7. Europe

The Arabs along with Berbers attacked Iberian Peninsula within 70 years of death of Muhammed. First, Muslims entrenched themselves in Northern Spain. Then Muslims in northern Spain, easily overrun Septimania, set up a capital at Narbonne which they called Arbuna. They then spread out to Southern and Eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. They initially allowed Christian inhabitants freedom of religion to avoid rebellion. Slowly they established total control of the conquered land. By 720 A.D., Muslims were poised for attacking Western Europe. Europe was not prepared then to Arab onslaught. But fortunately, Duke Odo of Aquitaine, also known as Eudes the Great, had decisively defeated a major invasion force of Arabs & Berbers in 721 A.D. at the Battle of Toulouse. However, Arabs continued to raid Aquitain from south and kept pressure on Eudes. In 725 A.D. Muslims reached as far as the city of Autun in Burgundy. In the meantime Franks from the North of France under leadership of Charles Martel moved towards South of France. Threatened by both the Arabs in the south and by the Franks in the north, Eudes allied himself with Uthman ibn Naissa in 730 A.D. Uthman was given Eudes's daughter Lampade in marriage to seal the alliance and Arab raids across the Pyrenees, Eudes' southern border, ceased.

Resistance by Franks

However, the next year, Uthman rebelled against the governor of al-Andalus, Abder Rahman. Abder Rahman quickly crushed the revolt, and next directed his attention against the traitor's former ally, Eudes. Arab army went through all places like a desolating storm. Duke Eudes, confronted Arab army at Bordeaux but was defeated and Bordeaux was plundered. The indiscriminate slaughter of Christians at the River Garonne was evidently horrific. Historian Isidorus Pacensis commented that, “God alone knows the number of the slain”. The Muslim horsemen systematically devastated South of Gaul, running through mountains and valleys, killing males and taking females as slave. Muslim authors described that the faithful pierced through the mountains, trampled over rough and level ground, plundered far into the country of the Franks, and sliced all with the sword. Eudes appealed to the Franks for assistance which Charles Martel only granted after Eudes agreed to submit to Frankish authority.

But why Eudes was defeated so easily at Bordeaux, after having won 11 years earlier at Battle of Toulouse in 721 A.D.? Eudes’ forces, like other European troops of that era, lacked stirrups and therefore had no armoured cavalry. Virtually all of their troops were infantry. They were no match against Arab armoured cavalry. But at Toulouse, Eudes managed a basic surprise attack against an overconfident and unprepared foe, all of whose defensive works were aimed inward, while he attacked from the outside. The Arab cavalry never got a chance to mobilize and meet him in open battle. At Bordeaux, they did and it resulted in absolute devastation of Eudes’ army, almost all of whom were killed, with minimal losses to the Muslims. The Muslim heavy cavalry broke the Christian infantry in their first charge and then simply slaughtered them at will as they broke and ran. The invading force then went on to devastate southern Gaul, preparing it for complete conquest. Having easily destroyed all resistance in that part of Gaul, the invading army had split off into several raiding parties, simply looting and destroying, while the main body advanced more slowly. One of the major raiding parties advanced on Tours. A possible motive was the riches of the Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours, the most prestigious and holiest shrine in Western Europe at the time. Upon hearing this, Austrasia Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel, collected his army of an estimated 30,000 veterans, and marched south avoiding the old Roman roads hoping to take the Muslims by surprise. Despite the great importance of this battle, its exact location remains unknown. Most historians assume that the two armies met each other where the rivers Clain and Vienne join between Tours and Poitiers.

Charles chose to begin the battle in a defensive, phalanx-like formation. According to the Arabian sources they drew up in a large square. Certainly, given the disparity between the armies, in that the Franks were mostly infantry, all without armour, against mounted and Arab armoured or mailed horsemen, (the Berbers were less heavily protected) Charles Martel fought a brilliant defensive battle. In a place and time of his choosing, he met a far superior force, and defeated it.

For six days, the two armies watched each other with just minor skirmishes. The Muslims waited for their full strength to arrive, which it did, but they were still uneasy. No good general, and Abder Rahman was one, liked to let his opponent pick the ground and conditions for battle -- and Martel had done both. Historians opined that the Rahman’s best strategic choice would have been to simply decline battle, depart with their loot, garrisoning the captured towns in southern Gaul and return when they could force Martel to a battleground more to their liking. This would have maximized the huge advantage Muslims had of the armoured horsemen over the Franks, who depended mainly on un-armoured foot soldiers. Stirrups were still not in wide use in Europe. Martel gambled everything that Abder Rahman would in the end feel compelled to battle and to go on and loot Tours. Charles refused to come out of wood and attack. Rahman was also hesitating. Neither of them wanted to attack. But winter was dawning. The Franks were well dressed for the cold and had the terrain advantage. The Arabs were not as prepared for the intense cold but did not want to attack what they thought might be a numerically superior Frankish army. Essentially, the Arabs wanted the Franks to come out in the open, while the Franks, formed in a tightly packed defensive formation, wanted them to come uphill, into the trees, (negating at once some of the advantages of their cavalry). It became a waiting game, which Martel won. The fight commenced on the seventh day, as Abder Rahman did not want to postpone the battle indefinitely.

Abder Rahman trusted the tactical superiority of his cavalry, and had them charge repeatedly. This time the faith the Muslims had in their cavalry, armed with their long lances and swords which had brought them victory in previous battles, was not justified.

In one of the rare instances where medieval infantry stood up against cavalry charges, the disciplined Frankish soldiers withstood the assaults, though according to Arab sources, the Arab cavalry several times broke into the interior of the Frankish square. But despite this, Franks did not break, and it is probably best expressed by a translation of an Arab account of the battle from the Medieval Source Book: "And in the shock of the battle the men of the North seemed like a sea that cannot be moved. Firmly they stood, one close to another, forming as it were a bulwark of ice; and with great blows of their swords they hewed down the Arabs. Drawn up in a band around their chief, the soldiers of the Austrasians carried all before them. Their tireless hands drove their swords down to the breasts of the foe."

It might have been different a story; however, had the Muslim forces remained under control. According to Muslim accounts of the battle, in the midst of the fighting on the second day, scouts from the Franks began to raid the camp and supply train (including slaves and other plunder).  Freed slaves started fleeing with loot. A large portion of the Muslim army broke off and raced back to their camp to save their plunder. What appeared to be a retreat soon became one.  While attempting to restore order to his men, who had managed to break into the defensive square, Abder Rahman was surrounded by Franks and killed.

According to a Frankish source, the battle lasted two days. Frankish histories claim that on the second day of battle, Charles sent scouts to cause chaos in the Muslim base camp and free as many of the slaves as possible, hoping to draw off part of his foe, it succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. When the rumour went through the Arab army that Frankish soldiers are freeing the slaves and looting the booty they had taken from Bordeaux, many of the Muslim Cavalry returned to their camp. This, to the rest of the Muslim army, appeared to be a full-scale retreat, and soon it became one. Both histories agree that while attempting to stop the retreat, Abder Rahman was surrounded and killed. Muslim army retreated to their camp.

The next day, when the Muslims did not renew the battle, the Franks feared an ambush. Only after extensive reconnaissance of the Muslim camp it was discovered that the Muslims had retreated during the night.

The Arab army retreated south over the Pyrenees. Charles earned his nickname Martel in this battle, meaning hammer. He continued to drive the Muslims from France in subsequent years. After Eudes died, who had been forced to acknowledge, albeit reservedly, the suzerainty of Charles, his son wished otherwise. Though Charles wished to unite the duchy directly to himself and went there to elicit the proper homage of the Aquitainians, the nobility proclaimed Odo's son, Hunold, as Duke. In the meantime Muslims were preparing for another onslaught. Hunold, who originally resisted acknowledging Charles as overlord, had no choice but to seek Charles’ support. Charles recognised Hunold’s position when he accepted Frankish dominion.

