Biography of Mehmed II

Turkish Emperor II. Mehmed was born on 30 March 1432 and died on 3 May 1481, he was the seventh sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In historical texts, his name is listed as Muhammad. He originally governed for a short period during 1444-46, then for 30 years from 1451 until his death in 1481.

II. Mehmed captured Istanbul at the age of 21, destroying the 1000-year-old Byzantine Empire, and this event was recognized by many historians as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the New Age. After the Conquest, he was known as “Ebû’l-Feth”, which means Father of Conquest, in Ottoman Turkish, and in subsequent eras, with the titles “Epoque Ruler” and “Kayser-i Rûm”.

Fatih is regarded a “hero” in a big section of Turkey and the Islamic world today because he narrated a hadith of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

His princedom

happened at daybreak on Sunday, 27 Rajab 835 (30 March 1432), in Edirne, the capital of the state, II. He was born as the fourth son of Murad. His mother, Hüma Hatun, was a non-Muslim slave, according to historian Babinger and novelist Lord Kinross. Again, according to Babinger, after her death, she was dubbed Huma Hatun, inspired by Huma, the bird of paradise in Iranian folklore.

After Mehmed resided in Edirne until he was two years old, in 1434 he was transported with his wet nurse and younger brother Alaeddin Ali to Amasya, where his 14-year-old elder brother Ahmed was the Greek sanjak governor. Here, after his elder brother Ahmed died at an early age, Mehmed became the Greek sancakbeyi at the age of six (doubtful according to İnalcık). His other brother, Alaeddin Ali, became Saruhan sancakbeyi in Manisa. Two years later, their father II. On Murad’s directions, the two brothers changed positions and Mehmed Saruhan became the sanjak governor.

His father assigned numerous teachers for Mehmed’s schooling. However, it was not simple to teach Mehmed, who was a clever yet pugnacious youngster. Eventually, his father appointed Molla Gurani, an imposing and respected scholar. According to the account, Murad gave Gurani a stick and urged him to use it if Mehmed disobeyed. Molla Gürani had Mehmed study a literary statement about a pupil who did not pay attention to his lesson getting thrashed by his instructor. Mehmed grasped the gravity of the issue and began to devote emphasis to his schooling.

In addition to his madrassa-based professors, Prince Mehmed also had Western personalities from whom he gathered information. In the palace of Saruhan (Manisa), the Italian humanist Ciriaco of Ancona and other Italians in the palace urged him to read books on European history and the biographies of Ancient Greek philosophers. This circumstance gave Prince Mehmed diversity. II in the Topkapı Palace archives. Mehmed’s notebook, which relates to his years as a prince, has Latin letters, Arabic letters, human drawings imitating Roman busts, and Ottoman figures. In addition, it is credited to the fact that Mehmet the Conqueror learned Latin, Greek and Italian, as well as Arabic and Persian, due to his interactions during this period.

His first ascension to the throne

was II. When Murad returned to Edirne in October after defeating the Karaman bey Ibrahim in Anatolia in the summer of 1443, he received news that a Christian army led by János Hunyadi, the Hungarian King Ladislas, and the Serbian Despot George Brankovic had begun to invade the Ottoman lands south of the Danube. In the same moment, word came from Amasya that Prince Ali had died. As a result of the early deaths of his two older brothers, Mehmed became the successor to the kingdom. Murad accompanied Mehmed from Manisa to Edirne during the discussions that commenced after the Christian army was halted in Izladi on 25 December. One month after making an agreement with the Hungarians in Edirne on June 12, 1444, he left his son Mehmed as “district governor” under the control of Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha in Edirne and went to Anatolia to march against the Karamanids who occupied the Hamidili lands and fought with the Karamanians in Yenişehir. struck a deal. After leaving Yenişehir, in August, he proclaimed to the janissary agha Hızır Ağa and other gentlemen in Mihaliç that he was officially abdicating the kingdom in favor of his son, and he lingered in Bursa while his army returned to Edirne.

