Ottoman Empire. Upon hearing the news of Mehmet II’s death, the sultanate descends into chaos, an abyss of turmoil, blood, and violence. Initially, panicked members of the divan try to stall by hiding the body. But the secret fails: the janissary corporation revolts. The eldest son, Bayezid, had actually planned the parricide in detail. The grand vizier of Istanbul, Mahmud Pasha, is seized and dismembered by the rioters, his severed head exposed to the crowd. Sixty severed heads are hung on long poles opposite the Imperial Palace. Factories, warehouses, palaces, and shops, mostly Jewish and Venetian-owned, are set ablaze, and their owners killed or robbed.
