الرحلةThe Journey

السلطان محمد الفاتح

Muhammad al-Fatih (RH)

Sultan Mehmed II, Muhammad al-Fatih

Also known as: Mehmed II, Mehmed the Conqueror, Fatih Sultan Mehmed

835–886 AH · 1432–1481 CE

Reigned 1444–1481 CE

Rulers Ottoman Empire

Ottoman sultan who took Constantinople in 1453 and made it a capital of Islamic learning.

Mehmed II, known as al-Fatih, 'the Conqueror', was the son of Sultan Murad II and was educated by scholars including Aq Shams al-Din and Molla Gürani. On 29 May 1453, aged 21, he took Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. Many saw in this the fulfilment of a hadith in the Musnad of Ahmad praising the army that would take the city.

He rebuilt the city as Istanbul, his capital, founding the Fatih mosque complex with its eight great madrasas, and was a patron of scholars, poets and artists. His campaigns extended Ottoman rule across the Balkans and Anatolia.

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Life journey

  1. 1432 CE Edirne أدرنة
  2. 1453 CE Constantinople (Istanbul) القسطنطينية
    Died 1481 CE · 886 AH
    Took Constantinople in 1453 and made it his capital; died on campaign in Anatolia in 1481 and was buried at his mosque in Istanbul.

Places in their life

The Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul
The Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul
Photo: Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  • Halil İnalcık, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600 (1973)
  • Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (1978)
Draft, awaiting scholarly review.
The authenticity of the hadith about the conquest of Constantinople is discussed by hadith scholars; the bio only reports that many linked it to him.