His 1453 claims to offer a new perspective, namely that, contrary to almost all modern accounts, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II’s ultimate victory was ‘far less assured than is often thought’. It is a pity, perhaps, that he does not delve deeper into Turkish scholarship and perspectives on this landmark conquest. Then, after the Janissaries, the deluge – a bloody flood of men pouring through the streets, bent on rape, plunder and enslavement. A decade after conquering Constantinople, Mehmed razed the Church of the Holy Apostles and replaced it with the Fatih ‘Conquest’ Mosque. And it helped entrench a bitter divide, enthusiastically nourished by the Ottomans, between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.