Although we think of “the Crusades” as the numbered (anachronistically) series of Christian military expeditions in the Middle East (and North Africa, and Greece that one time) that took place in the 11th-13th centuries, the Crusading movement actually encompassed much more than that. The Reconquista in Iberia was, for a time, treated as a Crusade, … Continue reading Today in European history: the Crusade of Nicopolis (1396)
Tag: european history
Today in European history: the Battle of Vienna (1683)
So yesterday, when we talked about the Great Siege of Malta, I mentioned toward the end that the Ottomans, despite losing that siege, would remain one of the great military powers in the Mediterranean region for another century or more. Well, by 1683 it had been a century or more, and that year’s Battle of Vienna … Continue reading Today in European history: the Battle of Vienna (1683)
Today in European history: the Great Siege of Malta ends (1565)
The two most famous military orders to emerge from the Crusades were the Knights Templar, which was named for its first headquarters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the Knights Hospitaller, which ran a hospital in Crusader Jerusalem before it diversified into the fighting business. The Templars are easily the more famous of the … Continue reading Today in European history: the Great Siege of Malta ends (1565)
Today in European history: the Albanian Revolt of 1912 ends
Albania finally declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire on November 28, 1912, during the First Balkan War. But the outcome of the ~8 month long 1912 Albanian Revolt, which ended on September 4, 1912, with the Ottomans acceding to almost all of the the rebels’ demands, was the immediate cause of that subsequent war … Continue reading Today in European history: the Albanian Revolt of 1912 ends
Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1526)
Today’s anniversary commemorates the first of two battles fought near the Hungarian town of Mohács a little over a century and a half apart, and so we should be careful not to confuse today’s engagement with the 1687 Battle of Mohács. While both of these battles involved the Ottoman Empire, the circumstances surrounding them could not … Continue reading Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1526)
Today in European history: the Martyrs of Otranto (1480)
When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II (who would subsequently be known as Mehmed the Conqueror) decided to bestow upon himself the title of Caesar (Kaysar-i Rum, in Persian). It seems pretty obvious that, although today we think of the “Fall of Constantinople” as the end of the Byzantine/Roman Empire, in 1453 the … Continue reading Today in European history: the Martyrs of Otranto (1480)
Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1687)
Today is the anniversary of the second of two major Ottoman battles at Mohács, in southern Hungary. The anniversary of the first, which took place in 1526, will come around in a couple of weeks. Although they shared a setting and one combatant, the two battles of Mohács couldn’t have gone more differently. In the … Continue reading Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1687)
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Ottoman coup of 1807
The May 29, 1807 coup that overthrew Ottoman Sultan Selim III (d. 1808) and replaced him with his cousin, Mustafa IV (also d. 1808, so you can see where this is going to wind up), isn’t a major event in Ottoman history, certainly not on par with what happened on this date in 1453. But … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Ottoman coup of 1807
Columbus and the Islamic World
Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day! As today is the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the “New World,” I thought it appropriate to examine his impact on the Old World—specifically on the part of the Old World controlled by Muslim powers in 1492. This is just a placeholder. If you’d like to read the rest please … Continue reading Columbus and the Islamic World
Today in European history: the Fall of Constantinople (1453)
The Ottomans were not the first Islamic power to threaten the Byzantine Empire, and in fact the empire was by 1453 a hollowed out husk of its former glory. Successive waves of Turkish and Mongolian invasions had taken almost all of Anatolia out of Byzantine control, and the Ottomans had by this point conquered much … Continue reading Today in European history: the Fall of Constantinople (1453)
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 