biography
| name: |
Mohammed II or Mehmet II,
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known as the Conqueror
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1432–81)
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| biography:
| Sultan of Turkey (1451–81), and founder of the Ottoman empire, born in Adrianople. He took Constantinople in 1453, renaming it Istanbul, thus extinguishing the Byzantine empire and giving the Turks their commanding position on the Bosphorus. Checked by Janos Hunyady at Belgrade in 1456, he nevertheless annexed most of Serbia, all of Greece, and most of the Aegean Is. He threatened Venetian territory, was repelled from Rhodes by the Knights of St John (1480), and took Otranto (1480). He died in a campaign against Persia. |
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