114 ISLAM AT WAR
had deployed his army on the right bank of the Raab River, and on August
1, 1664, a decisive battle occurred at St. Gotthart, a small village that
commanded the routes to Graz and Vienna. Though they battled to a draw,
the Ottomans were prevented from crossing the river, which in Europe
counted as a spectacular success. Overall, the Ottoman losses were greater
than those of the Christians. The Ottomans had lost all their equipment
and cannon, but the army was intact and capable of inflicting great damage
on the Christians. Knowing this, Montecuccoli quickly accepted the sul-
tan’s offer to negotiate a peace, which was signed in 1664. By this treaty
the Austrians agreed to evacuate all the territories they had occupied in
Transylvania and to recognize the sultan’s appointed prince. This cam-
paign was but the prelude to the great attack on Vienna that would come
in a few years. Fazil died in 1676 and was succeeded by Kara Mustafa
Pasha.
Kara Mustafa Pasha would bring the Ottomans to the gates of Vienna
for a second great siege. First, however, he had to resolve the dispute with
the Russians as to who would rule the Cossacks. The war was actually
started by the Russians, and they eventually compelled the grand vizier
to accept peace. By this agreement, the Ottomans abandoned their claims
to the region north of the Dnieper, which became the northernmost bound-
ary of the Ottoman Empire. This treaty was forced as much by the lack
of Ottoman success on the battlefield as by the Hungarians’ renewed push
to establish their independence. The sultan recognized Thokoly as king of
Hungary, and Thokoly quickly conquered all of upper Hungary in the
summer of 1682. The Hapsburgs, meanwhile, were involved in a war with
the French, and French agents convinced Kara Mustafa that it was time
to attack Vienna.
The existing peace treaty between the Ottomans and Hapsburgs was
due to end in 1684. The war party in Istanbul, eager to take advantage of
both Thokoly’s successes in Hungary and the pending end of peace with
the Hapsburgs to begin another campaign against Austria, pressured the
sultan into accepting a preemptive strike in the year before the treaty
would end. The Turks began calling their army together and advanced
into the Balkans.
Seeing the attack coming, the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold of Aus-
tria, worked desperately to organize a coalition to defend the eastern bor-
der of Christendom. His most important ally was Jan Sobieski of Poland,
but Saxony, Bavaria, and Franconia would also send troops. The Ottomans
pushed to the gates of Vienna and began the siege in July 1683. Upon
their arrival they called upon the garrison to surrender, their herald saying,
“Accept Islam and live in peace under the sultan! Or deliver up the fortress