July 27, 1449

How did constantine die
Sultan mohammed fateh
Kayser-i rum

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PREFACE

Strange it is that the most vivid and accurate picture of a great series of campaigns should come from one of the defeated party—as if the great history of the American War of Independence had been written by an Englishman. But not only did a Greek write this story of the Turkish destruction of the Greek Empire, but it took another Greek to translate it into Turkish.

Equally strange is it that, while Kritovoulos distinctly states that he hopes to influence the Philhellenes in the British Isles by this story of a Turkish sultan, it has been necessary to wait nearly five hundred years before it is put in English.

The work of all authors, especially those who wrote five centuries ago, needs to be tested as to accuracy by the testimony of other contemporaries, and mature judgment on relative worth is not always easy. Everything known until the present, however, indicates that we have here a work of high value, written with the true genius of an historian and with commendable non-partisanship. When compared with the histories of such men as Ph

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The Siege of Constantinople in 1453, according to Kritovoulos

This account of the siege and fall of Constantinople was written by Hermodoros Michael Kritovoulos, who was a civil servant working for Mehmed II. He served the Ottomans as the governor of his native island of Imbros from 1456 to 1466, and afterwards lived in Constantinople and became a monk. He composed in Greek a history of events from 1451 to 1467, a large section of which covers the siege of Constantinople. Kritovolous’ account is more positive towards the Ottomans than any other Greek work, and presents detailed information about the tactics and strategy of the besiegers. This particular history also offers interesting information about the cannons used in the siege. The section below, comprising of chapters 117 to 257 of Book 1, takes up the story shortly after the arrival of Mehmed II and his forces outside of the city.

Review of the whole army, and the assignment of the parts of the City on landward and seaward sides to the generals by the Sultan

117. After this, he reviewed the whole army and gave

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Michael Critobulus

Byzantine historian (c. 1410 – c. 1470)

Michael Critobulus (Greek: Μιχαήλ Κριτόβουλος; c. 1410 – c. 1470) was a Greek politician, scholar and historian. He is known as the author of a history of the Ottoman conquest of the Eastern Roman Empire under Sultan Mehmet II. Critobulus' work, along with the writings of Doukas, Laonicus Chalcondyles and George Sphrantzes, is one of the principal sources for the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.^[1]

Critobulus is a Romanization of the name, which is alternatively transliterated as Kritoboulos, Kritovoulos, Critoboulos; sometimes with Critobulus' provenance affixed (e.g. Critobulus of Imbros).

Biography

Critobulus' birth name was Michael Critopoulos (Greek: Μιχαήλ Κριτόπουλος). He changed this modern Greek family name to the more classical-sounding "Kritoboulos" in reference to a figure of that name in the dialogues of Plato.

He belonged to a family of landowners on the island of Imbros. In the 1450s he was a local political leader of the island and played an active role in the peaceful han