[Infidel Heather]

We can do it again.

[redstateconfidential]

One of my favorite victories of the West over Terrorism.

[DarthVader]

One of the great battles of all time. We need to fight it again in November 3, 2009, 2010, & 2012 and rid our nation of traitors.

[2banana]

Religious liberty was extinguished in territories that fell under the Islamic Crescent; Christians and Jews could retain a modicum of freedom by paying the "dhimmi," an extortionate tribute exacted by Islamic authorities. The conquered Christians were also required to pay the "blood tax": Their oldest sons would be taken to Turkey to be trained as yeni ceri, or janissaries — "new soldiers" in the Sultan’s service. Attractive adolescents — females and those males not taken as soldiers — were often enslaved as prostitutes in Istanbul’s pleasure palaces. Some of the sultans "made use of the handsome boys brought every year to Constantinople as a trouble-free parallel harem," notes Beeching.

Islam has not changed in 1300 years.

[2banana]

As the two flagships collided, the charge was led — however improbably — by a woman, Maria "La Bailadora" (The Dancer), disguised as a man and "burning to avenge the contempt for womanhood" displayed by the Turks, observes Carroll. Another unlikely combatant, 75-year-old Sebastian Veniero, strode the decks clad in slippers, calmly dispatching Turks with his antique crossbow.

How NOW and AARP should be acting...

[njslim]

Read “EMPIRES OF THE SEA” by Roger Crowley. Goes into detail concerning Muslim-Christian wars of the 16th cent
including siege of Malta, Cyprus and Lepanto.

[kalee]

ping

[Coleus]

a historical perspective

[Eagles6]

As important today as then.

[Fingolfin]

Where are the men of this caliber in Europe today - willing to defend the West? The psychopathic globalists in charge of the European Union (and USA) want to undo all these sacrifices and admit Turkey into the EU. If that happens we can say goodbye to Europe and what is left of Christendom in Europe.

[dunblak]

Excellent summary...thanks for posting...read an excellent fictionalized version of the siege of Malta that is well-researched and highly recommended: The Religion by Tim Willocks...Neither Islam nor Catholicism comes off well in this period due to the fanaticism and cruelty of the Moors and the corruption within the church, primarily in the highest offices...all historically documented.

[mamelukesabre]

My only beef with this article is that I think it understates the importance of the galleass in the battle. The presence of the galleass, a superior technology that the turks lacked, is what won the battle.

Galleasses had 3-4 times the number of sails as a galley, and 6 or 7 times the number of guns as a galley. They were sturdier and taller and impossible to board from a galley. Galleys required more of their manpower to be devoted to rowing with oars. Galleasses freed up some of their manpower to be used as fighters...manning cannon or smaller arms. Their weakness was speed and maneuverability.

One galleass was worth 10 galleys, easily. Probably twice that many.

[ModelBreaker]

“Throughout the Turkish fleet, the soldiers of The Prophet, confident of victory, disported themselves by belly-dancing to the music of the tambor and the flute.”

There’s an image I can do without.

[mckenzie7]

Isn’t there a wonderful poem about Don Juan and the battle of Lepanto?

[Levante]

Wasn’t Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote de la Mancha, wounded in this battle?

[JoeProBono]

[Jimmy Valentine]

This was a great battle and stiffened the Christian West to resistance against the Turks.

The "Croissant" roll was first baked as a tribute to the victory at Lepanto.

[mckenzie7]

From the Sultana’s mast flew a green banner into which the name of Allah had been stitched in gold nearly 30,000 times. "The flag was one of the treasures of Mecca," comments British historian Jack Beeching in The Galleys at Lepanto. "Over the centuries, when the Moslems had carried its green and gold into battle, they invariably gained the day." Throughout the Turkish fleet, the soldiers of The Prophet, confident of victory, disported themselves by belly-dancing to the music of the tambor and the flute.

Wasn't this the same banner that was returned to them by our late, great Pope John Paul II?

[SuziQ]

Bump for later reading