poli (1345), conquered northern Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria, and took control of the western Balkans (1384). Despite a major defeat by Timur (1402) at its eastern borders, the empire soon went on to conquer more territory in Anatolia and expand into Serbia. The efforts of the European powers to halt Ottoman expansion were equally futile. Coalitions led by the papacy were defeated decisively at Nicopolis (1396) and Varna (1444). By the time of Mehmed II, the Conqueror, Constantinople remained as the only substantial obstacle to creating a "fully integrated" empire (Inalcik, Rise 295).
The final defeat of the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople (renamed Istanbul) in 1453 is often seen as the beginning of the Ottoman Empire since Mehmed's conquests and his conception of the state "determined the course of its future political development" (Inalcik, Rise 300). Mehmed's conquests also provided a secure basis from which the subsequent expansion of the empire could proceed. Within 30 years Mehmed had consolidated Ottoman gains in the Balkans, accomplished the end of the Byzantine state, expanded his rule in Anatolia, subdued the area around the Black Sea, reduced the Crimean khanate to a vassal state, forced Venice to accede to his gains, and begun expeditions to Italy and Egypt. As Lapidus notes, these successes, "rather than satisfying Turkish, Ottoman and Muslim ambitions, made them boundless" (310).
Within the next four decades the Ottomans expanded their territory to the east and south to such an extent that they became the rulers of nearly all the Islamic lands. The remaining Turkish rivals in Anatolia were subdued, defeat of the Safavid dynasty gave the Ottomans eastern Anatolia and northern Macedonia (1514), and in 1516-17 the Ottomans replaced the Mamluk dynasty of Syria and Egypt and gained control of the sacred sites of Islam located in Arabia. The earlier steps in the Ottoman expansion were just...