II. Murad’s abdication in the summer of 1444, assuming that he had established peace in the east and west, produced a vacuum of power in Edirne and led the realm into instability. A competition erupted between Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha, who liked to engage carefully in foreign affairs, and Şahabeddin, Zağanos and Turahan pashas, ​​who united with Mehmed. This struggle was one of the deciding aspects of the key political changes in the Ottoman Empire between 1444 and 1453. At the beginning of August, King Ladislas proclaimed the truce with the Ottomans null and announced that he would embark on a new Crusade, causing terror in the capital Edirne and the people began to evacuate the city. During this era, Orhan Çelebi, who was under the protection of the Greeks in Constantinople and claimed the Ottoman throne, launched a rebellion by moving to İnceğiz and Dobruca near Çatalca. This effort was halted by Şahabeddin Pasha and Orhan Çelebi escaped to Constantinople. During the same era, he gained numerous followers among the Iranian people in the capital, who identified himself as the envoy of Hurufism supporters. Mehmed was likewise fascinated in the Iranian’s teachings and took him under his care. However, as Mufti Fahreddin and Grand Vizier Halil Pasha reacted to this scenario, Mehmed was soon obliged to withdraw his backing and finally a Hurufi slaughter took place in the city. After Fahreddin-i Acemi issued a fatwa saying that the Hurufis should be murdered on the grounds that they were “infidels”, the Hurufis were burnt alive. Meanwhile, in the fire that broke out in the city, 7,000 residences, including the bazaar, were destroyed.

In late September, the Christian army headed by King Ladislas crossed the Danube and marched on Edirne, while a Venetian navy blocked the Dardanelles.

Upon the summons of Grand Vizier Halil Pasha, II. Murad marched via Rumelia from the place where the Anatolian Fortress is located, got to Edirne, and on November 10, 1444, he brutally defeated the Christian army in Varna. Although Mehmed did not abdicate during and after the Battle of Varna, he became the de facto sultan II. It was Murad. Zağanos and Şahabeddin pashas intended to escort Mehmed to the Battle of Varna to reinforce the power of the young sultan, but Grand Vizier Halil Pasha blocked this and II. He viewed Murad as a true ruler. However, II. After the war, Murad retired to Manisa, without turning the de facto situation into a formal enthronement, in order not to damage his son’s position against Orhan Çelebi in Constantinople.

Murad returned to his throne at Edirne once more in May 1446, following the request of Grand Vizier Halil Pasha. The reason for this was that Mehmed was preparing plans to assault Constantinople. While Halil Pasha opposed this attack, fearing that it would diminish his own position, Zağanos and Şahabeddin, who were followers of Mehmed, approved this proposal. Eventually, Halil Pasha launched a Janissary insurrection and ousted Mehmed and his followers from power. Upon Murad’s return to the throne, Mehmed retreated to Manisa, and Zağanos Pasha was banished to Balıkesir.

Manisa Period

There is not much information regarding what Mehmed did in his initial years in Manisa. He did not join in his father’s voyage to the Peloponnese in 1446. In late 1447 or early 1448, he had a son called Bayezid, who would eventually become the sultan, by Gülbahar Hatun, a Christian slave of Albanian ancestry. The Second World War with the Hungarians in 1448. He took part in a conflict for the first time by joining his father under the leadership of Anatolian forces in the Kosovo conflict. When he was 17, his father, who did not approve of his connection with Gülbahar Hatun, married him to Sitti Hatun, the daughter of Süleyman Bey from the Dulkadir dynasty.

Mehmed operated in a highly autonomous manner while he was in Manisa. With his cooperation, Turkish pirates were targeting the Venetians in the Aegean. He issued coins in his own name at Selçuk in 852 (1448/1449) in the Hijri calendar. His mother perished away in August or September 1449. In 1450, he participated in his father’s Albanian campaign against Skanderbeg and the failed Siege of Akçahisar.

Second Ascension to the Throne

II. Murad died on February 3, 1451. Mehmed got the news of his father’s death in a letter sent to Manisa by Grand Vizier Halil Pasha by private courier. According to the tale, “Whoever loves me, let him follow me!” saying, he mounted on his horse and headed off towards the north. Mehmed came to the throne for the second time at Edirne on 19 February 1451. He maintained Çandarlı Halil Pasha in the role of grand vizier, appointed İshak Pasha as Anatolian Beylerbeyi and despatched him to Bursa to follow his father’s burial. Later, he had his father’s eight-month-old son, Küçük Ahmed, from the daughter of İsfendiyaroğulları ruler, killed. In this way, the fratricide statute was put into operation. Ahmet Çelebi’s corpse was transferred to Bursa together with his father Murad’s.

Rumeli Fortress erected by Mehmet the Conqueror

Although Mehmed left Çandarlı Halil Pasha in his office, the actual authority now moved into the hands of the military faction commanded by him and his lalas Şahabeddin Pasha and Zağanos Pasha. Mehmed’s ambition was to construct the centralist empire that his great grandfather Yıldırım Bayezid wanted to create by capturing the Balkan areas south of the Danube and the Anatolian lands west of the Euphrates. However, unlike Bayezid, he considered that in order to achieve this he had to first seize Constantinople. On the other hand, in both the West and Eastern Rome, the new sultan was not considered as a substantial danger at first due to his youthful age and inexperience. This attitude was strengthened when Mehmed reaffirmed the agreements established by his father with Venice, the Genoese Republic, Hungary and the Serbian Despotate in 1451. Mehmed also told Eastern Rome that he would continue the amicable connections during his father’s period and that he had given 300 thousand silver pieces yearly for Süleyman Çelebi’s son Orhan at Constantinople.

Christians were not the only ones who believed Mehmed was an ineffective king. After his succession to the throne, the Karamanids revolted to resuscitate the local principalities and took Seydişehir and Akşehir. Thereupon, Mehmed traveled to Anatolia in the summer of 1451 and repressed this insurrection in a short period. Meanwhile, Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine, who took advantage of Mehmed’s presence in Anatolia, threatened through his messengers that the allowance for Prince Orhan, the grandson of Süleyman Çelebi, was not made, and that if the allowance was not doubled, he would allow Orhan to claim the Ottoman throne. Mehmed despatched the emissaries promising that he would settle the matter, but after returning to Edirne, he confiscated the income designated for Orhan and ordered the siege of Constantinople.

CONQUEST OF ISTANBUL

Mehmed initiated preparations for the siege in late 1451. He ordered the building of the Rumeli Fortress, named Boğazkesen at the time, opposite the Anatolian Fortress erected by his great grandfather Bayezid, on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus. Emperor Constantine despatched representatives to advise Mehmed that he required his approval for the construction of the stronghold, but Mehmed would not accept the ambassadors. The Emperor last dispatched his emissaries for peace talks in June 1452, but Mehmed rejected the ambassadors again. This meant war. The fortification was finished in August 1452. Thus, control of the Bosphorus slipped into the hands of the Ottomans. Ships sailing over the Bosphorus have to pay passage costs from now on. Otherwise, the ships would be sunk by gun fire. In late 1452, a Venetian ship that refused to pay was destroyed and its captain and crew were jailed. The balls in dispute were created by a ball caster named Erdelli Urban. Mehmed asked him whether he could create a cannon strong enough to shatter the walls of Constantinople. Urban responded, “What Constantinople?”

On the other hand, in the face of these events, Emperor Constantine anxiously asked support from the Pope and Italian towns, but they were unsuccessful. Only Genoa chose to send help in November 1452, and Genoese galleys with 700 men under the leadership of Giovanni Giustiniani landed in Constantinople on 26 January 1453. Emperor Constantine designated Giovanni Giustiniani commander-in-chief of the ground armies. The number of soldiers in Constantinople was roughly 8,000, and there were 26 vessels in the port. Previously, seven Cretan and Venetian ships carrying 700 Italians fled from the city in February. The number of soldiers in the Ottoman army was at least 50,000. In addition, Mehmed constructed a navy, assuming that merely a land siege would not be adequate. This fleet arrived at the Marmara entrance of the Bosphorus in the spring.

