Fall of Constantinople Part of the Byzantine–Ottoman Wars and Ottoman wars in Europe The Siege of Constantinople (painted 1499). Date 6 April 1453 – 29 May 1453 Location Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) Result Decisive Ottoman victory;[1][2][3] End of the Byzantine Empire; Constantinople made Ottoman capital; Beginning of Christendom's modern age Belligerents  Byzantine Empire  Republic of Genoa  Ottoman Empire Serbian Despotate Commanders and leaders Constantine XI † Loukas Notaras  Giovanni Giustiniani †[4] Mehmed II Zagan Pasha Suleiman Baltoghlu Đurađ Branković Strength 7,000[5] 26 ships[6] 80,000[a][7][8][9] 160,000[b][10][11]–200,000[4] to 300,000[12] 70 ships[13], 20 galleys[14] Casualties and losses 4,000 killed[15] Unknown a: According to recent estimates and Ottoman archival data b: According to contemporaneous Western estimates

v t e Byzantine–Ottoman Wars Bapheus Catalan Campaign Bursa Pelekanon Nicaea Nicomedia 1st Gallipoli Adrianople 2nd Gallipoli Philadelphia 1st Constantinople Thessalonica 2nd Constantinople

The Fall of Constantinople (Greek: Άλωση της Κωνσταντινούπολης, Alōsē tēs Kōnstantinoupolēs; Turkish: İstanbul'un fethi) was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. The siege lasted from Friday, 6 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453 (according to the Julian calendar), when the city was conquered by the Ottomans.

The capture of Constantinople (and two other Byzantine splinter territories soon thereafter) marked the end of the Roman Empire, an imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years. It was also a massive blow to Christendom, and the Ottomans thereafter were free to advance into Europe without an adversary to their rear. After the conquest, Mehmed made Constantinople the Ottoman Empire's new capital. Several Greek and non-Greek intellectuals fled the city before and after the siege, migrating particularly to Italy. It is argued that they helped fuel the Renaissance. Some mark the end of the Middle Ages by the fall of the city and empire.^[16]

State of the Byzantine Empire[link]

Constantine stretched this chain across the Golden Horn to prevent Mehmed's ships from entering into the city of Constantinople in 1453. Today it belongs to the Istanbul Military Museum.

The Byzantine Empire in the first half of the 15th century. Thessaloniki was captured by the Ottomans in 1430. A few islands in the Aegean and the Propontis remained under Byzantine rule until 1453 (not shown on the map)

In the 1,123 years of the existence of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople had been besieged many times but had been captured only once, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.^[17] The crusaders had most likely not intended to conquer Byzantium in the beginning, and an unstable Latin state was established in and around Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire fell apart into a number of Greek successor states, notably Nicaea, Epirus and Trebizond. The Greek states fought as allies against the Latin establishments but also as rivals against each other over the Byzantine throne. The Nicaean Greeks were the first to re-conquer Constantinople from the Latins in 1261. In the following two centuries, the much-weakened Byzantine Empire faced attacks from the Latins, the Serbians, the Bulgarians and, most importantly, the Ottoman Turks.^{[7][18][19][20]} The Black Plague between 1346 and 1349 killed almost half of Constantinople's inhabitants.^[21][22] By 1453 the empire was exhausted, consisting of a few square miles outside the city of Constantinople itself, the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, and the Peloponnese with its cultural center at Mystras. The Empire of Trebizond, a completely independent successor state that formed in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, also survived on the coast of the Black Sea.

Preparations[link]

The Dardanelles Gun, cast in 1464 and based on the Orban bombard that was used for the Ottoman besiegers of Constantinople in 1453. Today it belongs to the British Royal Armouries collection.

When Sultan Murad II was succeeded by his son Mehmed II in early 1451, it was widely believed that the new young Sultan, who was then 19 years old, would be an incapable ruler and could pose no great threat to Christian possessions in the Balkans and the Aegean.^[23] This belief was reinforced by Mehmed's friendly assurances to envoys who were sent to him at the beginning of his reign.^[24] During the spring and summer of 1452, Mehmed II, whose great grandfather Bayezid I had previously built a fortress on the Asian side of the Bosphorus called Anadolu Hisarı, now built a second fortress several miles north of Constantinople on the European side, directly across the strait from Anadolu Hisarı, which would increase Turkish influence on the straits.^[24] An especially relevant aspect of this fortress was its ability to prevent help from Genoese colonies on the Black Sea coast from reaching the city. This castle was called Rumeli Hisarı, Rumeli and Anadolu being the names of the European and Asian portions of the Ottoman Empire, respectively. The new fortress is also known as Boğazkesen, which has a dual meaning in Turkish: strait-blocker or throat-cutter, emphasizing its strategic position. The Greek name of the fortress, Laimokopia, also bears the same double meaning. In October 1452, Sultan Mehmed II ordered Turakhan Beg and his sons Ahmad and Omar to lead a large force to the Peloponnese and to remain there all winter in order to keep the despots Thomas and Demetrios from assisting their brother Constantine during the Siege of Constantinople.^[25]

The Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI appealed to Western Europe for help, but his request did not meet with success. Ever since the mutual excommunication of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in 1054, the Roman Catholic West had been trying to gain dominion over the East; union had been attempted before at Lyon in 1274 and, indeed, some Paleologan emperors had since been received in the Latin Church. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos had attempted to negotiate Union with Pope Eugene IV, and the Council held in 1439 resulted in the proclamation, in Florence, of a Bull of Union. In the following years, a massive propaganda initiative was undertaken by anti-unionist forces in Constantinople and the population as well as the leadership of the Byzantine Church was in fact bitterly divided. Latent ethnic hatred between Greeks and Italians stemming from the events of 1204 and the sack of Constantinople by the Latins also played a significant role, Finally the Union failed, greatly annoying Pope Nicholas V and the Roman Catholic Church.

Map of Constantinople and its land walls

In the summer of 1452, when Rumeli Hisari was completed and the threat had become imminent, Constantine wrote to the Pope, promising to implement the Union, which was declared valid by a half-hearted imperial court on Tuesday 12 December 1452.^[24] Although he was eager for an advantage, Pope Nicholas V did not have the influence the Byzantines thought he had over the Western Kings and Princes, some of whom were wary of increasing Papal control, and these had not the wherewithal to contribute to the effort, especially in light of the weakened state of France and England from the Hundred Years' War, Spain being in the final part of the Reconquista, the internecine fighting in the German Principalities, and Hungary and Poland's defeat at the Battle of Varna of 1444. Although some troops did arrive from the mercantile city states in the north of Italy, the Western contribution was not adequate to counterbalance Ottoman strength. Some Western individuals, however, came to help defend the city on their own account. One of these was an accomplished soldier from Genoa, Giovanni Giustiniani, who arrived with 700 armed men in January 1453.^[26] A specialist in defending walled cities, he was immediately given the overall command of the defense of the land walls by the emperor. Around the same time, the captains of the Venetian ships which happened to be present in the Golden Horn offered their services to the Emperor, barring contrary orders from Venice, and Pope Nicholas undertook to send three ships laden with provisions, which set sail near the end of March.^[27] In Venice, meanwhile, deliberations were taking place concerning the kind of assistance the Republic would lend to Constantinople. The Senate decided upon sending a fleet, but there were delays, and when it finally set out late in April, it was already too late for it to be able to partake in the battle.^[28] Further undermining Byzantine morale, seven Italian ships with around 700 men slipped out of the capital at the moment when Giustiniani arrived, men who had sworn to defend the capital. At the same time, Constantine's attempts to appease the Sultan with gifts ended with the execution of the Emperor's ambassadors — even Byzantine diplomacy could not save the city.^[24]

Fearing a possible naval attack along the shores of the Golden Horn, Emperor Constantine XI ordered that a chain be placed at the mouth of the harbour. This chain, which floated on wooden logs, was strong enough to prevent any Turkish ship from entering the harbour. This device was one of two which gave the Byzantines some hope of extending the siege until the possible arrival of foreign help.^[29] This strategy was enforced because in 1204 the armies of the 4th Crusade successfully circumvented Constantinople's land defenses by breaching the Golden Horn Wall. Another strategy employed by the Byzantines was the repair and fortification of the Land Wall (Theodosian Walls). Emperor Constantine deemed it necessary to ensure that the Blachernae district's wall were the most fortified because that section of the wall protruded northwards. The land fortifications comprised a 60 ft (18 m) wide moat fronting inner and outer crenellated walls studded with towers every 50–60 yards.^[30]

Strength[link]

The army defending Constantinople was relatively small; it totalled about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreigners.^[31] At the onset of the siege probably 50,000 people were living within the walls, including the refugees from the surrounding area.^[32] Turkish commander Dorgano, who was in Constantinople in the pay of the Emperor, was also guarding one of the quarters of the city on the seaward side with the Turks in his pay.^[33] These Turks kept loyal to the Emperor and perished in the ensuing battle.

