Constantinople, the largest city in the world and capital of the Byzantine Roman Empire (Rum to Arabs and Turks), had fallen. Europe’s last surviving link to the age of the Caesars would be remade as a Muslim city and renamed Istanbul. It would remain the headquarters of the sultan’s descendants for the next 460 years. The greatest church in the world would become a mosque and its magnificent mosaics of biblical scenes and images of the saints would be whitewashed into oblivion, where they remain to this day.