The Ottoman army started off from Edirne on 23 March and arrived in Constantinople on 2 April. On the same day, the entrance to the Golden Horn was closed with a chain. Mehmed, who set his headquarters in Maltepe outside the Romanus gate, appealed for capitulation for the last time, but the emperor refused.

The first attack occurred on the morning of April 6. The siege lasted 53 days with sporadic warfare. Emperor Constantine was guarding the Romanus gate with Giustinani. Prince Orhan was also controlling one of the continents on the Marmara coast. On April 20, three Genoese ships despatched by the Pope and a Greek cargo ship coming from Sicily emerged near the city’s shore. At the end of the conflict in the Marmara Sea, four ships managed to approach the Golden Horn in the evening. Realizing that he had to land his fleet at the Golden Horn somehow, Mehmed chose to pass his ships overland. Planks were laid on the line running from today’s Dolmabahçe to Kasımpaşa, and roughly 70 ships were lowered into the Golden Horn on rollers on the morning of April 22. Thus, control of the Golden Horn slipped into the hands of the Ottomans. On the other hand, in the seventh week of the siege, the Ottomans still could not gain a clear outcome. At this moment, Halil Pasha encouraged Mehmed one final time to call for submission, but the emperor again rejected the offer. Thereupon, Mehmed stated on May 24 that he would conduct a great attack by land and water on the 29th of the month.

Zağanos Pasha organized the final offensive preparations. The Ottoman army commenced the attack in the early hours of May 29. The Ottomans carried out the decisive onslaught in three waves. During the first two hours, the irregulars stormed the walls, then Anatolian troops took their place. Finally, the janissaries came in to give the deadly blow. Meanwhile, Giustiniani, who was hurt, departed the battlefield, generating severe demoralization among those defending the city. Finally, in the dawn hours, Ottoman forces succeeded to access the gate named “Kerkoporta” and put the Ottoman flag on the bastion above the entrance. Mehmed reached the city in the afternoon of the first day of the invasion. He went to Hagia Sophia, worshiped and stated min-baʿd (from now on), my throne is Istanbul.

The city had been conquered by force, so it could be plundered according to religious law. [citation required] The pillage lasted three days. [citation needed]The fate of Emperor Constantine is unclear. While some records state that his body was not located, certain historians such as Babinger write that the emperor’s body was identified by his purple shoes. Alphonse Lamartine writes in his book that the emperor’s body was recovered and that Mehmet the Conqueror prepared a Christian burial for Constantine. Prince Orhan was arrested and killed while trying to flee the city disguised as a monk.

Fatih enabled the Greeks and Genoese who had evacuated from Galata, the commercial hub of the city, to return. permitted the restoration of the Greek Patriarchate; He also founded an Armenian Patriarchate with a Jewish rabbinate. II. Mehmed intended to establish Istanbul a capital city where people from many religions lived together and was a hub of trade and culture.

The establishment of the new capital was conducted out

by Fatih II, the head of the Istanbul Orthodox Patriarchate. A picture representing his encounter with Gennadios, 1454
Immediately after the conquest, Mehmed began the repair of the city. His purpose was not to destroy Eastern Rome but to restore it inside the Ottoman system. Although the empire he would construct would be an Islamic kingdom, it would have a cosmopolitan structure like Eastern Rome.

Fatih accepted the presence of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Armenian Patriarchate and the Jewish head rabbi. On January 6, 1454, he named George Skolaris as the new Orthodox patriarch. Since Hagia Sophia was transformed into a mosque, Havariyun Church was granted to the Patriarchate as its formal seat. He appointed Moshe Kapsali as the chief rabbi of the Jews in the city. In 1461, Bursa Bishop Hovakim was chosen as the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul.

Mehmed commenced the construction of his first palace on the location of the Theodosius Forum. at the following years, he had Topkapı Palace erected at Sarayburnu.

Execution of Çandarlı Halil Pasha.

Fatih ordered Çandarlı Halil Pasha killed at Edirne on July 10, 1453, due to his views when he first ascended to the throne and during the invasion of Istanbul. According to certain reports, Çandarlı deemed Fatih impatient and unskilled. With this episode, Fatih increased his power and everyone bowed to the young khan.

