ABSTRACT
A major campaign from the west was required and was promised but no one was in any hurry to come to Constantinople's aid. Eventually, it was a deus ex oriente who, in one sweeping battle, annihilated the Ottoman army and threw the emir's rising state into utter confusion. The ensuing civil strife in the Ottoman realm liberated Constantinople from the vassal status that she had been forced to accept. Numerous contenders to the Ottoman throne sought the support of the Byzantine court and were willing to make concessions. The ensuing civil strife in the Ottoman realm liberated Constantinople from the vassal status that she had been forced to accept. Numerous contenders to the Ottoman throne sought the support of the Byzantine court and were willing to make concessions. Byzantine scholars were migrating to Italy in search of better circumstances offered by professorial university chairs in a flourishing humanistic environment that had rediscovered the culture and literature of ancient Greece.
