🇵🇹⚓ 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley
Not a Book Report
I enjoy reflecting on the movies, TV, books and other media that I consume. I’m notoriously sentimental. This series documents the books that I read. These aren’t reviews or recommendations. Just a list. For me. Mostly so that I can page through what I read, where I was, and when.
Why did I read it?
I previously listened to Roger Crowley’s Empires of the Sea because I was fascinated by the development of naval warfare in that era. I then picked up Crowley’s Conquerers to learn more about Portuguese exploration. I continued my Crowley audiobook set and picked up what is essentially the prequel to Empires of the Sea about the consquest of Constantinople.
What is it?
Category
Value
Title
1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam
Author
Roger Crowley
Year Published
2016
Format
Audiobook (Audible)
Length
10 Hours 56 Minutes
ASIN
B01JB4JL64
Publisher Summary
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley’s listenable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current jihad between the West and the Middle East.
How did I read it?
Category
Value
Date Started
April 16, 2024
Date Finished
June 17, 2024
Places Read
Gyms and runs all over Lisbon
Notes - No Spoilers
The personalities behind the siege and conquest make the book. I learned much more about the Turks in this era than I did in the Empires of the Sea book.
The irony of the public image and the private life. Mehmed II, the Sultan who led the campaign and ruled the conquered city in the name of Islam, was frequently drunk and added young men to his harem with whom he had intimate physical relationships. He spurned on his trooops to holy jihad while also being a passionate student of secular philosophy and the sciences. Weirdly modern dude all around in private. Who also led a terribly brutal campaign full of atrocities in the name of religion.
Constantinople at the time of its conquest had to have been one of the ultimate cases of coasting on its long-lost glory days.
Canons! Really, really intriguing to watch the impact of canons against walls built over a thousand years before the siege. Like the introduction of accurate canon on boats in the later naval books from Crowley, this so obviously changed warfare completely.
The defenders’ interest in leaning into Anti-Islam sentiment to appeal to other Christian kingdoms makes sense, but so much of the city was already ruined not by Muslims but by Christian Crusaders a couple centuries prior.
Wild how a single (large) chain running across the mouth of the Golden Horn could deny the invaders from a naval assault for months. Equally wild that the invaders just decided to get around this by transporting their boats over land.
The role of Christian renegades or slaves in the Ottoman Empire’s military, especially the navy, sure continued for a few more centuries.