Some of the most important wisdom of the ages has passed on to modern man in the form of parables, fables and proverbs.
And then totally ignored by our leaders.
Concepts like “United we stand, divided we fall”. (Aesop’s Fables)
And “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana)
One of the Turkish commanders in that battle, Uluj Ali, was actually an Italian renegade. He later became the commander of the entire Ottoman navy.
Some of the grand viziers were of Serb origin. Christian boys from rural areas were taken from their families in the "devshirme"--some ended up as janissaries, others as bureaucrats--the most successful of the latter became grand viziers. Ivo Andric's novel The Bridge on the Drina tells the story of Visegrad on the Drina River in Bosnia, which had a magnificent bridge built by a grand vizier who was born nearby and taken away in the "devshirme." (He made his brother, who remained a Christian, the patriarch.)