171 - [HISTORY - CONSTANTINOPLE]. GARCIN DE TASSY, Joseph-Héliodore. Account of the Conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II, excerpted from the Annals of the Ottoman Empire by Saad-Eddin Efendi.

[HISTORY - CONSTANTINOPLE]. GARCIN DE TASSY, Joseph-Héliodore. Account of the Conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II, excerpted from the Annals of the Ottoman Empire by Saad-Eddin Efendi. Original French edition of this account of the fall of Constantinople, excerpted from the Ottoman chronicles of Saadeddin Efendi, translated by the renowned French orientalist Joseph-Héliodore Garcin de Tassy. Paris, Libraire orientale de Dondey-Dupré père et fils, 1826. In-12 booklet, blue paper cover with a pasted-on label bearing the title handwritten in black. 19 pages. Cover worn and frayed; margins slightly browned. First edition of the French translation by the renowned French orientalist Joseph-Héliodore Garcin de Tassy (1794–1878). An excerpt from the Annals of the Ottoman Empire (titled *Tâcü't-tevârih* or *The Crown of Chronicles*) written by Saad-Eddin Efendi (1536–1599), an eminent Ottoman historian, grand mufti, and statesman, this text provides an account of the fall of Constantinople from the perspective of the victorious Ottomans. In an epic and lyrical style characteristic of Ottoman court chroniclers, the narrative glorifies the strategic maneuvers and piety of the young Sultan Mehmed II, describes the final assault, the collapse of the Byzantine defenses and the sultan’s entry into the city, as well as the city’s immediate transformation, symbolized by the cessation of looting on the sultan’s orders, the replacement of the sound of bells with the Muslim call to prayer, and the conversion of churches into mosques. Well-preserved interior. Rare.