Great Siege of Malta

War is arguably the most extreme scenario for the exertion of violence. All warring parties suffer in one way or another but those who suffer most are usually those who least deserve it—the common folk. The paper will take as a case study one of the epic Mediterranean battles in the ongoing Christian versus Muslim conflict of the Early Modern Age. Happening in 1565, though micro in scale, the four-month engagement known as the Great Siege of Malta which was fought between the Ottoman Turkish troops and their Barbary Coast partners on the one side and the Hospitallers of the Order of St. John and their European and Maltese allies on the other side, was macro in its significance. This fierce clash left its destructive mark not only on the warring adversaries but the more so on the Maltese inhabitants who found themselves immersed in a war which was not strictly theirs but of which they were forced to endure the hardships, participate in the ongoing combat, and face the daily extreme psychological pressure and physical cruelty which are generally meted out to the defenceless and the most vulnerable in the war zone. No brutality was spared and extreme violence was the order of the day.

This review addresses the questionable practice of adding a subtitle to an author’s work after his death, "Clash of Cultures: Christian Knights Defend Western Civilization Against the Moslem Tide," and questions the terms employed in this newly added subtitle. It then enquires into the omission of mention a place from the author’s 1961 published account of the 1565 siege. The omission of a settlement that at the time of the siege was known as, Burmola, the location of the “Campo di Turchi”, the Ottoman-Muslim camp after the taking of Fort St. Elmo on the 23rd of June 1565. It suggests the reason for the omission of this toponym from this book was due to the author’s relationship with the politics in Malta at the time the book was being written in the late 1950’s, it being the birthplace and power base of Dom Mintoff. In consequence of the omission of this toponym from this historical bestseller there have been consequences over the past 60 years in peoples’ perception of the city and of the history of Burmola/ Bormla/Cospicua, and there have also been consequences in terms of the preservation of heritage in this city.

Bu kitap eleştirisi bir yazarın tercih ettiği başlığa ölümünden sonra tekrarlanan baskılarda yapılan ekler konusunu ele almak ve bu eklerde kullanılan sözcük seçimlerini tartışmak amaçlıdır. Eleştiride ele alınacak
ikinci konu da yazarın 1961 tarihli ilk baskıda Osmanlı ordusunun St. Elmo kalesini 23 Haziran 1565’de ele geçirdikten sonra kamp kurduğu (Campo di Turchi) Burmola kasabası anlatısında tamamen yok saymış olmasıdır. Bunun nedeni kasabanın, kitabın yazıldığı 1950’lerde Malta politikasında etkin olan Dom Mintoff’un doğum yeri olması ve yazarın politik bağlarının bu konuda etken olmasıdır. Kasabanın isminin (Burmola/Bormla/Cospicua) bu çok satan tarihi yayında zikredilmemesi geçtiğimiz 60 yıl içinde kentin algısı ve tarihi üzerinde buna bağlı olarak da tarihi mirasının korunması konusunda olumsuz etkileri olmuştur.

After the loss of Rhodes in 1522, the Knights of the Order of St.
John were left without a home. In 1530, the Order accepted with
reluctance Charles V's offer to create their new base on Malta. In
fact, at the request of the Pope, the Emperor Charles V in 1530
decided to cede the Maltese Islands to the Sovereign and Military
Order of St. John of Jerusalem, though they remained under the
sovereignty of the King of Sicily.

THE OBJECTIVE of this essay is to give a short description of the types of arms and armour used by Hospitaller knights and their adversaries, the Ottoman Turks. The inventory of the Palace Armoury of Malta is an important collection depicting a variety of arms and armour collected by the knights of the Order of St John from the time of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565 until their departure from Malta in 1798. This article analyzes and presents a selection of these items from both Hospitaller Knights and Ottoman warriors from sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Una visione più ravvicinata delle vicende dell'Ordine dei Cavalieri di s. Giovanni di Gerusalemme permette di avere un quadro più articolato dei rapporti correnti sulle acque del Mediterraneo fra Europei, Turchi e Barbareschi. I Cavalieri andarono a Malta, ma non erano ancora "di Malta". Nella primavera del 1530 essi ricevettero in feudo da Carlo V l'arcipelago maltese insieme alla fortezza di Tripoli. Nella vicenda dell'insediamento dell'ordine a Malta manca un protagonista: i Maltesi. Tanto tuonò che piovve. Che Malta piacesse a Suleyman lo si sapeva; che volesse prenderla lo dicevano molti rapporti confidenziali
provenienti dal Levante. L'intelligence dell'Ordine ebbe ragione: il 18 maggio del 1565 circa 200 vascelli turchi comparvero all'orizzonte delI'arcipelago maltese. A difendere questo erano 9.000 uomini, fra cavalieri.
soldati "importati" e maltesi; questi ultimi costituivano la maggior parte dell'armata crociata, crociati un po' per necessità, un po' per amor patrio, un po' per mancanza di alternative.

This study aims to scan aspects of sixteenth century Maltese history, focussing around the saga of the 1565 Great Siege, against the background of a much larger context - the epic clash between the superpowers of the time, Spain and the Ottoman empire, which lasted for most of the sixteenth century.  The small island of Malta handed over to the Knights Hospitallers in 1530, found itself in the very vortex of this large power warfare, exposed and insecure.  Thereby commenced an acrimonious race to meet the expected day of destiny.  Yet throughout this prolonged severe and bitter struggle, the Knights were able to mould a viable cohesive state that was to thrive and endure for two more centuries.

Настоящата работа представя приложението на математическия анализ като начин за четене на фолклора, аргументира значимостта му като метод за изучаване на историческите извори и показва града, описан в българските народни песни с мотив „Девойка спасява Малта“.
This article presents the application of mathematical analysis in reading folklore and argues for the significance of the method to study historical sources. This work also shows which is the city, described in the Bulgarian folk songs with a motif “A Virgin rescues Malta”.

The complete analysis of the Bulgarian folk song with a motif “A virgin rescues Malta” shows that it was created in the year 1645 CE by an unknown author. Every element in the song relates to the circumstances, places and people of two distant events, which are known both to the author and the intended audience, for whom the vivid characters and memorable images of the song convey a hidden message. The message concerns the Bulgarians and the Order of Malta during the time of the Grand Masters Ioannes de Valette and Ioannes Paulus Lascaris. The analysis of the folk song proves that the unknown author, besides being well-read and extremely erudite, knows to perfection the principles of steganography, coding and the creation of self-supporting and self-developing systems.

This article is included in a volume (in Italian) commemorating the fifth centenary of the birth of the naturalist philosopher Bernardino Telesio (Cosenza, 1509 – 1588), "the first of the moderns" (according to Francis Bacon) who developed the scientific method of inquiry. It focuses on one of his little-known admirers, the poet and orator Giano Pelusio (Crotone, 1520 – Rome, 1600), and on the latter's intellectual affinity with Telesio himself and with one of his most well-known followers, the philosopher Tommaso Campanella (Stilo, 1568 – Paris, 1639). A critical analysis of a selection of poetic verses of Pelusio and Campanella respectively shows how they both extolled Telesio in their sonnets and shared his anti-Aristotelian stance. They were united in their hope for a dawning 'golden age' on both the intellectual and political planes. In their political works, they both expressed their admiration towards the Order of Malta and its role in defending the southern Italian shores against Ottoman incursions. Two years after the 1565 Siege of Malta, Pelusio published his 'Ad proceres Christianos cohortatio', an appeal to European rulers exhorting them to cease hostilities between them and unite in assisting the Order in its endeavours. Campanella chose a Knight of Malta as one of the two interlocutors in his famous utopia, 'The City of the Sun'. Pelusio's sonnets dedicated to Telesio and to his brother Tommaso, to Jean de Valette (the Grand Master who led the Order during the Siege) and to Suleiman the Magnificent are published for the first time, together with a poem in which Malta, speaking in the first person, asks European powers to rush to its assistance. Extracts from the proofs of nobility of Maurizio Telesio, Bernardino's nephew, who was admitted into the Order in 1588, also appear in the appendix.

Българските народни песни  поставят девойката спасителка на Малта в пряка кръвно-родствена връзка с най-силния и власт имащ човек сред рицарите. Използваната лексика характеризира  доста точно позицията на Великия магистър и лаконично показва кой е той. Целта е вниманието да бъде насочено към историческата личност на Йоан де Валет и към чудото, спасило Малтийския орден през 1566 г.

The Bulgarian folk songs put the virgin saviour of Malta in a direct blood relationship with the strongest and most powerful man among the knights. The vocabulary used characterizes the position of the Grand Master accurately, and succinctly shows who he is. The aim is to draw attention to the historical figure of Ioannes de Valette and the miracle that saved the Order of Malta in 1566.

