Although Muhammad II followed the custom of the armies of the time and allowed his men to rape and loot in the city, he changed his mind after seeing the destruction of important buildings in the city and stopped those acts 24 hours later. Unfortunately, large numbers of the city's inhabitants have been raped, ransacked, or enslaved. An estimated 50,000 people lived in the city when it was broken, and when Muhammad ordered the looting to stop, about half of the inhabitants were still free. The fact that so many inhabitants avoided slavery depended on the topography of Constantinople at the time. Compared to its heyday long ago, the population of Constantinople has dwindled over the years after the bubonic plague, especially the disaster caused by the Fourth Crusade two centuries ago. Constantinople in 1453 was a series of walled villages surrounded by the Theodosian walls built in the fourth century, separated by large fields. When the Ottoman army broke through the city defenses, many prominent residents of these small towns expressed their submission to Muhammad's general. According to Islamic tradition, this is voluntary submission, so the villages, especially those close to the land walls, have their inhabitants and churches protected from the Ottoman army and protected by Muhammad's elite "new army". After Muhammad stopped plundering the city, these residents paid to redeem some of the enslaved residents, and they also formed an autonomous community called "Milit" by the Ottomans in multi-ethnic Ottoman Istanbul.
Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople. After the situation calmed down, Muhammad entered the city in a procession ceremony, during which local residents offered him flowers to congratulate him. Constantinople fell into disrepair after the fall of the Fourth Crusade, and so were Muhammad's first impressions of the city.
In Muhammad's eyes, he was the successor of the Roman emperor, self-proclaimed "Kayzer-i Rum", which means Roman Caesar, although he was also nicknamed "Conqueror". Constantinople became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire, and Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. The Greek Orthodox Church remains intact, with Gennadius Scholarius appointed Archbishop of Constantinople.
The prevailing opinion is that the fall of Constantinople caused many Greeks to flee from the city to Western Europe, bringing with them the knowledge and instruments of the Greco-Roman tradition, thereby promoting the "Renaissance". This statement is true to a certain extent, but Greek scholars began to flow into the West long ago, especially the northern Italian city-states welcomed scholars as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Florence consul Salutati began this cultural exchange in 1396, inviting a Byzantine scholar to lecture at the University of Florence. The Italians' longing for Latin classics and their familiarity with Greek added impetus to the Renaissance. Most of the Greeks who remained in Constantinople lived in the Fanar and Galada districts. They were called "Fanars", and many of them had able advisers to serve the Ottoman sultans, but many Greeks regarded them as They are traitors.
Constantine's brothers Thomas and Dmitri ruled from the fortress of Mystras in Moria (Peloponnesus), but they often clashed and knew that Muhammad would one day would invade their lands, and Mystras finally fell in 1460. Long before the fall of Constantinople, Dmitri fought for the throne with Thomas, Constantine, and other brothers John and Theodore. When the Ottomans invaded Moria, Thomas fled to Rome, and Dmitri thought he could still be a puppet monarch, but he miscalculated and was imprisoned there until his death. In Rome, Thomas was regarded by the Pope and other Western European rulers as the Byzantine emperor in exile, and received some financial support from them until 1503. In 1461 Muhammad conquered the autonomous Byzantine state of Trabzon.
Scholars consider the fall of Constantinople an important event that marked the end of the Medieval era and the beginning of the Renaissance, as it represented the end of the old religious order in Europe and the widespread use of cannons and gunpowder. This event also disrupted major overland trade routes linking Europe and Asia, causing many Europeans to seriously consider the feasibility of reaching Asia by sea, which eventually led to the discovery of the New World.
Constantinople fell on Tuesday, and to this day many Greeks still consider Tuesday the most ominous day of the week.
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