ibid., p. 107
9 ‘a good and high wall’, quoted Mijatovich, p. 50
10 ‘struck terror …’, quoted Hogg, p. 16
11 ‘made such a noise …’, quoted Cipolla, p. 36
12 ‘the devilish instrument of war’, quoted DeVries, p. 125
13 ‘If you want …’, Doukas, Fragmenta, pp. 247–8
14 ‘like a scabbard’, Kritovoulos , Critobuli, p. 44
15 ‘iron and timbers …’, ibid., p. 44
16 ‘so deep that …’, ibid., p. 44
17 ‘On the day …’, Chelebi, In the Days , p. 90
18 ‘the Vezirs …’, ibid., p. 90
19 ‘The time limit having expired …’, ibid., p. 91
20 ‘The bronze flowed out …’, Kritovoulos, Critobuli , p. 44
21 ‘a horrifying and extraordinary monster’, Doukas, Fragmenta, p. 248
22 ‘the explosion and …’, ibid., p. 249
23 ‘so powerful is …’, ibid., p. 249
Epilogue: Resting Places
It was fortunate for Christendom and for Italy that death checked the fierce
and indomitable barbarian.
Giovanni Sagredo, seventeenth-century Venetian nobleman
In the spring of 1481, the sultan’s horsetail banners were set up on the Anatolian shore across the water from the city, signifying that the year’s campaign would be in Asia. It is typical of Mehmet’s secrecy that no one, not even his leading ministers, knew its true objective. It was, in all likelihood, war against the rival Muslim dynasty of the Mamluks of Egypt.
For thirty years the sultan had worked to build the world empire, personally managing the affairs of state himself: appointing and executing ministers, accepting tribute, rebuilding Istanbul, forcibly resettling populations, reorganizing the economy, concluding treaties, visiting terrible death on recalcitrant peoples, granting freedom of worship, dispatching or leading armies year after year to east and west. He was forty-nine years old and in poor health. Time and self-indulgence had taken their toll. According to an unflattering contemporary report, he was fat and fleshy, with ‘a short, thick neck, a sallow complexion, rather high shoulders, and a loud voice’. Mehmet, who collected titles like campaign medals – ‘The Thunderbolt of War’, ‘The Lord of Power and Victory on Land and Sea’, ‘Emperor of the Romans and of the Terrestrial Globe’, ‘The World Conqueror’ – could at times hardly walk. He was affected by gout and a deforming morbid corpulence, and shut himself away from human gaze in the Topkapi Palace.The man whom the West called ‘the Blood Drinker’, ‘the Second Nero’, had taken on the appearance of a grotesque. The French diplomat Philippe de Commynes declared that ‘men who have seen him have told me that a monstrous swelling formed on his legs; at the approach of summer it grew as large as the body of a man and could not be opened; and then it subsided’. Behind the palace walls Mehmet indulged in the untypical pursuits of a tyrant: gardening, handicrafts and the commissioning of obscene frescoes from the painter, Gentile Bellini, recently imported from Venice. Bellini’s famous last portrait, framed in a golden arch and surmounted with imperial crowns, hints at some unappeased essence in the man: the World Conqueror remained, to the last, moody, superstitious and haunted.
Mehmet crossed the straits to Asia on 25 April for the year’s campaign but was almost immediately struck down with acute stomach pains. After a few days of excruciating torment he died on 3 May 1481, near Gebze, where another would-be world conqueror, Hannibal, had committed suicide by poison. It is an end surrounded in mystery. The likeliest possibility is that Mehmet was also poisoned, by his Persian doctor. Despite numerous Venetian assassination attempts over the years, the finger of suspicion points mostly strongly at his son, Bayezit. Mehmet’s law of fratricide had perhaps tempted the prince to make a pre-emptive – and successful – strike for the throne. Father and son were not
9 ‘a good and high wall’, quoted Mijatovich, p. 50
10 ‘struck terror …’, quoted Hogg, p. 16
11 ‘made such a noise …’, quoted Cipolla, p. 36
12 ‘the devilish instrument of war’, quoted DeVries, p. 125
13 ‘If you want …’, Doukas, Fragmenta, pp. 247–8
14 ‘like a scabbard’, Kritovoulos , Critobuli, p. 44
15 ‘iron and timbers …’, ibid., p. 44
16 ‘so deep that …’, ibid., p. 44
17 ‘On the day …’, Chelebi, In the Days , p. 90
18 ‘the Vezirs …’, ibid., p. 90
19 ‘The time limit having expired …’, ibid., p. 91
20 ‘The bronze flowed out …’, Kritovoulos, Critobuli , p. 44
21 ‘a horrifying and extraordinary monster’, Doukas, Fragmenta, p. 248
22 ‘the explosion and …’, ibid., p. 249
23 ‘so powerful is …’, ibid., p. 249
Epilogue: Resting Places
It was fortunate for Christendom and for Italy that death checked the fierce
and indomitable barbarian.
Giovanni Sagredo, seventeenth-century Venetian nobleman
In the spring of 1481, the sultan’s horsetail banners were set up on the Anatolian shore across the water from the city, signifying that the year’s campaign would be in Asia. It is typical of Mehmet’s secrecy that no one, not even his leading ministers, knew its true objective. It was, in all likelihood, war against the rival Muslim dynasty of the Mamluks of Egypt.
For thirty years the sultan had worked to build the world empire, personally managing the affairs of state himself: appointing and executing ministers, accepting tribute, rebuilding Istanbul, forcibly resettling populations, reorganizing the economy, concluding treaties, visiting terrible death on recalcitrant peoples, granting freedom of worship, dispatching or leading armies year after year to east and west. He was forty-nine years old and in poor health. Time and self-indulgence had taken their toll. According to an unflattering contemporary report, he was fat and fleshy, with ‘a short, thick neck, a sallow complexion, rather high shoulders, and a loud voice’. Mehmet, who collected titles like campaign medals – ‘The Thunderbolt of War’, ‘The Lord of Power and Victory on Land and Sea’, ‘Emperor of the Romans and of the Terrestrial Globe’, ‘The World Conqueror’ – could at times hardly walk. He was affected by gout and a deforming morbid corpulence, and shut himself away from human gaze in the Topkapi Palace.The man whom the West called ‘the Blood Drinker’, ‘the Second Nero’, had taken on the appearance of a grotesque. The French diplomat Philippe de Commynes declared that ‘men who have seen him have told me that a monstrous swelling formed on his legs; at the approach of summer it grew as large as the body of a man and could not be opened; and then it subsided’. Behind the palace walls Mehmet indulged in the untypical pursuits of a tyrant: gardening, handicrafts and the commissioning of obscene frescoes from the painter, Gentile Bellini, recently imported from Venice. Bellini’s famous last portrait, framed in a golden arch and surmounted with imperial crowns, hints at some unappeased essence in the man: the World Conqueror remained, to the last, moody, superstitious and haunted.
Mehmet crossed the straits to Asia on 25 April for the year’s campaign but was almost immediately struck down with acute stomach pains. After a few days of excruciating torment he died on 3 May 1481, near Gebze, where another would-be world conqueror, Hannibal, had committed suicide by poison. It is an end surrounded in mystery. The likeliest possibility is that Mehmet was also poisoned, by his Persian doctor. Despite numerous Venetian assassination attempts over the years, the finger of suspicion points mostly strongly at his son, Bayezit. Mehmet’s law of fratricide had perhaps tempted the prince to make a pre-emptive – and successful – strike for the throne. Father and son were not
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