History of Mehmed the Conqueror
A Greek history of the first seventeen years of Mehmed II, written by a Greek who governed the island of Imbros for the Ottomans. It tells the siege of 1453 from the besiegers’ side and records the appointment of Gennadius as patriarch.
Read the text at deremilitari.org ↗Greek text, ed. C. Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum vol. 5 (1870) ↗
Kritoboulos took service under the Ottomans, governed his native Imbros for them from 1456 to 1466, and wrote a history of Mehmed II covering 1451 to 1467. His account is more favourable to the sultan than any other Greek work and is detailed about the Ottoman dispositions, the guns and the assault. He also mourns the city, and gives figures for the dead and enslaved.
This wiki has not been able to cite an Ottoman eyewitness of 1453 in an openly available translation, and uses Kritoboulos for the view from the sultan’s side, with that limitation stated. See the Fall of Constantinople.
Cited in
- 29 May 1453, firm date