Customer Reviews
Great story - By: Borja Echegaray Aguirrezabal, 21 Oct 2008 
Crowley does an extraordinary job putting together three extraordinary stories that marked the 16th Centuryin the Mediterranean: The siege of Rhodes, the siege of Malta, & the Battle of Lepanto. These stories, especially that of the siege of Malta, makes the book read like a novel, most enthralling & nail biting.
Although Crowley has written a very accurate & detailed account of these clashes between the Christian & Muslim worlds, one gets the impression, that he tends to minimize the role of Christian leaders, their armies & the importance of their victories, & maximizes that of the Ottoman side. For example, he doesn't give much importance to the conquest of Tunis by Emperor Charles V, while he gets to the detail with other minor Turkish exploits.
The author is notably pro Turkish throughout most of the book, presenting the Christians as more religious fanatics than the Muslims, when probably both were exactly the same. The fact that Crowley lived for a long period of his lifein Istanbul may explain this & that he recreates himself longer when detailing the fascinating ottoman world. This is perfectly clear, when at the end of the book he goes through the list of mausoleums & great internments of all the ottoman main characters, while he ignores the final resting place of the Christian kings & admirals.
However, the book is fully recommendable, & anybody interestingin this period of history, &in the last of the crusades, will surely enjoy it.
Superbly well written - By: Antonio Moncayo, 07 Oct 2008 
This is the best history book I have readin a very long time.
It tells the story of a 60 years old battle foughtin the Mediterraneum by the Ottoman Turks against the Christian nationsin southern Europe.
It is very hard to put down & the narrative is very engaging. The maps , pictures & drawings are excellent , a rarityin this type of books. although there are some minor issues with some historical aspects ( the muslims lived peacefullyin Spain for 800 years ) the book is a very compelling read.
More please
Gripping tales - By: Too many books, 15 Sep 2008 An edge-of-the-seat gripping account of the long conflict between the Ottoman empire & the Christian Mediterranean powersin the fifteen hundreds. Crowley has also some original research, relying on not only the Christian writers of the time, but also Turkish sources that have usually been overlooked by previous historians. The characters are impressive, the acts of courage & desperation on both sides are astounding, & Crowley tells it masterfully, eking every last ounce of suspense out of what for any writer would be a stirring tale.
Crowley covers the standard military, diplomatic & political historyin an even-handed way, & describes the brilliant Renaissance innovation each side progressively introduced to try to gain an advantage, including flamethrowers, spiral flues to protect walls from subterranean bomb blasts, frogmen fighting underwater with daggers, & top-secret new ship designs. He also sensitively brings out the human courage, cruelty, & sacrifice involved. History is rarely this well told.
Truth is stranger than fiction - By: R. S. Taylor, 03 Sep 2008 If this was a work of fiction you would have a hard time suspending disbelief to enjoy the amazing cast of characters, the strange alliances,the actions & inactions that decorate the plot. You would also be dismayed at the contrived outcome of the Siege of Malta.
BUT
This is an amazing true story told using a page - turning cracking narrative. I regret that I have only read half of the book but am glad I have half left to read.
Read this book & get swept away on the raging tide of history.
Superb narrative history of an epic struggle - By: David Burke, 04 Aug 2008 
The clash of civilisations is not a new notion. Civilisations have clashed for thousands of years, as rival tribes & nations with varying cultural mores & religious beliefs have struggled for supremacy.
In recorded history, Greek fought Persian, Roman fought Carthaginian (and countless others), & Christian fought Muslim.
It's the latter that we think of today when we shudder at the memory of 9/11 or sigh over the pointless loss of lifein the Middle East.
This is a struggle that has flared up intermittently since the First Crusadein 1096 brought a motley crew of robber knights, religious zealots & sundry opportunists to wrest the holy places of Palestine from the hands of their Muslim overlords.
The crusades petered out towards the end of the 13th century, but at least one of the organisations that was bornin the blood & sand of the Middle East survives today. They are the Knights of Malta, & while we know them as providers of an excellent voluntary ambulance & first aid service, their history was not always as peaceful.
The Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes & of Malta figure largelyin a marvellous new book which chronicles one phase of the Christian-Muslim conflict, the bitter struggle for mastery of the Mediterranean between 1521 & 1580.
In Empires of the Sea Roger Crowley brings back to mind half-remembered history lessons - the fall of Rhodes, the rise of the Barbary corsairs, the siege of Malta & the decisive battle of Lepanto.
Most people now who think of Maltain military terms focus on the siege during World War II when the tiny mountain top between Sicily & North Africa withstood months of attack by the German & Italian air forces. For its endurance, the island & its people were collectively awarded the George Cross, the highest British civilian award for gallantry.
But almost 400 years earlier, the Maltese & their then rulers, the Knights of St John, were tenaciousin the defence of their stronghold against a huge Ottoman army which besieged them from May to September 1565.
The Ottomans, referred to by most of their oppponents as the Turks, although they comprised many more races, were experts at siege warfare. Crowley has already written about their capture of Constantinople & this book starts with the attack on Rhodesin 1522 after which the Knights were allowed to sail away to Malta. Among those who left was a young knight, Jean de la Valette, who as Grand Master of the order presided over & inspired the successful defence of Malta forty years later.
La Valette is just one of the giant personalities who people this account. On the Ottoman side are the sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent & his son Selim; the military commanders, Ali Pasha & Mustapha Pasha; the fearsome corsair Barbarossa; & many more.
For Christendom there are Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, & after him his son, King Philip of Spain; the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria; the Venetian Sebastiano Venier; & the great Romantic hero Don Juan of Austria. Don Juan was the illegitimate son of Charles, half-brother of Philip, & his victory at the crucial naval battle of Lepantoin 1571 sparked innumerable poems, songs & dramas. He was even celebrated by GK Chestertonin his poem "Lepanto" as late as 1915.
If the personalities are giant, the events are huge. Vast amounts of gold were poured into building & equipping ships on both sides, & at times the losses were enormous. The naval battles were fought with galleys, rowed often but not always by slaves, which rammed each other to provide platforms for fierce hand to hand fighting.
The book reads like a thriller. It is narrative history, & the narrative it relates would scarcely be credible if it were presented as a work of fiction.
Heroes & villains abound, oftenin the same camp. Both sides are capable of great cruelty & great courage. In the siege of Malta La Valette standsin his armourin the front line of the defence as the Turks swarm up the rubble of a defensive wall.
At the last minute, on the most dangerous day of the siege, asin the most clichéd war movie, the cavalry literally comes over the hill & attacks the undefended enemy campin the rear. The almost-triumphant Turks break off the attack to retrieve their valuables & re-take their camp, & valuable breathing space is gained.
Tales of individual heroism crowd the bigger picture. The commanders fought alongside their men. At Lepanto Ali Pasha, the Ottoman chief, shot dozens of arrows at his enemies as his flagship was captured. Don Juan danced a galliard on the gun platform as they sailed towards the enemy. A man hitin the eye by an arrow plucked it out, eyeball & all, tied a cloth around his head & continued fighting.
The battle was a turning pointin history - never again did the Ottomans pose such a threat to the West. Up to this, even Rome was at risk from their ambitions.
Having just finished this book, I am inclined to go back to the beginning & start all over again. I certainly hope to do so before I visit some of the places where great & terrible deeds were accomplished. If you enjoy your history embellished with colour & enlivened with anecdote, this is the book for you.
One quibble, though: it's surprising that Faber, the publishers of poetry, were not more assiduousin their editing. Scrabbling is one word that is grossly over-used by the author, & discrete does not have the same meaning as discreet.
