Battle of vienna date11/20/2023 ![]() Mehmed moved no fewer than fourteen batteries of artillery into place along the entire length of the outer line of walls, known as the Wall of Theodosius. The able-bodied male population of the city numbered some thirty thousand, but the Byzantine statesman George Sphrantes estimated that fewer than five thousand of these were able and willing to fight. ![]() Inside Constantinople a state of terror now reigned. Most were Muslims, marshaled from all over the empire, but their ranks were swollen by others in the expectation of rich pickings: Latins, a large contingent of Serbs, even some Greeks. Other accounts, all of them Christian, put the figure anywhere between two and four hundred thousand. His forces, according to the Venetian merchant Nicolò Barbaro, who saw them arrive, numbered some one hundred sixty thousand. On April 5, 1453, Mehmed’s army reached the outer walls of the city. Constantinople was the capital of the oikoumene, the “inhabited world,” over which Mehmed, the Amir al-Mu’minin, “Commander of the Faithful,” and his descendents would soon rule until the end of creation. For the Ottoman ruler Mehmed II, it was the most treasured prize of all, whose possession would make him master of the world. Muslims and Christians alike reckoned it to be the greatest power the world had ever known. ![]() Constantine’s great city, and what little remained of the crumbling Byzantine Empire, had never fully recovered from the Latin occupation from 1204 to 1261.ĭespite its dilapidated condition, Constantinople was still the “Golden Apple,” the capital of the ancient Roman Empire. (The Art Archive/Museum der Stadt Wien/Dagli Orti)īy the end of the fourteenth century, Byzantium lacked any strategic importance and certainly represented no threat to the ambitions of the resurgent Ottoman Empire. Muslims battle Christians outside Vienna. How the King of Poland Turned the Tide Against the Ottoman Empire Close ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |