Constantinople Quotes

The Hagia Sophia was the greatest architectural and engineering enterprise of that era and remained so for centuries. The Church was so massive that there was a permanent city of 7000 people on the second level balconies with wide ramps so that horses and carts could go to the upper level. The dome was the largest unsupported dome for centuries and historians are still ignorant of exactly how it was constructed. It changed the history of architecture. The reference to Solomon referred to the building of the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem which was up to then considered the greatest building ever constructed.

The Christian world was in a great struggle with Islam. The Sultans were trying to take over Constantinople—the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Western Catholic Church in Rome also yearned for unification but under the Pope and his Cardinals. Notaraus feared them more than the Ottomans. Howeer, it was the latter who conquered Constantinople (Byzantium) in 1453 and executed the “first family” when Notaras would not deliver his children to Sultan Mehmet as hostages for assuring “good behavior” by the Greek community.

The Byzantine emissary had pointed out that Mehmed’s predecessors had signed a treaty agreeing to “consult” with Constantinople before building any fortified structure in the area surrounding Constantinople. Mehmed was only 19 years old at this time. His intention f building a fort was to have a platform from which to attack and capture Constantinople itself which he did 2 years later. Earlier, the Eastern Roman Empire was much stronger and the Ottoman sultans were more cautious in dealing with them. However, the various Christian factions were all feuding with each other, and Mehmed II, despite his youth, was much better organized and was a better leader than his predecessors.

This vision, known as "The Third Rome" saw not only Moscow as the seat of Christianity for the world, but saw the Czar as the Head of the Christian unified Church. Constantinople had fallen to the Muslims and Rome to the Barbarians and the Pope had virtually no power at the time. Particularly interesting is his vision of transforming a civil Emperor to the head of the Church—one who was strong and wealthy enough to end the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches and command all. In this sense, he was following the Muslim concept of a single secular and religious, all powerful, leader—like the Caliph.

The Ottoman Turks had already conquered the Eastern Roman empire outside of Byzantium. They had overwhelming superiority and it was just a matter of time when they would take the city. Surrender would have been the sensible course, but religious passion against surrendering the holy city capital of Christendom to the Muslims was dominant in the Emperor and some of the leadership. But the morale of most was very low—and for good reason. The Ottomans soon captured the city.

The city was besieged by the Ottoman Turks. The Emperor stayed and died in the siege. Ironically, if he had escaped earlier and allowed the city to surrender to the Sultan and his troops, very few of the city residents would have died, and the rapine and pillaging never would have occurred. The negative result is that the Muslims would have controlled what was regarded by many Christians as a holy Christian city. But that is exactly what occurred.

Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. 6 years earlier, the Ottoman Turks, had captured Byzantium (Constantinople, later Istanbul), the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. One o the reasons the city fell was the squabbling of the different Christian national armies about support for the city and the internal bickering of those armies and navies that were there. The Emperor, Constantine XI, the successor to Constantine the Great—the roman Emperor who Christianized the Empire, was killed. Emperor Justinian had built the Hagia Sophia—the largest church at the time and for 1000 years thereafter under a single dome, and this great house of Christianity was turned into a Mosque by the Islamic conquerors.

See related quote to consider other’s view of the Greeks at the time. The Crusades were going badly for the Christians at this point. The Greek Emperor had, after promising to be a part of the Christian alliance, made a separate treaty with Saladin and the Muslims, making him an outcast and sewing the seeds of the schism between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches.

The Muslims were poised to make the final assault on Constantinople. Religious leaders were whipping up the troops by calling for Jihad and telling them those who fell in battle would enjoy immediate access to Paradise and the virgins that went with Islamic martyrdom. However, the Sultan did not trust religious fervor alone. He said this to the leaders of his soldiers who then spread the word. The City fell the next day. The troops had 3 days of looting, rape and pillage which the Sultan had promised, but there was almost no further damage to the infrastructure other than that caused by the seige cannons.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire controlled most of the Middle East and at times Arab areas and tribes would revolt. Egypt was considered the prize of the Middle East. The Ottomans not only controlled the Middle East militarily and civilly, but also religiously. The Turkish Sultan was the spiritual leader of almost all of the Middle Eastern Muslims.

This is a good example of how religious zeal has sometimes caused rulers to really do stupid things. Rather than try and negotiate a deal with the Sultan and pay an annual tribute or other such diplomatic solution as was common at the time, he was convinced that God would make sure that the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire—a holy city would not fall to the infidel and allow all the holy relics to fall into the hands of the heathen. In reality he would not fight for the inhabitants; he would force the inhabitants to fight for him and his view of the will of God. The message was taken by the young Sultan to be a personal challenge to him and to his God. See {634805} for his response to Constantine.

Rome & the Roman Catholic Church Islam, led by the Ottoman Turks, were in a constant state of tension against the Christian World of Europe. However there had been a huge schism in Christianity where the Christian Roman Empire was split in two—a Western (Latin) Empire led by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, and the Eastern (Greek) Roman Empire led by the Orthodox Church headquartered in Constantinople (Byzantium). The two churches were not only in a theological conflict but violence broke out and the armies of the two religious empires attacked each other now and then. This was a great advantage to the Muslims who were essentially unified under the Ottoman Turkish Sultan. Manuel knew that the reunification of Christianity was about the worst thing that could happen from the geopolitical view of the Ottomans and they always placed a high priority on doing whatever they could to magnify the stress between the two Christian empires. Manual and the Orthodox hierarchy were absolutely opposed to union as the schism had been precipitated by them to begin with. However, Manuel knew that the hatred of the East and the Orthodox Church was so great amongst the Latins that even if some of the Roman Catholic leadership might be interested in healing the schism and having a “unity in Christ”, the kings and nobles of the Western European nations would never accept unity and would scuttle the negotiations. This quotation is an excellent example of the kind of complex, foreign policy and political intriguing that caused our language to have an adjective—byzantine—which is in common use today.

Young Mehmed II, had just replaced his dead father as Ottoman Turkish Sultan. Constantine XI had threatened to finance a cousin of Mehmed’s, Orhan and back his challenge to Mehmed for the Sultanate in order to put pressure on the young Sultan to renegotiate a treaty that had been signed with Mehmed’s father. It was a very ham-handed diplomatic effort, The Grand Vizier was the main force in the Ottoman Government counseling the new Sultan against war and an attack on Byzantium. He was furious as the Emperor’s action had weakened his influence with the young Sultan, who after he captured Byzntium later in the year, had his Grand Vizier executed.

The Turks could not take the city then, but they did 56 years later in 1453.

Opposing Martin Van Buren's confirmation as Minister to Great Britain

In one of the most bizarre events in the History of Christianity, the Christian Crusaders of the 4th Crusade diverted from their destination in Egypt and attacked Constantinople—the Christian seat of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church. At the time Byzantium was a much larger city than any in France. (Istanbul still is.) This event is the major historical barrier that maintains the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Emperor had sent a challenging message to the young Ottoman Sultan {634798}. Constantine would not negotiate terms of surrender despite the overwhelming strength of the Turkish forces. The Sultan attacked and took the city in a battle where not only was Constantine killed but a large part of his people as well. The Muslims have held Byzantium (Constantinople, now Istanbul) since.