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 Portrait of Mehmed II by Gentile Bellini. (The one on the left is estimated to be Cem Sultan, the one on the right is Sultan Mehmed.) | |
| Born | 30 March 1432 Edirne, Ottoman |
| Died | 3 May 1481 (aged 49) Gebze, Ottoman |
| Allegiance |  Ottoman Empire |
| Service/ | Ottoman army |
| Years of service | 1444–1481 |
| Rank | Prince (1444–1450), Emperor, Sultan (1451–1481) |
| Battles/wars | Battle of burshek
|
Military career of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. Sultan Mehmed was a skillful commander who was recruited to wars at the age of 12 and completed his military training in the Battle of Kosovo at the age of 16. In the first years of his accession to the throne, he made great conquests such as Byzantium, Trebizond, Wallachia, Lesbos, Bosnia and Morea the conquered. The great powers, disturbed by Mehmed's progress, turned against the Ottomans and the Ottoman-Venetian war began, which would last for 16 years. Sultan Mehmed defeated all his enemies by taking a defensive-warfare order on 8 fronts against 25 states and managed to dissolve one of the largest coalitions in history. By organizing 25 military campaigns, he initiated a long-term Ottoman domination in the Balkans and established a magnificent empire stretching from the Adriatic Sea to Iran. Sultan Mehmed's military genius carried the Turks to an unprecedented place in history, not only in the battlefields but also in the military reforms he made in the history of war. The Ottomans achieved their army power, naval power and firearms power thanks to Sultan Mehmed. And this effect was seen in the Ottomans until the Battle of Zenta.
Prince Mehmed edit
First years edit
16 years of war edit
Last years edit
Empire founded by Mehmed edit
Mehmed II became the first sultan to assume an empire-like role over his lands. The conquest of Istanbul made him the most famous sultan of the Islamic world overnight, and after receiving the title of "Fâtih", Mehmed began to see himself as the heir of a world empire.[1] Mehmed's dream state was to establish a multinational cosmopolitan empire. He followed their goals and established a multifaceted cultural empire by trying to protect the Roman, Abbasid, Umayyad and Seljuk heritage.[2]In addition, the concept of world domination, which continued with Timur, was first seen in the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Mehmed II. The empire he founded became the most powerful state in Islamic and Turkish history. Timur, Mahmud of Ghazni, Babur Khan and among the Turkish rulers who founded many states from Central Asia to the Mediterranean, Sultan Mehmed founded the largest and most powerful one.[3]
However, Sultan Mehmed did not adopt the Roman-Kaiser tradition and the Umayyad Arab-Mevali (racist) policy, on the contrary, he used them as a political tool. Declaring himself Kaiser is to pave the way for European conquests and to maintain an absolute conquest authority in Europe.[4]Mehmed II adopted two basic sources in the empire he founded, one of which is the Iranian-Islamic chain and the Turks-Mongolian state administration. There were three ideologies he adopted for his state: Oghuz/Kayı tradition, Jihad ideology and Red Apple ideology (Turkish understanding of world domination).[5]
In addition, Sultan Mehmed succeeded in establishing his authority over the states that were the heirs of Genghis Khan. He defeated the Aq Qoyunlu, who saw themselves as the continuation of the Ilkhanids, in the Battle of Otlukbeli. Captured the Crimean Khanate. And Mahmud Khan, the Khan of the Golden Horde, approved Mehmed the Conqueror as the "Sultan-ı Great" and established his political superiority. While the Ottomans was established as a frontier principality that paid taxes to the Ilkhanate, it became the empire that made period of Mehmed the Conqueror the sons of Genghis accept its supreme dominance.[6]
Military reforms edit
Rifle layout edit
The Battle of Chaldiran is also the first battle in which rifle-armed infantry soldiers decisively changed the fate of a war. Rifles had been used before, for example, in the battle of Otlukbeli, but this was the first time that a handheld firearm, including the examples in Europe, determined such an effective result. This situation is the most important contribution of the Ottomans to the history of world wars.[7]
At that time, the rifle warfare order that the Ottomans had developed since the Battle of Otlukbeli revealed a new development not only in the Eastern world but also in the Western world. The Ottomans applied this type of warfare in the Battle of Mohacs against the Aq Qoyunlu, Safavids and finally the Mamluks. In this respect, it is not a correct approach for the Mamluks to focus only on the reason for hating firearms. They became victims of this unusual, brand new battle order of the Ottomans, in which they faced equal forces.[8]
The invention of hand-held rifles created a huge revolution in the history of warfare. European armies now took care to adopt these and tried to establish armies using regular rifles. This innovation, which broke new ground in world history, was first used by Mehmed II. It would not be wrong to say that Mehmed was the person who started the rifle wars that are used and fought even today.