After the victory, Çandarlı Halil Pasha was imprisoned at the Golden Gate in Yedikule for forty days during the period leading up to his death. On July 10, his eyes were pierced and he was later killed. It is said that he gazed at Hakan instead of kneeling down. Later, he was transported to Iznik by his son İbrahim Pasha and interred in his tomb. Çandarlı Halil Pasha was the first Ottoman grand vizier to be executed.

Battle of Belgrade (in Hungary: Nándorfehérvár) 1456. Hünername 1584

After the conquest of Istanbul, the Serbs, who swore their devotion to the Ottomans and surrendered some of the strongholds they had conquered, decided to display their animosity again by working with the Hungarians. Thereupon, an expedition was organized to Serbia three times in a succession between 1454 and 1457. All Serbian areas except Belgrade were seized.

Taking advantage of the throne conflicts that started with the death of the Serbian King Bronkovic, the Ottomans taxed the Serbs. When the dispute for the crown flared up again, Fatih, who was on the Peloponnese campaign, ordered the Serbian matter to halt. Mahmud Pasha took their capital, Smedere, in 1459 and formed the Sancakbeyli of Smederea. Thus, Ottoman dominance in Serbia started, which would continue for 350 years.

After the conquest of Istanbul, Byzantine Emperor XII. Constantine’s sons requested for Ottoman support in Morea against their enemies, the Kantakuzen dynasty. Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey interfered in the scene with his raiders and the opponents were exterminated. But this time the brawl erupted between the two brothers. Knowing the plans of the regional kingdoms to conquer the Peloponnese, Fatih took action in 1458. Mehmet the Conqueror, who seized Korent, linked a section of Morea to the center and founded a sanjak here. Athens and other places accepted Ottoman domination. After Tomas, who obtained the backing of the Albanians against his brother Dimitrios, breached the deal with the Ottomans, a second expedition was prepared to Morea. Tomas had to flee to the Pope. Many Turks were established in the region. The Venetians were seeking to revolt the inhabitants of the region against the Ottomans. However, Venice did not succeed in this and was crushed by the Ottoman army (1465).

Fatih Sultan Mehmet brought the Crimean Khanate under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire in 1477. He captured Sinop from the Candaroğulları.

He captured Amasra, one of the key bases of the Genoese. By signing a peace in 1479, he ended the 16-year conflict with Venice. Venice abandoned the castles in Albania to the Ottomans, and in return obtained the right to utilize some of the piers in the Peloponnese. When Mehmet the Conqueror struck an arrangement with Venice, he started war on other prominent city states of Italy. In 1480 he seized the port of Otranto in southern Italy. This incident had a major influence throughout Europe, as Otranto was a bridgehead on the way to Rome.

Campaigns in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bosnians becoming Muslims.

When the Bosnian King, who was connected to the Ottomans through taxation, did not comply with the agreements, Fatih took action from Skopje and ordered the total conquest of Bosnia to Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha and Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey. With the expedition in 1463, the Bosnian King acknowledged Ottoman rule again. However, he was later slain with the fatwa of the Shaykh al-Islam, and the Bosnian Sanjak Beylik was founded in these regions. However, once the army withdrew to Istanbul, the Hungarian monarch entered Bosnia in the same year.

With the second expedition, the Ottomans regained all the castles and cities save Yayçe. During the Bosnian wars, King Stefan of Herzegovina was left on his throne on the condition that some of his country’s land would be immediately ceded to the Ottomans. However, in 1483, Herzegovina would become totally Ottoman control. When Mehmet the Conqueror took Bosnia to the Ottoman Empire, he treated the Bosnians of the “Bogomil” sect quite favorably. For this reason, the Bogomils, who were encouraged by both Catholics and Orthodox to accept them into their churches, welcomed the Ottoman government and became Muslims over time, pleased by the freedom of faith and conscience afforded to them. These Muslim Bosnians are called “Bosniaks”.

