May 6, 2023

Turkey celebrates 570th anniversary of conquest of Istanbul

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Turkey commemorates the 570th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul on May 29.

Istanbul, a cosmopolitan city, was besieged 28 times throughout history before its  conquest in 1453 by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. In recognition of his victory, the 21-year-old ruler was thereafter known as Mehmed the Conqueror.

In a prophecy about Istanbul's conquest by a Muslim ruler, the Prophet Muhammad said: "Istanbul will definitely be conquered. What a great commander is the commander who conquers it, what a great army that army is."

The conquest ended the 1,058-year-old Byzantine Empire, brought the Middle Ages to a close and made Istanbul the proud new capital of the Ottoman Empire.

The city of Istanbul was founded by Greeks in 657 BC. Its original name was Byzantium. In 330, emperor Constantine the Great relocated seat of the Eastern Roman Empire to Byzantium. He renamed it New Rome, but most people called the city Constantinople after the emperor.

In 1453, Constantinople was besieged by Ottoman forces led by Sultan Mehmed II. The city fell on May 29, 1453. After the contest, Mehmed II relocated the capital of the Ottoman Empire from Edirne to Constantinople. Contrary to popular belief, he did not officially rename it Istanbul. This name had been used before the conquest, but it was made official only in the 1930s.

The Siege of Istanbul

Erhan Afyoncu, Chancellor of National Defense University, Ankara, provides a graphic account of the conquest of Istanbul:

After lengthy preparations, the Ottoman army arrived before the Byzantine walls on April 6, 1453. Beginning on the night of April 6, cannons began pounding the walls. Breaches in the walls were immediately repaired by the defenders. Two great assaults were launched on May 7 and May 12 with no results. Following that, most of the Ottoman cannons were moved to the area between Topkapı and Edirnekapı, and the assaults were concentrated on the weakest section of the walls. The prolonged siege placed the Ottoman army in a difficult position because of possible help from Europe; meanwhile, a Venetian fleet arrived in the Aegean. On May 25, the last call for surrender was sent to the Byzantines.

Some Byzantines decided to surrender, but their Italian allies strongly opposed that. At this time, rumors about the Hungarians coming to help the Byzantines dispirited the Ottoman troops. The danger was great. Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Paşa argued again for lifting the siege, which he had been defending from the start. But Zağanos Paşa, Şehabeddin Paşa, Turahan Bey and Akşemseddin, the mentor of Mehmed II the Conqueror, insisted on maintaining the siege. It was decided to launch a massive assault. The soldiers were informed that they would be allowed three days of looting after the capture of the city.

On May 28, 1453, all troops were ordered to prepare for the last attack on the city. Before dawn on May 29, the last assault began at the order of the young sultan, with the battle cries of charging soldiers. The Janissary band (mehter) kept playing to inspire the soldiers. The Byzantines rang all church bells in the city in response to the sounds of the mehter band. The charge of the Ottoman troops never ceased. Mehmed the Conqueror first sent the azab soldiers and the Christian troops in his army to the walls.

The elite corps of the Ottoman army was positioned behind the advance forces attacking the walls, waiting for them to tire out the enemy and their turn to come. After hours of clashes, Mehmed II ordered the janissaries to attack to deal the final blow.

The Byzantines had no more strength to stand against the Ottoman army, which had lost thousands of soldiers. The city was under attack from all sides. But the real battle was taking place in front of the walls between Topkapı and Edirnekapı. When he realized that the area was the weakest point of the city walls, Mehmed the Conqueror had it destroyed with persistent cannon fire that lasted for days and by detonating explosives placed beneath the walls. So, the main attack was concentrated on that section. Giovanni Giustiniani, the Genoese captain who had been appointed as the commander of land defenses, was wounded by shrapnel from a cannonball.

As he was carried by his men to a ship moored in the Golden Horn, the Byzantines lost heart. Meanwhile, upon seeing Turkish soldiers climbing the walls near Topkapı, the Byzantines fled back into the city. Turkish banners were raised one after another on Topkapı's walls. Istanbul was instantly filled with the cry of “The city fell, the city fell.” The Byzantine flags with a double-headed eagle and the Lion of St. Mark were replaced by Turkish flags. The city’s defenses collapsed. Thousands of Turkish soldiers began to enter the city. While Byzantines were rushing back to their homes to defend their families, some inhabitants and foreigners fled to ships waiting in the Golden Horn. By noon, the city was under the control of Turks.

Mehmed II entered the city in the afternoon on the first day of the conquest. He went to Hagia Sophia – now a mosque – and prayed there, saying: "My throne is Istanbul from now on.”

The crucial gate

Erhan Afyoncu pointed out that Westerners fabricated a story immediately after the conquest about a gate accidentally being left open, leading to the city’s fall, to console their hurt pride.

From Joseph von Hammer, the first great historian of the Ottoman Empire, to the novelist Stefan Zweig, many Western historians and men of letters have depicted the final stage of the conquest of Istanbul as follows: “A group of Turkish soldiers walking near the walls found that one of the small postern gates, called Kerkoporta (Cambazhane) which was between Edirnekapı and Eğrikapı, was accidentally left open. They notified other soldiers, and the Turks eventually conquered Istanbul by gaining entry to the city through this gate. Kerkoporta, an unimportant gate, and a small incident had thus changed the course of world history.”

This information is provided only by the Byzantine historian Doukas, who was in Lesbos during the siege and did not witness the city’s fall. The account has not been confirmed by other sources from the same period. Analyses of the Turkish sources of the period and other Latin and Byzantine sources like Barbaro and Dolfin of the same era show that his account is not consistent with the final stage of the conquest. Rumors about a gate being left open have nothing to do with facts.

This detail was fabricated to overcome the shock of the conquest and belittle the city’s capture by Turks. This narrative is very common in the West. According to a majority of local and foreign historians, however, Turkish soldiers entered the city after clashes through a point near today’s Topkapı. Indeed, that area came to be called “Top Yıkığu Mahallesi" ("Cannon-breached Quarter") following the conquest because of the damage the walls sustained.

What experts say?

According to Ilhami Danis, a historian at Istanbul’s Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University, the city was a key target both logistically and strategically as the Ottoman Empire's connections from Anatolia to Rumelia (the Balkans) and the rest of Europe mostly went through Gallipoli (also known as Gelibolu, in nearby Çanakkale). Danis said the conquest was important both for the continuation of Ottoman conquests in Europe and for controlling the traffic between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

For Feridun Emecen, the dean of Istanbul’s 29 Mayis University’s Faculty of Literature, the city carries great religious importance for Christians and Muslims alike. "A new empire was born with the conquest of Istanbul by Mehmed II, and Mehmed II, in a way, became the founder of the Ottoman Empire by conquering Istanbul. Therefore, the conquest, which is a turning point, holds great importance for Turkish history."

Emecen noted that the conquest of Istanbul led to a perception of threat mixed with fear in the Western world. After the conquest, calls for the establishment of a new Crusader army began to be made in the Western world, he said adding that  the conquest was met with elation in the Muslim world, except for the Mamluk administration in Egypt and the Karamanids in Anatolia.

Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the  Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of America. Email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
 

 

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HEADLINES

 The Journal of America Team:

 Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott

Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab