The Conqueror of Constantinople – Muhammad Al-Fatih #01

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah. Early he was a happy woman who Allah. Welcome dear brothers and sisters, to our monthly talking whales. When I say by the way monthly talk that I'm not trying to claim a monopoly on whales is monthly talk, anybody can start a monthly talk. But the way I like to do things is to choose a masjid stay there for 10 weeks or 15 weeks covering a course of some sort.

And then on every fourth week, we rotate. So we give ourselves the opportunity of visiting other massages and other people to experience a different type of exposure. So we have a course we're doing at m&r Center, as you know,

every fourth week of that we will be rotating. So the month before we were in

need of Yemeni, the south Los Islamic center, this month we are here and next month, we will be moving as well and so on and so forth.

There are certain figures,

personalities in human history, that you cannot overlook

due to their standing due to their immense contribution.

And one of those figures is the individual we want to be speaking about this evening Bismillahi

he is a person who has without doubt,

reshaped history

and reshaped the globe that we live in today.

And much of what we see around us and be experienced at many levels is because of what he achieved by the permission of Allah subhanaw taala during his very short life that was only 49 years.

He is the individual who was described by Imam Musa yo te Rahim Allah as being walking in

the reviver of their religion

and he was the one who transformed the Ottoman Empire from

a large state to an empire

Okay, traffic warden is outside so if anybody has parked irresponsibly okay we've lost half the attendance.

Uncle, even the uncle

tell your brothers and sisters let us continue inshallah. Let's continue.

We said that we are speaking about someone who was described by Imam was so guilty Jenelle Nadine, that is as being more Hindi the revival revival of the religion. And he is one who effectively transformed the Ottoman Empire from what was then a state and he made it into a full fledged empire.

He is the greatest Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, in my opinion, without doubt,

being above and beyond even Sulaiman and Corleone, for those who know who he is Rahim Allah Suleyman the magnificent

and he is the one who was praised by friend and foe, who achieved in 800 years or he achieved in 49 years, what was not achieved within 800 years before him. Indeed, he achieved what no 21 year old ever achieved, like he did Rahima Hello, Tyler. We're speaking about none other than Sultan, Mohammed son of Murad, the second nicknamed al Fatiha meaning the Conqueror

ask yourself the question brothers and sisters whenever you are studying a page in history, what do you know about that individual?

When you hear a Muslim figure male or female spoken about one of our dignitaries in our history, one of our predecessors and you think yourself hmm, I don't know much about him. Haha.

That has to raise a flag. How come?

Because it exposes a huge gap in our knowledge that must, must be filled.

What do you know about Mohammed Al Fatiha Rahim? Allah

Muhammad Al Fatiha one of our contemporaries. He authored a book of 1000 pages in Arabic. I think it's the biggest

research on the life of Muhammad Rahim Allah done by any contemporary.

And he said that we me and my team we used around 957 references to make this book 670 of which by word by non Muslims.

They were English references,

sometimes by enemies oriented lists. So they are very aware of whom Mohammed Al Fatiha, or Muhammad Bay, or Muhammad the second as they call him, or the grand Eagle, these are different names to the same individual.

Now, there's always going to be a deficiency trying to summarize the life of Muhammad in our lecture, even in a

lecture series, there is going to be a huge deficiency, you let me explain to you several reasons why it is impossible to summarize his life within an hour.

The first, his reign in power was long.

He was in power for 30 years from 1451 until 1481 30 years.

The second reason why it is impossible to summarize it in an hour or two, dedicate just a chapter in a book for him, because

he launched no less than 170 military campaigns during his life, allow that figure to just simmer for a moment in your mind 170 campaigns,

that's like, over 30 years,

six a year, just under six a year. That's about one every two months.

So the events that need to be covered are so many, it's impossible to do that in an hour. Number three, the third reason why it is impossible to summarize his life is because

he himself led 30 of those campaigns.