Wallachia and Moldavia Expeditions

The Principality of Wallachia, which was subject to taxation during the reign of Yıldırım Bayezid, was appointed by Mehmet the Conqueror to III. Vlad (Vlad the Impaler) was brought. (1456) Vlad, who looked to be loyal to the Ottomans, was actually covertly hostile. After Vlad impaled Mehmed’s messengers to death, Mehmet the Conqueror planned an expedition against Wallachia in 1462. The Ottoman armies, which also got support from Moldavia, chased Voivode for a long period. Ultimately, the situation was resolved when the Hungarians, to whom he took asylum, seized Vlad upon the arrangement he made with the Ottomans. Fatih appointed Radul to the voivodeship and Wallachia became an Ottoman province.

Due to the hostile strategy adopted by the Principality of Moldavia, which had accepted Ottoman control since 1455, after the fall of Kaffa, the Ottoman armies entered Moldavia in 1476, although they were repulsed in the Battle of Racova in 1475. The Ottoman soldiers, headed by Fatih himself, heavily beat the Moldavian army. Thus, Moldavia acknowledged Ottoman rule again. Severed head II. The site of the burial of Vlad the Impaler, who was turned up to Mehmed, remains unclear.

Campaigns in Albania Skanderbeg,

the Albanian king who grew up in the same palace as Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror and subsequently took action with the help of the Papacy and the Kingdom of Naples, was coordinating raids against the Ottoman army employing hit-and-run tactics. Thereupon, Fatih resolved to embark on an excursion himself. In the first campaign, which took place in 1465, Fatih the Conqueror had the Ilbasan Castle erected and stationed men in it, and returned by appointing Balaban Pasha to the province. However, Skanderbeg, who assaulted the Turks with the soldiers he acquired from the Pope and other powers, murdered Balaban Pasha and besieged Ilbasan Castle. Thereupon, Fatih II. He proceeded on the Albanian Campaign (1467). New garrisons were created in the seized areas. Meanwhile, Skanderbeg died and was replaced by his son Gjon Kastrioti II. During the 3rd Albanian expedition launched by Mehmet the Conqueror, Kroya and Shkodra, which remained in the hands of the Albanians, were besieged. In 1479, Albania too became an Ottoman province.

The fall of the Trebizond Empire

seized Trebizond, the capital of the Trebizond Empire, in 1461 and put an end to the existence of this empire. He embarked on an expedition to Rumelia again in 1462. He joined Wallachia to the Ottoman Empire and entirely took Bosnia in 1463. In the same year, he broke out with the Venetians when he took the Lesbos Island in the Aegean Sea. This action heralded the beginning of the conflict that would endure until 1479. The islands acquired by Fatih in the Aegean; Thassos, Euboea, Lemnos, Samothrace, Imbros, Lesbos and Tenedos. He seized much of Herzegovina in 1465 and several strongholds in Albania in 1466.

Alliance of Karamanoğulları and Akkoyunlus against Fatih

. In the face of this increasing might of the Ottoman Empire, Karamanoğulları established an alliance with the Akkoyunlus in Eastern Anatolia.

Fatih went on a fresh Anatolian trip in 1466. He seized Konya, the capital of the Karamanids. But when they returned to Istanbul, Karamanoğulları grabbed back the lands that had passed to the Ottomans. Gedik Ahmed Pasha, who would ultimately become the grand vizier, destroyed the Karamanoğulları once more in 1471. Akkoyunlu continued to assist the Karamanoğulları. On 11 August 1473, he brutally beat the Akkoyunlu monarch Uzun Hasan in the Battle of Otlukbeli. The next year, he fully abolished the Karamanoğulları Principality.

With his ideas and legislation

Mehmet the Conqueror developed the Ottoman Empire into a vast empire with his military exploits. He exhibited significant interest in science, history and philosophy. He possessed a private collection consisting of works in Arabic, Persian, Latin and Greek, as well as Turkish. He published poems under the alias Avni. His poetry were published under names such as Fatih Divanı (1944), Fatih’s poetry (1946), Fatih and His Poems (1959). Supporting scientists and men of literature, Fatih promoted prose master Sinan Pasha and poet Ahmed Pasha to the office of vizier. He helped the eminent mathematician and astronomy scholar Ali Kuşçu to stay in Istanbul. Fatih Sultan Mehmet invited the Italian painter Gentile Bellini to Istanbul in 1479 and had his works produced.

