Jacob Mchangama skriver på Facebook:

"For 564 år siden på denne dag – 29. maj 1453 - faldt Konstantinopel til den osmanniske Sultan Mehmet II efter 40 dages belejring og kanonsalver mod de mure, der i mere end 1000 år havde modstået adskillige angreb, og udgjort rammen om det østromerske rige, og den ortodokse kristendom, hvis historie og kultur vi ofte glemmer i Vesten. Kun én gang tidligere var byen blevet indtaget: Under det Fjerde Korstog i 1204, hvor latinske kristne, ledet af venetianere, indtog og hærgede Konstantinopel og dermed kraftigt reducerede byens velstand og indflydelse, og dermed banede vejen for dens senere fald til Islam.

Da Konstantinopel endelig faldt til osmannerne, var der tale om en yderst blodig affære, som man kan læse i venetianeren Nicolo Barbaros øjenvidneskildring:

“And at the same time all those in the fleet on the Dardanelles side disembarked and left their ships by the shore without anyone in them, because they were all running furiously like dogs into the city to seek out gold, jewels and other treasure, and to take merchants prisoner. They sought out the monasteries, and all the nuns were led to the fleet and ravished and abused by the Turks, and then sold at auction for slaves throughout Turkey, and all the young women also were ravished and then sold for whatever they would fetch, although some of them preferred to cast themselves into the wells and drown rather than fall into the hands of the Turks, as did a number of married women also. The Turks loaded all their ships with prisoners and with an enormous quantity of booty. Their practice was, that when they went into a house, at once they raised up a flag with their emblem on it, and when other Turks saw this flag flying, they left this house alone, and went in search of another house without a flag, and so they put their flags everywhere, even on the monasteries and churches. As far as I can estimate, there would have been two hundred thousand of these flags flying on the houses all over Constantinople: some houses had as many as ten, because of the excitement which the Turks felt at having won such a great victory. For the rest of the day these flags were kept flying on the houses, and all through the day the Turks made a great slaughter of Christians through the city. The blood flowed in the city like rainwater in the gutters after a sudden storm, and the corpses of Turks and Christians were thrown into the Dardanelles, where they floated out to sea like melons along a canal… the fighting lasted from dawn until noon, and while the massacre went on in the city, everyone was killed; but after that time they were all taken prisoner. Our Bailo, Jeruolemo Minoto, had his head cut off by order of the Sultan”"






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