The Ottomans, on the other hand, had a larger force. Recent studies and Ottoman archival data point out that there were about 80,000 Ottoman soldiers including 5/6,000–10,000 elite Janissaries^[4][8][9] and thousands of Christian troops,^[33] notably 1,500 Serbian cavalry that the Serbian lord Đurađ Branković supplied as part of his obligation to the Ottoman sultan. But just a few months before, he had supplied the money for the reconstruction of the walls of Constantinople. Contemporaneous Western witnesses of the siege, who tend to exaggerate the military power of the Sultan, provide disparate and higher numbers ranging from 160,000 to 200,000 and to 300,000^[4] (Niccolò Barbaro: 160,000;^[34] the Florentine merchant Jacopo Tedaldi^[35] and the Great Logothete George Sphrantzes:^[10] 200,000; the Cardinal Isidore of Kiev^[36] and the Archbishop of Mytilene Leonardo di Chio:^[37] 300,000).^[38]

Ottoman dispositions and strategies[link]

Mehmed built a fleet to besiege the city from the sea (partially manned by Greek sailors from Gallipoli).^[8] Contemporary estimates of the strength of the Ottoman fleet span between about 100 ships (Tedaldi),^[35] 145 (Barbaro),^[34] 160 (Ubertino Pusculo),^[39] 200–250 (Isidore of Kiev,^[36] Leonardo di Chio)^[40] to 430 (Sphrantzes).^[10] A more realistic modern estimate predicts a fleet strength of 126 ships, specifically composed of 6 large galleys, 10 ordinary galleys, 15 smaller galleys, 75 large rowing boats, and 20 horse-transports.^[13]

Before the siege of Constantinople, it was known that the Ottomans had the ability to cast medium-sized cannons, but the range of some pieces they were able to field far surpassed the defenders' expectations. Instrumental to this Ottoman advancement in arms production was a somewhat mysterious figure by the name of Orban (Urban), a Hungarian (though some suggest he was German).^[41] One cannon designed by Orban was named "Basilica" and was 27 feet (8.2 m) long, and able to hurl a 600 lb (272 kg) stone ball over a mile (1.6 km).^[42]

Modern painting of Mehmed II and the Ottoman Army approaching Constantinople, transporting a giant bombard by Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929).

The master founder initially tried to sell his services to the Byzantines, who were unable to secure the funds needed to hire him. Orban then left Constantinople and approached Mehmed II, claiming that his weapon could blast 'the walls of Babylon itself'. Given abundant funds and materials, the Hungarian engineer built the gun within three months at Adrianople, from which it was dragged by sixty oxen to Constantinople. In the meantime, Orban also produced other cannons instrumental for the Turkish siege forces.^[43]

Orban's cannon had several drawbacks however: it took three hours to reload; cannon balls were in very short supply; and the cannon is said to have collapsed under its own recoil after six weeks (this fact however is disputed,^[4] being reported only in the letter of Archbishop Leonardo di Chio^[37] and in the later and often unreliable Russian chronicle of Nestor Iskander).^[44] Having previously established a large foundry about 150 miles (240 km) away, Mehmed now had to undergo the painstaking process of transporting his massive artillery pieces. Orban's giant cannon was said to have been accompanied by a crew of 60 oxen and over 400 men.^[41]

Mehmed planned to attack the Theodosian Walls, the intricate series of walls and ditches protecting Constantinople from an attack from the West, the only part of the city not surrounded by water. His army encamped outside the city on the Monday after Easter, 2 April 1453.

The bulk of the Ottoman army were encamped south of the Golden Horn. The regular European troops, stretched out along the entire length of the walls, were commanded by Karadja Pasha. The regular troops from Anatolia under Ishak Pasha were stationed south of the Lycus down to the Sea of Marmara. Mehmed himself erected his red-and-gold tent near the Mesoteichion, where the guns and the elite regiments, the Janissaries, were positioned. The Bashi-bazouks were spread out behind the front lines. Other troops under Zagan Pasha were employed north of the Golden Horn. Communication was maintained by a road that had been constructed over the marshy head of the Horn.^[45]

Byzantine dispositions and strategies[link]

A picture of the Fall of Constantinople by Theophilos Hatzimihail.

The city had about 20 km of walls (Theodosian Walls: 5.5 km; sea walls along the Golden Horn: 7 km; sea walls along the Sea of Marmara: 7.5 km), one of the strongest sets of fortified walls in existence at the time. The walls had recently been repaired (under John VIII) and were in fairly good shape, giving the defenders sufficient reason to believe that they could hold out until help from the West arrived.^[46] In addition, the defenders were relatively well-equipped with a fleet of 26 ships: 5 from Genoa, 5 from Venice, 3 from Venetian Crete, 1 from Ancona, 1 from Aragon, 1 from France, and about 10 Byzantine.^[6]

On 5 April, as the Sultan himself arrived with his last troops, the defenders took up their positions.^[47] As their numbers were insufficient to occupy the walls in their entirety, it had been decided that only the outer walls would be manned. Constantine and his Greek troops guarded the Mesoteichion, the middle section of the land walls, where they were crossed by the river Lycus. This section was considered the weakest spot in the walls and an attack was feared here most. Giustiniani was stationed to the north of the emperor, at the Charisian Gate (Myriandrion); later during the siege, he was shifted to the Mesoteichion to join Constantine, leaving the Myriandrion to the charge of the Bocchiardi brothers. Minotto and his Venetians were stationed in the Blachernae palace, together with Teodoro Caristo, the Langasco brothers, and Archbishop Leonardo of Chios. To the left of the emperor, further south, were the commanders Cataneo, with Genoese troops, and Theophilus Palaeologus, who guarded the Pegae Gate with Greek soldiers. The section of the land walls from the Pegae Gate to the Golden Gate (itself guarded by a certain Genoese called Manuel) was defended by the Venetian Filippo Contarini, while Demetrius Cantacuzenus had taken position on the southernmost part of the Theodosian wall. The sea walls were manned more sparsely, with Jacobo Contarini at Stoudion, a makeshift defense force of Greek monks to his left hand, and prince Orhan at the Harbour of Eleutherius. Pere Julià was stationed at the Great Palace with Genoese and Catalan troops; Cardinal Isidore of Kiev guarded the tip of the peninsula near the boom. The sea walls at the southern shore of the Golden Horn were defended by Venetian and Genoese sailors under Gabriele Trevisano. Two tactical reserves were kept behind in the city, one in the Petra district just behind the land walls and one near the Church of the Holy Apostles, under the command of Loukas Notaras and Nicephorus Palaeologus, respectively. The Venetian Alviso Diedo commanded the ships in the harbor. Although the Byzantines also had cannons, they were much smaller than those of the Ottomans and the recoil tended to damage their own walls.^[37]

According to David Nicolle (2000), despite many odds, the idea that Constantinople was inevitably doomed is wrong, and the overall situation was not as one-sided as a simple glance at a map might suggest.^[48] It has also been claimed that Constantinople was "the best-defended city in Europe" at that time.^[49]

Siege of the city[link]

At the beginning of the siege, Mehmed sent out some of his best troops to reduce the remaining Byzantine strongholds outside the city of Constantinople. The fortress of Therapia on the Bosphorus and a smaller castle at the village of Studius near the Sea of Marmara were taken within a few days. The Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara were taken by Admiral Baltoghlu's fleet.^[50]

Mehmed's massive cannon fired on the walls for weeks, but due to its imprecision and extremely slow rate of reloading the Byzantines were able to repair most of the damage after each shot, limiting the cannon's effect.^[51]

The Turks transport their fleet overland into the Golden Horn.

Meanwhile, despite some probing attacks, the Ottoman fleet under Suleiman Baltoghlu could not enter the Golden Horn due to the chain the Byzantines had laid across the entrance. Although one of the fleet's main tasks was to prevent any ships from outside from entering the Golden Horn, on 20 April a small flotilla of four Christian ships^[52] managed to slip in after some heavy fighting, an event which strengthened the morale of the defenders and caused embarrassment to the Sultan.^[51] Baltoghlu's life was spared after his subordinates testified to his bravery during the conflict.

After that, Mehmed tried to circumvent the chain. He ordered the construction of a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn, and rolled his ships across on 22 April.^[51] This seriously threatened the flow of supplies from Genovese ships from the — nominally neutral — colony of Pera, and demoralized the Byzantine defenders. On the night of 28 April, an attempt was made to destroy the Ottoman ships already in the Golden Horn using fire ships, but the Ottomans had been warned in advance and forced the Christians to retreat with heavy losses. From then on, the defenders were forced to disperse part of their forces to the Golden Horn walls, causing defense in other sections of the walls to weaken.

The Turks had made several frontal assaults on the land wall, but were always repelled with heavy losses. Venetian surgeon Nicolò Barbaro, describing in his diary one of such frequent land attacks especially by the Janissaries, wrote that:

They found the Turks coming right up under the walls and seeking battle, particularly the janissaries...and when one or two of them were killed, at once more Turks came and took away the dead ones...without caring how near they came to the city walls. Our men shot at them with guns and crossbows, aiming at the Turk who was carrying away his dead countryman, and both of them would fall to the ground dead, and then there came other Turks and took them away, none fearing death, but being willing to let ten of themselves be killed rather than suffer the shame of leaving a single Turkish corpse by the walls.^[33]

Siege of Constantinople as depicted between 1453 and 1475.

