The Great Siege, Malta 1565

The indispensable account of the Ottoman Empire’s Siege of Malta from the author of Hannibal and Gibraltar . In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was thought to be invincible. Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan, had expanded his empire from western Asia to southeastern Europe and North Africa. To secure control of the Mediterranean between these territories and launch an offensive into western Europe, Suleiman needed the small but strategically crucial island