{"product_id":"9780241523650","title":"The Great Siege of Malta","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor:  Bull, Marcus \u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch4\u003eMalta\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003ch5\u003ePublished on 30 January 2025 by Penguin Books Ltd (Allen Lane) in the United Kingdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHardback | 352 pages\u003cbr\u003e241 x 164 x 34 | 594g\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Marcus Bull’s revisiting of the siege through the eyes of the Ottomans and a global lens that shifts our angle of vision has made a considerable contribution to our understanding of the events of 1565... his approach is investigatory, based on a forensic study of all the available evidence and posing open-ended questions... the coverage of the siege itself is succinct and full of interesting perspectives' - Roger Crowley, Engelsberg Ideas  A major new account of the epic siege of the island fortress of Malta Even as the great siege began it was understood by both sides to be an epic – a potentially decisive encounter between an uneasy assortment of soldiers, native Maltese, adventurers and Knights Hospitaller on a strategically crucial but near waterless island and a vast, seemingly all-powerful Ottoman armada. With three quarters of the Mediterranean’s coasts already in the hands of the Sultan and his allies, all eyes were now on Malta.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis superb new account of the siege emphasises the crucial importance of the siege while at the same time putting it in a far wider context. While since mistakenly recast as a climactic battle between the West and the East, it was also much more interesting and nuanced than that – both sides had many other interests and priorities beyond Malta. Süleyman the Magnificent had conquered and subsumed regions from Hungary to the Persian Gulf; Philip II was building an empire in America and Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on a wide range of eyewitness stories, Marcus Bull gives a vivid sense of the period’s technologies, values and assumptions. It was a grim world built on the labour of many thousands of disposable galley-slaves, shockingly brutal forms of warfare and religious absolutism. But it was also a world filled with the most extraordinary new discoveries and ideas. Both these worlds come together in the siege and in this book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bookshop Mold","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54929715986808,"sku":"9780241523650","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0277\/7802\/3522\/files\/9780241523650_f41154ab-0773-4ed3-8b4d-14868792656a.jpg?v=1773927373","url":"https:\/\/www.mold-bookshop.live\/products\/9780241523650","provider":"The Bookshop. Mold.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}