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Event

The Conquest of Constantinople

فتح القسطنطينية

Ottoman era · 1453–1453 CE · 857 AH

Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II take Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire and beginning a new imperial era.

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On 29 May 1453, Ottoman forces under the young Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the 1,100-year-old Byzantine Empire. Mehmed protected the city's landmarks, repopulated it as the new Ottoman capital of Istanbul, and extended legal protections to its Christian and Jewish communities, beginning a new era of Ottoman power that would last for centuries.