After these inconclusive frontal offensives, the Ottomans sought to break through the walls by constructing underground tunnels in an effort to mine them from mid-May to 25 May. Many of the sappers were miners of German origin sent from Novo Brdo by the Serbian Despot. They were placed under the command of Zagan Pasha. However, the Byzantines employed an engineer named Johannes Grant (who was said to be German but was probably Scottish), who had counter-mines dug, allowing Byzantine troops to enter the mines and kill the Turkish workers. The Byzantines intercepted the first Serbian tunnel on the night of 16 May. Subsequent tunneling efforts were interrupted on 21, 23, and 25 May, destroying them with Greek fire and vigorous combat. On 23 May, the Byzantines captured and tortured two Turkish officers, who revealed the location of all the Turkish tunnels, which were then destroyed.^[53]

On the 21st of May, Mehmed sent an ambassador to Constantinople and offered to lift the siege if they gave him the city. He promised he would allow the Emperor and any other inhabitant to leave with their possessions. Moreover, he would recognise the Emperor as governor of the Peloponese. Lastly, he guaranteed the safety of the population that would remain in the city. Constantine XI accepted to pay higher tributes to the sultan and recognized the status of all the conquered castles and lands in the hands of the Turks as Ottoman possession.^[54] However, regarding Constantinople, he stated:

" Giving you though the city depends neither on me nor on anyone else among its inhabitants; as we have all decided to die with our own free will and we shall not consider our lives. "^[55]

Around this time, Mehmed had a final council with his senior officers. Here he encountered some resistance; one of his Viziers, the veteran Halil Pasha, who had always disapproved of Mehmed's plans to conquer the city, now admonished him to abandon the siege in the face of recent adversity. Halil was overruled by Zagan Pasha, who insisted on an immediate attack. Having been accused of bribery, Halil Pasha was put to death later that year.^[56] Mehmed planned to overpower the walls by sheer force, expecting that the weakened Byzantine defense by the prolonged siege would now be worn out before he ran out of troops and started preparations for a final all-out offensive.

Final assault[link]

Painting by the Greek folk painter Theophilos Hatzimihail showing the battle inside the city, Constantine is visible on a white horse

Preparations for the final assault were started in the evening of 26 May and continued to the next day.^[57] For 36 hours after the war council decision to attack the Ottomans extensively mobilized their manpower in order to prepare for the general offensive.^[57] Prayer and resting would be then granted to the soldiers on the 28th, and then the final assault would be launched. On the Byzantine side, a small Venetian fleet of 12 ships, after having searched the Aegean, reached the Capital on 27 May and reported to the Emperor that no large Venetian relief fleet was on its way.^[58] On 28 May, as the Ottoman army prepared for the final assault, large-scale religious processions were held in the city. In the evening a last solemn ceremony was held in the Hagia Sophia, in which the Emperor and representatives of both the Latin and Greek church partook, together with nobility from both sides.^[59]

Shortly after midnight on 29 May the all-out offensive began. The Christian troops of the Ottoman Empire attacked first,^[33] followed by the successive waves of the irregular azaps, who were poorly trained and equipped, and Anatolians who focused on a section of the Blachernae walls in the northwest part of the city, which had been damaged by the cannon. This section of the walls had been built earlier, in the eleventh century, and was much weaker. The Anatolians managed to breach this section of walls and entered the city but were just as quickly pushed back by the defenders. Finally, as the battle was continuing, the last wave, consisting of elite Janissaries, attacked the city walls. The Genoese general in charge of the land troops,^[4][36][37] Giovanni Giustiniani, was grievously wounded during the attack, and his evacuation from the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks of the defenders.^[60] Giustiniani was carried to Chios, where he succumbed to his wounds a few days later.

Mehmed II's entry into Constantinople, painting by Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929)

With Giustiniani’s Genoese troops retreating into the city and towards the harbor, Constantine and his men, now left to their own devices, kept fighting and managed to hold off the Janissaries for a while, but eventually they could not stop them from entering the city. The defenders were also being overwhelmed at several points in Constantine’s section. When Turkish flags were seen flying above a small postern gate, the Kerkaporta, which was left open, panic ensued, and the defense collapsed, as Janissary soldiers, led by Ulubatlı Hasan pressed forward. It is said that Constantine, throwing aside his purple regalia, led the final charge against the incoming Ottomans, dying in the ensuing battle in the streets like his soldiers. On the other hand Nicolò Barbaro, a Venetian eyewitness to the siege, wrote in his diary that it was said that Constantine hanged himself at the moment when the Turks broke in at the San Romano gate,^[33] although his ultimate fate remains unknown.^[61]

After the initial assault, the Ottoman Army fanned out along the main thoroughfare of the city, the Mese, past the great forums, and past the Church of the Holy Apostles, which Mehmed II wanted to provide a seat for his newly appointed patriarch which would help him better control his Christian subjects. Mehmed II had sent an advance guard to protect key buildings such as the Holy Apostles, as he did not wish to establish his new capital in a thoroughly devastated city.

The Army converged upon the Augusteum, the vast square that fronted the great church of Hagia Sophia whose bronze gates were barred by a huge throng of civilians inside the building, hoping for divine protection. After the doors were breached, the troops separated the congregation according to what price they might bring in the slave markets. Mehmed II allowed his troops to plunder the city for three days as it was customary.^[62] Soldiers fought over the possession of some of the spoils of war.^[63] According to the Venetian surgeon Nicolò Barbaro "all through the day the Turks made a great slaughter of Christians through the city".^[64] However, according to British historian David Nicolle, the citizens of Constantinople were treated better by their Ottoman Conquerors than their ancestors had been by the Crusaders in 1204; only about 4,000 Greeks died in the siege.^[65] On the third day of the conquest, Mehmed II ordered all looting to stop and sent his troops back outside the city walls.^[65]

Ottoman casualties[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Ottoman casualties are unknown but they are believed by most historians to be very heavy due to several unsuccessful Ottoman attacks made during the siege and final assault. Barbaro describes the sea around the capital floating with the bodies of the Turks and Christians "like melons out to canal". Whatever the Ottoman casualties, the Empire had to recover its strength. To the East lay the strong Turkish Karamanid principality, and to the North the Hungarians and numerous smaller states, such as the Despotate of Morea and the many Slavic territories in the Balkans contested by Hungary.

Aftermath[link]

Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. Portrait by Gentile Bellini

Byzantine historian George Sphrantzes was an eyewitness to the fall of Constantinople. In his chronicle about the fall of the city, he wrote down the events that had taken place at the end of the third day of the conquest:^[66][67]

On the third day after the fall of our city, the Sultan celebrated his victory with a great, joyful triumph. He issued a proclamation: the citizens of all ages who had managed to escape detection were to leave their hiding places throughout the city and come out into the open, as they were remain free and no question would be asked. He further declared the restoration of houses and property to those who had abandoned our city before the siege, if they returned home, they would be treated according to their rank and religion, as if nothing had changed.

—George Sphrantzes

The loss of the city was a great blow to Christendom, and it exposed the Christian west to a vigorous and aggressive foe in the east. Pope Nicholas V called for an immediate counter-attack in the form of a crusade. When no European monarch was willing to lead the crusade, the Pope himself decided to go, but his early death stopped this plan.

With the capture of Constantinople, Mehmed II had acquired a great, rich city, albeit one in decline due to years of war. The capital allowed the Turks to establish a permanent supply base in Europe. Further advances into the Kingdom of Hungary and the bordering states would have been difficult, if not impossible, without the harbors of Constantinople bringing in supplies and serving as a fortified center from which to administer the empire. And the conquest of the Byzantine Empire removed a foe to the rear of the Ottoman advance into Europe.

Far from being in its heyday, by then, Constantinople was severely depopulated as a result of the general economic and territorial decline of the empire following its partial recovery from the disaster of the Fourth Crusade inflicted on it by the Christian army two centuries before. Therefore, the city in 1453 was a series of walled villages separated by vast fields encircled by the fifth-century Theodosian walls. When the Ottoman troops first broke through the defenses, many of the leading citizens of these little townlets submitted their surrender to Mehmed's generals.^[68] These villages, specifically along the land walls, were allowed to keep their citizens and churches and were protected by Mehmed's special contingents of Janissaries. It was these people who formed what the Ottomans called a Millet, a self-governing community in the multi-national Ottoman Empire of which Constantinople was to become the capital. Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, although the Greek Orthodox Church remained intact, and Gennadius Scholarius was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople.

The "Church of the Holy Wisdom", or Hagia Sophia, was converted into a mosque

Many Greeks, such as John Argyropoulos and Constantine Lascaris, fled the city and found refuge in the Latin West, bringing with them knowledge and documents from the Greco-Roman tradition to Italy and other regions that further propelled the Renaissance,^[69][70] although the influx of Greek scholars into the West began much earlier, especially in the Northern Italian city-states which had started welcoming scholars in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.^{[citation needed]} The chancellor of Florence Coluccio Salutati began this cultural exchange in 1396 by inviting Manuel Chrysoloras, a Byzantine scholar to lecture at the University of Florence.^[71] The Italians' hunger for Latin classics and a reintroduction of the Greek language was a major intellectual factor underlying the Renaissance.^{[dubious – discuss]} Those Greeks who stayed behind in Constantinople mostly lived in the Phanar and Galata districts of the city. The Phanariotes, as they were called, provided many capable advisers to the Ottoman rulers.