In 736 the Caliphate launched another massive invasion -- this time by sea. This naval Arab invasion was headed by Abdul Rahman's son. It landed in Narbonne in 736 and took Arles. Charles, put aside the conflict with Hunold, descended on the Provençal strongholds of the Muslims. In 736 A.D., he retook Montfrin and Avignon, and Arles and Aix-en-Provence with the help of Liutprand, King of the Lombards. Nîmes, Agde, and Béziers, held by Muslims since 725, fell to him and their fortresses destroyed. He smashed a Muslim force at the River Berre and prepared to meet their primary invasion force at Narbonne. He defeated a mighty Arab army outside of that city, using for the first time, heavy cavalry of his own, which he used in coordination with his phalanx. He crushed the Muslim army, though outnumbered, but failed to take the city Provence. However, he successfully showed that Arabs can be ousted and Europe can get rid of its foreign occupiers.

Notable about these campaigns was Charles' incorporation, for the first time, of heavy cavalry with stirrups to augment his phalanx. His ability to coordinate infantry and cavalry veterans was unequalled in that era and enabled him to face superior numbers of invaders, and decisively defeat them again and again. Some historians believe Narbonne in particular was as important a victory for Christian Europe as Tours. Charles was that rarest of commodities in the dark ages: a brilliant strategic general, who also was a tactical commander par excellence, able to adapt his plans to his foes forces and movement -- and amazingly, defeated them repeatedly, especially when, as at Tours, they were far superior in men and weaponry, and at Berre and Narbonne, when they were superior in numbers of brave fighting men. Charles had the last quality which defines genuine greatness in a military commander: he foresaw the dangers from his foes, and prepared for them with care; he used ground, time, place, and fierce loyalty of his troops to offset his foes superior weaponry and tactics; third, he adapted, again and again, to the situation on the battlefield, coolly shifting to compensate for the foreseen and unforeseeable.

The importance of these campaigns, Tours and the later campaigns of 736-737 A.D. in putting an end to Muslim bases in Gaul, and any immediate ability to expand Islamic influence in Europe, cannot be overstated. Gibbons and his generation of historians, and the majority of modern experts agree with them that they were unquestionably decisive in world history. Despite these victories, the Arabs remained in control of Narbonne and Septimania for another 27 years, but could not expand further than that. The treaties reached earlier with the local population stood firm and were further consolidated in 734 A.D., when the governor of Narbonne, Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri, concluded agreements with several towns on common defence arrangements against the encroachments of Charles Martel, who had systematically brought the south to heel as he extended his domains. He believed, and rightly so, that it was vital to keep the Muslims in Iberia, and not allow them a foothold in Gaul itself. However, Charles failed in his attempt to take Narbonne by siege in 737 A.D., when the city was jointly defended by its Muslim Arab and Christian Visigoth citizens. It was left to his son, Pippin the short, to force the city's surrender, in 759 A.D., and to drive the Arabs completely back to Iberia, and bring Narbonne into the Frankish Domains. His Grandson, Charlamagne, became the first Christian ruler to actually begin what would be called the Reconquista from Europe proper. In the east of the peninsula the Frankish emperors established the Marca Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is Catalonia, re-conquering Girona in 785 A.D. and Barcelona in 801 A.D. This formed a buffer zone against Islam across the Pyrenees.

Reconquista

After the Battle of Guadaleteriver in 711 A.D., the Muslims had conquered most of Southern and Central Iberia within next five years. But Christian inhabitants of Iberia could not accept and actually, the reconquest began almost immediately. In 718 A.D.  Muslim army was defeated at the battle of Alcama by the Visigoth chieftain Pelayo who was one of the few survivors of the battle of the Guadaleteriver.

