السلطان محمد الفاتح

Sultan Mehmed II, known as the Conqueror, the seventh of the Ottoman rulers, son of Murad Khan. He was born in 835 AH, came to the sultanate in 856 AH, and his reign lasted thirty-one years. ²

Ibn al-Imad says that he besieged Constantinople for fifty days until he took it on Wednesday, 20 Jumada al-Akhira 857 AH. He prayed the Friday prayer in Hagia Sophia. ²

Ibn al-Imad describes him as one of the greatest of the Ottoman sultans in holy war and the boldest of them. ²

He founded madrasas with eight doors in Istanbul, gave the students what met their needs and grades to rise through, and brought in great scholars, among them Ali al-Qushji and al-Kurani. ²

He was among the pupils of Aq Shams al-Din, and his son Abu Yazid succeeded him. ³

He died in 886 AH (1481 CE). The Gregorian date is from al-Salabi. ³

In al-Salabi: he took the throne on 16 Muharram 855 / 18 February 1451 at twenty-two, reorganised the administration, finances, army corps and soldiers' rolls, and prepared near a quarter-million fighters and over four hundred ships for the conquest. Among his teachers was Mawla al-Kurani, who in his boyhood beat him until he finished the Qur'an ⁴.

Al-Salabi records that he died on Thursday 4 Rabi' I 886 / 3 May 1481 amid his army at Üsküdar, after more than thirty years of rule, aged fifty-two ⁵.