Muhammad II, also known as
Mehmet II or Muhammad the Conqueror, is considered the founder of
the Ottoman Empire. Born in
1429 to Murad II, he conquered
the Byzantine Empire by the time he was 24. To take
Constantinople, he built the largest cannons the world had ever seen. They did the job, and in less than 2 months, the city fell, and with it the
Byzantine Empire and its emperor,
Constantine IX.
Muhammad had serious designs on conquering the world. He made Constantinople (not Istanbul) his capital, built Topkapi Palace, and then went on to capture Wallachia, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Albania, Persia and Crimea. Muhammad the Conquerer was working his magic on Italy at the time of his death in 1481.