The Morean (Peloponnesian) fortress of Mystras, where Constantine's brothers Thomas and Demetrius ruled, constantly in conflict with each other and knowing that Mehmed would eventually invade them as well, held out until 1460. Long before the fall of Constantinople, Demetrius had fought for the throne with Thomas, Constantine, and their other brothers John and Theodore.^[72] Thomas escaped to Rome when the Ottomans invaded Morea while Demetrius expected to rule a puppet state, but instead was imprisoned and remained there for the rest of his life. In Rome, Thomas and his family received some monetary support from the Pope and other Western rulers as Byzantine emperor in exile, until 1503. In 1461 the independent Byzantine state in Trebizond fell to Mehmed.^[72]

Scholars consider the Fall of Constantinople as a key event ending the Middle Ages and starting the Renaissance because of the end of the old religious order in Europe and the use of cannon and gunpowder. The fall of Constantinople and general encroachment of the Turks in that region also severed the main overland trade link between Europe and Asia, and as a result more Europeans began to seriously consider the possibility of reaching Asia by sea.^[73]

Third Rome[link]

Byzantium is a term used by modern historians to refer to the later Roman Empire. In its time, the empire ruled from Constantinople (or "New Rome" as Constantine had officially named it) was considered simply "the Roman Empire." The fall of Constantinople led competing factions to lay claim to being the inheritors of the Imperial mantle. Russian claims to Byzantine heritage clashed with those of the Ottoman empire's own claim. In Mehmed's view, he was the successor to the Roman Emperor, declaring himself Kayser-i Rum, literally "Caesar of Rome", that is, of the Roman Empire, though he was remembered as "the Conqueror", founder of a political system that survived until 1922 with the establishment of the Republic of Turkey that has since held Constantinople (renamed Istanbul) but moved the capital of the Turkish state to Ankara. Such conflict in ideology only stimulated warfare between the Russian and Ottoman Empire, with the 18th and 19th century seeing Russian armies approach slowly closer to Constantinople. In fact the Russian armies came all the way to Yeşilköy suburb of Constantinople, which is only 10 miles (16 km) west of Topkapı Palace during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.

Stefan Dušan, Tsar of Serbia, and Ivan Alexander, Tsar of Bulgaria both made similar claims, regarding themselves as legitimate heirs to the Byzantine Empire. Other potential claimants, such as the Republic of Venice and the Holy Roman Empire have disintegrated into history.

In addition to the military and political benefits bestowed upon the Turks with its capture, it also brought the trade in Eastern spices through Muslim intermediaries into a declining period. Europeans would continue to trade through Constantinople into the 16th century but high prices propelled the search for alternative sources of supply that did not pass through the intermediaries of the Ottomans and, to a lesser extent, the Safavids and Mamelukes. An increasing number of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch ships began to attempt to sail to India via the southern tip of Africa. Indeed, had Columbus not believed that he would reach Asia to negotiate trade rights by sailing west—the mission as he presented it to his patron, the King of Spain—he would not have found the New World.

Cultural references[link]

Legends[link]

There are many legends in Greece surrounding the Fall of Constantinople. It was said that the total lunar eclipse that occurred on 22 May 1453, represented a fulfillment of a prophecy of the city's demise.^[74] Four days later, the whole city was blotted out by a thick fog, a condition unknown in that part of the world in May. When the fog lifted that evening, a strange light was seen playing about the dome of the Hagia Sophia, and from the city walls lights were seen in the countryside to the West, far behind the Turkish camp. The light around the dome was interpreted by some as the Holy Spirit departing from the Cathedral, while there was a distant hope that the lights were the campfires of the troops of John Hunyadi who had come to relieve the city.^[75] A more scientific theory postulates that the light was caused by the electrical weather phenomenon, St. Elmo's Fire.

Another of them holds that two priests saying divine liturgy over the crowd disappeared into the cathedral's walls as the first Turkish soldiers entered. According to the legend, the priests will appear again on the day Constantinople returns to Christian hands.^[76] Another legend refers to the Marble King, Constantine XI, holding that, when the Ottomans entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor, turned him into marble and placed him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again (a variant of the sleeping hero legend).^[77][78]

Cultural impact[link]

The Christian re-conquest of Constantinople remained a fascinating and much sought-after event in Western Europe for years to come after its fall to the House of Osman. Rumours of Constantine XI's survival and subsequent rescue by an angel led many to hope that the city would one day return to Christian hands. However, as Western Europe entered the 15th century, the age of Crusading began to come to an end.

Initially, the fall of the city seemed to cause a stir of crusading zeal in the West, where, apart from religious sentiments, Renaissance humanism had for about a century been fueling an interest in the cultural and intellectual heritage of classical antiquity, and the role that Byzantium had played in preserving that heritage.

The great humanist Aeneas Silvius lamented that with the fall of Constantinople "Homer and Plato have died a second death". This utterance was not true for learning in the fallen city. In addition to this, refugees from Constantinople to Italy brought with them ancient texts that further inspired humanist investigation of ancient philosophy and esotericism, especially Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought.

As Pope Pius II, the same Aeneas Silvius declared a crusade in 1459 for the recapture of Constantinople, but any genuine enthusiasm that existed was short-lived, and a crusade never came into effect.

Guillaume Dufay composed several songs lamenting the fall of the Eastern church, and the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, avowed to take up arms against the Turks. However, as the growing Ottoman power from this date on coincided with the Protestant Reformation and subsequent Counter-Reformation, the recapture of Constantinople became an ever-distant dream. Even France, once a fervent participant of the Crusades, became an ally of the Ottomans.

Nonetheless, depictions of Christian coalitions taking the city and of the late Emperor's resurrection by Leo the Wise persisted.^[79]

In 17th century Russia, the Fall of Constantinople had a role in the fierce theological and political controversy between adherents and opponents of the reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church, carried out by Patriarch Nikon and intended to bring the Russian Church closer to the norms and practices of other Orthodox churches. Avvakum and other of the "Old Believers" saw these reforms as a corruption of the Russian Church, which they considered to be the "true" Church of God. As the other Churches were more closely related to Constantinople in their liturgies, Avvakum argued that Constantinople fell to the Turks because of these heretical beliefs and practices.

Renaming of the city[link]

It is widely believed that the city was renamed to "Istanbul" in the aftermath of the conquest. In actuality, Ottomans used the Arabic transliteration of the city's name, "Kostantiniyye," as can be seen in numerous Ottoman documents. The name of Istanbul, deriving from a Greek phrase ("to the City", Greek: eis -tin- polin) was probably already spread among the Turkish populace of the Ottoman Empire before the conquest.^{[citation needed]} Istanbul would become the official name of the city in 1930 by the Turkish Postal Law of 1930 as part of Atatürk's reforms.^[80][81][82]

In historical fiction[link]

• Lew Wallace, The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers), 1893. 2 volumes
• Mika Waltari, The Dark Angel (Waltari) (Original title Johannes Angelos) 1952. Translated from the Finnish by Naomi Walford and pub. in English edition, New York: Putnam, 1953
• Andrew Novo, Queen of Cities, Seattle: Coffeetown Press, 2009
• Jack Hight, Siege. London: John Murray Publisher Ltd, 2010
• C.C Humphreys, A Place called Armageddon. London: Orion, 2011

Partial lunar eclipse[link]

The moon passed west to east through the southern edge of the earth's umbral shadow

Medieval astronomers witnessed the May 1453 lunar eclipse, during which approximately two-thirds of the Moon was covered by the Earth's umbral shadow. The residual illumination the Moon during an eclipse, can often be red. This may explain why it is said a "red moon" took place during the eclipse, and was taken as an omen or prophecy of the city's transfer of power.

