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Mehmed II
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Stone walls and round towers of Rumelihisari Fort rise above dense green trees along the Bosporus in Istanbul, Turkey, with cars and water in the foreground.
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Caption: It May be Turned to Mourning for its Loss. Our picture shows a group of the wounded lately from the Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire (Turkey) at the festivities, ca. 1914-1918. (World War I)
Understanding the Ottoman Empire
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Mehmed II

Ottoman sultan
Also known as: Mehmed Fatih, Mehmed the Conqueror, Muhammad the Conqueror(Show More)
Written by
Halil Inalcik
University Professor Emeritus of History, University of Chicago. Author of "Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) and His Time" in Speculum and others.
Halil Inalcik
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Mehmed II (born March 30, 1432, Adrianople, Thrace, Ottoman Empire—died May 3, 1481, Hunkârçayırı, near Maltepe, near Constantinople) was an Ottoman sultan from 1444 to 1446 and from 1451 to 1481. A great military leader, he captured Constantinople and conquered the territories in Anatolia and the Balkans that constituted the Ottoman Empire’s heartland for the next four centuries. Mehmed was the fourth son of Murad II by Hümâ Hâtûn, an enslaved girl in Murad’s harem....

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