The first appearance of the Ottoman Turks in history dates from 1227 A.D., the year of Jenghiz Khan's death. In that year a small Turkish horde, driven westward from their central Asian homes by the Mongol advance, settled in Asia Minor. There they enjoyed the protection of their kinsmen, the Seljuk Turks, and from them accepted Islam. As the Seljuk power declined, that of the Ottomans rose in its stead. About 1300 A.D. their chieftain, Othman, [14] declared his independence and became the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
OTTOMAN EXPANSION
The growth of the Ottoman power was almost as rapid as that of the Arabs or of the Mongols. During the first half of the fourteenth century they firmly established themselves in northwestern Asia Minor, along the beautiful shores washed by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. The second half of the same century found them in Europe, wresting province after province from the feeble hands of the eastern emperors. First came the seizure of Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, which long remained the principal Turkish naval station. Then followed the capture of Adrianople, where in earlier centuries the Visigoths had destroyed a Roman army. [15] By 1400 A.D. all that remained of the Roman Empire in the East was Constantinople and a small district in the vicinity of that city.
THE JANIZARIES
The Turks owed much of their success to the famous body of troops known as Janizaries. [16] These were recruited for the most part from Christian children surrendered by their parents as tribute. The Janizaries received an education in the Moslem faith and careful instruction in the use of arms. Their discipline and fanatic zeal made them irresistible on the field of battle.
[Illustration: MOHAMMED II
A medal showing the strong face of the conqueror of Constantinople]
CONSTANTINOPLE BESIEGED
Constantinople had never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the freebooters of the Fourth Crusade. [17] It was isolated from western Europe by the advance of the Turks. Frantic appeals for help brought only a few ships and men from Genoa and Venice. When in 1453 A.D. the sultan Mohammed II, commanding a large army amply supplied with artillery, appeared before the walls, all men knew that Constantinople was doomed.
CAPTURE OF THE CITY
The defense of the city forms one of the most stirring episodes in history. The Christians, not more than eight thousand in number, were a mere handful compared to the Ottoman hordes. Yet they held out for nearly two months against every assault. When at length the end drew near, the Roman emperor, Constantine Palaeologus, a hero worthy of the name he bore, went with his followers at midnight to Sancta Sophia and there in that solemn fane received a last communion. Before sunrise on the following day the Turks were within the walls. The emperor, refusing to survive the city which he could not save, fell in the onrush of the Janizaries. Constantinople endured a sack of three days, during which many works of art, previously spared by the crusaders, were destroyed. Mohammed II then made a triumphal entry into the city and in Sancta Sophia, now stripped of its crosses, images, and other Christian emblems, proclaimed the faith of the prophet. And so the "Turkish night," as Slavic poets named it, descended on this ancient home of civilization.