Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Road to Constantinople
Sultan Beyazıt disastruously taunted the Tatar warlord Tamerlane, leading to his capture
and defeat. Ottoman expansion halted as Tamerlane lurched through Anatolia, and
Beyazıt's sons wrestled for control. Mehmet I emerged victorious and the Ottomans re-
gained their mojo, scooping up the rest of Anatolia, rolling through Greece, making a first
attempt at Constantinople and beating the Serbs again.
Mehmet II again set Ottoman sights on Constantinople; he built a fortress on the Bos-
phorus, imposed a naval blockade and amassed his army. On 29 May 1453, the Ottomans
took the city. Christendom shuddered at the seemingly unstoppable empire, and Mehmet,
now known as Mehmet the Conqueror, was declared a worthy successor to the great Ro-
man and Byzantine emperors.
Golden Years
The Ottoman war machine rolled on. The janis-
sary system, which converted and trained Chris-
tian youths for the military, meant that the Otto-
mans had the only standing army in Europe. Se-
lim the Grim captured the Hejaz, Mecca and
Medina in the early 16th century, making the
Ottomans the venerated guardians of Islam's
holiest places. It wasn't all mindless militarism,
however: demonstrating the empire's multicul-
tural nature, Jews expelled by the Spanish In-
quisition were invited to Constantinople in
1492.
The Ottoman golden age came during Süley-
man the Magnificent's reign (1520-66). A re-
markable figure, Süleyman was noted for codi-
fying Ottoman law; his legal code was a vision-
ary amalgam of secular and Islamic law. His
patronage of the arts saw the Ottomans reach
their cultural zenith, and there were of course
further military successes. The empire enjoyed
victories over the Hungarians and absorbed the
Mediterranean coast of Algeria and Tunisia.
Castles
1 KIZKALESI CASTLE (
CLICK HERE
)
2 CASTLE OF ST PETER (
CLICK HERE
)
3 VAN CASTLE (
CLICK HERE
)
4 MAMURE CASTLE (
CLICK HERE
)
5 UÇHISAR CASTLE (
CLICK HERE
)
6 RUMELI HISARI (
CLICK HERE
)
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