146 ISLAM AT WAR
In 1538 the Holy League fleet once again pushed into the Aegean, but
did little more than bombard the Ottoman port of Preveze in Albania.
These operations were not even a minor check to the rapidly expanding
Turkish power, and once again Venice was obliged to go to the peace table
and negotiate a settlement on October 20, 1540. This recognized Ottoman
conquests, and forced the Italian cities to pay an annual tribute.
During the rest of the 1540s and into the 1550s, Barbarossa’s fleets
raided the Italian coast, threatening Rome and Naples and wintered with
their French allies at Marseilles. The alliance was unpopular with the
French people and soon fell to pieces. The fleet retired east, ravaging the
French and Italian coast on the way. The great admiral himself died in
July, 1546. For thirteen years his fleets had been the unhindered scourge
of the Mediterranean.
The war with Hapsburg Austria attracted the Ottomans’ fleet under
Turgut Reis, Barbarossa’s most successful pupil, and in September 1550,
the Spanish fort at Tripoli was reduced, but a quick strike on Malta failed.
This was the forerunner to the great siege of 1565.
The Knights of St. John were something of a historical souvenir of the
Crusades. They had been a hospital order mostly concerned with aiding
sick pilgrims until the last days of the Christian kingdoms and had fought
to the last at Antioch. They then relocated to Rhodes, which they fortified
and began new careers as piratical raiders. They were successful enough
to draw the sultan’s attention and were evicted from Rhodes in 1522. The
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V then granted them the island of Malta
in 1530, and they fortified the place and again set about privateering
against the Muslims. In 1565 they attracted the Sublime Porte’s wrath,
and a major naval expedition was sent against them.
The reason for this attack on Malta was nearly whimsical. Suleiman’s
favorite daughter, Mihrmah, had invested heavily in a commercial venture,
and she and her other harem speculators had been looking for a large
profit. They were ruined instead. Their Turkish merchantman carrying
80,000 ducats worth of the investor’s cargo was captured by the Knights
and taken to Malta. The female cries of distress provoked Suleiman to
turn his attention from Vienna, which had been his next target, and to
focus instead on Malta.
In early April the Ottoman fleet, under the command of the seventy-
year-old Mustapha Pasha, left Istanbul, taking with it 40,000 soldiers, of
whom 6,000 were Janissaries and 4,000 werelaylars,a special corps of
jihad fighters known for their religious zeal.
On May 18 the Christians spotted the Ottoman fleet and the Knights’
commander, La Valette, sent out four ships to watch the Ottomans but