The Grand Turk
Subtitle: Sultan Mehmet II - conqueror of Constantinople, master of an empire and lord of two seas
By: John Freely
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
ISBN-13: 9781845117047
Subjects: History; Kings and rulers; Biography
Description: "Mehmet II was an enigmatic figure. Revered by the Turks and seen as a cruel and brutal tyrant by the west, he was a brilliant military leader but also a renaissance prince who had in his court Persian and Turkish poets, Arab and Greek astronomers and Italian scholars and artists. In this, the first biography of Mehmet for 30 years, John Freely vividly brings to life the world in which Mehmet lived and illuminates the man behind the myths, a figure who dominated both East and West from his palace above the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, where an inscription still hails him as, 'Sultan of the two seas, shadow of God in the two worlds, God's servant between the two horizons, hero of the water and the land, conqueror of the stronghold of Constantinople.'"--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-251) and index.
Table of contents: title: Turkish Spelling and Pronunciation; title: Prologue: Portrait of a Sultan; title: 1. Sons of Osman; title: 2. Boy Sultan; title: 3. Conquest of Constantinople; title: 4. Istanbul, Capital of the Ottoman Empire; title: 5. Europe in Terror; title: 6. War with Venice; title: 7. House of Felicity; title: 8. Renaissance Court in Istanbul; title: 9. Conquest of Negroponte; title: 10. Victory over the White Sheep; title: 11. Conquest of the Crimea and Albania; title: 12. Siege of Rhodes; title: 13. Capture of Otranto; title: 14. Death of the Conqueror; title: 15. Sons of the Conqueror; title: 16. Tide of Conquest Turns; title: 17. Conqueror's City; title: Ottoman Dynasty.