Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 7 (1897).djvu/175

 OF THE ROMAX EMPIRE 159 CHAPTER LXVIII Reign and Character of Mahomet the Second — Siege, Assault, and final Conquest, of Constantinople, by the Turks — Death of Con- stanline Palceologus — Servitude of the Greeks — Extinction of the Roman Empire in the East — Consternation of Europe — Conquests and Death of Mahomet the Second The siege of Constantinople by the Turks attracts our first at- tention to the person and character of the great destroyer, character of Mahomet the Second ^ was the son of the second Amurath ; and, °™^ though his mother has been decorated with the titles of Christian and princess, she is more probably confounded with the numerous concubines who peopled from every climate the harem of the saltan. His first education and sentiments were those of a devout Musulman ; and, as often as he conversed with an infidel, he purified his hands and face by the legal rites of ablution. Age and empire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigotry ; his aspiring genius disdained to acknowledge a power above his own ; and in his looser hours he presumed (it is said) to brand the prophet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet the Sultan persevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and discipline of the Koran ; - his private indiscretion must have been sacred / from the vulgar ear ; and we should suspect the credulity of strangers and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind which is hardened against truth must be armed with superior contempt for absurdity and error. Under the tuition of the most skilful ' For the character of Mahomet II. it is dangerous to trust either the Turks or the Christians. The most moderate picture appears to be drawn by Phranza (I. i. c. 33), whose resentment had cooled in age and sohtude ; see likewise Spondanus (a.d. 1451, No. 11), and the continuator of Fleury (torn. xxii. p. 552), the El gia of Paulus Jovius (1. iii. p. 164-166), and the Dictionnaire de Bayle (tom. iii. p. 272 279)- [Cp- Critobulus, i. 5, in Miiller, Frag. Hist. Gr. , v. part 2 ; Zinkeisen, Gesch des osmanischen Reiches, ii. 468 sqq.' ' Cantemir (p. 115), and the mosques which he founded, attest his public regard for religion. Mahomet freely disputed with the patriarch Gennadius on the two religions (Spond. A.D. 1453, Xo. 22).