SECTION I.
Infinite praise and glory be given to that cherisher of worlds, who by his word “BE,” called into existence earth and heaven, and all his various creatures; be innumerable encomiums also bestowed on the beloved of God, Mohammed Al-Mustafà, Captain of holy warriors, heir of the kingdom of law and justice, conqueror of Mecca, Bedr, and Honaïn, who, after those glorious victories, encouraged his people by his noble precepts (hadís) to conquer Arabia (Yemen), Egypt (Misr), Syria (Shám), and Constantinople (Kostantiniyyeh).
Sayings (hadís) of the Prophet respecting Constantinople.
The prophet said: “Verily Constantinople shall be conquered; and excellent is the commander (emír), excellent the army, who shall take it from the opposing people!”
Some thousands of proofs could be brought to shew, that Islámbúl is the largest of all inhabited cities on the face of the earth; but the clearest of those proofs is the following saying of the prophet, handed down by Ebú Hureïreh. The prophet of God said: “Have you heard of a town, one part of it situated on the land, and two parts on the sea?” They answered, “yea! O prophet of God;” he said, “the hour will come when it shall be changed by seventy of the children of Isaac.” From (Esau) Aïs, who is here signified by the children of Isaac, the nation of the Greeks is descended, whose possession of Kostantiniyyeh was thus pointed out. There are also seventy more sacred traditions preserved by Mo’áviyyah Khálid ibn Velíd, Iyyúb el-ensárí, and ’Abdu-l-’azíz, to the same effect, viz. “Ah! if we were so happy as to be the conquerors of Kostantiniyyeh!” They made, therefore, every possible endeavour to conquer Rúm (the Byzantine empire); and, if it please God, a more detailed account of their different sieges of Kostantiniyyeh shall be given hereafter.