Mehmed II nicknamed el-Fatih,"the Conqueror'" (March 30, 1432 - May 3,
1481) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. Queer Places:
Fatih Mosque, Ali Kuşçu, Hattat Nafiz Caddesi No:6, 34083 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey
Mehmed II nicknamed el-Fatih,"the Conqueror'" (March 30, 1432 - May 3,
1481) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481.
Mehmed brought an end to the Byzantine Empire by capturing Constantinople in 1453, and other Byzantine cities left in Anatolia and the Balkans. The invasion of Constantinople and successful campaigns against small kingdoms in the Balkans and Turkic territories in Anatolia bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country and the Ottoman State started to be recognized as an empire for the first time. Mehmed's advance toward the heart of Europe was stopped by the unsuccessful Siege of Nándorfehérvár in 1456, however.
His reign, mostly known for his capture of Constantinople, is also well known for the unusual tolerance with which he treated his subjects, especially among the conquered Byzantines. Within the vanquished city he established a milet or an autonomous settlement, and he appointed the former Patriarch as essentially governor of the city.
However, his authority extended only unto the Christians of the city, and this excluded the Genoese and Venetian settlements in the suburbs, and excluded the coming Muslim and Jewish settlers entirely. This method allowed for an indirect rule of the Christian Byzantines and allowed the occupants to feel relatively autonomous even as Mehmed began the Turkish remodeling of the city, eventually turning it into the Turkish capital, which it remained until the 1920s.
As can be guessed from his successful campaign against Otranto in southern Italy and his adopting the title Roman Caesar (Kayser-i-Rüm), he was presumably trying to vitalize the Eastern Roman Empire. For a probably similar reason, he gathered Italian humanists and Greek scholars at his court, kept the Byzantine Church functioning, ordered the patriarch to translate the Christian faith into Turkish and called Gentile Bellini from Venice to paint his portrait.
He is also recognized as the first sultan to codify criminal and constitutional law long before Suleyman the Magnificent (also "the Lawmaker") and he thus established the classical image of the autocratic Ottoman sultan (padishah). After the fall of Constantinople, he founded many universities and colleges in the city, some of which are still active.
Mehmed is well known to have been, if not outright homosexual then, somehow bi-sexual because even though having four wives through an arranged marriage, he has only four children, and didn't love his second wife which lived lonely and died childless. Perhaps Mehmed was a pansexual, because besides having several wives and many male favorites he could choose from more than 300 boys in his palace, also the sultan has eunuchs, at least some 100 at his court, and one of them was Hadim Suleyman Pasha the man who enjoyed Mehmed's special favor. The Sultan entrusted him the war campaigns and governing of Rumelia.
A Bosnian by birth, Suleyman was, taken prisoner as a boy, castrated, and, being beautiful, attracted the erotic attention of Mehmed, thus as some sources tell he had sexual relationships with him and became his favourite. Subsequently, he had spent many years in the service of the serai and long been devoted to the sultan, who in turn cherished and trusted him. It was believed that eunuchs, being without family ties, were less likely than other men to pursue selfish aims and for that reason they were often appointed to responsible posts in the government.
While most of stories with women around Mehmed are the unattested legends, for example the folk-tale motif story that after the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453 the Sultan raped the virgin daughter of Emperor Constantine XI, who is in fact known to live and died childless. Many times sultan Mehmed refused to marry Byzantine princesses or excluded them from harem, while his reckless passion for boys led to deperate obtaining and jealousy like the story with page boy of poet Ahmed Pasha; or even violence, like the incident with Jacob Notaras, the son of Grand Duke Loukas Notaras whom Sultan executed not only for political matters but also for that the Duke refused to hand his son for Sultan's passions. "Other boy was reserved for the lust/pleasure of the the king." Account of Leonardo (the captive of Constantinople) on exceptionally beautiful son of Notaras, Jacob, entering the harem of Sultan Mehmed II.
Also, both Ottoman and Byzantine chronicles specifically mention about Radu son of Dracula, nicknamed Radu cel Frumos (The Beautiful) famous for his good looks, caught young Mehmed's eye and, after initial resistance, showed himself amendable to Mehmed's advances. According to Byzantine historians, Radu became Sultan’s lover and male concubine: "...regis eius concubinus factus est." Their dangerously passionate relationships were described by Greek Byzantine chronicler Laonic Chalkokondyles: "The sultan summoned Vlad III, the Impaler, the son of Dracula and he had with him his younger brother Radu, who became his homosexual lover and lived with him. As he desired the boy, he invited him to converse with him, proposed toasts in his honor, and called him to his chamber. The boy did not suspect that the sultan would assault him sexually but when he saw that the sultan was so inclined, he fought off his advances and would not submit to have sex with the sultan. The sultan tried to kiss the unwilling boy. The latter took out a knife and stabbed the sultan on the thigh. Radu fled without further delay, looking for a hiding place. The sultan's physicians took care of the wound. In the meantime the boy had climbed a tree and had concealed himself. The sultan set out with his army and went away. At this point the boy climbed down and, a short while later, reached the gates (the Porte) and became the sultan's homosexual lover. They do not frown upon those who engage in this lifestyle. Mehmed II spent a great deal of time, night and day, with such people. The king granted to this boy's brother [Vlad III the Impaler] the lordship of Dacia (Wallachia)."
In 1481 Mehmed marched with the Ottoman army, but upon reaching Maltepe, Istanbul he became ill. He was just beginning new campaigns to capture Rhodes and southern Italy, however according to some historians his next voyage was planned to overthrow the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and to capture Egypt and claim the caliphate. But after some days he died, on 3 May 1481, at the age of forty-nine, and was buried in his türbe near the Fatih Mosque complex. According to the historian Colin Heywood, "there is substantial circumstantial evidence that Mehmed was poisoned, possibly at the behest of his eldest son and successor, Bayezid."
My published books:
