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Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World Roger Crowley In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic clash between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world. In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar. Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality. Empires of the Sea is a story of extraordinary color and incident, and provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilizations. |
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The Great Siege: Malta 1565 Ernle Bradford Suleiman the Magnificent, the most powerful ruler in the world, was determined to conquer Europe. Only one thing stood in his way: a dot of an island in the Mediterranean called Malta, occupied by the Knights of St. John, the cream of the warriors of the Holy Roman Empire. A clash of civilizations was shaping up the likes of which had not been seen since Persia invaded Greece. Determined to capture Malta and use its port to launch operations against Europe, Suleiman sent an armada and an overwhelming army. A few thousand defenders in Fort St. Elmo fought to the last man, enduring cruel hardships. When they captured the fort the Turks took no prisoners and mutilated the defenders' bodies. Grand Master La Vallette of the Knights reciprocated by decapitating his Turkish prisoners and using their heads to cannonade the enemy. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked; none given. The Siege of Malta is not merely a gripping tale of brutality, courage, and tenacity, but the saga of two mighty civilizations struggling for domination of the known world. |
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Testament of Youth Vera Brittain In 1915 Vera Brittain abandoned her studies at Oxford to enlist as a nurse in the armed services. She served in a number of World War theatres - in London, Malta and at the western front in France. By the war's end, all those close to her were dead, and she had witnessed the results of modern combat, the destruction and the suffering. Focusing on the men and women who came of age as the war broke out, Brittain explores their politics, hopes and the fatal idealism. |
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Signs of the Gods? Erich von Däniken Were human beings created by powers from outer space? Did extraterrestrial giants build the megaliths of Malta and the menhirs of Brittany? Was the Ark of the Covenant a machine built by the astronaut gods?
In Signs of the Gods? Erich von Däniken travels far and wide around the globe to study the many strange phenomena that all point to one conclusion---that many thousands of years ago, Earth was visited by a race of superhuman powers and intelligence.
The questions he addresses along the way include:
---Why are the religious sites in Greece all laid out in the same geometrical pattern---a pattern which is repeated throughout the world?
---Does the extraordinary longevity of the ancient Sumerian kings mean that the Land of the Two Rivers was ruled by a race of supermen?
---Could the first men have been produced by cloning?
---Do the great ruins of Zimbabwe point to an impossibly detailed knowledge of astronomy?
Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods provoked a worldwide storm of controversy. In Signs of the Gods? he produces powerful arguments to support his theory of astronaut gods, with evidence that is difficult to explain any other way. Hear what he has to say with an open mind---and you may find yourself agreeing with him. |
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Counting Churches - The Malta Stories Rosanne Dingli This collection of thirteen stories brings Rosanne Dingli’s recollections of Malta vividly to life. Some are family anecdotes, some are folkloric, and others are figments of the author’s imagination. The reader’s task is to distinguish which is which. In all the stories, one can feel the atmosphere and enjoy the descriptions of place, time and people, whether they embellish a mystery, a journey, a lover’s dilemma, or a family saga.
Rosanne Dingli’s impressive stories bristle with drama, reflect quietly on memories, contemplate the power of nostalgia…
Dr Dennis Haskell Westerly |
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The story of Malta Maturin Murray Ballou This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. |
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Fair Italy. The Riviera and Monte Carlo. Comprising a tour through north and south Italy and Sicily, with a short account of Malta. William Cope Devereux Title: Fair Italy. The Riviera and Monte Carlo. Comprising a tour through north and south Italy and Sicily, with a short account of Malta. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The HISTORY OF EUROPE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection includes works chronicling the development of Western civilisation to the modern age. Highlights include the development of language, political and educational systems, philosophy, science, and the arts. The selection documents periods of civil war, migration, shifts in power, Muslim expansion into Central Europe, complex feudal loyalties, the aristocracy of new nations, and European expansion into the New World. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Devereux, William Cope; 1884. xvi. 346 p. ; 8º. 10130.bb.14. |
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Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Early Modern Mediterranean (Princeton Modern Greek Studies) Molly Greene A new international maritime order was forged in the early modern age, yet until now histories of the period have dealt almost exclusively with the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants shifts attention to the Mediterranean, providing a major history of an important but neglected sphere of the early modern maritime world, and upending the conventional view of the Mediterranean as a religious frontier where Christians and Muslims met to do battle. Molly Greene investigates the conflicts between the Catholic pirates of Malta--the Knights of St. John--and their victims, the Greek merchants who traded in Mediterranean waters, and uses these conflicts as a window into an international maritime order that was much more ambiguous than has been previously thought. The Greeks, as Christian subjects to the Muslim Ottomans, were the very embodiment of this ambiguity. Much attention has been given to Muslim pirates such as the Barbary corsairs, with the focus on Muslim-on-Christian violence. Greene delves into the archives of Malta's pirate court--which theoretically offered redress to these Christian victims--to paint a considerably more complex picture and to show that pirates, far from being outside the law, were vital actors in the continuous negotiations of legality and illegality in the Mediterranean Sea. Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants brings the Mediterranean and Catholic piracy into the broader context of early modern history, and sheds new light on commerce and the struggle for power in this volatile age. |
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Knights of Jerusalem: The Crusading Order of Hospitallers 1100-1565 (World of the Warrior) David Nicolle The Order of St John of the Hospital of Jerusalem (or the Hospitallers as they are better known) has existed for almost a thousand years. It was established in Jerusalem in the mid-11th century to care for Christian pilgrims and its role initially was entirely non-combatant. But, as the wars of the crusades progressed, the Order took on a military role, at first simply protecting the pilgrims and then expressed as "defending the Holy Sepulchre to the last drop of blood and fighting the infidel wherever one can find them". The military arm of the Order quickly emerged as one of the most effective fighting forces of the era and was given responsibility for the construction and defense of several of the major fortresses of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, exercising considerable political and strategic influence. When Jerusalem and Acre fell at the end of the 13th century the Hospitallers moved to Cyprus and then established a new base in Rhodes, having taken the island by force. After two centuries there protecting Christian shipping and other interests in the region they were driven out by the Ottoman Turks and continued as a bastion of Christendom in Malta. In 1565 the Order achieved its greatest military success, beating off the massive forces of Suleiman the Magnificent in the Great Siege. They continued to be a force in the Mediterranean but finally capitulated tamely to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 and a much changed world. However, the Order of St John carry on their Christian work to this day with Priories all over the world, including North America, with support of the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem a key piece of their mission.
Dr Nicolle illuminates the world of the warrior Knight Hospitaller, both his training, skill at arms and campaign experience, and his beliefs and daily life at home, through centuries of religious and territorial conflict. Numerous color and black & white images support an absorbing narrative of adventure, courage and service. |
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Knights of Malta, 1523-1798 Reuben Cohen This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. |