Propaganda in the 15th c

While flipping through my notes, brain storming an idea for my next blog, I remembered class discussion about the fall of Constantinople to the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. As part of the discussion we looked at three written works that served as accounts for this event. There was one account that I found to be particuarly interesting, and I wanted to comment on it. It was the first account which was written by a Byzantine man who was paid by Mehmed to write it around 12 years after the event. In this account the writer glorifies Mehmed useing supposed insirational quotations from him in which he referes to his people as friends. This literary account speaks of the death and distruction that occured in effort to take the city on behalf of the Sultan's orders, but at the end glorifies Mehmed by depicting him as compassionate towards the distruction. It describes his repentance and how his eyes were filled with tears. It is hard to be determine the truth of these accounts and this on inparticular caught my attention once i discovered that is was wirtten by a man paid to write it for the sultan, so the likelihood of it being completely truthfull is doubtfull. This account is nothing more than propaganda in favor of the sultan. It is a PR stunt. I found it really interesting that there are actual accounts of the propaganda used durring the 15th century in much the same way it is used today. This account stood out against the others, because it is not a factual historical document, but rather an historical example of a publucity.