Editing Fall of Constantinople (section)

== Aftermath ==
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[[Mehmed II]] granted his soldiers three days to plunder the city, as he had promised them and in accordance with the custom of the time.{{sfnp|Runciman|1965|p=145}}<ref name="mCj01" /> By noon, the city streets were filled with blood. The Turks looted houses, raped and impaled women and children, destroyed churches, tore icons from their frames and books from their bindings. All that remained of the imperial palace in Blachernae were the walls; Byzantium's most sacred icon, the [[Hodegetria]], was cut into four pieces and destroyed. The most monstrous events took place in the Church of Hagia Sophia. There, the morning service was already underway when the parishioners heard the maddened conquerors approaching. The huge bronze doors immediately slammed shut, but soon the Turks smashed them and entered the temple. The poorer and less attractive looking parishioners were killed on the spot, the rest were taken to a Turkish camp, where they remained to await the decision of their fate.<ref>История Византийской империи : От основания Константинополя до кру-
КоЛибри, Азбука-Аттикус, 2023. - 688 с. ; ил.
шения государства / Джон Норвич: [пер. с англ. О. Г. Постниковой]. - М.: {{ISBN|978-5-389-19591-2}}</ref> Soldiers fought over the possession of some of the [[War looting|spoils of war]].{{sfnp|Reinert|2002|p=283}} On the third day of the conquest, [[Mehmed II]] ordered all [[looting]] to stop and issued a proclamation that all Christians who had avoided capture or who had been ransomed could return to their homes without further molestation, although many had no homes to return to, and many more had been taken captive and not ransomed.{{sfnp|Runciman|1965|pp=150–151}} Byzantine historian [[George Sphrantzes]], an eyewitness to the fall of Constantinople, described the Sultan's actions:{{sfnp|Sphrantzes|1980}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}{{sfnp|Kritovoulos|1954}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}<!-- there was a ref to p.&nbsp;133, but it is not clear which edition of which book (Sphrantzes or Kritovoulos) it referred to-->

{{blockquote | On the third day after the fall of our city, the Sultan celebrated his victory with a great, joyful triumph. He issued a proclamation: the citizens of all ages who had managed to escape detection were to leave their hiding places throughout the city and come out into the open, as they were to remain free and no question would be asked. He further declared the restoration of houses and property to those who had abandoned our city before the siege. If they returned home, they would be treated according to their rank and religion, as if nothing had changed. | George Sphrantzes}}

Mehmed himself knocked over and trampled on the altar of the Hagia Sophia. He then ordered a muezzin to ascend the pulpit and sound a prayer.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=leqqBgAAQBAJ |title=Turkish Myth and Muslim Symbol: The battle of Mazikert |page=175 |isbn=978-0-7486-3115-5 |last1=Hillenbrand |first1=Carole |date=21 November 2007 |access-date=23 March 2023 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164823/https://books.google.com/books?id=leqqBgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoUJAQAAIAAJ |title=The Siege of Constantinople 1453: Seven Contemporary Accounts |pages=103–112 |year=1973 |publisher=Hakkert |isbn=978-90-256-0626-8 |via=Google Books |access-date=2 January 2023 |archive-date=6 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106131445/https://books.google.com/books?id=SoUJAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The ''[[Hagia Sophia]]'' was converted into a mosque,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Evan |url=https://pressbooks.pub/smarthistoryguidetobyzantineart/chapter/hagia-sophia-istanbul/ |title=Smarthistory Guide to Byzantine Art |date=2021 |chapter=Hagia Sophia in Istanbul |access-date=30 December 2023 |archive-date=30 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230172933/https://pressbooks.pub/smarthistoryguidetobyzantineart/chapter/hagia-sophia-istanbul/ |url-status=live }}</ref> but the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Greek Orthodox Church]] was allowed to remain intact and [[Gennadius Scholarius]] was appointed [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]]. This was once thought to be the origin of the [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Ottoman ''millet'' system]]; however, it is now considered a myth and no such system existed in the fifteenth century.<ref name="aMn4U" /><ref name="AIhgF" />

