Monthly Archives: March 2018

The Topkapı Palace: Constantinople Rebuilt, 1459

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Ruth

Mehmet II wanted to be the legitimate Byzantine Emperor in addition to being its Turkish conqueror. Now they pulled out a long-ago event forgotten by the Greeks: that one renegade son of an Emperor had converted to Islam and married … Continue reading →

Posted in Castles, Muslim Empire (old series) | Comments Off on The Topkapı Palace: Constantinople Rebuilt, 1459

The Fall of Constantinople, 1453

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Ruth

The last siege of Constantinople took 57 days. The old core city had been built at the point where the Bosphorus met the Mediterranean and some smaller rivers fed into it with a long inlet, shaping the city’s site into … Continue reading →

Posted in Muslim Empire (old series) | Comments Off on The Fall of Constantinople, 1453

Gunpowder and the Orban Bombard, 1452

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Ruth

During the 1440s, the Ottoman Sultans continued to push back their frontier in Europe. Murad II made his 12 year old son Mehmet king, but he had to be called back in 1444 to confront the Hungarian-Wallachian army at Varna … Continue reading →

Posted in Castles, Muslim Empire (old series) | Comments Off on Gunpowder and the Orban Bombard, 1452