district of Zeta, a part of the Servian kingdom, was never fully conquered by the Turks. One part of it, the mountain district called Tsernagora or Montenegro, has kept its independence to our times. Standing as an outpost of freedom and Christendom amid surrounding bondage, the Black Mountain has been often attacked, it has been several times overrun, but it has never been conquered. … To the south of them, the Christian Albanians held out for a long time under their famous chief George Castriot or Scanderbeg. After his death in 1459, they also came under the yoke. These conquests of Mahomet gave the Ottoman dominion in Europe nearly the same extent which it has now. His victories had been great, but they were balanced by some defeats. The conquest of Servia and Bosnia opened the way to endless inroads into Hungary, South-eastern Germany and North-eastern Italy. But as yet these lands were merely ravaged, and the Turkish power met with some reverses. In 1456 Belgrade was saved by the last victory of Huniades [see HUNGARY: A. D. 1442-1458], and this time Mahomet the Conqueror had to flee. In another part of Europe, if in those days it is to be counted for Europe, Mahomet won the Genoese possessions in the peninsula of Crimea [A. D. 1475], and the Tartar Khans who ruled in that peninsula and the neighbouring lands became vassals of the Sultan. … The last years of Mahomet's reign were marked by a great failure and a great success. He failed to take Rhodes [A. D. 1480], which belonged to the Knights of Saint John; but his troops suddenly seized on Otranto in Southern Italy. Had this post been kept, Italy might have fallen as well as Greece; but the Conqueror died the next year, and Otranto was won back." _E. A. Freeman, The Ottoman Power in Europe, chapter 4._ ALSO IN: _A. Lamartine, History of Turkey, books 12-13._ _Sir E. S. Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, chapters 5-6._ _E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 68._ See, also, ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480. TURKS: A. D. 1454-1479. Treaty with Venice, followed by war. See GREECE: A. D. 1454-1479. TURKS: A. D. 1479. Defeat at Kenyer-Mesö by the Hungarians and Wallachians. See HUNGARY: A. D. 1471-1487. TURKS: A. D. 1481-1520. The sad story of Prince Jem and the Christians. Massacre of the Shiites. Selim's conquests in Persia, Syria and Egypt. The Sultan becomes the successor of the Khalifs, the chief of Islam.