Lichtbringer 🎗️🇩🇪🇮🇱🇺🇦

When Muslim Turks entered Constantinople, they rushed across the City toward the Great Church of Hagia Sophia looking for Christians. Terrified Greek Christians fled into the churches, some hoping the Turks would respect sanctuary, others believing a prophecy that the enemy would be stopped at the Column of Constantine by an angel who would deliver the city and drive the Turks from the West. Within an hour of the Turks’ entry the Hagia Sophia was packed with people who thought they were safe. They only made their capture easier. The first Turks to arrive broke down the doors. Critobulus says the crowd was taken as in a drag-net. Refugees were tied or chained together. Some were dragged to the ships, others to the camp. The loot was treated the same way. Inside the Hagia Sophia the Turks fought each other for the most beautiful women. Daughters of Byzantine noble families raised in luxury, nuns who had lived secluded from the world, were seized and subjected to violence. Their clothes were torn from them by men who refused to give up their prizes. Masters and mistresses were bound to their servants. Church dignitaries were chained to the lowest menials. The captors drove their flocks of victims before them, lodged them under guard, and hurried back for more. Ropes, ribbons, and handkerchiefs were used to bind them. Sacred icons were torn down and burned. Altar cloths, chalices, chandeliers, carpets, and ornaments, everything valuable and portable, were carried off. Historian Phrantzes called "the desecration of the Temple of Holy Wisdom, the Earthly Heaven and Throne of the Glory of God, the greatest misfortune of all". The other churches were plundered in the same way. Richly embroidered robes, gold-woven chasubles set with pearls and precious stones, and church furniture were seized. Ornaments were ripped off and the rest thrown aside. A crucifix was carried in mock procession topped with a Janissary’s cap. Historian Critobulus records that holy books, works of philosophy, and treatises on the sciences were thrown into the fire, trampled underfoot, or sold in mockery for two or three pence or even farthings. Historian Ducas says the Turkish ships carried an innumerable quantity of books. For a small coin ten volumes of Plato, Aristotle, and theology could be bought. Christian and Muslim writers agree the sack lasted three days, as Mehmed had promised. Khodja Sad-ud-din affirms that the soldiers of Islam acted according to the precept "Slaughter their aged and capture their youth." For three days and nights, with imperial permission, there was general sack. The Mohammedans seized the spoil and the damsels beautiful as houris. Leonard states that sixty thousand captives were bound together for distribution. Critobulus, writing years later, estimated that four thousand Greeks and Italians were killed during the siege and after the capture, that five hundred of the army and upwards of fifty thousand of the rest of the population were reduced to slavery. After the conquest, Mehmet recognised that Constantinople needed to be repeopled. He ordered five thousand families to be sent from the provinces to the capital and commanded the repair of the walls. Ducas states that the five thousand Greek families sent from Trebizond, Sinope, and Asprocastron under pain of death included masons and lime-burners for repairing the walls. To attract population, Mehmet understood that he needed to conciliate the Greeks. A few days after the conquest Mehmet ordered the captives who formed part of his own share of the booty to be established in houses on the slope toward the Golden Horn. From among the noble families he selected the young men for himself. Some he placed in the corps of Janissaries. Others, distinguished by their education, he kept near him as pages. Mehmet published an edict within a few weeks of the capture that all former inhabitants who had paid ransom, or who were ready to enter into an agreement with their masters to pay it within a fixed period, should be considered free, allowed to live in the city, and for a time exempt from taxes. Phrantzes states that even on the third day after the capture an order was issued allowing those who had fled and were in hiding to return, promising they should not be molested. On the question whether they would still have to pay ransom, Phrantzes is silent. A few weeks later, after his visit to Adrianople, Mehmet sent orders to various parts of his empire to despatch families of Christians, Jews, and Turks to repeople the city. He tried to allure Greeks and other workmen by employing them on public works, notably the construction of a palace, for which, Critobulus says, he had chosen the most beautiful site in the city, at Seraglio Point, the construction of the fortress of the Seven Towers around the Golden Gate, and the repairs of the Inner Wall. He ordered the Turks to allow their slaves to take part in this work so that they might earn money not only to live but to save enough for their ransom. If you want to support me in the effort I’m making, please consider becoming a subscriber to my X account for only $2. I write about the ancient, medieval, and modern history of Greece and what Christians went through because of Islam. Always with primary sources and historical facts. Thanks for reading me and for all the support. - Homer Pavlos