The Seizure of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II: Justin Marozzi (1453)
‘A beleaguered Christian island in an expanding Muslim sea’ – this is the travel writer and historian Justin Marozzi’s description of the city of Constantinople in the mid-fifteenth century, shortly before its capture by the precocious young Sultan Mehmet II.
By the mid-fourteenth century, the once enormous Eastern Roman Empire had shrunk beyond recognition, comprising just the city, its hinterland and the Peloponnese.
Constantinople had been the centre of Christianity in the Eastern Mediterranean since the fourth century and it was considered one of the most beautiful and powerful cities on earth. For centuries it had been an unobtainable prize; its walls withstanding centuries of attack by foreign powers.
But in 1453 the long period of Christian dominance came to a brutal end when Sultan Mehmet II arrived at the head of a vast army. But as Justin explains, his victory was by no means a foregone conclusion. The Greeks fought bravely under their valiant Emperor Constantine XI and there were many twists and turns of plot and fortune during the dramatic 53-day siege.
“Can you knock down the walls of Constantinople? He says, “I can pulverise the walls of Babylon into dust.””
Constantinople is the focus of one of the chapters in Justin’s most recent book Islamic Empires Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization which is a dazzling, nuanced portrait of the Muslim world through a millennium and a half. His story begins with Mecca in the seventh century and ends with Doha in the twenty-first, taking in the glories of Baghdad, Jerusalem, Fez, Samarkand, Isfahan and Beirut along the way.
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Click here to order Justin Marozzi’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
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Show notes
Scene One: January 1453. A Hungarian siege engineer called Orban offers the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the most powerful new weapon in the world.
Scene Two: 22 April 1453, Mehmet displays an astonishing example of his military genius to seize control of the Golden Horn, Constantinople
Who's up for a historical diversion? Travel back to 1453 & relive the conquest of Constantinople in three scenes. Sultan Mehmed II v Constantine XI Palaiologos. Many thanks to @VioletBysted for hosting this Travels Through Time podcast. Loved recording it https://t.co/AQsYnPgMR6
— Justin Marozzi (@justinmarozzi) August 4, 2020
Scene Three: 1:30am on 29th May, the battle for Constantinople reaches its dramatic climax
Memento: The magnificent cannon cast for the seige in 1453 by the Hungarian engineer Orban
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Violet Moller
Guest: Justin Marozzi
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
About Justin Marozzi:
Justin Marozzi is an award-winning writer who has spent most of his professional life living and working in the Middle East and North Africa. His previous books include South from Barbary: Along the Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara (2001), the bestselling Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (2004) and The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008). His last book, Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood (2014) won the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and was praised by the judges as 'a truly monumental achievement'.
Sultan Mehmed II, Entering Constantinople, 1453
Source: WikiCommons
More about the scenes
Scene One: In January 1453, a Hungarian siege engineer called Orban tested a powerful, nine-metre canon in front of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. He had already built a smaller version which had impressed the sultan the previous year, when it had been used to rake and destroy a Venetian vessel attempting to break the Ottoman blockade. Could Orban manufacture a cannon capable of shattering the walls of Constantinople, Mehmed asked the Hungarian. “I can shatter to dust not only these walls with the stones from my gun but the very walls of Babylon itself,” he replied. This massive new cannon, described by one Byzantine historian as “a terrible, unprecedented monster”, was capable of hurling cannonballs weighing half a tonne more than a mile. Orban had offered his services to Mehmed’s adversary Constantine XI but tragically for Constantinople, the Byzantine emperor had been unable to afford them.
Scene Two: On 22 April, with his fleet unable to break through the 300-metre defensive iron chain guarding the entrance to the Golden Horn, Mehmed displayed another example of his military genius. He ordered his fleet to be lifted out of the water, hauled up swiftly prepared wooden tracks greased with animal fat for one-and-a-half miles to the top of a ridge behind Galata, then carefully taken down and back into the water on the other side of the defensive boom – all the while his crews ‘sailing’ at their oars, cheering wildly, hoisting their sails, flying their pennants and sounding their trumpets. Without a fight Mehmed had seized control of the Golden Horn.
Scene Three: At 1:30am on 29th May, after a desperately fought siege of 53 days, Ottoman horns, supported by beating drums and clashing cymbals, sounded the final attack on the city. The sultan’s most expendable troops, largely Christian irregulars and conscripts, surged out of the darkness under a furious artillery barrage and advanced against the walls and improvised stockade. Mehmed was like the Las Vegas gambler who had gone “all in”. Win and his place in history was guaranteed, the glorious conqueror of Constantinople who had removed the infamous “bone in the throat of Allah”. Lose and he merely joined a long list of failed, would-be conquerors who had never been able to take the world’s most impregnable city. The stakes could not have been higher.
Map of the Siege of Constantinople
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