Did surrender protect a besieged population?

Could a besieged population surrender and expect to live instead of resisting and being wiped out?

Not reliably. In the conflicts discussed, surrender could still lead to enslavement, while resistance risked death or enslavement.

In this medieval and early modern setting, surrender to an Ottoman force could still mean enslavement. Continued resistance could end in death or enslavement, so the population faced no reliably safe option. Conventions varied within Christian and Muslim conflicts, but the cases discussed here offered besieged civilians little protection across the religious divide.