Miller

During the fall of Constantinople, many Christians took refuge in the churches with the idea that the Muslim Turks would recognise that the sacred buildings should afford sanctuary. Most of them ran to the great church of Hagia Sophia. The Greek historian Doukas, one of the most important sources for those events, writes that Christians "had only rendered their capture more easy by seeking all together refuge inside the Church". The great crowd were taken as in a drag-net, says another historian, Critobulus. The Muslims entered Hagia Sophia after breaking the doors. Christian prisoners were tied or chained together and any resistance offered was at once overcome. Some were taken to the Turkish ships, others to the camp, and the loot collected was dealt with in the same manner. Turks were arguing for the possession of the most beautiful women. Hagiographies were torn down and burnt. The greatest misfortune of all, says Phrantzes, another important historian who was an eyewitness, was to see the Temple of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), the Earthly Heaven, the Throne of the Glory of God, defiled by these miscreant barbarians. The Muslim Turks didn't stop there. They destroyed and disappeared books from the libraries. Books with knowledge and about history and sciences. For Islam any other books except the Koran (Quran) was anti-Islamic and any book that contradicts its teaching ought to be destroyed. The ignorant fanatical masses of Muslims were destroying and burning or stealing books as they did in the Library of Alexandria. The only value of books was the amount for which they could be sold. Islam didn't invent anything. The "Islamic Golden Age" is one of the biggest lies and one of the most unscientific theories that has ever existed, and it cannot be proven by any serious primary sources. Constantinople, Greece and the whole region of Eastern Roman Empire, after the Fall and Ottoman slavery, it went from the most advanced people to the most undeveloped. Sciences and philosophy were forbidden under the Islamic law. Historian Critobulus says that not only the holy and religious books, but also those treating of profane sciences and of philosophy, were either thrown into the fire or trampled irreverently under foot, but that the greater part were sold, not for the sake of the price but in mockery, for two or three pence or even farthings. The ships of the Turkish fleet had among their cargo, says Ducas, an innumerable quantity of books. In the booty collected by the Turks they were so plentiful and cheap, that for a nummus, probably worth sixpence, ten volumes were sold containing the works of Plato and Aristotle, treatises on theology and other sciences. The sack of Constantinople lasted 3 days. Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, in his work The Crown of Histories (Tacü’t-Tevarih), one of the most fundamental, detailed, and renowned Ottoman sources on the Fall of Constantinople, first affirms that the soldiers of Islam “acted in accordance with the precept, ‘Slaughter their aged and capture their youth.’” He then adds, in the characteristic ornate style of Ottoman historians: “For three days and nights there was, with the imperial permission, a general sack, and the victorious troops, through the richness of the spoil, entwined the arm of possession round the neck of their desires, and by binding the lustre of their hearts to the locks of the damsels, beautiful as houris, and by the sight of the sweetly smiling fair ones, they made the eye of their hopes the participator in their good fortune.” Leonard states that sixty thousand captives were bound together preparatory to their final distribution. Critobulus, writing some years afterwards, estimates that the number of Greeks and Italians killed during the siege and after the capture was four thousand, that five hundred of the army and upwards of fifty thousand of the rest of the population were reduced to slavery. Mehmed, called for an imam, who by his orders ascended the pulpit and made the declaration of Mohammedanism (Islamic faith). It was that moment, when the most important Church of Christianity, the Hagia Sophia, converted into a mosque. Mehmed slaughtered, raped, burned, and enslaved so many of Constantinople’s Greeks that the city had to be repopulated, including with Greeks brought from elsewhere. He ordered five thousand families sent from the provinces and the walls repaired. Ducas records that these families, drawn under threat of death from Trebizond, Sinope, and Asprocastron, included masons and lime-burners to build the city. Have you ever wondered why Ottoman buildings are similar to Byzantine architecture? 65 years after the Fall of Constantinople, Sultan Selim I Yavuz, grandson of Mehmed "the Conqueror" and father of Suleiman, decided to definitively abolish the Patriarchate of Constantinople during the patriarchate of Theoleptos I, and to slaughter all the subjugated Greek Christians (rayah) of the empire who refused to convert to Mohammedanism and Islam. Ottoman expansion was primarily a result of racial and religious grand plan. 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. - Homer Pavlos