These firearms designed and developed by Mehmed II influenced not only the Ottoman state but also the Mughal Empire. Babur Shah, who learned the power and superiority of firearms in the Battle of Chaldiran, with the help of Ustad Ali Quli and Mustafa Rumi, he managed to integrate it into his own army. In this way, he was able to defeat numerically superior enemy forces in the Battle of Khanwa, the Battle of Panipat and the Battle of Ghaghra. And in this way he established a great empire that ruled India.[9]
edit
After Mehmed the Conqueror captured Istanbul in 1453, he began to occupy the Aegean islands. Mehmed, who was the lord of Istanbul as well as Greece, could not tolerate the Italian domination of these islands in the Aegean, which had now become a Turkish sea. Moreover, the conquest of Istanbul gave the sultan a large port. The Turks, a land-based people, were faced with the necessity of establishing a merchant fleet and a war navy to protect it for the first time. This was the driving force behind the extraordinary expansion of the Ottomans across the seas in the following centuries.
As for the islands, in addition to the fact that Mehmed wanted to bring revenue to the islands and put an end to the Christian trade in his own waters, the islands had become a nest of pirates. Lesbos was one of the most famous havens of Catalan, Italian and Sicilian pirates, who raided other islands and wandered around the entrance to the Dardanelles, ambushing Turkish ships. They even raided the lands under the sultan's rule, kidnapped the Turks and sold them as slaves in the Venetian and Genoese markets. The Sultan could not be expected to tolerate these for a long time. With the help of the newly established navy, he began to occupy the islands one by one. The European pirates who carried out their activities on these islands were not aware that they were "sowing the wind and sowing the storm". As the Turks spread throughout the Mediterranean, they would turn the activities of Italian pirates in the Aegean into child's play. Just as the Greeks did centuries ago, the Turks would learn the arts of navigation and maritime in the Aegean Islands. They would then spread throughout the Mediterranean until there was no safe European port left. They would go so far as to threaten the cities inland. Even the Pope in Rome could not wake up one morning and be sure that his capital would not be captured by marauding Turks.[10]
Mehmed increased the power of the navy many times in 30 years. Not only did he turn the army into a huge strike force worldwide, but he also supported it with artillery on a large scale for the first time among the world's armies. When he came to the throne, the Ottoman navy consisted of 39 galleys and the others were small boats. The Venetian navy was much further ahead than the Turkish navy. Mehmed made this navy superior to the Venetian navy before 1474. (92 galleys, 16 of which are larger, and about 400 transport and landing ships.) Moreover, he installed cannons on the ships. There is no warship left without cannons. Near its death, in 1480, it consisted of 250–300 warships and 500 transport ships. He turned 1 Ottoman navy into a force equal to 2 Venetian navies.For the first time in history, Turks came to the first place in the naval forces of the world states, and they were able to maintain this position for two and a half centuries.[11]
It has been definitively proven that the Ottoman navy surpassed the Venetian navy in the Negroponte naval battle. In just 19 years, Mehmed had achieved the naval power that Venice had achieved in 600 years.
The modern founder of the Ottoman navy, which had its heyday during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, is Mehmed the Conqueror. The advanced warships built in the shipyard established in Gallipoli before the conquest of Istanbul and in the Golden Horn after the conquest enabled our navy to become the most effective naval power in both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.[12]
Kerkuka (walking tower) edit
During the siege of Istanbul, Sultan Mehmed had a new war vehicle built. The Byzantines watched with fear a huge giant standing against the walls.[13]They watched with amazement and horror as the Turks built a mobile wooden tower in one fell swoop, one night. They did this so quickly and secretly that no one in the city noticed. Barbaro said the following about the construction of these towers; I will even go further and say that if all the Christians in Istanbul had worked together, they could not have done this in 1 month. But the Turks did it and finished it in one night.[14]
The roof timbers of this perfect and enormous tower made of wood were covered with two layers of camel, buffalo and ox skins, and the gaps were filled with soil to make it resistant to fire. There are regular and protected stairs inside and outside to go to the upper floors. There is a crenelated roof at the top, and large windows were built on the lower floors. It was fortified with cannons, catapults and other fire-firing devices, and was filled with soldiers. Apart from these, bridges were built to be lowered and raised to cross the Istanbul walls. The purpose of the construction of these towers was to allow soldiers to cross the bridges onto the walls and to fill the large moat in front of the walls with trees and soil piled inside the tower. A covered road, half a mile long, was also built from the camp to the tower for the soldiers to come and go safely. That day, there were violent clashes between this magnificent tower, which is a wonder of Turkish technique, and the Istanbul horde, and one of the towers of the Topkapi Wall was destroyed. And the Turks built this tower in only 4 hours.[15]
This tower actually had a different function than the towers whose examples have been seen in sieges since ancient times. It must be acknowledged that this tower, which has always been overshadowed by the cannons featured in the history of sieges, played a very important role and played a major role in reaching the walls. The archers and riflemen on the castle were constantly showering the defenders on the walls with arrows and muskets.[16]
Mortar edit
Mortars have contributed greatly to maneuverability since their introduction in the 15th century.[17] Invented by Mehmed the Conqueror, the mortar has been used effectively on the fronts for years. Roses falling from the air at a short distance during the conquest of Istanbul effect it created made the mortar important. Heavy and cumbersome, mortars were used especially in the American Civil War and became a significant influence. Mortars, which were instrumental in many victories in the 1st and 2nd World Wars, have not changed much. Mortars were developed and modified in the late 1990s in partnership with Sweden and Finland.[18]
During the siege of Istanbul, Sultan Mehmed thought of inventing a new tool. He called the bombardment masters and asked if they could sink the Christian ships standing at the mouth of the harbor with cannons. They said that this was impossible because the Galata walls were obstructed from all sides. Thereupon, Sultan Mehmed gave the masters the idea of making a brand new type of cannon. This cannon, which would be created by slightly changing the shape, would launch the cannonball very high into the air, and the cannonball would fall directly on the ship, destroying it. The Sultan explained to them how such a war machine, calculated on the basis of some similar ones, could destroy enemy ships in proportions. They immediately cast a brand new cannon according to the draft given by the sultan. After carefully examining the terrain, this new cannon was placed directly opposite the Christian fleet at a point where the coast rose slightly below the Galata cape. According to the necessary calculations, they raised the gun barrel into the air and fired. The cannonball was thrown too high and fell into the sea. After the shot was confirmed, a second cannonball was launched extremely high; It fell so hard on the Christian fleet that it shattered the ship and sank it immediately. The entire crew died and drowned, except a few who escaped by swimming and were taken aboard nearby ships. This incident caused great consternation among the prisoners.[19]
Mehmed's impact edit
The fall of Eastern Rome would create such a deep trauma in the Western collective consciousness that even centuries after the conquest, poets and writers would continue to lament the city. Even William Shakespeare, in his work Henry V, would dream of dragging the Turk out of Constantinople by his beard. And in his play Othello, he would make the Venetians take imaginary revenge on the Turks on the island of Cyprus.[20]
News of the fall of Constantinople was spreading rapidly in the West and East. A priest at Agarathos Monastery wrote the following on the paper in front of him that same night; There has never been and will never be anything worse than this. A Georgian priest on the other side of the Black Sea said; The sun darkened on the day the Turks took Constantinople! He sighed.
The Venetians conveyed the news to Pope Nicholas V in Rome, using their intelligence networks throughout Europe. The Pope was devastated when he heard the news on July 8. He sent envoys to the Italian powers and asked them to stop fighting among themselves and unite against the infidels. The news was spreading like gangrene throughout Europe. Emperor Friedrich III, who was expected to be the protector of Christians in the world and was crowned by the Pope himself a year ago, retired to his room and cried when he heard the news. [21]
The influence of fall of Eastern Rome was evoked not only by those who came after him, but also by the great figures before him. Prophet Muhammad; Constantinople will certainly be conquered. How beautiful is the commander who conquers it, and how well does his army lead. It is reported that he said a hadith in the form of.[22]
Likewise, Constantine the Great had a large equestrian statue near the Hagia Sophia church. In this statue, the emperor stretches out his hand, points to Anatolia, that is, Turkey, and says: The one who will defeat me will come from this direction. (In reality, this statue is Augusteon, or the statue of Justinian I, threatening the truth.)[23]
References edit
- ^ Turnbull, Stephen. Beylikten İmparatorluğa Osmanlı Tarihi. p. 113.
- ^ Emecen, Feridun Mustafa (2016). Yavuz Sultan Selim. Kapı Yayınları. p. 13. ISBN 9786055147624.
- ^ Clot, Andre. İki Kıtanın Ve İki Denizin Hükümdarı Fatih Sultan Mehmed. p. 227.
- ^ İnalcık, Halil. Devlet-î Âliyye Cilt I. p. 111.
- ^ Magemizoglu, Gizem. İmparatorun İmgesi Fatih Sultan Mehmed'in Kamusal İmajı Ve İmparatorluk Siyaseti. p. 96.
- ^ Magemizoglu, Gizem. İmparatorun İmgesi Fatih Sultan Mehmed'in Kamusal İmajı Ve İmparatorluk Siyaseti. p. 99.
- ^ Emecen, Feridun Mustafa (2016). Yavuz Sultan Selim. Kapı Yayınları. p. 151. ISBN 9786055147624.
- ^ Emecen, Feridun Mustafa (2016). Yavuz Sultan Selim. Kapı Yayınları. p. 282. ISBN 9786055147624.
- ^ Yürük, Emre. Babür Şah'ın Hindistan'da ki savaşlarında ateşli silahların rolü.
- ^ Bradford, Ernle. Padişahın amirali Barbaros Hayreddin Korsan ve İmparatorluk kurucusu. pp. 30–31.
- ^ Öztuna, Yılmaz. Osmanlı devleti tarihi. pp. 79–80.
- ^ Duman, Murat. Eşsiz lider; Fatih. p. 16.
- ^ Runicman, Stevan. Konstantinopolis Düştü. p. 127.
- ^ Schlumberger, Gustave Leon. İstanbul'un fethi. pp. 217–218.
- ^ Danişmend, İsmail Hami. Osmanlı tarihi. p. 248.
- ^ Emecen, Feridun Mustafa. Fetih ve Kıyamet. p. 294.
- ^ US headquarters Washington army department, Mortars. p. 1.
- ^ "Havan Toplarının Rönesans'ı". p. 2.
- ^ Schlumberger, Gustave Leon. İstanbul'un fethi. pp. 127–128.
- ^ Akman, Beyazıt; Akman, Filiz Barın. Giovanni Maria Filelfo, Emir Amyris, Türk İmparatoru Mehmet'in Hayatı Ve Fetihleri. p. 131.
- ^ Akman, Beyazıt; Akman, Filiz Barın. Giovanni Maria Filelfo, Emir Amyris, Türk İmparatoru Mehmet'in Hayatı Ve Fetihleri. p. 130.
- ^ Clot, Andre. Fatih Sultan Mehmed. p. 143.
- ^ Schlumberger, Gustave Leon. İstanbul'un fethi. p. 288.