Fatih made crucial efforts to provide the Ottoman Empire an organized and continuous framework. The Fatih Code, which contained the norms it lay down in the sectors of administration, finance and law, remained in force in the following time. This legislation allowed the sultan who attained the throne the power to murder his brothers for the future of the state (nizâm-ı alem). Many of the core concepts of Mehmed the Conqueror’s Ottoman state order remained relevant until the Tanzimat period. During the reign of Fatih, more than 500 architectural structures were erected in the Ottoman country. The most prominent structure created in his name is the Fatih Complex in Istanbul, which contains a mosque and units such as a madrasa, library, soup kitchen, hospital, baths and caravanserai.

Education and culture

One of the most important elements of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror in history was the attention he put to education. He built Sahn-ı Seman, which is one of the oldest educational institutions recognized in the Ottoman history and global history in terms of university. Sahn-i Seman is the first Turkish higher education institution in Istanbul. Sahn-ı Seman madrasahs were the highest level madrasahs in the Fatih Social Complex. One of the preparers of Sahn-ı Semân’s educational curriculum is the famous scientist of the period, Ali Kuşçu. Although it is known that there was a teaching plan arranged by Ali Kuşçu at madrasahs and that it was even made in the form of “Kânûnnâme”, it has not been found among the Ottoman archive records studied so far. It is also likely that the original of this code was destroyed by the fire that broke out in the social complex in 1918. Sahn-ı Semân was training pupils in religious and mental studies until the period of the Süleymaniye Madrasahs founded by Suleiman the Magnificent. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, these madrasahs became madrasahs where religious sciences were specialized, while Suleymaniye Madrasas became the location of specialization in rational sciences.

Ali Kuşçu was dispatched to Samarkand by Fatih for astronomy studies and then carried out the first works of the observatory to be erected in Tophane by Takiyuddin in 1570.

DEATH

In 1481, Fatih set out on a fresh journey to Anatolia. But he fell ill at the beginning of the voyage and died on May 3, 1481, at his tent in Hünkar Meadow near Gebze. Although it is assumed that he died of gout, it is also alleged that he was poisoned. After Fatih died, his death was hidden. It was stated that the sultan required a bath, so his body was discreetly taken to the palace. At that time, a messenger was despatched to Prince Bayezid and Prince Cem. At that time, the army discovered that Fatih was killed and came to Istanbul and a big anarchy occurred. Karamanlı Mehmed Pasha was killed because he was a follower of Cem. Everywhere started to be plundered. The residences and stores of non-Muslim merchants were assaulted. Meanwhile, while everyone was striving to place their own supporters on the throne, Fatih’s burial was neglected in a gloomy chamber in the palace. Baltacılar kethüdası of a guy named Kasım II. In his letter to Bayezid, he writes that when he went to the body in the palace, no light was lit on it for 3 days and 3 nights, and it was impossible to reach him because of the scent of the corpse. Later, the internal organs were removed and the body was embalmed with the embalmer. His garments had to be removed in order to embalm the body. However, owing to the heat of the season, the body was decomposing and the clothing adhered to the body. That’s why the garment was ripped off from his left arm and he was embalmed. The slashed dress is preserved at Topkapı Palace today. II. He was kept waiting like that till Bayezid got to the capital. After his death, his son Bayezid ascended to the throne. He lays in his mausoleum in Fatih Mosque. It is not known exactly where he arranged the mission. Because Fatih kept this knowledge highly secret for the security of the trip and did not share it to anyone. However, historians estimate that the trip will go to Egypt or Rome (Papacy). But other writers and historians were of the notion that he would orchestrate victories in other regions. Since he collected the men at Üsküdar and started the preparations, the prospect of the expedition being to Italy is not deemed realistic by today’s historians.