When Muslim Turks invaded Nicosia in 1570, they massacred and enslaved all the Christians. The Muslims seized and destroyed everything in their path, even the churches. They cut off the heads of even old men to test their swords, while they dragged others into captivity, especially those they judged could bring them great profit. In the end, they set up a slave market where they sold the beautiful Greek boys and girls. The Turks themselves boasted that their looting surpassed that of Constantinople (1453). Next year, after the fall of Famagusta (1571), the Turks stripped the Venetian defender of the city, Marcantonio Bragadin. While he was in captivity, a massacre of all the remaining Christians in the city took place. They first cut off both of Bragadin’s ears and his nose. After being left in prison for two weeks with his wounds festering, he was dragged around the city walls carrying sacks of earth and stone on his back. Next, he was tied to a chair and hoisted to the yardarm of the Turkish flagship, where he was exposed to the taunts of the sailors. Finally, he was taken to the main square, tied naked to a column, and flayed alive. They cut his body into pieces and hung them from the ship’s cannons. The galley then sailed along the coasts of Syria, so that the victors could seal their triumph in this way while his skin was stuffed with straw, sewn back together, reinvested with his military insignia, and exhibited riding a cow in a mocking procession through the streets of Famagusta. In 1580, his skin was stolen by Girolamo Polidori and brought back to Venice, where it remains today in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo. The Muslim Turks loved flaying (skinning) alive Christians. During the Ottoman period, they applied it mainly against Greek rebels to deter and discipline others. As usual, the Christian victim was beaten, publicly humiliated, and tied to a special scaffold for immobilization. Then, skilled executioners removed his skin with sharp knives before the crowd. Another well-known case is that of Daskalogiannis. On June 17, 1771, he was led to a central square in Heraklion. A wooden scaffold with a special seat had been erected. Tied tightly to it, he was flayed starting from the head by a monstrous executioner who threw pieces of skin to the crowd, saying: "Take leather for your boots!" A second executioner periodically showed him his flayed face in a mirror, mocking: "Look, captain, how well the red suits you!" Relatives (brother and daughter) were in the crowd. He endured steadfastly and died when the flaying reached his shoulder blades. If you want to support me in the effort I’m making, please consider becoming a subscriber to my X account for only $2. My long historical posts are the result of years of research, and I spend a lot of time writing them. Also, I always provide primary historical sources. If anyone wants to copy/paste my posts please always mention my name as the original author. I write about the ancient, medieval, and modern history of Greece and what Christians went through in Asia Minor, Greece, and Cyprus because of Islam. Thank you very much to those of you who support me and read me. - Homer Pavlos

After the massacre of Chios in 1822, the Muslim Turk commander Vahit Pasha ordered the beheading of all the remaining Christian prisoners. He had their skulls stuffed with light straw. The next day he sent them to the Sultan, along with five loads of other heads and two loads of ears belonging to people of the lower classes. These were the "trophies of his victory." 52,000 Greek Christians were sold into slavery, and 42,000 men, children, and women were slaughtered. Young girls were raped publicly in the streets, and newlyweds in front of their husbands, who were then slaughtered. Others were raped in front of their parents, after which the men's genitals were cut off. Women over 40 were set on fire and left to burn alive. Pregnant women had their bellies ripped open and their fetuses pulled out, while small children were thrown forcefully against rocks. The frenzy of the Muslims was unprecedented. Many Turkish soldiers cut off the heads of Greek Christians and then licked their swords. With this act, they believed they would earn a place in paradise. Others were hanged from the island's trees for deterrence. Severed human limbs and corpses were scattered on the streets, while the sea had turned red from the blood. The smoke from the burning houses had covered all of Chios, while the flames made the night look like day. Several women from Chios preferred death over dishonor and slavery. They committed suicide by jumping off cliffs. Some were killed while defending their children, siblings, and husbands. Remember the date: 30 March 1822 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 in Asia Minor, Greece, and Cyprus because of Islam. Thank you very much to those of you who support me and read me. - Homer Pavlos