And you need to understand the first 21 years of his life from the day he was born till the day he came into power. Right? To understand what he did. So he came into power at the age of 1921. He had conquered Constantinople. So to understand who he is, you have to rewind and understand his upbringing. He was the project of a state

as Steven Turnbull who is one of the English historians who said that Muhammad the second was nurtured to be the greatest solo time of his era.

So Mohammed was a project. Mohamed Al Fatiha was the project of a nation. He did not appear from a vacuum.

And fourthly, the fourth reason why it is very difficult to compress his life in just the hour that we have is because to really understand Mohammed Al Fatiha, you need to rewind and understand all of the Sultan's that came before him, there were around seven of them, beginning with autorun, to understand Mohammed Al Fattah, that he did not come from a vacuum. There was around 150 years worth of soul tons in the family of Earth man, and eventually the pedestal was prepared for Muhammad. In fact, Rahim Allah, all of these reasons, reasons, I'm just mentioning them as an introductory caveat, to apologize to him and to yourselves and to explain it is difficult

to dedicate an hour, a course or just a chapter for him within a larger book, it is a deficiency or shortfall and a lacking, but we ask Allah subhanaw taala to forgive us to make this an encouragement for us to start a journey of study with respect to the life of Muhammad, Al Fatiha and those who preceded him.

What do we know about the upbringing of Muhammad Rahim Allah,

first of all his full name, let me give you his ancestry. He is Mohammed

the son of morada Thani Mora the second, the set the son of Muhammad shall be the son of buyers either. So I thought, the son of Murad Allah was the first the son of or Han, the son of man, the son of Oral Torah, and I'm sure a lot of you will be familiar with that last name.

So he is seventh in line,

the seventh of the Osmani, sometimes within the family of aasmaaN, the Ottomans of man, we're going to use them interchangeably in this lecture. And Muhammad as a young child wasn't too interested in scholarship.

He didn't have a huge appeal and knowledge didn't appeal to him.

The Quran wasn't his thing. He was like every other child. But he went one step further. He actually used to mock the scholars.

He found those men with those robes and those turbans. And those halachah he found it quite amusing actually, what why would I waste my time doing that type of stuff. He was one of those kids.

His father didn't appreciate the status quo.

And so he employed a Mullah a Sheikh Al Mohler, Al Qurani. He is the first of the three figures we want to speak about this evening who influenced the life of this man? Mohammed? Al Mohler, Qurani

he was a man of stature. He had a presence to him, Rama, hula.

You looked at him and you felt at all he was tall, he was huge. He was shoulders were wide, his voice was deep.

But he was one heck of a scholar. He was an encyclopedic scholar.

And the father of Mohammed Rahim Allah

gave al Mohler Al Quran a stick he said, Listen, if you need to use this,

use it

because I know my son.

And so when the first session on mandala Qurani was sat with Mohamed and he's saying to him, My name is Angela Quran, you had been appointed by your father to educate you and to nurture you. And then Muhammad just laughed at him. He found it amusing you you want to teach me.

So he took out the stick and I mean, the books they described that he gave him quite a hiding.

So all of a sudden, Muhammad realized that he is a head of a different category, a different breed of people. Now, the time for foolishness. The time for play has gone

and he was disciplined.

And within just a few years, Mohammed Al Fatiha Rahim Allah had memorized the Quran.

He had memorized he mastered the fifth Islamic jurisprudence law.

He had gained a command in history, astronomy, mathematics, geography, and in other arts like war, diplomacy, debate,

and he mastered six languages.

And some they say he spoke a seventh as well what were they he spoke the Turkish language, the Arabic language of course, Persian, Serbian, Latin, Greek, and some of the other seven, they say Hebrew as well. He spoke those languages like a native,

he was able to read their poetry, and he would weep. This was the type of knowledge he had of these languages. In fact, he had his own Deewan his own authorship in Persian poetry.

So he was the project of a state.

So this is one individual as Mullah al Qurani. memorize these names.

A second individual that influenced the life of Muhammad Rahim Allah was a man called a shake up shamsudeen.

Another key figure in the upbringing of Muhammad Rahim Allah.

