Mehmet II

Mehmet II (lived 1432—1481, reigned 1444—1446 and 1451—1481), also called Mehmet the Conqueror, was the seventh sultan of the Ottoman Empire. At age 21, he besieged Constantinople and successfully breached the city’s gates using cannons and gunpowder-fired marble cannonballs. Mehmet is also famous for battling and defeating crusaders, his conquests in Anatolia, and his many political and social reforms. He encouraged the arts and sciences. At the end of his reign, he had changed Constantinople into a thriving imperial capital. Many places in today’s Istanbul are named after him, including the Fatih (Conqueror) district, the Fatih bridge over the Bosphorus Strait, and the Fatih Mosque.