page_title: Siege of Trebizond (1461)
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Trebizond (1461) / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Front panel of Cassone featuring the conquest of Trebizond. Attributed to Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso
context_page_description: The Siege of Trebizond was the successful siege of the city of Trebizond, capital of the Empire of Trebizond, by the Ottomans under Sultan Mehmed II, which ended on 15 August 1461. The siege was the culmination of a lengthy campaign on the Ottoman side, which involved co-ordinated but independent manoeuvres by a large army and navy. The Trapezuntine defenders had relied on a network of alliances that would provide them with support and manpower when the Ottomans began their siege, but failed at the moment Emperor David Megas Komnenos most needed it.
  The Ottoman land campaign, which was the more challenging part, involved intimidating the ruler of Sinope into surrendering his realm, a march lasting more than a month through uninhabited mountainous wilderness, several minor battles with different opponents, and ended with the siege of Trebizond. The combined Ottoman forces blockaded the fortified city by land and sea until Emperor David agreed to surrender his capital city on terms: in return for his tiny realm, he would be given properties elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, where David, his family, and his courtiers would live.
context_section_description: After taking possession of the city, Sultan Mehmed garrisoned his Janissaries in Trebizond's imperial castle; Kritobulos states that the garrison numbered 400. He placed Emperor David, his family and his relatives, his officials and their families with all of their wealth on the Sultan's triremes which took them to Constantinople, where David and all 3 of his sons would be executed less than 2 years later and his daughter married off to the Grand Vizier Zagan Pasha. The rest of the inhabitants of Trebizond, however, were treated harshly. According to Pseudo-Chalkokondyles, they were divided into three groups: one group was forced to leave Trebizond and resettle in Constantinople; the next group became slaves either of the Sultan or of his dignitaries; and the last group were left to live in the countryside surrounding Trebizond, but not within its walls. Kritobulos states that only "some of the most influential men of the city" were forced to resettle in Constantinople, while stating nothing about the rest of the inhabitants. The Sultan also took hundreds of children to become his personal slaves: while Kritobulos states that Mehmed took 1500 children of both sexes to be his slaves, Pseudo-Chalkokondyles writes only that he took 800 male children became recruits for his Janissaries, the elite Ottoman military unit, which required them to convert to Islam.
  According to Chalkokondyles, Mehmed appointed Kasim Pasha to be governor of Trebizond and had Hizir accept the submission of the villages around the city and in Mesochaldia, home of the Kabasites clan. Although Chalkokondyles implies that these communities quickly acquiesced to Ottoman rule, Anthony Bryer has found evidence that some groups resisted their new Muslim overlords for as long as 10 years. Mehmed proceeded overland back to Constantinople. Kritobulos is brief about his return march: where he had detailed the Sultan's challenges on the outward march, Kritobulos writes only that he had sent Sara Khatun back to Uzun Hassan "with many gifts and honors"; while Chalkokondyles notes the return journey was through "a strongly protected land and very inaccessible".
  According to a colophon in a copy of Petrarch's Africa, the Sultan's fleet returned by October 1461, their weapons and materiel almost unused.
  Pope Pius II sought to rescue Trebizond, yet by his death in 1464 no Christian nation had undertaken a Crusade against the Ottomans.
caption: Cassone with the "Conquest of Trebizond" by Apollonio di Giovanni di Tommaso, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, painted just after the fall of the city
exif: {}