Mohammed II (1432-1481), called Faith or Conqueror, was the Ottoman Turkish sultan from 1451 to 1481. His conquest of Constantinople in 1453 guaranteed the consolidation of the Ottoman Empire.

The son of Sultan Murad II (reigned 1421-1451), Mohammed II assumed full sovereignty on his father's death in February 1451. His predecessors had conquered much of the southern Balkans and had subjected the bulk of Asia Minor as well; but the continued independence of Constantinople and of other Greek territories both prolonged the life of the faded Byzantine Empire and deprived the new Turkish power of its logical capital while also posing the danger of some Christian counteroffensive from this strategic center. The ambitious young sultan therefore was determined that the final conquest of Constantinople should be his first major achievement, and he launched his great siege of this city in early April 1453.

Despite heroic resistance under the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI...