1453 by Roger Crowley
A gripping exploration of the fall of Constantinople and its connection to the world we live in today, 1453 tells the story of one of the great forgotten events of world history, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.For a thousand years Constantinople was quite simply the city: fabulously wealthy, imperial, intimidating--and Christian. Single-handedly it blunted early Arab enthusiasm for Holy War; when a second wave of Islamic warriors swept out of the Asian steppes in the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the ultimate prize: The Red Apple. It was a city that had always lived under threat. On average it had survived a siege every forty years for a millenium--until the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet I, twenty-one years old and hungry for glory, rode up to the walls in April 1453 with a huge army, numberless as the stars.Here is the taut, vivid story of this final struggle for the city told largely through the accounts of eyewitnesses. For fifty-five days a tiny group of defenders defied the huge Ottoman army in a seesawing contest fought on land, at sea, and underground. During the course of events, the largest cannon ever built was directed against the world's most formidable defensive system, Ottoman ships were hauled overland into the Golden Horn, and the morale of defenders was crucially undermined by unnerving portents. At the center is the contest between two inspirational leaders, Mehmed I and Constantine XI, fighting for empire and religious faith, and an astonishing finale in a few short hours on May 29, 1453--a defining moment for medieval history.Roger Crowley was born in 1951 in Malta, where he spent part of his youth. He studied English at Cambridge University and taught English in Istanbul, where he became fascinated by Turkish history. He has spent many years traveling widely around the Mediterranean basin and has a broad understanding of its history and culture. He resides in the English county of Gloucestershire. He's also the author of Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Struggle for the Center of the Earth, as well as 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and The Conflict of Islam and the West.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781401308506 |
| ISBN 10 | 1401308503 |
| Title | 1453 |
| Author | Roger Crowley |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Hyperion |
| Year published | 2006-08-01 |
| Number of pages | 328 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |