Sultan Muhammad al-Faatih biography and history

Sultan Muhammad al-Faatih biography and history

Sultan Muhammad II (the Second) was the seventh Sultan from the ‘Uthman family, and was nicknamed “al-Faatih” (the liberator) or Abu al-Khayrat (father of good). He ruled for thirty years, in which was to be a period of glory for the Muslims. He came to rule the Ottoman Statei.1. at the age of 22, after the death of his father on 16 Muharram, 855 A.H / 18th February, 1451 CE. His personality combined strength with justice, and he had an extensive knowledge of many fields of science, which he had learnt in the Prince Institute. He also learnt the languages of his time, as well as having an inclination to study history. Al this knowledge helped him to develop his character for his administration of both the state and the battlefield, before he was to be known as Muhammad al-Faatih (the liberator), for his liberation of Constantinople.

He followed the same course adopted by his father and grandfathers, in reorganising the different administrations of the state, putting more emphasis on balancing the financial resources of the whole country and their management, in a manner that avoided all aspects of opulence and over- spending.

He also made an effort to improve the army, by keeping personal records of his soldiers, increasing their salaries and arming them with the latest weapons available at the time.

Regarding the management of the provinces, he improved them by reinstating the position of some past governors, while replacing those who had shown any signs of carelessness.

After spending a period in making reforms at home, he turned to the Christian fronts in Europe in order to liberate more regions and spread the Message of Islam.

Many factors had helped the Sultan achieve his goals, such as the weakness of the Byzantine Empire; because of the conflicts with other European countries and also because of some internal disputes which had spread throughout the country.

Sultan al-Faatih worked hard to crown all his conquests with the liberation of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire and the main base for the crusade invasions against the Islamic world. He made it the capital of the Ottoman state, thereby managing to achieve what his predecessors failed to do.

The life of Muhammad Al-Fatih

Known to the west as Mehmed II, he was born on 30th March 1432 in the northwestern province of Edrine, Muhammad al-Fatih was the son of Sultan Murad II (1404-51) and was an Ottoman Sultan who ruled from 1451 to 1481. Muhammad al-Fatih showed signs of leadership right from a young age, gaining leadership skills and experience from governing cities like Amasya. Muhammad al-Fatih’s father wanted to make sure that his son learned from of the best scholars at the time. Muhammad al-Fatih was a devout Muslim and learned under many teachers about the Islamic faith which moulded his mindset. He mastered seven languages; Turkish, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Serbian, Hebrew and Persian. Sultan Muhammad al-Faatih

‘Greek Fire’ – Ancient Byzantium weapon used to destroy their enemies

Conquering Constantinople no easy task for Muhammad, as Constantinople had withstood many sieges and attacks over the centuries because of its formidable defences. Even Muslims of the past tried and failed to do so. The Byzantine capital was positioned by the sea making it tremendously difficult to attack and its naval fleet didn’t make things any easier for the opposing forces. The Byzantines had a secret weapon known as ‘Greek Fire’, a highly flammable liquid that was used in naval engagements where it would instantaneously set ships ablaze and it could not be put out by water. (Cartwright and Cartwright, 2017).

Theodosian Walls of Constantinople

Constantinople was also fortified by the Theodosian Walls. These walls were a triple row of fortifications. This means that there were three walls stacked in front of each other. The outer wall had a patrol track, the middle wall provided a firing platform to shoot down on opposing forces attacking the first wall and the inner wall was five meters thick and 12 metres high making it the biggest of the three walls (Cartwright and Cartwright, 2017).

All this made the city of Constantinople impregnable and withstood landside sieges for eight hundred years. Even previous Sultans from the Ottoman Empire tried and failed to capture the Byzantine capital. Although the Byzantines had been successful in crushing any military force that would attack their city walls, they had no help from western Christian allies because of a crushing defeat to the Crusader army in the Battle of Varna 1444 at the hands of Muhammad’s father Murad II. That battle and the battle of Koscovo 1448 deterred the European states from sending any substantial military assistance to aid the Byzantines. Also, the Byzantines did not want to unite the pope’s church with theirs, so that didn’t help strengthen their relationship. Constantinople had withstood sieges for 800 years which means they had primarily dealt with weapons made in the middle ages. Al-Fatih had one thing which previous besiegers of Constantinople lacked, cannon power. (Cartwright and Cartwright, 2017) Muhammad al-Fatih was a military genius. His strategic war planning was unparalleled and is evident in his attention to war preparations. His war strategies can be divided into two stages, which are the pre-war strategies and those while the war was ongoing. Muhammad al-fatih adopted a ‘grand-strategy’ as a pattern of pre-war strategies (Isa and Ashari, 2014). ‘Grand-strategy’ is “the process by which all the means available to the state are considered in pursuit of continuing political influence” (Dolman, 2005) This involves planning in terms of diplomacy, information, military and economic power. In terms of the political strategy, before he attacked Constantinople, Muhammad al-Fatih signed peace treaties with three states: Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Stipulated in these treaties are the duties of the states to uphold ceasefire with the Ottomans and not to meddle into any war affairs that the Ottomans have with any other states. Muhammad al-Fatih managed to accumulate a special fund before the war was actually waged. This was apart of his economic strategy. This involved increasing taxes from states under Ottoman protection and introducing economic policies which allowed him to take control of certain products in the trading sector. Militarily strategising would require a large proportion of Muhammad al-Fatih’s focus. Muhammad al-Fatih was able to amass hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers as well as cavalries, gunmen and gun carriage drivers from all over the regions. The Ottoman naval forces were formidable and their seapower lasted for centuries in the Indian Ocean. Muhammad al-Fatih always made sure to have a huge naval fleet at the ready for war.

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Sultan Muhammad al-Faatih

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