Not really, there were stark differences though Mehmed originally kept the administration in place it was swiftly altered. For one thing i don't believe the Byzantines used a Devesherme esqu ploy to grow both their hardened battle corps but also the administrative block in the Topkapi palace
Greatest Ottoman Sultan?
- Thread starter Karalysia
- Start date
Not really, there were stark differences though Mehmed originally kept the administration in place it was swiftly altered. For one thing i don't believe the Byzantines used a Devesherme esqu ploy to grow both their hardened battle corps but also the administrative block in the Topkapi palace
Shekwan
Kim Chi Quaffing Celt
I went for the ones with the best nicknames. Couldn't decide whether "Thunderbolt" or Godlike" was better. Godlike is not very original, whereas thunderbolt is, but godlike is clearly more powerful. Its a tough call.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
"Thunderbolt" sounds more authentic, like a famous athlete or something, y'know? Something someone would earn. "Godlike" is just a bit too desperate. Someone clearly just made that up.
I'm not sure if any of the Sultans are directly descended from the Byzantine royals. In any case, all Sultans from Murad I onwards have partly Greek descent.
SeleucusNicator
Diadoch
I like Selim, and voted for him, but I admit that Suleyman is probably the correct answer. Still, Selim conquered a lot of territory in a short period and defeated two neighboring empires.
Is your last name "Tarn" or something?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Where is the option for "The Sultan of Swing"?
Murad IV the Hunter isn't bad
. 'Thunderbolt' lost more than he ever gained, and ended his days as Tamerlane's footstool, according to one account. (Not quite, he died in captivity probably by his own hand.) There is also Bayazid II 'the Just' 
Mathalamus
Emperor of Mathalia
Is your last name "Tarn" or something?
tarn? what are you talking about? my last name is barabas.
Murad IV the Hunter isn't bad
One account goes something along the lines of Bayzid being brought before Timur, and Timur asking him,
"If you were in my place, how would you treat me?"
And Bayezid responds "Like a dog."
At which point Timur has him dragged through the street in chains from atop of his horse and in the traditional Mongol style wraps him in a carpet and has him trampled to death or something along those lines.
Other accounts, less fanciful simply say Bayezid either committed suicide about a year afterwards or died of illness.
William Woodthorpe Tarn is a famous Hellenistic historian from the early and mid-20th century. He did most of his work on Alexander and on the Baktrians/Indo-Greeks. Among other things, he is well known for treating Alexander as though Alexander were Tarn, that is, a Scottish gentleman, as opposed to a Mak warlord. This led to lulz.
The specific incident to which I refer occurred in Tarn's seminal work on the Baktrians, in which he argued that the Seleukid Empire based much of its coinage off of a fictitious family tree that linked the Great Kings to Alexander himself. He also claimed that the Euthydemoi and Eukratidai ruling families of Baktria did the same thing on their coins, emphasizing similar familial connections to claim the heritage of Alexander for themselves. This was, of course, total nonsense, derived almost entirely from Tarn's personal stylistic analysis of the coin portraits, some of which - he thought - looked similar to others on purpose. Yeah, treating two thousand year old inexact busts on minuscule coins that have spent most of that time buried in the Afghan dirt as though they are photographic evidence is a great plan. Basing a significant chunk of your book on a further subjective interpretation of that evidence is an even better one.
EquinoxOmega
Scientist
Mehmed II and Sulyeman
Well ignoring Constantinople which was a hollow shell at that point anyway, he had great sucess in the Balkans and Anatolia, he swept away the last Byazantine remenants, defeated Uzun Hasan of the White Sheep, he managed to invade Italy and take Otranto, vassalize the Crimea he further centralized Ottoman power and increased his absloutism at the expense of the quasi-Ottoman "nobility" a term which can best be used loosely, he built up the Ottoman fleet, he promulgated the law of fratricide. He rebuild the empty shell of the Constantinople into a grand capital and repopulated it, he was a worldly, powerful forceful ambitious ruler. His only real failing seems to have been in Rhodes against the Knights of St. John.
I can give you all of this, except 'great success in the Balkans', and Rhodes was not his only, or even the worst failure. He campaigned extensively, but in fact this was the era of resurgence by a number of great Christian national leaders, notably; Janos Hunyadi at Belgrade, Skanderbeg in Albania, Vlad Tepes in Wallachia, Stephen in Moldavia. And these were not insignificant defeats, in fact the cognomen 'conqueror' has a rather hollow ring to it. Those states were not conquered until the next century.
He did finish off Constantinople (but that is better remembered for its heroic defense), along with its weak sister Trebizond, and his fleet won the first naval victory over the Venetians, but failed miserably at Rhodes. This Uzun Hassan appears to have held sway over a lot of territory, not sure how much of a challenge he was militarily.
I would say Selim I. He defeated the Mamluke Sultanate. Byzantium was mostly gone by the time Mehmed II came to power. There's a story that Mehmed II demanded that some Byzantine official give him his teenage son for sex. When he refused he had them both killed. May not be true. Anyway, it reflects on his personal life, not his rule, so I wouldn't necessarily let it reflect my opinion of him as a leader. I would say he is the most popular sultan in Turkey now.
A lot of people in the old days spoke many languages. They had more time to learn languages cause they weren't busy playing civilization and watching TV.
There was another sultan who was majorly into tulips. Can't remember who.
Selim Sarhos, aka Selim the Sot apparently died from a fever brought on after he got drunk and slipped and fell in the hamam. That's according to Lord Kinross, may not be true either. No one I've asked about it in Turkey has heard of it. It's easy enough to slip and fall in a hamam anyway what with all the wet marble. You don't necessarily have to be drunk, but it helps.
A lot of people in the old days spoke many languages. They had more time to learn languages cause they weren't busy playing civilization and watching TV.
There was another sultan who was majorly into tulips. Can't remember who.
Selim Sarhos, aka Selim the Sot apparently died from a fever brought on after he got drunk and slipped and fell in the hamam. That's according to Lord Kinross, may not be true either. No one I've asked about it in Turkey has heard of it. It's easy enough to slip and fall in a hamam anyway what with all the wet marble. You don't necessarily have to be drunk, but it helps.
Mathalamus
Emperor of Mathalia
Mehmed II wasn't gay.
Similar threads
