Ruler · 1432 to 1481
Mehmed II, the Conqueror
Took Constantinople at 21 and made it his capital, ending the Byzantine Empire. A patron of scholars and artists, he rebuilt the city as Istanbul.
At a glance
- Lived
- 1432 to 1481
- Role
- Ruler
- Dynasty
- Ottoman Sultans
- Era
- Three gunpowder empires
- Chapter
- 5. The Ottomans
Battles
- 1453Conquest of Constantinople
Ottoman victory. After a 53-day siege, with giant cannon and ships dragged overland into the Golden Horn, the city fell on 29 May 1453.
Mehmed II, the Conqueror's world
1683: Three gunpowder empires
Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453. Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517 and the caliphate passed to the Ottomans. Suleiman won at Mohacs in 1526, and a second siege of Vienna failed in 1683. Further east, Safavid Iran and the Mughals of India ruled at the same time.
People of the same era
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