And you can say that a shake up shamsudeen Was the spiritual conqueror of Constantinople.

Why? Because he was the one who discovered Muhammad.

He was the one who fished him out and realize that there's potential in this child.

He was the one who essentially planted in his young mind that you will be the man whom the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prophesized will conquer Constantinople.

In the famous Hadith, which determine the rates on your authority of bishops, I mean, that the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, let off the handle Costantini. Yeah, Salah Ania Anala Amuro Amuro Howell and Mr. J. Chu, Danica Jaysh. He said, Constantinople shall shall be conquered. Look, 1400 years ago, the prophecy was made.

And it would only happen 600 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa said, and we testify that he was a messenger of Allah.

He said, Constantinople shall be conquered.

So what a wonderful general the general of that army will be and what a wonderful army that army will be. So who did he praise alayhi salatu salam, the general of the army who will conquer Constantinople and he praised what the team that will be with him the army.

So a shake up shamsudeen From a young age of Muhammad would say to him, You are that man?

You are going to be the individual who will conquer Constantinople and you will be the one who will achieve what no one before you has achieved.

And from this day on, it became the obsession of Muhammad Rahim Allah

and it should be, because the idea of conquering Constantinople has been an ambition from as early as the companions of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam look SubhanAllah. From that early from from that stage in history, they wanted to be either the general or the team who will conquer costante noble because of the praise of the prophets that I sent him, it was on the mind of a mural, not meaning of man.

And it was on the mind of muawiya Even though I be Sofia, in fact, Maya, the companion of the Prophet, so I sent him and his, cried his scribe,

he sent an army to Constantinople.

Led by Yazeed, his son, son of Mongolia.

And part of that army was avoidable. I'm sorry, who is who are you?

I'm asking you brothers and sisters, who is who are you?

Companion of the Prophet SAW Selim. What else do you know about Ebola you?

He's the host of the Prophet slicin.

Ebola you will and sorry is that man and his wife on what are you who hosted the Prophet sallallahu Sallam when he first migrated to Medina. And here he is now at the age of 80 years old. Subhanallah they talk about retirement. 80 years old, he's a Mujahid fighting in the path of Allah, old man.

And where was he buried? He was buried at the gates of Constantinople. The army didn't make it this is the army of Mongolia. They weren't able to achieve it.

And oh boy, you will be began to experience the throes of death Allahu Akbar, what made you leave old man from your house in Medina to be buried all the way in Turkey.

It is wanting to serve the religion of Allah subhanho data

and then you had after my Alia, the Emma wheat Khalifa. So they might even Abdul Malik, who also wanted to conquer Constantinople and he sent an army and they failed as well. It's an impregnable city. We will explain it and describe it in a moment.

And then you had the Haruna Rashi, the Asad Khalifa, year 198. They couldn't conquer Costantino upon either. And then the Seljuks when they came into power in the 11th and 12th century, they could not conquer Constantinople.

And the closest that anyone ever achieved to conquering it was the great grandfather of Muhammad Al Fatiha by the name of Jaya Ziva or biosci, the lightning bolt, that's his nickname.

And he was on the verge of achieving it, if it wasn't for the Mongol invasion that started to wreak havoc during the siege. And so he had to drop it and go back.

So it was the dream of, of empires and whole alpha and soltana, sometimes and Muda. He don't want to be that Emir and to be part of that army. But up until now 11 Islamic campaigns to conquer Constantinople, and each and every one of them had by the other of Allah failed.

So he wanted to be that individual. So from that moment onwards, through the inspiration of a shake up shamsudeen, who said to Muhammad, you will be that man, it became his obsession, it became his thought it became his conversation. All he wanted to speak about was Constantinople, all he wanted to study was the geography of Constantinople and to understand the emperors, the language, the customs.

And subhanAllah, there is a

concept that they teach in NLP, right in neuro linguistic programming, they say that what you focus on expands, what you focus on grows and expands. Meaning

what, whatever

avenue in life, you direct your energy.

