Sultan Mehmed’s Conquest: Ships Across Land, Passing on Cannons, Apocalyptic Fears

by Gavin Michelsen

It was the city’s 1,121st year of existence. Naturally, having lasted this long, rulers were eyeing it as the conquest to cement their legacy. As Sultan Mehmed gazed upon the previously impenetrable walls crumbling before him and his ships passed the chains in the Golden Horn, he knew it was his. The Ottoman Empire had Constantinople geographically surrounded as early as the mid fourteenth century and tried many times to take it. Sultan Mehmed II even drew up plans to do so when he was only thirteen years old. At age twenty-one, Sultan Mehmed, Mehmed the Conqueror, or Fatih Sultan Mehmed, as he is referred to in different capacities, was finally able to conquer the previously unconquerable, and extremely coveted, city of Constantinople, thanks to advances in military technology and his ingenious strategy. This dynamic altering event led to the dissemination of apocalyptic fears in both the Byzantines and Ottomans.

The development that put Constantinople into Mehmed II’s physical reach was the cannon. The story goes that the cannon-maker, Orban, first offered his marvelous new military invention to Constantine XI, the then ruler of what was left of the Byzantine Empire, just a year before the siege in 1452 (Crowley). Constantine declined this opportunity and sent the fortune-seeking inventor away. Orban was welcomed shortly thereafter at Edirne, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. He promised Sultan Mehmed II enough power to not only destroy the Theodosian walls of the city, but also break through the notorious walls of Babylon. The cannon was constructed and transported along with ammunition to Constantinople. This was undeniably the development that put Constantinople into Mehmed II’s physical reach.

Once his soldiers were in place, Mehmed employed a strategy that shocked the Byzantines. While he laid siege with explosives to the walls, he did something completely unexpected: he commanded soldiers to walk warships across land in the dead of night on logs across Galata into the Golden Horn (Nambi). Having placed approximately sixty ships in the Golden Horn, Mehmed and the Ottomans gained the competitive advantage by blocking the entry of Venetian ships helping to supply the Byzantine defense. After Mehmed the Conqueror’s 53 days of masterfully executed sieging strategy, the city was his. His brilliant strategy made the unconquerable conquerable.

Interestingly, parts of the public on both sides believed that this achievement could be a sign of end times. Historian Kaya Şahin asserts that many Christian Byzantine subjects believed that “the end of the empire was closely associated with the end of the world” (Şahin 322). He expands further, saying that it was theorized that Sultan Mehmed was the Antichrist arriving to reign. Gennadios Scholarios, the earliest Ottoman Orthodox patriarch, expressed his view that Sultan Mehmed was the Antichrist in living form, because he consoled his flock declaring that suffering was soon to end (Şahin 323). Ottoman Islamic subjects also professed the beginning of apocalyptic times in almost immediate succession to the events of the conquest. They declared that the “Blond Peoples” would once again regain Constantinople from the Muslims in violent fashion. Then, they upheld, a Messiah would come to lead the Muslims in war and the world would end in this way. (Şahin 324-328). These developments are certainly not surprising given that Constantinople had been previously deemed impenetrable and unattainable by individuals and even high-ranking officials.

The conquest of Constantinople was cemented by Sultan Mehmed’s strategic might and use of the newly invented and acquired cannon. The extent of the conquest was vast. From ships crossing land, to Constantine XI cementing his fate by sending the cannon-maker away, to apocalyptic narratives, the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 is one of the most interesting events in world history.

Works Cited

Featured Image: “Mehmet II conquering Constantinople” by “Fausto Zonaro” is licensed under Public Domain

Crowley, Roger. “The Guns of Constantinople.” HistoryNet, HistoryNet, 14 Apr. 2016, www.historynet.com/the-guns-of-constantinople/.

Nambi, Karthick. “When Ships Crossed by Land in War.” Medium, Lessons from History, 4 Jan. 2021, medium.com/lessons-from-history/when-ships-crossed-by-land-in-war-6ffc9975df57.

Şahin, Kaya. “Constantinople and the End Time: The Ottoman Conquest as a Portent of the Last Hour.” Journal of Early Modern History, vol. 14, no. 4, 2010, pp. 317–54, doi.org/10.1163/157006510X512223.