See also[link]

	Byzantine Empire portal
	Military history of the Ottoman Empire portal

• Fetih 1453
• Military of the Ottoman Empire
• Orban
• Tursun Beg (Turkish historian)
• Ulubatlı Hasan

Notes[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Further reading[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fall of Constantinople

• Franz Babinger: Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (1992) Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-01078-1
• The Siege of Constantinople (1453), according to the eyewitness Nicolò Barbaro
• Murr Nehme, Lina (2003). 1453: The Conquest of Constantinople. Aleph Et Taw. ISBN 2-86839-816-2. 
• Richard A. Fletcher: The Cross and the Crescent (2005) Penguin Group ISBN 0-14-303481-2
• Harris, Jonathan, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (2007) Hambledon/Continuum. ISBN 978-1-84725-179-4
• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium (2010) Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
• Nicolle, David (2000). Constantinople 1453: The end of Byzantium. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-091-9. 
• Norwich, John Julius (1995). Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41650-1. 
• Pertusi, Agostino, ed. (1976) (in Italian). La Caduta di Costantinopoli, I: Le testimonianze dei contemporanei. Verona: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla. 
• Pertusi, Agostino, ed. (1976) (in Italian). La Caduta di Costantinopoli, II: L’eco nel mondo. Verona: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla. 
• Runciman, Steven (1965). The Conquest of Constantinople: 1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39832-0. 
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn, "The Fall of Constantinople", in History Makers magazine No. 5 (London, Marshall Cavendish, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1969) p. 192
• Andrew Wheatcroft: The Infidels: The Conflict Between Christendom and Islam, 638–2002 (2003) Viking Publishing ISBN 0-670-86942-2
• Justin Wintle: The Rough Guide History of Islam (2003) Rough Guides ISBN 1-84353-018-X

v t e Major Ottoman sieges Prusa (1326) • Nicaea (1331) • Nicomedia (1333) • Sofia (1385)  • Tarnovo (1393) • Constantinople (1422) • Thessalonica (1422) • Svetigrad (1448) • Constantinople (1453) • Belgrade (1456) • Kruje (1478) • Rhodes (1480) • Otranto (1481) • Cairo (1517) • Rhodes (1522) • Algiers (1529) • Vienna (1529) • Güns (1532) • Tunis (1534) • Baghdat (1534)  • Klis (1537) • Corfu (1537) • Diu (1538) • Aden (1538) • Castelnuovo (1539) • Buda (1541) • Nice (1543) • Esztergom (1543) • Van (1547) • Tripoli (1551) • Muscat (1552)  • Hormuz (1552) • Eger (1552) • Oran (1556) • Oran (1563) • Malta (1565) • Szigetvar (1566) • Tunis (1574) • Gvozdansko (1578) • Sisak (1593) • Baghdad (1638) • Candia (1669) • Kamenets (1672) • Vienna (1683) • Belgrade (1739)

Map of Byzantine Constantinople

Constantinople in the Byzantine era

Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis; Latin: Constantinopolis; Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطینیه, Qostantiniyye; and modern Turkish: İstanbul) was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empires. It was founded in AD 330, at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine I, after whom it was named. The city was the largest and wealthiest European city of the Middle Ages,^[1] and shared the glories of the Byzantine Empire, which was eventually reduced to the city and its environs.

Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, it was taken only in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. An inner wall was erected by Constantine I, and the city was surrounded by a triple wall of fortifications, begun during the 5th century by Theodosius II. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Bosporus, and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes and towers. The Church of Hagia Sophia, the sacred palace of the emperors, the hippodrome, and the Golden Gate were among the largest of the many churches, public edifices, and monuments lining the arcaded avenues and squares.

Constantinople had a large amount of artistic and literary treasure before it was sacked in 1204 and 1453. It was virtually depopulated when it fell to the Ottoman Turks, but the city recovered rapidly. The Ottoman sultans, whose court was called the Sublime Porte, embellished Constantinople with many beautiful mosques, palaces, monuments, fountains, baths, aqueducts and other public buildings. After World War I, the city was occupied (1918–23) by the Allies. In 1922, the last Ottoman sultan was deposed and in 1923 Ankara became the new capital of Turkey.

Names[link]

The city was originally founded as a Greek colony under the name of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. It took on the name of Konstantinoupolis ("city of Constantine", Constantinople) after its re-foundation under Roman emperor Constantine I, who designated it as his new Roman capital. The modern Turkish name İstanbul derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin (εις την πόλιν), meaning "in the City" or "to the City". This name was used in Turkish side by side with Kostantiniyye, the more formal Arabic–Persian adaptation of the original Constantinople, during the period of Ottoman rule, while western languages mostly continued to refer to the city as Constantinople until the early 20th century. After the creation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Turkish government began to formally object to the use of Constantinople in other languages and ask that others use the more common name for the city.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

History[link]

Byzantium[link]

Constantinople was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I on the site of an already-existing city, Byzantium, settled in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, probably around 671-662 BC. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour.

306–337[link]

Emperor Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic. St Sophia, c. 1000

Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople

Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Having restored the unity of the Empire, and, being in course of major governmental reforms as well as of sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, he was well aware that Rome was an unsatisfactory capital. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the Imperial courts, and it offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians. Yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Nevertheless, he identified the site of Byzantium as the right place: a place where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the Empire.

Constantinople was built over six years, and consecrated on 11 May 330.^[7] Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis.^[8] Yet, at first, Constantine's new Rome did not have all the dignities of old Rome. It possessed a proconsul, rather than an urban prefect. It had no praetors, tribunes, or quaestors. Although it did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. It also lacked the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food supply, police, statues, temples, sewers, aqueducts, or other public works. The new programme of building was carried out in great haste: Columns, marbles, doors, and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the Empire and moved to the new city. In similar fashion, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The Emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the Imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to the citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.^[9]

Constantine laid out a new square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augustaeum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the Emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the famed Baths of Zeuxippus. At the western entrance to the Augustaeum was the Milion, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Roman Empire.

From the Augustaeum led a great street, the Mese (Greek: Μέση [Οδός] lit. "Middle [Street]"), lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second Senate-house and a high column with a statue of Constantine himself in the guise of Helios, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking toward the rising sun. From there the Mese passed on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Seventh Hill (or Xerolophus) and through to the Golden Gate in the Constantinian Wall. After the construction of the Theodosian Walls in the early 5th century, it would be extended to the new Golden Gate, reaching a total length of seven Roman miles.^[10]

337–527[link]

Theodosius I was the last Roman emperor who ruled over an undivided empire (detail from the Obelisk at the Hippodrome of Constantinople

The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors up to Zeno and Basiliscus were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the Church of John the Baptist to house the skull of the saint (today preserved at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey), put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coach house for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine.

The importance of Constantinople gradually increased. After the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Visigoths within a few days' march, the city looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413–414 the 18-meter (60-foot)-tall triple-wall fortifications, which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425.

Uldin, a prince of the Huns, appeared on the Danube about this time and advanced into Thrace, but he was deserted by many of his followers, who joined with the Romans in driving their king back north of the river. Subsequent to this, new walls were built to defend the city, and the fleet on the Danube improved.

In due course, the barbarians overran the Western Roman Empire: Its emperors retreated to Ravenna, and it diminished to nothing. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the largest city of the Roman Empire and of the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia flowed into Constantinople.

527–565[link]

Map of Constantinople (1422) by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti^[11] is the oldest surviving map of the city, and the only one that predates the Turkish conquest of the city in 1453

The emperor Justinian I (527–565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of the former Diocese of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander Belisarius anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. After the victory, in 534, the Temple treasure of Jerusalem, looted by the Romans in 70 AD and taken to Carthage by the Vandals after their sack of Rome in 455, was brought to Constantinople and deposited for a time, perhaps in the Church of St. Polyeuctus, before being returned to Jerusalem in either the Church of the Resurrection or the New Church.^[12]

Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor, and also where they openly criticized the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue.

Throughout the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens. The partisans of the Blues and the Greens were said^[13] to affect untrimmed facial hair, head hair shaved at the front and grown long at the back, and wide-sleeved tunics tight at the wrist; and to form gangs to engage in night-time muggings and street violence. At last these disorders took the form of a major rebellion of 532, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved).

Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed Constantine's basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church, which lay to the north of the Augustaeum. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with a new and incomparable St Sophia. This was the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets.^[14] The dedication took place on 26 December 537 in the presence of the emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!"^[15] St Sophia was served by 600 people including 80 priests, and cost 20,000 pounds of gold to build.^[16]

Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles built by Constantine with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equal-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the Emperors from Constantine himself until the 11th century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror. Justinian was also concerned with other aspects of the city's built environment, legislating against the abuse of laws prohibiting building within 100 feet (30 m) of the sea front, in order to protect the view.^[17]

During Justinian I's reign, the city's population reached about 500,000 people.^[18] However, the social fabric of Constantinople was also damaged by the onset of Plague of Justinian between 541–542 AD. It killed perhaps 40% of the city's inhabitants.^[19]

Restored section of the fortifications that protected Constantinople during the medieval period

Survival, 565–717[link]

In the early 7th century the Avars and later the Bulgars overwhelmed much of the Balkans, threatening Constantinople from the west. Simultaneously, the Persian Sassanids overwhelmed the Prefecture of the East and penetrated deep into Anatolia. Heraclius, son to the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the military situation so dire that he is said at first to have contemplated withdrawing the imperial capital to Carthage, but relented after the people of Constantinople begged him to stay. The citizens lost their right to free grain in 618, when Heraclius realised that the city no longer could be supplied from Egypt as a result of the Persian wars: the population dropped substantially in size as a result.^[20]

While the city withstood a siege, Heraclius campaigned deep into Persian territory and briefly restored the status quo in 628, when the Persians surrendered all their conquests. However, further sieges followed in the course of attacks from the Arabs, a first from 674 to 678, and a second from 717 to 718. At this time the Theodosian Walls kept the city impregnable from the land, while a newly discovered incendiary substance known as "Greek Fire" allowed the Byzantine navy to destroy the Arab fleets and keep the city supplied. In the second siege, decisive help was rendered by the Bulgars.

717–1025[link]

Emperor Leo VI (886–912) adoring Jesus Christ. Mosaic above the Imperial Gate in the Hagia Sophia.

