He brought an end to the eastern-Christian world of Byzantium. Muhammad II, the Conqueror, brought an end to the eastern-Christian world of Byzantium when he seized Constantinople on Tuesday the 29th May 1453. He marked the conquest by making the greatest Byzantine church, Haghia Sophia, a mosque. The 15th century historian Tursun Beg says he built a great mosque 'which not only encompassed all the arts of Haghia Sophia, but modern features constituting a fresh new idiom unequalled in beauty.' After subduing two empires, twelve kingdoms and 200 towns, Muhammad II was preparing to invade Italy, but he died after a reign of thirty-one years. His death was of great rejoicing to the Christian world. As he had conquered Greece and most of the Balkan territories including the Mediterranean, he was considered a terror of Europe at sea. The Renaissance translation of culture includes a parallel between the architectural programme of Muhammad II and his successors, above all the career of the great 16th century architect Sinan. Muhammad II, or Mehmet II who succeeded his father in 1451 truly deserved his title of the Great, and was succeeded by his son Bayazid-II.