Turkey to open museum dedicated to Mehmet the Conqueror

EDIRNE, Turkey 

Turkey will establish a museum to honor Mehmet the Conqueror, a first in the country’s history dedicated to an Ottoman sultan.

A science committee of 19 scientists was formed to establish the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Museum in the Saatli Madrasah in the northwestern Edirne province.

The designated place is known as the madrasa where Mehmet the Conqueror was educated.

Among scientists is Zekeriya Kursun, a history professor and the dean of Literature Faculty at Istanbul-based Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Kursun said that the museum would be a guide for future generations.

“For the first time in Turkey, a museum bearing the name of a sultan will be built in Edirne,” he said.

“There are some works on behalf of the sultans in the cities where they stood as princes, but Fatih Sultan Mehmet Museum will be an important museum as it is the first museum established directly under the name of a sultan,” he added.

Mehmed II is the Ottoman sultan who conquered Istanbul and earned the title of Fatih (the Conqueror) at the age of 21 and leveled up a Turkish state into an empire that would rule regions in multiple continents for centuries to come.

According to Kursun, Fatih is the most important figure not only in Turkish historical sources, but also in Western sources.

“The main purpose of our presence in Edirne is to talk about Fatih Sultan Mehmet of Edirne,” he said, referring to the Ottoman sultan’s birthplace.

The museum will try to explain “Fatih as a person,” he said. “We try to ask the question of how a person can be so young and successful.”

“We are trying to understand how Fatih used to think when he was alone. Because we already know what he did. We know how he carried out his conquests, the conquest of Istanbul, the conquests in the Balkans, the military operations there,” he added.

The Edirne Governorship and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University are cooperating to open the museum next year.