End of the Time and Rise of an Empire: an Istanbul Myth at the Dawn of Muslim Millennium

Abstract

When Sultan Mehmet II conquered the Constantinople, he ended the biggest known empire in history and planned to build his own empire over the ruins of the former. But this imperial ideal required a new multicultural, multi-religious and multilingual order. Mehmed II wanted the capital of this order to be Constantinople, which has been the capital of the enemy for nearly a century. While trying to realize these mentioned ideals, he was exposed to countless opposition from the Ottoman society. The basis of these lies on the fears of the begs who did not want to abandon their ancestors' lifestyle and were afraid of being assimilated by settling in Constantinople. The settlement of this city, which is the source of countless demons and hostility to Islam, turns into a kind of conflict zone for ideals of the Sultan and the conservatism of the begs. This period also gave rise to interpretations fed by traditional and religious narratives that the apocalyptic day is approaching, with the world witnessing unprecedented innovations. In this study, 'Fi Beyan-ı Tarih-i Konstantiniyye min Evvela to Ahire', which is an anonymous Istanbul historical work estimated to be produced at the end of the 15th century, was examined. Due to the mythical structure and indirect analogy of the narrative, the study was made on the stance of the opposition towards imperial ideal of Mehmed II and the belief that the Day of Judgment is approaching.