The Högby Runestone is one of the c. 30 Greece Runestones in Sweden that commemorate members of the Varangian Guard.

In the 730s Leo III carried out extensive repairs of the Theodosian walls, which had been damaged by frequent and violent attacks; this work was financed by a special tax on all the subjects of the Empire.^[21]

Theodora, widow of the Emperor Theophilus (died 842), acted as regent during the minority of her son Michael III, who was said to have been introduced to dissolute habits by her brother Bardas. When Michael assumed power in 856, he became known for excessive drunkenness, appeared in the hippodrome as a charioteer and burlesqued the religious processions of the clergy. He removed Theodora from the Great Palace to the Carian Palace and later to the monastery of Gastria, but, after the death of Bardas, she was released to live in the palace of St Mamas; she also had a rural residence at the Anthemian Palace, where Michael was assassinated in 867.^[22]

In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a few years earlier at Kiev by Askold and Dir, two Varangian chiefs: Two hundred small vessels passed through the Bosporus and plundered the monasteries and other properties on the suburban Prince's Islands. Oryphas, the admiral of the Byzantine fleet, alerted the emperor Michael, who promptly put the invaders to flight; but the suddenness and savagery of the onslaught made a deep impression on the citizens.^[23]

In 980, the emperor Basil II received an unusual gift from Prince Vladimir of Kiev: 6,000 Varangian warriors, which Basil formed into a new bodyguard known as the Varangian Guard. They were known for their ferocity, honour, and loyalty. It is said that, in 1038, they were dispersed in winter quarters in the Thracesian theme when one of their number attempted to violate a countrywoman, but in the struggle she seized his sword and killed him; instead of taking revenge, however, his comrades applauded her conduct, compensated her with all his possessions, and exposed his body without burial as if he had committed suicide.^[24] However, following the death of an Emperor, they became known also for plunder in the Imperial palaces.^[25] Later in the 11th Century the Varangian Guard became dominated by Anglo-Saxons who preferred this way of life to subjugation by the new Norman kings of England.^[26]

The Book of the Eparch, which dates to the 10th century, gives a detailed picture of the city's commercial life and its organization at that time. The corporations in which the tradesmen of Constantinople were organised were supervised by the Eparch, who regulated such matters as production, prices, import, and export. Each guild had its own monopoly, and tradesmen might not belong to more than one. It is an impressive testament to the strength of tradition how little these arrangements had changed since the office, then known by the Latin version of its title, had been set up in 330 to mirror the urban prefecture of Rome.^[27]

In the 9th and 10th centuries, Constantinople had a population of between 500,000 and 800,000.^[28]

Iconoclast controversy[link]

In the 8th and 9th centuries, the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act that was fiercely resisted by the citizens.^[29] Constantine V convoked a church council in 754, which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over with depictions of trees, birds or animals: One source refers to the church of the Holy Virgin at Blachernae as having been transformed into a "fruit store and aviary".^[30] Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora, who restored the icons. These controversies contributed to the deterioration of relations between the Western and the Eastern Churches.

Prelude to the Comnenian period, 1025–1081[link]

In the late 11th century catastrophe struck with the unexpected and calamitous defeat of the imperial armies at the Battle of Manzikert in Armenia in 1071. The Emperor Romanus Diogenes was captured. The peace terms demanded by Alp Arslan, sultan of the Seljuk Turks, were not excessive, and Romanus accepted them. On his release, however, Romanus found that enemies had placed their own candidate on the throne in his absence; he surrendered to them and suffered death by torture, and the new ruler, Michael VII Ducas, refused to honour the treaty. In response, the Turks began to move into Anatolia in 1073. The collapse of the old defensive system meant that they met no opposition, and the empire's resources were distracted and squandered in a series of civil wars. Thousands of Turkoman tribesmen crossed the unguarded frontier and moved into Anatolia. By 1080, a huge area had been lost to the Empire, and the Turks were within striking distance of Constantinople.

1081–1185[link]

12th century mosaic from the upper gallery of the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. Emperor John II (1118–1143) is shown on the left, with the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus in the centre, and John's consort Empress Irene on the right.

Under the Comnenian dynasty (1081–1185), Byzantium staged a remarkable recovery. In 1090–91, the nomadic Pechenegs reached the walls of Constantinople, where Emperor Alexius I with the aid of the Kipchaks annihilated their army.^[31] In response to a call for aid from Alexius, the First Crusade assembled at Constantinople in 1096, but declining to put itself under Byzantine command set out for Jerusalem on its own account.^[32] John II built the monastery of the Pantocrator (Almighty) with a hospital for the poor of 50 beds.^[33]

With the restoration of firm central government, the empire became fabulously wealthy. The population was rising (estimates for Constantinople in the 12th century vary from some 100,000 to 500,000), and towns and cities across the realm flourished. Meanwhile, the volume of money in circulation dramatically increased. This was reflected in Constantinople by the construction of the Blachernae palace, the creation of brilliant new works of art, and general prosperity at this time: an increase in trade, made possible by the growth of the Italian city-states, may have helped the growth of the economy. It is certain that the Venetians and others were active traders in Constantinople, making a living out of shipping goods between the Crusader Kingdoms of Outremer and the West, while also trading extensively with Byzantium and Egypt. The Venetians had factories on the north side of the Golden Horn, and large numbers of westerners were present in the city throughout the 12th century. Toward the end of Manuel I's reign, the number of foreigners in the city reached about 60,000-80,000 people out of a total population of about 400,000 people.^[34] In 1171, Constantinople also contained a small community of 2,500 Jews.^[35]

In artistic terms, the 12th century was a very productive period. There was a revival in the mosaic art, for example: Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. There was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work. According to N.H. Baynes (Byzantium, An Introduction to East Roman Civilization):

"With its love of luxury and passion for colour, the art of this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the whole of the Christian world. Beautiful silks from the work-shops of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling colour animals - lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins - confronting each other, or represented Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase."

"From the tenth to the twelfth century Byzantium was the main source of inspiration for the West. By their style, arrangement, and iconography the mosaics of St. Mark's at Venice and of the cathedral at Torcello clearly reveal their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalù, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale, demonstrate the influence of Byzantium on the Norman Court of Sicily in the twelfth century. Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived from the Byzantine. Romanesque art owes much to the East, from which it borrowed not only its decorative forms but the plan of some of its buildings, as is proved, for instance, by the domed churches of south-western France. Princes of Kiev, Venetian doges, abbots of Monte Cassino, merchants of Amalfi, and the kings of Sicily all looked to Byzantium for artists or works of art. Such was the influence of Byzantine art in the twelfth century, that Russia, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily all virtually became provincial centres dedicated to its production."

1185–1261[link]

The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, by Eugène Delacroix, 1840.

The Latin Empire, Empire of Nicaea, Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The borders are very uncertain

In the course of a plot between Philip of Swabia, Boniface of Montferrat and the Doge of Venice, the Fourth Crusade was, despite papal excommunication, diverted in 1203 against Constantinople, ostensibly promoting the claims of Alexius son of the deposed emperor Isaac. The reigning emperor Alexius III had made no preparation. The Crusaders occupied Galata, broke the chain protecting the Golden Horn and entered the harbour, where on 27 July they breached the sea walls: Alexius III fled. But the new Alexius IV found the Treasury inadequate, and was unable to make good the rewards he had promised to his western allies. Tension between the citizens and the Latin soldiers increased. In January 1204, the protovestiarius Alexius Murzuphlus provoked a riot, it is presumed, to intimidate Alexius IV, but whose only result was the destruction of the great statue of Athena, the work of Phidias, which stood in the principal forum facing west.

In February, the people rose again: Alexius IV was imprisoned and executed, and Murzuphlus took the purple as Alexius V. He made some attempt to repair the walls and organise the citizenry, but there had been no opportunity to bring in troops from the provinces and the guards were demoralised by the revolution. An attack by the Crusaders on 6 April failed, but a second from the Golden Horn on 12 April succeeded, and the invaders poured in. Alexius V fled. The Senate met in St Sophia and offered the crown to Theodore Lascaris, who had married into the Angelid family, but it was too late. He came out with the Patriarch to the Golden Milestone before the Great Palace and addressed the Varangian Guard. Then the two of them slipped away with many of the nobility and embarked for Asia. By the next day the Doge and the leading Franks were installed in the Great Palace, and the city was given over to pillage for three days.

The great historian of the Crusades, Sir Steven Runciman, wrote that the sack of Constantinople is “unparalleled in history”.

“For nine centuries,” he goes on, “the great city had been the capital of Christian civilisation. It was filled with works of art that had survived from ancient Greece and with the masterpieces of its own exquisite craftsmen. The Venetians, wherever they could, seized treasures and carried them off. But the Frenchmen and Flemings were filled with a lust for destruction: They rushed in a howling mob down the streets and through the houses, snatching up everything that glittered and destroying whatever they could not carry, pausing only to murder or to rape, or to break open the wine-cellars. Neither monasteries nor churches nor libraries were spared. In St Sophia itself, drunken soldiers could be seen tearing down the silken hangings and pulling the silver iconostasis to pieces, while sacred books and icons were trampled under foot. While they drank from the altar-vessels, a prostitute sang a ribald French song on the Patriarch’s throne. Nuns were ravished in their convents. Palaces and hovels alike were wrecked. Wounded women and children lay dying in the streets. For three days the ghastly scenes continued until the huge and beautiful city was a shambles. Even after order was restored, citizens were tortured to make them reveal treasures they had hidden.