That's what will be attracted into your reality.

This is true. I mean, think about someone who wants to buy a car, for example.

All of a sudden, all he or she can see our cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, cars.

It's like you never noticed that there were cars except the day you decided you wanted to buy a car. And then the opportunities to buy a car start coming your way. Not because it's opportunities weren't there is because now that you're focused on what you want, you start noticing the opportunities, marriage, you want to get married. All of a sudden, all you can see in life is Look how happy they are. Oh, I wish I can walk with my wife holding hands in the sunset. Oh, I wish I can pay on my head like that. I wonder when I will settle down like that. And then the opportunities start coming your way. Why? Because you're focused and these opportunities were there. It's just

that now that you're a little bit

more clearly defined, you begin to notice the opportunity what you focus on expands. And the same thing you will see with Muhammad Rahim Allah because he was defined, Constantinople is what I want, and I'm not going to rest until I see it conquered.

The opportunity came

as we shall explain in a moment if need be in the light either.

So Mohammed Al Fatiha Rahim Allah He began to plan.

Constantinople brothers and sisters that has introduced the city. It is a very unique city.

Constantinople in Arabic they call it costante. Nia

was the capital of the West Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantium busy antium. The founder is Constantine the first. That's why it's called Constantinople. And now during the time of Muhammad, Al Fatiha the emperor of Constantinople. His name is Constantine the 11th.

And you know that Rome was divided into two powers. You had Western Rome, the capital of which was in the Vatican, in Italy. And then you had Eastern Rome, the capital of which was Al Costantini. Yeah, the Western Christine, Romans, they are Catholics by religion. And then you have the Eastern Roman Empire, the capital of witches in Constantinople, and their religion is Christianity as well. But there are Orthodox, huge disunity between them as we shall find out.

And Constantinople is located in a very strategic location, coming between the two major continents of the world, Asia and Europe. So everybody wanted it.

And Napoleon Bonaparte is narrated to have said that if the whole world

was a single state,

because dentin Opal would be its capital.

It was the holiest site for Orthodox Christians on the face of the earth, perhaps only coming second place to Jerusalem in Philistine.

So Constantinople, it was the

capital of the whole Roman Empire for around 300 years, and then the it became the capital of the eastern part of the Roman Empire for around 800 years. You're talking around 1500 or so years of heritage, of dominance, of culture, of power, of role of economy of history.

And Muhammad Rahim Allah is thinking about it. There is an issue, however, would Constantinople

Costantino Constantinople is a very fortified city.

It was considered back then, as one of the most impregnable cities on the earth.

What does an attacker see? When he makes his way to Constantinople to lay siege on it? Let me just explain to you

the map,

you arrive at the western walls of Constantinople, and you will find first of all a moat. What is a moat?

A trench of water

that's 20 meters wide, is this 20 meters maybe from side to side.

15 meters. So even wider. And it's seven meters deep with water, maybe from the ceiling to the roof filled with water. Imagine that's from one end to the other of the Western world.

If you managed to cross that moat, you come across, and you arrive on what they call the Theodosian walls,

which is a triple role of fortification, three walls coming one after the other, and they are getting higher and thicker. The nearer you get to the city. The first wall

was around maybe, in my estimation, seven meters or so high.

And you had archers placed strategically to fire at anybody who comes near the moat.

Then between the first and second wall, you had around 10 meters and then you had a second wall that was higher than the first by the way, the city is still available for you to Google and see it or visited in Turkey. The second wall which is higher than the first and it has an an interior terrace, again filled with arches to fire away or to fire at people who are coming in near the mouth and threatening the lives of those nearing the first wall. And then you had the third wall which is the thickest of them all.

Five meters thick the wall. I mean, I don't know here What's five meters, five meters

and 12 meters high.

And across that entire western wall.

You have 96 projecting

towers,

again, with archers firing away the uncombed on the oncoming army. And each of those towers was around 20 meters high 96 of them across the western world. So Muhammad Rahim Allah had a huge task ahead of him. Because since the 1000 years of its construction, no one has ever breached this wall.

