453. By 5 Apr., he positioned an army allegedly 80,000–100,000 strong outside the land walls of Constantinople, while an armada of more than 120 ships patrolled the coastal waters. Constantine XI, with the help of the Venetian commune and other foreign allies (notably the Genoese Giovanni Giustiniani Longo), defended Constantinople with 26 warships and fewer than 7,000 fighting men. The Genoese in Pera remained neutral, and schemes of Western Catholic powers to render aid were ineffective.
Mehmed opened the siege on 6 Apr., but his numerical superiority did not bring instant victory. Within a fortnight, the attackers had destroyed the outer wall in the Lykos Valley, using large cannons cast by Urbinus, a Hungarian engineer (see Firearms). The defenders, however, erected a stockade in front of the inner wall and repeatedly fought off enemy advances. Even Mehmed's spectacular penetration of the Golden Horn on 22 Apr. gave him no decisive advantage. Indeed, on 25 May his grand vizier, Halil Pasha, counseled retreat. Mehmed, however, persevered with a final attack on Tuesday, 29 May, about 1:30 a.m.
During the next four hours, two futile charges were made on the landward defenses. Toward dawn Mehmed dispatched the Janissaries to breach the stockade. About an hour later, Constantinople's defenses cracked at two points. A small band of Turks slipped through the unattended Kerkoporta Gate and took control of the Blachernai fortifications. Meanwhile the Janissaries breached the stockade and mounted the inner wall, near the Gate of St. Romanos (Top Kap1). By noon, most of Constantinople was conquered or had submitted; Constantine XI himself fell in battle shortly after the defenses were breached. That afternoon, Mehmed made his triumphal procession to Hagia Sophia; his troops looted the city well into the evening.
Contemporaries rationalized the halosis (“conquest”) of 1453 with a variety of theocentric as well as secularizing explanations. Generally, the event compelled many to reject, reconsider, or refashion the traditional axioms of Byz. political and ecclesiological ideology. As a national tragedy, moreover, it evoked a series of Threnoi, or laments, expressed variously in prose, poetry, and song.Steven W. Reinert
Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.oxfordreference
Diary of the siege of Constantinople, 1453 by Call Number: DF649 .B313 1969Publication Date: 1969The diary of Nicolo Barbaro is perhaps the most detailed and accurate eyewitness account of the siege and fall of Constantinople. Nicolo was a surgeon by profession, and a member of one of the patrician families of Venice. His account often focuses on the activities of his fellow Venetians, sometimes to the detriment of the Greeks and Genoese who were also defending the city. The work is written like a diary, with daily entries.
The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople In 1453 by Call Number: DF649 .P4 2011ISBN: 9781409410645Publication Date: 2011-04-28This major study is a comprehensive scholarly work on a key moment in the history of Europe, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The result of years of research, it presents all available sources along with critical evaluations of these narratives. The authors have consulted texts in all relevant languages, both those that remain only in manuscript and others that have been printed, often in careless and inferior editions. Attention is also given to 'folk history' as it evolved over centuries, producing prominent myths and folktales in Greek, medieval Russian, Italian, and Turkish folklore. Part I, The Pen, addresses the complex questions introduced by this myriad of original literature and secondary sources.
The Fall of Constantinople 1453 by Call Number: DR502 .R86 1990ISBN: 0521398320Publication Date: 1990-09-13First published in 1965, this is a scholarly and highly accessible study of Constantinople's fall, an event which had tumultuous repercussions across both East and West. Runciman demonstrates the inevitability of the Turkish conquest and the impotence of the Byzantine Empire which, at the time, comprised only one ineffectual city. This vivid account reconstructs the dramatic events which won the Turks an imperial capital, with a vital geographical location, and examines how the Greeks reacted to this devastating blow.
The end of the Byzantine Empire by Call Number: DF631 .N53 1979ISBN: 0713162503Publication Date: 1979D. M. Nicol deals with a period in Byzantine history which is not only the most tragic
but also the most difficult to write about the twilight of a brilliant empire, from its first short-lived conquest by the Franks ofthe IVth Crusade in 1204 until its ultimate disappearance under the Turks in 1453. The narrative is critical in spirit and though terse in style it makes enjoyable reading. This outline of the book comprises a summary of each chapter, accompanied by comments
on a few points of minor interest.
The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 by Call Number: DF631 .N53 1993ISBN: 0521439914Publication Date: 1993-10-14The Byzantine empire in the last two centuries of its existence had to rebuild itself after its conquest and dismemberment by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Its emperors in exile recovered Constantinople in 1261 and this book narrates their empire's struggles for survival from that date until its final conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453. First published in 1972, the book has been completely revised to take account of recent scholarship. It remains the best synthesis of the political, ecclesiastical and historical events of the period.
History of Mehmed the Conqueror by Call Number: DR501 .K713 1954Publication Date: 1954The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks is regarded as one of the decisive incidents in the history of the world, and its conqueror as one of the great leaders of men. Soon after 1453, Kritoboulos, a Byzantine Greek, came to Istanbul, entered the servce of Mehmed II, and wrote a biography of him....the present scholarly translation is the first into any Western language. Kritovoulos wrote in a direct and vivid style which gives the reader the sense of being present at the scenes described
1453 by Call Number: DR730 .C76 2005ISBN: 1401301916Publication Date: 2005-08-10The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history, and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley's readable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current jihad between the West and the Middle East.
Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time by Call Number: DR501 .B313 1978ISBN: 0691099006Publication Date: 1978-03-21From the famous siege of Constantinople in 1453 through the numerous other campaigns that securely established the Ottoman Empire, the events in the life of the emperor Mehmed II are the subject of this classic biography. One of the most important figures in Ottoman history, Mehmed was the architect of victories that inspired fear throughout Europe and contributed to an image of the Turk prevalent in Western art and literature for many years.
Mikhael Doukas Tarih Anadolu ve Rumeli 1326-1462 by Call Number: DR49.7 .D6820 2008ISBN: 9786053960140Publication Date: 2008Doukas, Türk tarihiyle Bizans tarihinin iç içe geçtiği bir dönemin olaylarını; Osmanlının büyükçe bir beylikten bir cihan imparatorluğuna dönüşmeye başladığı sürecin tarihini anlatması açısından çok önemli bir kaynak.
Doukas köken olarak Rum ama, yine de “Bizden biri”. O, bir Bizans tarihçisi değil. Şimdiki Selçuk’ta doğup büyümüş; dedesi Mikhaèl Doukas İmparator Kantakouzènos’un yakınlarından iken onun tahttan indirilmesi sonrasında Aydınoğulları Beyliği ülkesine sığınmış ve çok bilgili, hekimlikten dahi anlar kişi olduğu için Aydınoğlu İsa Bey ona değer vermiş, mal mülk vermiş, onu kendi adamı edinmiş ve dolayısiyle torunu, yazarımız Doukas da Aydınoğulları’nın hem ülkesinde hem de “kapısında” yetişmiş. Birkaç dili, o arada Türkçeyi çok iyi bildiği için, Sakız, Sisam, Midilli gibi adalara egemen Ceneviz soylularının, Beylerinin vekilharcı, genel yetkili temsilcisi olarak bu işi sırasında Osmanlının yüksek görevlileriyle hatta padişahla nice kez yüzyüze konuşmuş. Kendi döneminde Anadolu’da ve Rumeli’nde olan bitenleri, çok yakından ve ayrıntılı olarak izlemiş. Bu nedenle bize, pek çok konuda, başka hiçbir kaynakta bulamayacağımız bilgiler verebiliyor.Doukas kendi çağının bütün Rumları gibi koyu hristiyan olmakla birlikte, olup bitenleri yorumlayıp değerlendirmekte, anlamakta bağnazlığa düşmüyor. Türkler hakkında o dönemin hiçbir hristiyan tarihçisinde görmediğimiz kadar insaflı. Fâtih’i elbette ki sevmiyor hatta aleyhinde sözler etmesine onun büyüklüğünü belirtmekten ve onu Büyük İskender’e benzeterek, “Yeni Makedon” demekten de geri kalmıyor.
The Fall of the Byzantine Empire by Call Number: DF645 .G4813 1980ISBN: 0870232908Publication Date: 1980-05-01This is an eyewitness account of the final years, final days of the Byzantine Empire. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks was completed on May 29 1453. Years of decline had led to the point. The gradual erosion of the empire to the Turks and Italians had left nothing more than the capital city and a handful of outlying lands.
Not surprisingly, this account is biased toward the Greek side of the struggle. Unfortunately it was written several years after the events, thereby allowing the actual details to fade as well as fester.
İstanbul'un Fethi by Call Number: DR502 .P47 2004ISBN: 9757618411Publication Date: 2004Fethin 550. yılına armağan olarak yayımlanan eserde, meşhur İtalyan tarihçi Prof. Agostino Pertusi’nin fetih hakkındaki mühim "Giriş"inden sonra Batı âleminin o devirdeki şahsiyetlerinin kalemlerinden fethi ve fethin akisleri yer almaktadır. Eser, mütercim tarafından eklenmiş açıklayıcı bilgiler ve iki haritayla zenginleştirilmiş bulunmaktadır
