Mehmed II was 21 when Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453. But here's what the headline hides: it wasn't his first time on the throne.
Born in Edirne, 30 March 1432, to Murad II and Hüma Hatun. In 1444 his father abdicated and a twelve-year-old became sultan. Two years later Murad took the throne back. In February 1451, at about eighteen, Mehmed returned for good.
Then he moved fast. He chose the site of Rumeli Hisarı himself and had the narrowest point of the Bosphorus measured. In April 1453 his ships went overland into the Golden Horn. (Each has its own story.) Seven to eight weeks of siege, and the city fell.
He took a new title: Caesar of Rome, Qayser-i Rûm. The Orthodox Church recognised it. Western Europe largely didn't.
And he chose where to be remembered. From 1463 to 1470 the Fatih Mosque complex rose where the Church of the Holy Apostles had stood, a burial place of emperors, Constantine the Great among them. A man who called himself Caesar built over the Caesars' burial church.
He died in 1481, aged 49, on campaign near Gebze, and lies in the tomb he commissioned at the complex.
The building you see isn't his. The original fell in the earthquake of 22 May 1766; today's mosque, on a different plan, dates from 1767–1771. The tomb was rebuilt too.
A working mosque, the tomb in the graveyard beside it. Weekday morning, outside prayer times, modest dress. Opening rules weren't found from an official source when we checked, so read what's posted at the gate. Insider move: stand in the courtyard and think about what stood here first. An emperors' church.
