'Whenever I'm asked to recommend a book about Turkey, I reply, "Anything by John Freely". This latest work is a marvellous example of Freely's ability to convey the sweep of history by telling us about the outsized characters who shaped it. Mehmet the Conqueror, who captured Constantinople at the age of 21 and went on to reshape the world, has never seemed as alive as he does on these pages.' Stepheh Kinzer, Former Neu> York Times correspondent and author of Crescent and Star: Turkey Betıaeen Two Worlds ' 'To do justice to a figüre as colourful and complicated as Mehmet the Conqueror, one has to combine the ability of a master storyteller with an intimate knowledge of istanbul (Constantinople), the city Mehmet fırst conquered and then spent the rest of his life rebuilding and repopulating. The readers of this book are fortunate that John Freely possesses both these traits.' Heath W. Lowry, Atatürk Professor of Ottoman & Modern Türkish Studies