Siege of Rhodes (1522)

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Siege of Rhodes
Part of the Süleymannâme
Date 26 June – 22 December 1522 Location Rhodes Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	Knights Hospitaller  Republic of Venice
Commanders and leaders
Suleiman the Magnificent Çoban Mustafa Pasha Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis	Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
Strength
180,000[1]–100,000 men[2] 400 ships[2] 72 guns and mortars[1]	6,703 men (703 Knights Hospitallers of St. John, including men from Spain, France, Germany, Italy, England, and Portugal)[1]
Casualties and losses
60,000 dead[1] Christian claims: 114,000 dead[1] (50,000 from disease & 64,000 from battle)	5,020 dead[1][note 1]

The siege of Rhodes of 1522 was the second and ultimately successful attempt by the

The sultan Suleiman was convinced to attack Rhodes by Piri Mehmed Pasha.^{[4][5][additional citation(s) needed]} Piri, Çoban and Kurtoğlu participated in the divan meetings,^[6] and Piri urged the sultan to hurry to Rhodes.^[7] He then went to war with the sultan.^{[4][additional citation(s) needed][8]}

Invasion

When the Turkish invasion force of 400 ships arrived on Rhodes on 26 June 1522, they were commanded by Çoban Mustafa Pasha.^[2] Suleiman himself arrived with the army of 100,000 men on 28 July to take personal charge.^[2]

The Turks blockaded the harbour and bombarded the town with field artillery from the land side, followed by almost daily infantry attacks. They also sought to undermine the fortifications through tunnels and mines. The artillery fire was slow in inflicting serious damage to the massive walls, but after five weeks, on 4 September, two large gunpowder mines exploded under the bastion of England, causing a 12-yard (11 m) portion of the wall to fall into the moat. The attackers immediately assaulted this breach and soon gained control of it, but a counterattack by the English brothers under Fra' Nicholas Hussey and Grand Master Villiers de L'Isle-Adam succeeded in driving them back. Twice more the Turks assaulted the breach that day, but the English and German brothers held the gap.

On 24 September, Mustafa Pasha ordered a massive assault upon the bastions of Spain, England, Provence, and Italy. After a day of furious fighting, during which the bastion of Spain changed hands twice, Suleiman eventually called off the attack. He sentenced Mustafa Pasha, his brother-in-law, to death for his failure to take the city, but eventually spared his life after the pleas of other senior officials. Mustafa's replacement, Ahmed Pasha, was an experienced siege engineer, and the Turks now focused their efforts on undermining the ramparts and blowing them up with mines while maintaining their continuous artillery barrages. The regularity of the locations where the mines were detonated under the walls (which generally rest on rock) has led to the suggestion that the Turkish miners may have taken advantage of ancient culverts of the Hellenistic city buried beneath the medieval city of Rhodes.^[9]

Another major assault at the end of November was repelled, but both sides were now exhausted—the Knights were reaching the end of their strength with no relief forces expected, while the Turkish troops were increasingly demoralized and depleted by combat fatalities and disease in their camps. Suleiman offered the defenders peace, their lives, and food if they surrendered, but death or slavery if the Turks were compelled to take the city by force. Pressed by the townspeople, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam agreed to negotiate. A

End

On 22 December, the representatives of the city's Latin and Greek inhabitants accepted Suleiman's terms, which were generous. The knights were given twelve days to leave the island and would be allowed to take their weapons, valuables, and religious icons. Islanders who wished to leave could do so at any time within a three-year period. No church would be desecrated or turned into a mosque. Those remaining on the island would be free of Ottoman taxation for five years.

On 1 January 1523, the remaining knights and soldiers marched out of the town, with banners flying, drums beating, and in battle armour. They boarded the 50 ships which had been made available to them and sailed to Crete (a Venetian possession), accompanied by several thousand civilians.

Aftermath

The siege of Rhodes ended with an Ottoman victory. The conquest of Rhodes was a major step towards Ottoman control over the eastern Mediterranean and greatly eased their maritime communications between Constantinople and Cairo and the Levantine ports. Later, in 1669, from this base Ottoman Turks captured Venetian Crete.^[10]

The Knights Hospitaller initially moved to Sicily, but, in 1530, were granted by Emperor Charles V the islands of Malta, Gozo, and the North African port city of Tripoli, following an agreement with Pope Clement VII, himself a Knight.^[11]

Piri Mehmed Pasha played an important role in the expedition.^{[4][additional citation(s) needed]} However, upon his return to Istanbul he faced accusations of bribery relating to an alleged previous incident in Egypt, possibly fabricated by his rival Ahmed Pasha, who sought to strip him of his title of Grand Vizier.^{[4][additional citation(s) needed]}

In popular culture

• In 1656, William Davenant wrote the first English opera, The Siege of Rhodes, based on the incident.^[12]

Gallery

• 
  The tower of St. John at the East end of the English sector. The tower was built under Grand Master Antonio Fluvian (1421–37), and it had a gate. Later a barbican was built around it under Grand Master Piero Raimundo Zacosta (1461–67). Finally the large pentagonal bulwark was built in front of it c. 1487, and the gate was removed.
• 
  Musée de l'Armée

  .
• 
  The Tower of Italy had a round bulwark built around by Grand Master Fabrizio del Carretto in 1515–17, and provided with gun ports at lowest level covering the ditch in every direction, for a total of three stacked tiers of cannon fire (two from the bulwark, one from the tower).
• 
  Bombard-Mortar of the

  Musée de l'Armée

  .
• 
  Abdülaziz to Napoleon III

  in 1862.

• List of campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). McFarland.
  ISBN 978-0786474707
  .
• Brockman, Eric (1969), The two sieges of Rhodes, 1480–1522, (London:) Murray,
  OCLC 251851470
• Kollias, Ēlias (1991), The Knights of Rhodes : the palace and the city, Travel guides (Ekdotikē Athēnōn), Ekdotike Athenon,
  OCLC 34681208
• Reston, James Jr., Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520–36 (New York: Penguin, 2009).
• Smith, Robert Doulgas and DeVries, Kelly (2011), Rhodes Besieged. A new history, Stroud: The History Press,
  ISBN 978-0-7524-6178-6
• ISBN 978-90-6831-632-2
• Weir, William, 50 Battles That Changed the World: The Conflicts That Most Influenced the Course of History, The Career Press, 2001. pp. 161–169.
  ISBN 1-56414-491-7

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Medieval Fortifications of the Old Town at Rhodes.

• Fortresses of the Knights – The fortifications of Rhodes