Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

The Conquest of Constantinople
Candarh Halil continued to oppose the sultan’s plans for an attack on Constantinople, but Muhammad went ahead. On his return from Karaman he built the fort of Rumeli Hisar 10 miles north of the city on the European side of the Bosporus, to gain control of the waterway and sever Byzantiun’s communications with the Black sea as to assure the passage of Ottoman troops from Anatolia to Europe (January-August 1452). As soon as the new fort was completed, Muhammad demanded that Constantinople surrender, threatening a full-scale siege.
Byzantine efforts to secure European help were blunted by Candarhi Halil. who renewed the old trade treaty with Venice, made a new agreement with Hungry (November 20, 1451), and generally signified Ottoman. In the Imperial Council Candarh Halil and his colleagues continued to oppose the plans to conquer Constantinople, but the sultan prevailed with arguments stressing the gazi tradfribn and the Byzantine threat to the safety of the Ottoman state (September 1452).
The actual siege began in February 1453 when the first Ottoman forces sent from Edirne occupied the Byzantine seaports along the Sea of Marmara and huge cannons were dragged through Thrace to lead the attack on the city’s great walls. In march the Ottoman armies of Anatoila crossed the Bosqorus to the new Rumeli Hisari, while an armada built in Gallipofc went through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara and began t© attack the city by ,sea. Within the city Muhammad’s preparations were met with /despair; religious and political division continued to undermine the

808 Political and Cultural History of Islam
defense effort, and very little new assistance came from outside. Byzantium’s armed forces already had declined so much that there were hardly enough men left to man the vast wall defense system. Sections of the city were almost totally uninhabited.
The Byzantines had little more to defend them than the walls, ”Greek Fire,” and a chain stretched across the mouth of the golden Horn to prevent the entry of the Turkish fleet. Despite this the siege lasted for 54 days, from April 6 to May 29, 1453. On April 18 the Ottomans occupied all the islands in the Sea of Marmara outside the capital, which had been left undefended. Two days later four Latin ships and one Greek ship managed to evade the Ottoman blockade and bring large amounts of supplies to the defenders, considerably buoying their spirits. During the night of April 21-22, however, the Ottoman fleet, tired of its passive role in the Golden Horn, putting them in position to fire on the sea walls from the other side, thereby spreading the Byzantine defenders even more thinly. The Ottoman effort itself was hindered by Candarh Halil’s continued opposition.
The final assault began on the night of May 28. In the end the defenders were simply worn down, isolated as they were from significant outside help. After two hours the huge Ottoman cannon tore large gaps in the walls between the modern Topkap and the Yalikap, and the attackers flowed into the city. The Ottoman fleet broke the Byzantine chain and entered the Golden Horn, Supplementing the land forces. The emperor apparently was killed while fighting on the city walls. Once within the city the Ottomans advanced slowly and methodically, clearing the streets of the remaining defenders. While Islamic law would have justified a fullscale sack and massacre of the city in view of its resistance, Muhammad kept his troops under firm control, killing only those Byzantines who actively resisted and doing all he could to keep the city intact so that it could be the centre of his world empire. Many inhabitants and soldiers took refuge at the Genoese colony of Galata, across the Golden Horn, which has remained neutral during the siege. This violated its neutrality, but Zaganos made an agreement by which Galata was joined to the Ottoman Empire and its defenses toin down, in return for which its inhabitants were allowed to retain their holdings and gain freedom of religion and trade within the sultan’s dominions. The people of Galata were to retain their properties, but they were to have no tax or customs privileges other than the