Christendom's involvement in the Middle East has been an unhappy one for the best part of a millennium. Little has gone well since 1187, when Saladin defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin and conquered the holy city of Jerusalem.
Battles were fought and mainly lost in the ensuing centuries, with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, on the sad occasion when Mehmed II defeated the last Roman emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. After the battle he was only recognised, having fought bravely to defend his city, by his purple slippers, as his head and his body had been separated.
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