104 ISLAM AT WAR
After dealing with a revolt in Egypt, Suleiman turned his attention to
Hungary. Initially he moved to eliminate the last few Christian enclaves
in the Balkans along the southern banks of the Drava and Danube, in
Serbia and Bosnia. On August 8, 1520, he took Belgrade, and its garrison
died to a man in the massacre that followed. The advance into Hungary
was delayed until 1526, but when it began it overwhelmed the forces
thrown against it. The major battle occurred on August 29, 1526, on the
plain of Mohacs, on the right bank of the Danube south of Buda.
The Ottoman army departed Istanbul with 300,000 men and at Mohacs
confronted a force of 22,000 men under King Louis II of Hungary. Wiser
men advised Louis to wait for the Ottoman assault, but young, impetuous,
and stupid, he chose to attack. Obviously he had not learned the lesson
of Nicopolis—that the Turks could deal with feudal cavalry. As his army
charged forward they were first disordered by the light cavalry screen and
then cut down by the guns and musketry of the Janissaries. After two
hours the Hungarians were destroyed and King Louis, attempting to es-
cape, fell into a stream and drowned, weighed down by his heavy armor.
Sixteen thousand Hungarians died in the battle. The 2,000 prisoners had
their heads used as decorative ornaments around Suleiman’s tent.
After their victory, the Ottomans roamed through the Hungarian
countryside, hunting the peasants as if they were game. Within a few
months, 100,000 Hungarians were sent to the slave markets at Istanbul
and eventually some 2,000,000 Hungarians were enslaved.
From Mohacs, the Ottomans turned south, returning to their homeland
and choosing only to leave a few scattered garrisons in Hungary. The
Hungarian nobles sought support from the Hapsburgs and Poles to recover
what they had lost. At the battle of Tokay, the Hapsburg forces defeated
the Ottoman provincial commander of Hungary on September 26, 1527,
and much of the kingdom was recovered. In 1528 the Ottoman response
arrived in the form of a new army, which recaptured Buda on September
3, 1529, and the remainder of the country thereafter with little difficulty.
On September 23 the sultan’s army of 250,000 appeared before the gates
of Vienna in the first siege of that great city. The siege would last only
six weeks, for the defense was stout and the season was late. Suleiman
wisely broke off and on October 16 turned his army south. However, as
they withdrew they committed a wide variety of outrages against the peas-
ants and others that they captured, leaving a legacy of hatred that would
continue for centuries.
Suleiman’s third Hungarian expedition occurred in 1532. The Haps-
burgs had reinvaded Hungary and besieged Buda in 1530. Suleiman led
300,000 men north and ravaged much of the Hapsburgs’ lands in order to