—^[36]

For the next half-century, Constantinople was the seat of the Latin Empire. The Byzantine nobility were scattered. Many went to Nicaea, where Theodore Lascaris set up an imperial court, or to Epirus, where Theodore Angelus did the same; others fled to Trebizond, where one of the Comneni had already with Georgian support established an independent seat of empire.^[37] Nicaea and Epirus both vied for the imperial title, and tried to recover Constantinople. In 1261, Constantinople was captured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by the forces of the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus.

The 1453 Siege of Constantinople, painted 1499

1261–1453[link]

Although Constantinople was retaken by Michael VIII, the Empire had lost many of its key economic resources, and struggled to survive. The palace of Blachernae in the north-west of the city became the main Imperial residence, with the old Great Palace on the shores of the Bosporus going into decline. When Michael VIII captured the city, its population was 35,000 people, but, by the end of his reign, he had succeeded in increasing the population to about 70,000 people.^[38] The Emperor achieved this by summoning former residents having fled the city when the Crusaders captured it, and by relocating Greeks from the recently reconquered Peloponnese to the capital.^[39] In 1347, the Black Death spread to Constantinople.^[40] In 1453, when the Ottoman Turks captured the city, it contained approximately 50,000 people.^[41]

Ottoman era[link]

On 29 May 1453, Turkish sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" entered Constantinople after a 53–day siege during which his cannon had torn a huge hole in the Walls of Theodosius II. Constantinople (Ottoman Turkish: Konstantiniyye) became the third capital of the Ottoman Empire.^{[citation needed]}

Mehmed had begun the siege on April 6, 1453. He had hired engineers to build cannons and bombs for the occasion. He also acquired scholars and imams to encourage the soldiers. He gave the Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaeologus (1449–1453) three chances to surrender the city, a duty enjoined by the Shariah (Muslim Holy Law).^[42] Mehmed guaranteed that the city's residents, including their riches, beliefs and honor, would be safe. However, Constantine did not accept these terms of surrender.^[43] After more than a month of fighting, Mehmed’s advisors were beginning to lose hope. Against their counsel, Mehmed continued to fight. The night before the final assault, he studied the previous attempts to take the city. He was comparing ways that would work and where they would not. On the morning of May 29, 1453 the sultan ordered the call of Azan (call to prayer).^[44] This was not a regular prayer session for religious reasons but rather a scare tactic. When the Byzantine forces saw the entire Ottoman army get on their knees to pray, the Byzantine army was witnessing how united the Ottoman Turks were and this worried them. As Eversley put it: "Their minds were defeated before their bodies."^[44]

The Ottoman sultan Mehmed II and Gennadius II.

Once the fighting started, it went on for forty-eight days. The wall was beginning to collapse when Constantine sent a letter to the pope asking for help. In response the pope sent five ships full of reinforcements, weapons and supplies. Another defense tactic involved Constantine blocking off the port so that the Ottoman army could not get ships into it. Mehmed had his people pave a path from oiled tree branches in order to bring eighty ships overland, and placed them into the gulf behind the enemy ships. Byzantine attempts to burn the Turkish ships failed. For the defenders, this meant loss of control over the Horn and that they were effectively cut off from reinforcements by sea.^[45]

Since the Byzantine army was still holding on after this defeat the sultan thought it was time to set up his secret weapon, a huge mobile tower. This tower could hold many soldiers who could be at the same level as the walls of the city, making it easier for them to break into Constantinople. The first group of Ottomans who entered the city were killed almost immediately, with the effect that the other Muslims began to retreat. Witnessing this, the sultan encouraged his soldiers. Soon after the sultan’s encouragement the Muslims broke the wall in two places and entered the city. In a last attempt to protect it, Constantine attacked the enemy sword raised; however he was defeated and killed.^[46]

Finally, Constantinople was under Ottoman rule. When Mehmed finally entered Constantinople through what is now known as the Topkapi Gate, he immediately rode his horse to the Hagia Sophia which he ordered to be sacked. He ordered that an imam meet him there in order to chant the Muslim Creed: “I testify that there is no God but Allah. I testify that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah.”^[47] This turned the Greek cathedral into a Turkish mosque, solidifying Turkish rule in Constantinople.

Constantinople (Konstantiniyye) in Ottoman era (1572

The composition from the Ottoman Turkish point of view shows Mehmed as a clever, strong conqueror. Evidence of the bias toward portraying Mehmed as an intelligent military leader is reflected in the statement: "The sultan ordered the setting up of his secret weapon which he had invented himself."^[48] By contrast, the composition from the Byzantine point of view portrays Constantine Palaeologus as a brave leader who gave his life for the cause. As quoted from a Byzantine essay: "[Constantine] charged into the sea of the enemy soldiers, hitting left and right in a final act of defiance."^[49]

Other than the variations in their stories, the battle occurs in the same manner and neither of the compositions portrays the opposition in a brutally negative light.^{[citation needed]}

Mehmed’s main concern with Constantinople had to do with rebuilding the city’s defenses and repopulation. Building projects were commenced immediately after the conquest, which included the repair of the walls, construction of the citadel, and building a new palace.^[50] Mehmed issued orders across his empire that Muslims, Christians, and Jews should resettle the city; he demanded that five thousand households needed to be deported to Istanbul by September.^[50]

By 1459 the Sultan promoted a lot of energy to bringing prosperity to Constantinople. In several quarters of the city pious foundations were created; these areas consisted of a theological college, a school (or a Madrasa, usually connected to the mosque^[51]), a public kitchen, and a mosque.^[52] In the same year Mehmed sent out orders that any Greeks who left Constantinople as slaves or refugees were allowed to return to the city. These actions lead Constantinople to become a once again thriving capital of the Ottoman Empire.^[53]

Suleiman the Magnificent's reign over the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 was a period of great artistic and architectural achievements. The famous architect Mimar Sinan designed many mosques and other grand buildings in the city, while Ottoman arts of ceramics and calligraphy also flourished. Many tekkes survive to this day, some in the form of mosques while others have become museums such as the Cerrahi Tekke and the Sünbül Efendi and Ramazan Efendi mosques and türbes in Fatih, the Galata Mevlevihanesi in Beyoğlu, the Yahya Efendi tekke in Beşiktaş, and the Bektaşi Tekke in Kadıköy, which now serves Alevi Muslims as a cemevi.^{[citation needed]}

Importance[link]

Eagle and Snake, 6th century mosaic flooring ­Constantinople, Grand Imperial Palace.

Culture[link]

Constantinople was the largest and richest urban center in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during the late Eastern Roman Empire, mostly as a result of its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek-speaking empire for over a thousand years. At its peak, roughly corresponding to the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, in particular, Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom: A Russian 14th-century traveler, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sophia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it."

It was especially important for preserving in its libraries manuscripts of Greek and Latin authors throughout a period when instability and disorder caused their mass-destruction in western Europe and north Africa: On the city's fall, thousands of these were brought by refugees to Italy, and played a key part in stimulating the Renaissance, and the transition to the modern world. The cumulative influence of the city on the west, over the many centuries of its existence, is incalculable. In terms of technology, art and culture, as well as sheer size, Constantinople was without parallel anywhere in Europe for a thousand years.

International Status[link]

Constantinople's monumental center.

The city provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the old Roman Empire against the barbarian invasions of the 5th century. The 18-meter-tall walls built by Theodosius II were, in essence, impregnable to the barbarians coming from south of the Danube river, who found easier targets to the west rather than the richer provinces to the east in Asia. From the 5th century, the city was also protected by the Anastasian Wall, a 60-kilometer chain of walls across the Thracian peninsula. Many scholars^[who?] argue that these sophisticated fortifications allowed the east to develop relatively unmolested while Ancient Rome and the west collapsed. With the emergence of Christianity and the rise of Islam, Constantinople became the last bastion of Christian Europe, standing at the fore of Islamic expansion, and repelling its influence. As the Byzantine Empire was situated in-between the Islamic world and the Christian west, so did Constantinople act as Europe’s first line-of-defence against Arab advances in the 7th and 8th centuries. The city, and the Empire, would ultimately fall to the Ottomans by 1453, but its enduring legacy had provided Europe centuries of resurgence following the collapse of Rome.

Architecture[link]

Interior view of the Hagia Sophia museum.

The Byzantine Empire used Roman and Greek architectural models and styles to create its own unique type of architecture. The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in the copies taken from it throughout Europe. Particular examples include St Mark's Basilica in Venice, the basilicas of Ravenna, and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its city walls were much imitated (for example, see Caernarfon Castle) and its urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping alive the art, skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire.

Religious[link]

Constantine's foundation gave prestige to the Bishop of Constantinople, who eventually came to be known as the Ecumenical Patriarch, vying for honour with the Pope,^[54] a situation that contributed to the Great Schism that divided Western Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy from 1054 onwards. Constantinople is also of great religious importance to Islam, as the conquest of Constantinople is one of the signs of the End time in Islam.

