As can be guessed from his successful campaign against Otranto? in southern Italy and his adopting the title [Roman Caesar]?, he was presumably trying to vitalize the Eastern Roman Empire. For a probably similar reason, he gathered Italian humanists? and Greek scholars at his court, kept the [Orthodox Byzantine Church]? functioning, ordered the patriarch to translate the Christian faith into Turkish and called [Gentile Bellini]? from Venice? to paint his portrait.
He is also recognized as the first sultan to codify the criminal and constitutional laws long before [Suleiman the Magnificient]? (Lawmaker) and thus establishing the classical image of the autocratic Ottoman sultan (padisah). After the fall of Constantinople, he founded many universities and colleges in the city, some of which are still active.