Mehmed II
.%20Human%20Physiognomy%20Concerning%20the%20Personal%20Dispositions%20of%20the%20Ottomans%2C%201579%20(TSMK%20H.1563).jpg?width=160 "Painter Nakkash Osman (active 1559-96), work created in 1579 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1432 – 1481 · 49 years · Istanbul · Middle East
Reign: 1451 – 1481 (Ottoman Empire)
The sultan who captured Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire; known as the Conqueror.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Painter Nakkash Osman (active 1559-96), work created in 1579 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
._Human_Physiognomy_Concerning_the_Personal_Dispositions_of_the_Ottomans%2C_1579_(TSMK_H.1563).jpg){kind=link}
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 32 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 20 years younger
- Louis XI — the "universal spider" who pieced France together, 9 years older
- Isabella I of Castile — Queen of Castile, 19 years younger
- Charles VII — king under whom the Hundred Years’ War ended, 29 years older
- Richard III — last Plantagenet king, killed at Bosworth, 20 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 8 years younger
- Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 17 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 23 years younger
Middle East
- Murad II — sultan who crushed the crusaders at Varna, 28 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 38 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 15 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 11 years younger
Asia
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 4 years younger
- Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 35 years older
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 37 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 37 years younger
- Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 38 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshihisa — shogun whose birth set off the Ōnin War, 33 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 19 years younger
- Pachacuti — Sapa Inca, 14 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 34 years younger
- Nezahualcoyotl — ruler of Texcoco, poet, 30 years older
- Huayna Capac — Sapa Inca, 32 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1438 Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire — aged 6, Americas
- c. 1445 Extinction of the moa — aged 13, Oceania
- 1446 King Sejong promulgates Hangul — aged 14, Asia
- c. 1450 Gutenberg's printing press — aged 18, Europe
- c. 1450 Building of Machu Picchu — aged 18, Americas
- c. 1450 Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy — aged 18, Americas
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople — aged 21, Middle East
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 46, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 48, Eastern Europe & Russia