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From 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. "Fascinating. . . . From the Western viewpoint, Mehmed was seen as the man who gave the death blow to Byzantium, destroying the last vestige of the Eastern Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, the Turks regard him as the greatest of all sultans, a figure unparalleled in the history of the world for military prowess, statecraft, patronage of the arts and sciences."--Robert Kirsch, The Los Angeles Times Book Review "The definitive scholarly biography of the Ottoman emperor who in 1453 conquered Constantinople. . . . Mehmed's career is a study of battle, murder, and sudden death, of brutality, perfidy, and spite, with no moral superiority awardable to either Christians or Muslims."--The New Yorker
List of contents
| List of Illustrations | |
| Editor's Preface | |
| Note on Spelling and Transliteration | |
| Abbreviations | |
| Bk. 1 | The Ottoman Empire at Murad's accession | 3 |
| Birth of a prince | 9 |
| Balkan campaigns - Hungarian counteroffensive | 16 |
| The crusade of Varna | 27 |
| A child sultan | 41 |
| The campaign in Greece | 44 |
| Murad's last years | 56 |
| Bk. 2 | Mehmed's final return to the throne | 64 |
| The fortress on the Bosporus | 75 |
| The fall of Constantinople | 87 |
| Creation of an Ottoman imperial capital | 101 |
| Repercussions in the West | 117 |
| Ottoman expansion into the Aegean | 129 |
| The siege of Belgrade | 137 |
| Bk. 3 | Ottoman campaigns - Albania, Serbia, and Greece | 151 |
| Papal efforts at Western unification | 167 |
| The last of the Palaeologi | 173 |
| Eastern adventurers and the fall of Trebizond | 183 |
| The pope and the sultan | 197 |
| Vlad the impaler | 203 |
| Bk. 4 | The subjection of Bosnia | 215 |
| Outbreak of war with Venice | 225 |
| Papal efforts at Crusade | 233 |
| The Ottomans on the Adriatic | 251 |
| Anatolian undertakings | 269 |
| The fall of Negropont | 279 |
| The Mosque of the Conqueror | 293 |
| Bk. 5 | Uzun Hasan in league with the West | 302 |
| War in the East with Uzun Hasan | 309 |
| The fall of Mahmud Pasha | 329 |
| Deathblow to Genoa's Levantine trade | 341 |
| Ottoman raiders at the gates of Venice and Austria | 347 |
| Mehmed in Walachia and Moldavia | 351 |
| The sieges of Kruje and Shkoder | 359 |
| Bk. 6 | Peace at last with Venice | 369 |
| Ottoman landing in southeastern Italy | 389 |
| Unsuccessful attack on Rhodes | 397 |
| Mehmed's last campaigns and death | 401 |
| Bk. 7 | The personality and empire of Mehmed the Conqueror | 409 |
| I | The ruler and the man | 409 |
| II | State and society | 432 |
| III | Art literature and science | 462 |
| IV | Mehmed the Conqueror and the West | 494 |
| App. 1. Lists of Rulers and Popes | 511 |
| App. 2. Glossary | 513 |
| Index | 515 |
About the author
Franz Babinger
Summary
From the famous siege of Constantinople in 1453 through the numerous other campaigns that securely established the Ottoman Empire, this title covers various events in the life of the emperor Mehmed II.
Additional text
"Fascinating. . . . From the Western viewpoint, Mehmed was seen as the man who gave the death blow to Byzantium, destroying the last vestige of the Eastern Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, the Turks regard him as the greatest of all sultans, a figure unparalleled in the history of the world for military prowess, statecraft, patronage of the arts and sciences."---Robert Kirsch, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