[[File:Hagia-Sophia-Laengsschnitt.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Following the city's conquest, the Church of the [[Holy Wisdom]] (the ''[[Hagia Sophia]]'') was converted into a [[mosque]].]]
The fall of Constantinople shocked many Europeans, who viewed it as a catastrophic event for their civilization.<ref name=":0" /> Many feared other European Christian kingdoms would suffer the same fate as Constantinople. Two possible responses emerged amongst the [[Renaissance humanism|humanists]] and churchmen of that era: [[Crusade]] or dialogue. [[Pope Pius II]] strongly advocated for another Crusade, while the German [[Nicholas of Cusa]] supported engaging in a dialogue with the Ottomans.<ref name="NqTxI" />

{{Blockquote
|text=In the past we received our wounds in Asia and in Africa—in foreign countries. This time, however, we are being attacked in Europe, in our own land, in our own house. You will protest that the Turks moved from Asia to Greece a long time ago, that the Mongols established themselves in Europe and the Arabs occupied parts of Spain, having approached through the straits of Gibraltar. We have never lost a city or a place comparable to Constantinople.|author=Pope Pius II<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3JUDwAAQBAJ |title=Europe and Islam |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-317-20724-5 |via=Google Books |last1=Jones |first1=Erik |last2=Genugten |first2=Saskia van |publisher=Routledge |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164808/https://books.google.com/books?id=o3JUDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The [[Morea]]n (Peloponnesian) fortress of [[Mystras]], where Constantine's brothers [[Thomas Palaiologos|Thomas]] and [[Demetrios Palaiologos|Demetrius]] ruled, constantly in conflict with each other and knowing that Mehmed would eventually invade them as well, held out until 1460. Long before the fall of Constantinople, Demetrius had fought for the throne with Thomas, Constantine, and their other brothers [[John VIII Palaiologos|John]] and [[Theodore II Palaiologos, Lord of Morea|Theodore]].{{sfnp|Norwich|1995|p=446}} Thomas escaped to Rome when the Ottomans invaded Morea while Demetrius expected to rule a puppet state, but instead was imprisoned and remained there for the rest of his life. In Rome, Thomas and his family received some monetary support from the Pope and other Western rulers as Byzantine emperor in exile, until 1503. In 1461, the independent Byzantine state in [[Empire of Trebizond|Trebizond]] fell to Mehmed.{{sfnp|Norwich|1995|p=446}}

[[Constantine XI]] had died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen he likely would have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother, who were taken into the palace service of Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople. The oldest boy, renamed Murad, became a personal favourite of Mehmed and served as [[Beylerbey]] (Governor-General) of [[Rumeli]] (the Balkans). The younger son, renamed [[Mesih Pasha]], became Admiral of the Ottoman fleet and Sancak Beg (Governor) of the province of Gallipoli. He eventually served twice as Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son, [[Bayezid II]].<ref name="nsxzN" />

With the capture of Constantinople, Mehmed II had acquired the future capital of his kingdom, albeit one in decline due to years of war. The loss of the city was a crippling blow to [[Christendom]], and it exposed the Christian West to a vigorous and aggressive foe in the East. The Christian reconquest of Constantinople remained a goal in Western Europe for many years after its fall to the Ottoman Empire. Rumours of [[King asleep in mountain|Constantine XI's survival and subsequent rescue by an angel]] led many to hope that the city would one day return to Christian hands. [[Pope Nicholas V]] called for an immediate counter-attack in the form of a crusade,{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} however no European powers wished to participate, and the Pope resorted to sending a small fleet of 10 ships to defend the city. The short lived Crusade immediately came to an end and as Western Europe entered the 16th century, the [[Crusades|age of Crusading]] began to come to an end.

