Posted on 05/30/2020 7:46:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Today in history, on May 29, 1453, the sword of Islam conquered Constantinople. Of all Islam’s conquests of Christian territory, this was by far the most symbolically significant. For not only was Constantinople a living and direct extension of the old Roman Empire and current capital of the Christian Roman Empire (or Byzantium), but its cyclopean walls had prevented Islam from entering Europe through its eastern doorway for the previous seven centuries, beginning with the First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674-678).
Indeed, as Byzantine historian John Julius Norwich puts it, “Had the Saracens captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than the fifteenth, all Europe—and America—might be Muslim today.”
When Muslim forces failed again in the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople (717-718), conquering the ancient Christian capital became something of an obsession for a succession of caliphates and sultanates. However, it was only with the rise of the Ottoman sultanate—so named after its eponymous Turkic founder, Osman (b.1258)—that conquering the city, which was arguably better fortified than any other in the world, became a possibility, not least in thanks to the concomitant spread of gunpowder and cannons from China to Eurasia.
By 1400, his descendants had managed to invade and conquer a significant portion of the southern Balkans—thereby isolating and essentially turning Constantinople into a Christian island in an Islamic sea.
Enter Sultan Mehmet, or Muhammad II (r. 1451-1481)—“the mortal enemy of the Christians,” to quote a contemporary prelate. (Note: “Mehmet” is simply an English transliteration of the Turkish pronunciation of “Muhammad.”) On becoming sultan in 1451, Constantinople sent a diplomatic embassy to congratulate him; the 19-year-old responded by telling them what they sought to hear.
He “swore by the god of their false prophet, by the prophet whose name he bore,” a bitter Christian contemporary retrospectively wrote,
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Great post. Thanks. HOORAY Raymond Ibrahim. History / education BUMP!
“Yesterday in History”
Thank God for King Jan III Sobieski!
No, you can’t go back to Constantinople.
“The uninvited guests are breaking up the feast.”
Al Stewart in “Constantinople”.
In my freshman year of college, I made a bet with my suite mates that the event was so transforming to Western society and world events that I could bring it up and use it in every class in the coming four years.
Professors were often taken off stride when I would bring it up in some way during a class and several other students might start laughing (suitemates in on the joke). Fortunately all my classes were liberal arts instead of hard science and that made it easy.
“Indeed, as Byzantine historian John Julius Norwich puts it, “Had the Saracens captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than the fifteenth, all Europe—and America—might be Muslim today.”
There wouldn’t be an America or a Europe if it had been Muslim.
And Europe won’t last much longer thanks to their suicidal policy of importing Islam.
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