The 'Image of Hell': Islam's Siege of Malta

americanthinker.com ^ | 5/18/2020 | Raymond Ibrahim

[rktman]

Today in history, May 18, 1565, one of the most symbolically important military encounters between Islam and Europe began: the Ottoman Turks besieged the tiny island of Malta, in what till then was considered the heaviest bombardment any locale had been subjected to.

Around the start of the sixteenth century, Muslim pirates from Algiers began to terrorize the Christian Mediterranean. Like their terrestrial counterparts, they too were indoctrinated in and emboldened by Muhammad's promises: "A campaign by sea is like ten campaigns by land," the prophet had said, "and he who loses his bearings at sea is like one who sheds his blood in the path of Allah." The piratical lust for booty was, predictably, heightened by dreams of "martyrdom."

[rktman]

:... Over the following two decades, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were enslaved, so that, by 1541, "Algiers teemed with Christian captives, and it became a common saying that a Christian slave was scarce a fair barter for an onion."..." Got that. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! And barely worth an onion. Where's my reparations from the Saudis?

[jjotto]

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/americas-234-year-old-shock-jihad-raymond-ibrahim/

...”between 1530 and 1780 there were almost certainly a million and quite possibly as many as a million and a quarter white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast,” to quote American historian, Robert Davis...

[immadashell]

This bombardment was no comparison to the air war against Malta by the Mussolini Italians followed by the Luftwaffe during WWII. Some days there were six or more bombing raids. It’s amazing the Island didn’t sink from all the iron dropped on it. They’re still finding unexploded ordinance today.

[KierkegaardMAN]

“Angels in Iron” is a fantastic book on this conflict. Unbelievable what these brave Christians endured to defeat the enemy and defend truth.
Today’s Church, while we find an occasional hero,is mostly filled with cowardly leaders. Not one Bishop that I’m aware of stood up to Cesar and defended our rights to freely practice our religion during this exaggerated virus nonsense.

[dynachrome]

A couple of books that may be of interest about the siege. The Religion is my favorite.

“The Religion” by Tim Willocks. amazing descriptions of the battles.

In Messina, Sicily, a French countess, Carla La Penautier, seeks passage to Malta in a quest to find the son taken from her at his birth twelve years ago. The only man with the expertise and daring to help her is a Rabelaisian soldier of fortune, arms dealer, former janissary, and strapping Saxon adventurer by the name of Mattias Tannhauser. He agrees to accompany the lady to Malta, where, amid the most spectacular siege in military history, they must try to find the boy—whose name they do not know and whose face they have never seen—and pluck him from the jaws of Holy War.

“Angels in Iron” by Nicholas Prata
Angels in Iron is based on the actual events surrounding the Siege of Malta in 1565.

https://www.amazon.com/Angels-Iron-Nicholas-C-Prata/dp/1889758566/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=iron+angels&qid=1589820143&s=books&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.com/Religion-Novel-Tannhauser-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B003G93Z22/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+religion&qid=1589819988&sr=8-2

[rktman]

Yeah but we just ‘claim’ that to diminish the ‘actual’ slavery by those that were brought to America. (Which compared to other places wasn’t a YUGE number) Apparently, if acknowledged, european slavery was like a voyage on a luxury cruise ship. Or something. /S

[njslim]

Muslim slave raider struck as far north as Ireland (1632 Baltimore) and even into Iceland !!

[Orosius]

Bookmark

[Gritty]

This is one of the most remarkable and crucial battles in history. Here is another great book, written by Ernle Bradford ...

The Great Siege, Malta 1565

[Albion Wilde]

While we are on the topic... ping!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rktman.

[Fred Nerks]

The fishermen and coastal dwellers of 17th-century Britain lived in terror of being kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in North Africa. Hundreds of thousands across Europe met wretched deaths on the Barbary Coast in this way.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml

[Cronos]

it wasn’t the Saudis - by the 1500s the Arabian peninsula was a backwater — the rulers and the slaves were in Algiers, in Alexandria and mostly in Turkey.

Turks of today have genetic markers from the female slaves captured.

[Cronos]

thanks for that - i just bought it on Kindle

[MikelTackNailer]

Accordingly, when in 1570 Ottoman forces invaded the island of Cyprus, the pope easily managed to form a "Holy League" of maritime Catholic nation-states, spearheaded by the Spanish Empire, in 1571. To everyone's dismay—Christian and Muslim—the Holy League prevailed at the battle of Lepanto.

Why were the Christians dismayed? The article did not say why.