For some time Greek scholars had gone to [[Italian city-states]], a cultural exchange begun in 1396 by [[Coluccio Salutati]], chancellor of Florence, who had invited [[Manuel Chrysoloras]], to lecture at the [[University of Florence]].<ref name="Mw3eQ" /> After the conquest many Greeks, such as [[John Argyropoulos]] and [[Constantine Lascaris]], fled the city and found refuge in the Latin West, [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|bringing with them knowledge and documents from the Greco-Roman tradition to Italy]] and other regions that further propelled the [[Renaissance]].<ref name="J2i2B" /><ref name="Byzantines in Renaissance Italy" /> Those Greeks who stayed behind in Constantinople mostly lived in the [[Phanar]] and [[Galata]] districts of the city. The [[Phanariotes]], as they were called, provided many capable advisers to the Ottoman rulers.

A severed head that was claimed to belong to Byzantine Emperor [[Constantine XI Palaiologos]] was found and presented to Mehmed and nailed onto a column. While standing before the head, the sultan in his speech said:<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoUJAQAAIAAJ |title=The Siege of Constantinople 1453: Seven Contemporary Accounts |date=15 January 1973 |publisher=Hakkert |isbn=978-90-256-0626-8 |access-date=15 January 2023 |via=Google Books |archive-date=6 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106131445/https://books.google.com/books?id=SoUJAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=Fellow soldiers, this one thing was lacking to make the glory of such a victory complete. Now, at this happy and joyful moment of time, we have the riches of the Greeks, we have won their empire, and their religion is completely extinguished. Our ancestors eagerly desired to achieve this; rejoice now since it is your bravery which has won this kingdom for us.|}}

The news spread rapidly across the Islamic world. In Egypt "good tidings were proclaimed, and Cairo decorated" to celebrate "this greatest of conquests." The Sharif of Mecca wrote to Mehmed, calling the Sultan "the one who has aided Islam and the Muslims, the Sultan of all kings and sultans". The fact that Constantinople, which was long "known for being indomitable in the eyes of all," as the Sharif of Mecca said, had fallen and that the Prophet Muhammad's prophecy came true shocked the Islamic world and filled it with a great jubilation and rapture.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QC03pKNpfaoC |title=Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs |author=Nadia Maria El-Cheikh |year=2004 |publisher=Harvard CMES |isbn=978-0-932885-30-2 |via=Google Books |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=6 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106131445/https://books.google.com/books?id=QC03pKNpfaoC |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Third Rome===
{{Main|Third Rome}}
[[File:Bellini, Gentile - Sultan Mehmet II.jpg|thumb|Mehmed II by [[Gentile Bellini]]]]

[[Byzantium]] is a term used by modern historians to refer to the later Roman Empire. In its own time, the Empire ruled from Constantinople (or "New Rome" as some people call it, although this was a laudatory expression that was never an official title) and was simply considered as "the Roman Empire." The fall of Constantinople led competing factions to lay claim to being the inheritors of the Imperial mantle. Russian claims to Byzantine heritage clashed with those of the Ottoman Empire's own claim. In Mehmed's view, he was the successor to the [[Roman Emperor]], declaring himself ''Kayser-i Rum'', literally "[[Caesar (title)|Caesar of the Romans]]", that is, of the Roman Empire, though he was remembered as "the Conqueror".

[[Stefan Dušan]], Tsar of [[Serbian Empire|Serbia]], and [[Ivan Alexander]], Tsar of [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]], both made similar claims, regarding themselves as legitimate heirs to the Roman Empire {{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}. Other potential claimants, such as the [[Republic of Venice]] and the [[Holy Roman Empire]], have disintegrated into history.<ref name="W8pk7" />

===Impact on the Churches===
[[Pope Pius II]] believed that the Ottomans would persecute [[Greek Orthodox]] Christians and advocated for another crusade at the [[Council of Mantua (1459)|Council of Mantua]] in 1459.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Florescu, McNally, ''Dracula'', p. 129</ref>