The task was enormous.

So Mohamed Rama, whom I realized that if he was going to be successful in this he needed to devise a very unique strategy and to employ novel warfare techniques. What did he do? The first thing he did Rahim Allah, remember how old is he magic? How old is he? He's 19 years old.

19 brothers and sisters who are 19 1817. Think about where the humor the aspirations were of your predecessor is? Right? Yeah. 19 years old. The first thing he does is that he creates a formidable Armada, a formidable navy of 100 ships.

The ultimate ships were not the best, but he did his best.

The second thing he did was that he built a fortress north of Constantinople. He called it Brunelli Hisar. And the idea of this fortress was to block off any supplies that can come to Constantinople during the siege from the Black Sea. So he built Rumeli Hisar, a fortress north of Constantinople. That's number two. Number three, he made peace treaties with neighboring Christian countries, Serbia was a key. We call it Romania today, Hungary. And they gave them he they gave him pledges that they will not break the treaty during the siege. And then not just that he this was number four, he sent armies in different strategic locations throughout Turkey to ensure or throw around Constantinople

to ensure that they cannot receive any supplies by land during the siege.

And this is number five.

Number five, perhaps maybe the most interesting of the techniques he employed a Hungarian gunsmith by the name of Autobahn

Subhanallah Hungarian gunsmith. And for those of you who know what Hungary was about back then they were the arch enemies. They were the nemesis of the ultimate empire.

Campaigns, bloody vicious campaigns between them and the ultimate throughout their history. But the victory of Allah comes from their CB said to you what you focus on expands and Allah will aid those who are sincere and who are clearly defined.

Oban comes along. And he says to Mohammed, I have for you a novel technology. He said, What's that? He said, We have canons, I can design for you a canon, which humanity has never seen before.

What is the description of this cannon? Again, you can see it in the museum's of Turkey. It can launch a boulder weighing around a ton.

The distance of a mile.

And you require to transport it 60 buffaloes

and 200 men on each side of every cannon to take it from the capital of Turkey back then, which was a Dharma all the way to Constantinople 200 kilometers.

And he designed 60 of them. They manufactured 60 of them. And what is interesting is that this Hungarian gunsmith by the name of Autobahn, he actually offered this bit of technology to Constantine before he went to the Muslims. He said I have the technology for you that will defeat the Turks. He said what's that? He said I have cannons I can design a cannon for you. He said what's the asking price? He said X he said I can't afford that.

You know we have a seat that's coming we have to supply food and I can't give you the asking price. He said no problem. salam Wa alaykum he pedaled over onto the Muslim side. He said hey guys, I have the technology for you to destroy those Christians. He said, What's that? He said it's a canon. He said, what's the asking price? He said X. He said I'll give you x times four.

By the way, this was one of the descriptions of Mohamed Al Fatiha given by the Phoenicians, the Italians, they described Mohammed Al Fattah has been extremely generous. He was not afraid to spend.

You want X amount for the cannons No problem. I'll give it to you and I'll give you four times the asking price as well. And they began to make them as we said 60 of them were manufactured in a in a very short period of time.

We said 200 kilometres to travel.

from Adana

to Constantinople what is 200 kilometres today that's exactly from Cardiff to Birmingham.

Imagine doing that on foot

and you're pulling

With you 60 or so, heavy cannons as well, but this is easy when it is for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala phenomenal effort. And they made their move towards Constantinople. Now, how many

150,000 was Yahoo Don't worry us fighting behind Muhammad Rahim Allah.

This was in April

14 53. So he's now 21 years old two years after he became the sort of one of the Ottoman Empire.

And as is the custom, Muhammad Rahim Allah offered Constantine the 11th terms, to surrender the city.

And everything will be safe, and no one will be harmed, and your lives will return back to usual just surrender the city peacefully and this is in custom. This is in line with the Islamic tradition of war, that there was always a priority to minimize casualties and to evade war wherever possible.

They refused.

And so with that, the siege began