If there are a few episodes in Maltese history and collective mentality which have been invoked, remoulded, and applied to a multitude of circumstances faced by the Maltese across the centuries, the 1565 Siege of Malta deserves to be one of the leading, turning-point moments. ‘... the Maltese Victory of the 8th September of 1565 was the best VICTORY ever made in the world ...,’ fervently wrote a correspondent on Il-Ħabbar in 1891.  For, stated Giuseppe Muscat Azzopardi in 1882, ‘had not the Maltese stood firm in front of the Turks, they would have taken the whole of Europe following Malta.’  Strong words these may seem, they were put down on paper amidst the rise of Maltese Nationalism, when the leading Maltese politicians and elite were polarising into two factions - the genesis of Maltese political parties – the Riformisti and Anti-Riformisti. It should come as no surprise therefore, that the Otto Settembre commemoration was given a new twist during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

Giovanni Antonio Vassallo published the first ever history of Malta and Gozo in the vernacular in 1862.  A skimming through the text leaves the reader in awe after reading a sentimentally romanticised version of what was supposed to have taken place between May and September 1565. The event was glamourized, its episodes dramatized, with a hint of the imagination at play to arouse the emotions and quasi-apocalyptic in its teleological reach. Take Giuseppe Calì’s sentimental Death of Dragut, which can be matched with the leading European Romantic artistic pieces by Delacroix or Decamps, painted also during this period, in 1867.

Typically, during Malta’s romantic and nationalistic surge, the Otto Settembre embodied some fundamental concepts which carried vibrant implications to the contemporary situation of the colony between 1860 and 1939. Emphasising the cataclysmic dimension of the event, as if the world was desperately depending on Maltese valour for its survival, highlighted the glory and greatness of the Maltese nation in face of its submission, often seen as oppression, due to the colonial chains it was bearing. In this, as in other romantic expressions, the figure of the ‘us’ was set and defined by that of ‘the other’, with a predictable end-result: the overwhelming supremacy of the former despite forces playing against the odds.  Pointing out the role of siege heroes, with their ideal attributes of valour, holiness, ability to sacrifice their lives for the patria, and having the power to change the course of history was tantamount to constructing exemplars for the type of leaders Malta needed during the British rule, especially when Anglicisation (filling the shoes of the Turk) was perceived to be the modern threat of annihilation to Maltese identity survival.

In the 1880s, the Otto Settembre started being celebrated in the streets and squares of Valletta, and soon, in every weekend of September, commemorations of the historical victory popped up in various towns and villages around Malta and Gozo. This, as had happened in Francesco Crispi’s Italy, soon started to imitate a typical religious village feast, with fireworks displays and bands marching, not to mention that in the late nineteenth century, a selection of pieces from the Armoury started being displayed during this feast in St George’s Square. The aim was in line with the current spirit of the times, namely that of disseminating a romantic patriotic spirit among the common man in the street and reminding the British of Maltese prowess in front of an aggressive threat. 

Those who employed the Italianità weapon to fight Anglicisation were the protagonists, but as the decades passed, the Otto Settembre became so entrenched in the hearts of the Maltese, that nineteenth and twentieth century newspapers report festivities taking place in Maltese colonies around the Mediterranean, complemented by highly patriotic verses. Commissioning the allegory of Malta, a victorious young lady to be elevated on pedestals during village feasts, also assumed the costume of a victorious warrior over the Muslim. The Carnival Parade kept the romanticised historical episode alive every year in St George’s square – with an expected, yet still exciting, end result – the crashing feet of the Maltese and the Knights over the Infidel.

Taking all this into perspective, this presentation will demonstrate the up surging significance of the Otto Settembre – the commemoration of the Siege of Malta - during the rise of Maltese Nationalism between 1860 and 1939.

Following the siege of 1565, news of the victory of the Knights over the Turks in Malta spread, and in the decade that followed Europe was made aware of the Order's exploits through the vast amounts of literature published on the subject. The year 1566 was particularly rich in terms of siege-related publications, including important works such as Vincentii Castellani's De Bello Melitensi Historia (Pesaro, 1566), and Alfonso Ulloa's La Historia dell'impresa di Tripoli di Barberiaii (Venice, 1566).

Outstanding amongst these publications was that by Natalis Comes. The first edition of his work, entitled Commentarii Hieronymi Comitis Alexandrini De acerrimo, ac omnium difficillimo Turcarum bello, in Insulam Melitam gesto, Anno MCLXV (Venice, 1566) was, and to a certain extent still is, a source of confusion and speculation.  The authorship of this work has been uncertain since its publication, due to the author's accidental attribution to another contemporary author.  Consequently, bibliographies, including the official bibliography of the Order of St. John by Hellwald, erroneously records the author.  It is the purpose of this work to clarify the uncertainty surrounding the book's authorship.

GOD'S SOLDIERS 2x52min / 1x91min
In the mid-16th Century, a long running conflict between two of the most powerful world religions is building up to a climactic battle in the Mediterranean for the very soul of Europe. Facing each other are two highly trained forces. The knights of the Order of St. John, a small but formidable Christian military Order and the Muslim Janissaries, the fearsome crack troops of the Sultan.

The historic events are told through the eyes of Hasan, a pressganged Greek boy who is conscripted into the Ottoman army, and his arch-rival, the ambitious novice warrior monk Raymonde. From an early age, both are trained to fight with no mercy in the name of God, and Allah. Only one will surviv