Twenty-three armies including Sultan Murad II’s failed in their attempts to conquer the city of Constantinople. Sultan Murad II, who assumed the throne in 1421, unable to tame his desire launched an attack on the city of Constantinople in 1422. As a counterstrategy, the Roman Empire threatened Sultan Murad II by encouraging his 13-year-old brother, Mustafa, to dethrone him. This confrontation ended in the young Mustafa losing his life. Mustafa was executed in February 1423. Though Sultan Murad II was shackled by the circumstances which didn’t allow him to take Constantinople away from the Roman yoke, nonetheless his period of governance paved the way for the conquest of Constantinople.
In the middle of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire had consolidated its power and territory. The consolidation of power helped them attain a substantial level of permanence. In 1444, Sultan Murad II defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Varna. At the Battle, the king of Poland and Hungry, Vladislav, was assassinated. This event exasperated and infuriated the powerful Central European states. Meanwhile the Ottomans faced resistance from an Albanian lord Skanderbeg and Voivode of Transylvania, John Hunyadi. John Hunyadi wrote a letter to the Pope and the powerful Kings of Europe, asking them to launch another crusade. To his dismay, none of them answered in the affirmative. So, he started raiding the Ottoman territory.
Though Skanderbeg was previously an Ottoman vassal, even then Sultan Murad II sent three punitive expeditions against him. This turned out to be a disaster as the Albanian forces defeated all of them. In 1448, Sultan Murad II attacked Skanderbeg and became a victor at the Battle of Svetigrad. On the other hand, John Hunyadi amassed a 30,000 strong army to avenge the mortification they underwent because of Sultan Murad II.
As luck would have it, the allies of John Hunyadi deserted him because of the Ottoman fright. This enraged and disillusioned him. After the rejection of his efforts to launch another crusade, John Hunyadi mischievously attacked the Serbian lands. John Hunyadi had hoped that Durad Brankovic, the despot of Serbia, would assist him against the Ottomans. But this didn’t happen as the despot of Serbia was an Ottoman vassal. Therefore, for him to go against the Ottomans was no less than soliciting devastation and death. Sultan Murad II’s fears were alleviated as far as the possible alliance of Hunyadi and the despot of Serbia was concerned. Nevertheless, a new apprehension arose on Sultan Murad II’s mind: the threat of cooperation between Skanderbeg and John Hunyadi against Sultan Murad II. Sultan Murad’s fears ended in the first battle of Kosovo. This Battle sealed the fate of the Balkans for the coming centuries.
On the first day of the Battle, the Hungarian, Polish, Wallachian and Moldovan forces succeeded in fending off the Ottoman attackers. However, they could not put the Ottomans on the defensive for too long. The Ottomans neutralised the initial hiccups by pushing back the joint forces. John Hunyadi attempted to assail the Ottomans during the night but the Ottomans made his attempts ineffective. On the second day of the Battle, Sultan Murad II commanded his forces to retreat. He tricked the Hunyadi by doing this. Seeing the Ottoman forces retreat, the troops of Hunyadi attacked the Ottoman centre directly. After a massive skirmish the Janissaries stopped their advance toward the Sultan’s position. At the same time, the Ottoman forces returned to the battleground and engulfed the troops of John Hunyadi. Hunyadi and his forces managed to retreat arduously but he had lost more than half of his forces. This battle cleared the path for the Ottomans towards the city of Constantinople.
After the demise of Sultan Murad II in 1451, Sultan Mehmed II assumed the throne. After Sultan Murad’s death, the Romans and their allies heaved a sigh of relief. When Sultan Mehmed II ascended the throne, he was merely 19 years of age. In their haughtiness and ignorance, the Romans threatened the 19-year-old boy like the way they had threatened his father Sultan Murad II when he tried to rid Constantinople of the Romans. Constantine XI sent a message to Sultan Mehmed II that he would support his cousin Orhan to overthrow Sultan Mehmed II if some of his demands were not met. This belligerent demeanour gave an excuse to Sultan Mehmed II to initiate war against the Romans. In 1452, Sultan Mehmed II passed a decree to construct a fortress on the northern end of Bosporus to preclude ships from rendering any kind of succour to the Romans from the Black Sea. The completion of the construction of the fortress, Rumelihisari, took more or less four months for the Ottomans. In the aftermath of this, Constantine XI became helpless. It left him with no other option but to get all of his subjects into the city. It forced him to store up the supplies of food and other necessary stuff. It forced him to send pleas to the powerful European states for assistance. No substantial help did arrive to the Emperor Constantine XI except for some Venetian ships and 1,000 Italian mercenary soldiers led by Giovanni Giustiniani.
The Ottomans possessed about 100,000 warriors, 69 cannons and 126 ships under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The Romans had 7,000 adroit troops, including 500 Ottoman soldiers who were commanded by Prince Orhan, about 20 cannons and 26 ships. The Romans compelled more than 30,000 locals into the service of salvaging the city of Constantinople from the Ottomans. The first group of Ottoman troops arrived at the walls of the city of Constantinople on Ist April 1453. The Sultan reached on the 5th of April 1453 and initiated preparations to besiege the city. At the outset, the Ottomans appeared to be formidable to the Romans. However, with Giustiniani’s dexterity, the Romans defended the city with ferocity. At many points during the confrontation, the Ottomans felt exhausted and helpless. Every kind of attack of the Ottomans led them nowhere. At long last, the stars favoured Sultan Mehmed II. At the end of the day, the Ottomans destroyed part of the gates near St Romanus which endowed the Ottomans with an opportunity to target the Romans from a side the damage of which couldn’t be fixed.
The city was fully conquered by the Ottomans on 29th of April 1453. On the one hand, a sense of satiation overwhelmed Sultan Mehmed II and his indefatigable troops. On the other hand, humiliation, deprivation and guilt for not being able to defend the city of Constantinople engulfed Constantine XI and his troops.
Conventionally, this conquest is sanctified for being the one about which the Prophet (SAW) prophesied. The Prophet said, “You will most certainly conquer Constantinople, what an army will that army be and what a commander will their commander be.” Nonetheless, Sheikh Imran Hosein, an Islamic scholar and expert in Islamic Eschatology refuses to accept the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II as the one predicted by the Prophet (SAW). He substantiates his proposition by positing a very important Hadith of the Prophet (SAW). The Prophet (SAW) said, “When Jerusalem is built, Medina will be in ruins, when Medina is in ruins, the Malhama (The Great War) will take place, when the Malhama takes place, the conquest of Constantinople will come about. When the Constantinople is conquered, Dajjal (the Anti-Christ) will appear.”

Syed Shahab Andrabi is a Law Student at JMI, New Delhi ([email protected]). Syed Batool Andrabi is Student of Mass Communication at Kashmir University, Hazratbal ([email protected]). Syed Azmat Andrabi is an Engineering student at IUST, Awantipora ([email protected])

Syed Shahab Andrabi, Syed Batool Andrabi & Syed Azmat Andrabi