The naval battles with Islam

John Julius Norwich reviews Empires of the Sea By Roger Crowley.

In all European history, there is no more stirring story than that of the long struggle between Christianity and Islam for mastery of the Mediterranean.

The story begins, essentially, in the early hours of May 29, 1453 -- it was a Tuesday -- when the army of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror burst through the walls of Constantinople and put an end, after 1,123 years and a siege lasting 55 days, to the Byzantine Empire. The story concludes a little more than two centuries later with Islam's final triumph, on Sept. 26, 1669 -- a Sunday -- when, after 465 years as a Venetian colony, the island of Crete saw the banner of St. Mark lowered for the last time.

In "Empires of the Sea," Roger Crowley has taken as his subject the six decades from 1520 to 1580, the middle act -- and by far the most important -- of this tremendous drama. The act contains five main scenes. The first is set on the island of Rhodes in 1522, where for six months the Knights Hospitallers of St. John heroically resist the army of Mehmet's great-grandson, Süleyman the Magnificent, before their inevitable surrender.

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The last scene in Mr. Cowley's drama is the Gulf of Lepanto, where from dawn to dusk on Oct. 7, 1571, just a year after the atrocity in Cyprus, was fought the last naval battle in history in which oared galleys, ramming each other head-on, played the major role. It was also the bloodiest. On one side were the combined fleets of Spain, Venice and the papacy, commanded by the bastard son of Charles V; on the other, the Turks. It ended in an overwhelming victory for the Christians. According to the most reliable estimates, they lost only 12 galleys sunk and one captured; Turkish losses were 113 and 117, respectively.

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It sounds like an interesting book. One of the things that strikes me is how technology led to the demise of the Islamic navies. With the fall of the oared galleys, sailing ships dominated the seas and gave the Europeans the edge they needed to dominate many of the countries who touched the oceans. The sailing ships led to the discovery of America. These discoveries also distracted from the fight against Islam.

The Crusades were over, and because of that technical innovation atrophied in the Islamic world. The Muslims never sent out a sailing fleet to challenge the Europeans in any meaningful battles. The Barbary pirates were still a threat to merchant ships, but they were no threat to war ships. In fact they pretty much mirror the way terrorist fight today. Their focus was on non combatants.