EMS SCHOOL Sultan Muhammad Fateh Notes: Part 4

An Amazing Feat
Sultan Muhammad realized that in order to win the battle, they had to attack the single walls that were
guarding the city from the side of the Golden Horn. If they were able to somehow get their cannons
inside the Golden Horn and fire from there, they would be able to penetrate the walls and enter the city
of Constantinople. They couldn’t have their ships enter the Golden Horn though, due to the chain that
was guarding it. Whenever any ship would try to enter the Golden Horn, the Christians would raise the
chain and effectively block the ship from entering. So Sultan Muhammad pulled one of the greatest
moves ever in Muslim history.
In the darkness of the night, he had his soldiers cut logs of wood, oil them and laid them out on the hills
next to the Golden Horn. He took 67 ships out of the water, under the nose of the enemy without them
knowing and he had the ships pulled over to the other side of the chain, successfully entering into the
Golden Horn. It was a miracle that had never been heard of before or after this incident.
He sent word to Qaisar the next day, asking him to surrender to avoid further bloodshed but he refused.
So he commanded his soldiers to spend the night in prayer and then gave a speech to his soldiers saying,
“We are near to fulfilling the prophecy that the Prophet (pbuh) made 800 years ago. Hence, when you
enter the city as conquerors, abide by the Deen of Allah. No woman, child and non-combatant should be
touched.”
Eventually, the city fell to the Muslims. Sultan Muhammad entered the city as conqueror at the age of
23 with his teacher Akshamsuddin behind him, and was given the name of Al Fatih (the Conqueror). He
went to the Hagia Sofia and the Christians who were in it came out and went down on one knee in front
of him. He said, “Get up. I am only Sultan Muhammad.” He allowed the Christians to finish their prayers
in the Hagia Sofia and then he declared security for all the Christians in the city. The Dhuhr prayer of
that day was held in Hagia Sofia.

His Conquests after Constantinople

Sultan Muhammad didn’t stop at Constantinople. He freed other lands from the cruelty of the Christians
as well. From the year 1459-1462, he conquered Serbia, the Black Sea and Wallachia.
Wallachia is where Vlad Dracula lived. Dracula was a man who was a sworn enemy of Islam. He would
kill Muslims by impaling them and then he would drink their blood. He wrote in a letter, “I have killed
peasant men and women, old and young… We killed 23,884 Turks (Muslims) without counting those
whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers…”
As soon as Sultan Muhammad heard about how Dracula was brutally massacring the Muslims in
Wallachia, he set off with his army to kill Dracula and free the Muslims. When he reached Wallachia, he
saw 20,000 Muslim men, women and children impaled. The horrifying sight devastated the Sultan.
The only two, real, Dracula hunters in history are Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih and Radu. Radu was
Dracula’s own brother who had become a Muslim. He and Sultan Muhammad together were able to
destroy Dracula.
Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih also conquered Bosnia, Albania and Italy from 1463-1481. See if you can find
all these places on the map below.

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EMS SCHOOL Sultan Muhammad Fateh Notes: Part 4

Fig. 8: A map of the Ottoman Empire

His Death
Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih spent his whole life fighting for the sake of Allah and so he also died while
fighting in His path. Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih passed away in 1481 while conquering Italy at the age of
51. And though it took Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih 30 years to make all these conquests by the will of
Allah, it took the Europeans 200 years to take these lands back from the Muslims.
May Allah have mercy on the defenders of Islam and may He be as proud of us as He is of them, ameen.