Popularity[link]

Page depicting Constantinople in the Nuremberg Chronicle published in 1493, forty years after the city's fall to the Turks

• Constantinople appears as a city of wondrous majesty, beauty, remoteness, and nostalgia in William Butler Yeats' 1928 poem "Sailing to Byzantium".
• Constantinople, as seen under the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II, makes several on-screen appearances in the television miniseries "Attila" as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.
• Robert Graves, author of I, Claudius, also wrote Count Belisarius, a historical novel about Belisarius. Graves set much of the novel in the Constantinople of Justinian I.
• Constantinople provides the setting of much of the action in Umberto Eco's 2000 novel Baudolino.
• Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song made famous by The Four Lads and later covered by They Might Be Giants and many others entitled "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)".
• "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening track of The Residents' EP Duck Stab!, released in 1978.
• Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of the book A Flame in Byzantium (ISBN 0312930267) by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, released in 1987.
• "Constantinople" is the title of a song by The Decemberists.
• Stephen Lawhead's novel Byzantium (1996) is set in 9th-century Constantinople.
• Filmmaker Peter Jackson said he wanted images of Minas Tirith in his The Lord of the Rings trilogy to look like "Constantinople in the morning".^{[cite this quote]}
• Folk Metal band Turisas makes multiple references to Constantinople in their song "Miklagard Overture", referring to it as "Konstantinopolis", "Tsargrad", and "Miklagard".
• Constantinople makes an appearance in the MMORPG game Silkroad as a major capital, along with a major Chinese capital.
• Constantinople makes an appearance in the "Rome Total War" expansion "Barbarian Invasion" belonging to the Eastern Roman Empire
• Constantinople also makes an appearance in "Medieval Total War". It is a starting province and city of the Byzantines.
• Constantinople makes an appearance in the game "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings" in the fifth scenario of the Barbarossa campaign and again in the third scenario of the Attila the Hun campaign in the expansion pack "Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion".
• Constantinople is the main setting of the game "Assassin's Creed: Revelations", the fourth major title in the best-selling "Assassin's Creed" series.^[55]

See also[link]

People from Constantinople[link]

• List of people from Constantinople

Secular buildings and monuments[link]

The Bucoleon Palace as it survives today

A fragment of the Milion (Greek: Μίλ(λ)ιον), a mile-marker monument

Mehmed II's entry into Constantinople, painting by Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929)

• Augustaion
  • Column of Justinian
• Basilica Cistern
• Baths of Zeuxippus
• Column of Marcian
• Forum of Constantine
  • Column of Constantine
• Great Palace of Constantinople
  • Bucoleon Palace
• Hippodrome of Constantinople
  • Horses of Saint Mark
  • Obelisk of Theodosius
  • Serpent Column
  • Walled Obelisk
• Milion
• Palace of Lausus
  • Cistern of Philoxenos
• Palace of Blachernae
  • Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
  • Prison of Anemas
• Valens Aqueduct
• Walls of Constantinople

Churches, monasteries and mosques[link]

• Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque
• Bodrum Mosque
• Chora Church
• Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
• Church of St. Polyeuctus
• Church of the Holy Apostles
• Eski Imaret Mosque
• Fenari Isa Mosque
• Gül Mosque
• Hagia Irene
• Hagia Sophia
• Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque
• Kalenderhane Mosque
• Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque
• Nea Ekklesia
• Pammakaristos Church
• Stoudios Monastery
• Vefa Kilise Mosque
• Zeyrek Mosque

Miscellaneous[link]

• Ahmed Bican Yazıcıoğlu
• Byzantine calendar
• Byzantine silk
• Byzantium
• Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
• Eparch of Constantinople (List of eparchs)
• Fall of Constantinople
• Golden Horn
• Istanbul
• List of people from Constantinople
• Massacre of the Latins
• Nika riots
• Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae
• Sieges of Constantinople
• Third Rome
• University of Constantinople

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bury, J. B. (1958). History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian. Dover Publications. 
• Crowley, Roger (2005). Constantinople: Their Last Great Siege, 1453. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22185-1. 
• Freely, John (1998). Istanbul: The Imperial City. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-024461-8. 
• Freely, John; Ahmet S. Cakmak (2004). The Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77257-0. 
• Gibbon, Edward (2005). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-0-7538-1881-7. 
• Hanna-Riitta, Toivanen (2007). The Influence of Constantinople on Middle Byzantine Architecture (843-1204). A typological and morphological approach at the provincial level. Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran toimituksia 202 (Publications of the Finnish Society of Church History No. 202). ISBN 978-952-5031-41-6. 
• Harris, Jonathan (2007). Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 978-1-84725-179-4. 
• Harris, Jonathan (2003). Byzantium and the Crusades. Hambledon and London. ISBN 978-1-85285-501-7. 
• Herrin, Judith (2008). Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13151-1. 
• Mansel, Philip (1998). Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453-1924. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-18708-8. 
• Phillips, Jonathan (2005). The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. Pimlico. ISBN 978-1-84413-080-1. 
• Runciman, Steven (1990). The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-84413-080-1. 
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2630-6. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Constantinople

• Constantinople, from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
• History of Constantinople from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
• Monuments of Byzantium - Pantokrator Monastery of Constantinople
• Constantinoupolis on the web Select internet resources on the history and culture
• Info on the name change from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
• Welcome to Constantinople, documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople
• Byzantium 1200, a project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine monuments located in Istanbul as of the year 1200 AD.

Coordinates: 41°00′44″N 28°58′34″E / 41.01224°N 28.976018°E / 41.01224; 28.976018

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Kamran N. İnce (born May 6, 1960) is a Turkish-American composer.

Life[link]

Ince was born in Glendive, Montana, and at the age of six moved with his family to Turkey. He entered the Ankara State Conservatory at the age of ten, in 1971, where he began studying cello and piano, and took composition lessons with İlhan Baran. In 1977 Ince entered the İzmir University where he studied composition with Muammer Sun,^[1] but returned to the United States in 1978.^{[citation needed]} He enrolled at the Oberlin College in Ohio in 1980, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1982, and went on to complete his master’s and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music in 1984 and 1987. His teachers there included David Burge (piano), Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Samuel Adler and Barbara Kolb (composition).^[2]

Ince won a Prix de Rome and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987, and the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize in 1988. In 1990, he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to become a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, and in 1992 joined the faculty of the University of Memphis, where he teaches composition, co-directs the University of Memphis Imagine New Music Festival.^[3][4] In addition, Kamran İnce founded the Center for Advanced research in Music at Istanbul Technical University, which he has directed since 1999.^[5]

His music[link]

Journalist Blair Dedrick described İnce’s music as

characterized . . . by its ability to pinpoint the sonorous strains present in the jagged dissonance of elements such as a smooth cello yearning suddenly broken by an incongruent spatter of drum beats.^{[cite this quote]}

His music has been described as post-minimalist, that is, it makes use of near repetition, tonal language, but avoiding traditional tonal functionality, and influence of world music.^{[citation needed]} Indeed, his Concerto for Orchestra, Turkish Instruments and Voices uses an actual Turkish ensemble mixed with Western instruments.

His musical palette tends toward large-scale works, mainly for orchestra or ensemble; he has also composed several smaller works for either solo instrument ( In Memoriam: 8/17/99 for piano ) or solo instrument and piano (Lines for clarinet and piano).^{[citation needed]}

Although several of his works display this sudden movement between slow chord movements and the nattering of percussion and / or instruments, such as Flight Box (2001) or Hammer Music (1990), other pieces use a more consistent texture, such as the energetic F E S T for New Music Ensemble and Orchestra (1998) or the subdued Curve (1998).^{[citation needed]}

Reception[link]

A critic for the Los Angeles Times called him

that rare composer, able to sound connected with modern music and yet still seem exotic, Kamran Ince is a force on the cutting edge of contemporary composition, bridging the East and the West.^{[cite this quote]}

Awards[link]

• 1987 Rome Prize
• 1987 Guggenheim Fellowship ^[6]
• 1988 Lili Boulanger Prize

List of works[link]

Orchestra[link]

• Academica (1998)
• Before Infrared (1986)
• Cascade (1993)
• Concerto for Orchestra, Turkish Instruments (ney, kemence, 2 zurnas) and Voices (2002)
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1984)
• Deep Flight (1988)
• Domes (1993)
• Ebullient Shadows (1987)
• F E S T for New Music Ensemble and Orchestra (1998)
• Hot, Red, Cold, Vibrant (1992)
• Infrared Only (1985)
• Lipstick (1991)
• Plexus (1993)
• Remembering Lycia (1996)
• Symphony No. 1 "Castles in the Air" (1989)
• Symphony No. 2 "Fall of Constantinople" (1994)
• Symphony No. 3 "Siege of Vienna" (1995)
• Symphony No. 4 "Sardis" (2000)
• Symphony No. 5 "Galatasaray" (2005)
• Viper's Dance derived from Symphony No. 1, 1989 revised in 1993.

Large Ensemble[link]