HISTORY AND ETimOLOGY. 85 



1389-1403, was famed for liis victories. His most memorable trimnpk 

 occurred in 1396, when he totally destroyed the Christian army, under Sigis- 

 mund, king of Hungary. The emperor was compelled to permit the 

 establishment of a mosque and the appointment of a cadi in his capital, and 

 would probably have lost his throne to the sultan had not the latter been 

 attacked by an enemy more powerful than himself. This was Timur, or 

 Tamerlane, prince of the Mongols (born 1336, at Kesh, near Samarkand). 

 In 1402 the Mongol and Ottoman armies met upon the plain of Angora 

 (the ancient Ancyra), in Asia Minor. Bajazet lost the battle, and being 

 made captive, w^as borne off by the conqueror in an iron cage. Death 

 released him from his disgrace in 1403. Tamerlane died on his march 

 towards China, with his plans of conquest yet imfinished. 



Musa, appointed sultan by Tamerlane, assassinated his elder brother, 

 but finally perished himself by the hand of his younger brother, Mohammed 

 L, who restored the Turks to power, and harassed the Christian states. 



His son and successor, Amurath II., marched against Constantinople, 

 1422, but without conquering it, contented himself with imposing upon the 

 Greek emperor severe exactions. In 1444 he won a splendid victory at 

 Yarna, over Yladislaus, king of Hungary and Poland, and nearly annihilated 

 the forces of John Hunnyades at Kassova. 



Mohammed II., son of Amurath, disregarding the treaty between his 

 father and the Byzantine power in 1453, began the siege of Constantinople. 

 The Greek empire had already sunk so low that the immediate vicinity of 

 the capital constituted its only domains. When Constanthie- XI. ascended 

 the throne, Mohammed advanced with his forces, which Constantinople 

 could not resist. Constantine XI. displayed a wonderful courage. On the 

 fifty-third day of the siege the imperial city was laid waste. Constantine 

 and his noble friends fell in the conflict, the Byzantine throne was over- 

 whelmed, and the Greek empire was no more. 



The rest of Greece soon passed to the hands of the Turks ; the provinces 

 of Bosnia and Servia rendered submission to Mohammed ; Albania alone 

 made successful resistance under the celebrated Scanderbeg. The impor- 

 tant fortress of Belgrade defied all efibrts for its capture, in 1456. Rhodes, 

 too, bravely opposed the Turks. In other directions, however, Moham- 

 med's enterprises were more successful. He drove the Genoese from the 

 Crimea, and spread alarm throughout Italy and all the western part of Europe. 

 Otranto yielded to his arms in 1480. He died the following year while on 

 his expedition against Usum Hassan, the Turkoman conqueror of Persia. 

 During a period of thirty years, Mohammed had conquered two empires, 

 twelve kingdoms, and two thousand cities. The Christian cross was 

 displaced by the Moslem crescent, and the capital itself took the Turkish 

 name of Istamboul. 



About this period the Mongols, a nomadic horde, began to assume a lead- 

 ing rank among the tribes of Central Asia. One of their hereditary leaders, 

 Temudchin, by his valor and cruelty managed to obtain the command of 

 a few neighboring tribes, and soon attained the supremacy over all the 

 Mongolians. He assumed the title of Tshinghis Khan (Great Khan), and 



ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPAEDIA. VOL. HI. 17 257 



