This public lecture is held in the framework of the Faculty Research Seminar.
Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) was a gifted politician with a well developed sense for propaganda. Therefore he worked consciously and continuously on his myth-making. Thanks to his erudition he understood the importance of the historical dimension for actual politics: History was for him not a decorative cultural ornament, it was an applied science.
He neglected in official statements about the plans for his future world-wide Muslim empire to mention the immediatedly preceding Christian “Roman” empire, which he understood as a symbol of decline. On the contrary, he connected his fate with two other, promising dimensions:
1. the combination of Ottoman/Turkish and Muslim greatness: His name Mehmed was for him obligation and challenge. Although, as far as we know, personally not religious, he nevertheless acted consciously as religious leader for the Muslims. He understood this position as a useful tool for the historic mission to conquer, as a “new Muhammad,” the New Rome, Constantine’s city al-Qustantiniya, and to strive, after the final victory of the true faith, for the Ecumene. Thus he became the successor of the Roman emperor.
2. the reference to the ancient – the pre-Christian – world: the clearly overlappingantagonisms Hellenes/Barbaroi and Europe/Asia, formed an important part of historiography and political ideology since Herodotus. These antagonisms inspired Mehmed to present himself as the most important successor of the heroes of ancient history, above all the world conqueror Alexander the Great, who was his shining example and at the same time his challenge, which he wanted to surpass (at least in his plans) in ruling over the pagan and Christian ecumene.
Johannes Koder is Emeritus Professor of Byzantine Studies at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna. Among the numerous academic honors he holds are memberships of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Athens, and the Academia Europeana. He presently serves as president of the Association Internationale des Études Byzantines. From 2002 until 2008, he was a Senior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (from 2005 to 2008 as chair). He has published numerous monographs and approximately three hundred articles; his major research interests are Byzantine hymnography; the geography, topography,and economy of the Byzantine empire in all its aspects and ramifications; and the provisioning of the medieval megalopolis, Constantinople. His major publications include Syméon le nouveau théologien, Hymnes, 3 vols, Sources chrétiennes (Paris, 1969–1973)Romanos Melodos, Die Hymnen, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 2005/6); Der Lebensraum der Byzantiner. Historisch-geographischer Abriß ihres mittelalterlichen Staates im östlichen Mittelmeerraum, 2nd ed.(Graz& Vienna, 2001), translated into Greek and Serbian; Negroponte. Untersuchungen zur Topographie und Siedlungsgeschichte der Insel Euboia während der Zeit der Venezianerherrschaft (Vienna, 1973); Tabula Imperii Byzantini, 1: Hellas und Thessalia (Vienna, 1976) and Tabula Imperii Byzantini, 10: Aigaion Pelagos (Die nördliche Ägäis) (Vienna, 1998); Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen, Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 33 (Vienna, 1991); Gemüse in Byzanz. Die Frischgemüseversorgung Konstantinopels im Licht der Geoponika (Vienna, 1993).