Whatever befell the Queen of Cities, 553 summers ago, it was evidently a turning-point in world affairs. But to paraphrase Lenin's question, who exactly prevailed over whom? The bare facts are not in doubt. On May 29th 1453, a 21-year-old Ottoman sultan, later known as Mehmet the Conqueror, took the ancient capital of the Byzantine, or eastern Roman empire. By blockading the Bosphorus, spiriting ships into the supposedly impregnable Golden Horn and pounding the walls with cannon, Mehmet fulfilled the dream of many previous besiegers, going back to the early Islamic era. Constantine XI, the last Christian emperor, died in the defence.
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