Pelayo refused to accept Islamic over-lordship of his homeland. He escaped capture at the battle of Guadalete, where he was a member of the Visigothic King Rodrigo's bodyguard, and returned to his native Asturias in the mountainous part of Spain. He soon became the leader of a rebellion against Munuza, the Moorish governor of the area. He was captured in 717 A.D. and imprisoned by the Moors, but soon escaped and returned to Asturias, where he defeated Munuza and established the Kingdom of Asturias next year, with its capital at Cangas de Onis. Pelayo secured Asturias only in 722 A.D. when he defeated a powerful Muslim force sent to vanquish him in Battle of Covadonga. Today, this is regarded as the first Christian victory of the Reconquista. Pelayo, with a small band of brave warriors had tamed the Muslims. Pelayo's acts are etched in folklore of Spain, matching bravery of King Arthur and Robin Hood.

After Pelayo the resistance continued, but could not become substantial in the course of the next four centuries. Pelayo's tiny Kingdom of Asturias had survived as a sole Christian sentinel in Spain, exposed to continuous Muslim raiding. In the early tenth century, the Asturias king took advantage of Muslim infighting to move his capital south to Leon and the County of Castile.

By 1000 A.D., Muslim occupied Spain was the most oppressed part of Europe. The Christian population of the countryside was subject to heavy taxation called the Jiziya apart from persecution.. The Muslims had occupied the best parts of Spain, leaving the cold, damp mountains of the north to the Christians. The Islamic states had emerged in the east coast, the south, as well as the arid, high central Mesta areas. In the Christian areas of the north, eleventh-century society were suffering immensely under heavy penal taxation, a suffering which was made worse by the recurrent famines, as the Muslim invaders had destroyed all irrigation facilities and built none, where the majority of the population remained Christian. Large number of Christians had to convert to Islam to escape persecution in the mainland.

During this four centuries, Spanish peninsula remained under Muslim occupation. By 1000 A.D. the Italian Peninsula was also under threat of invasion from the across the narrow straits of Corsica and Sardinia. The papacy felt it imperative to infuse the Christian kingdoms of Northern Spain to keep up the pressure on the Muslims through a series of holy wars. But up to the 11th century the Holy War as such was not in the thinking of Christian mind.

In the 11^th century two things happened. Iberian peasants became rebellious under crushing taxes. Secondly, the reform movement of the Church began to seep into northern Spain. The Spanish church at the beginning of the eleventh century was corrupt with a non-standardized monastic system. But the reclusive and militaristic Cluny Monasteries were just across the French border. The kings of Navarre and Leon invited French monks to reform their monasteries. These monks began clamouring for re-conquest of Christian lands as a holy duty.

At that time Christian mercenaries were in the employment of Muslim lords. The military strength of Spanish Christian soldiers of fortune in the employ of the Muslim occupiers was significant. But their relations with their Muslim paymasters were not based on loyalties and they looked upon their function in purely monetary terms. They had a dislike for being used to oppress their Christian compatriots. They were mentally prepared to change side when there is a Christian revival. That came in 1085 A.D. That year, Alfonso VI of Leon, liberated Toledo from the yoke of the Moriscos (Muslims). Spanish Christians were jubilant but the Christian advance was to evoke one last Muslim backlash from the Almoravids of Morocco.

The Almoravids originated in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, and were rigidly fanatical in their interpretation of Islam. They arrived to fight off the Christians in 1086 A.D. At the Battle of Sagrajas, they routed Alfonso's forces, and created a new unified Muslim state in Andalusia (Spain). Alfonso still held Toledo though, by establishing fortified towns.

To attract settlers, the Christian kingdoms of North Spain, offered people amenities like a house, some land, and local self-government, even criminals were offered amnesties, and were granted freedom if they settled in the Mesta - the frontier lands bordering Muslim domains. What emerged then was a Wild West-like environment, the chief means of subsistence being sheep-raising and inter-confessional warfare. Towns developed civil militias for both defensive and offensive purposes, so that raiding, animal husbandry, and trading were the natural occupations of people living on the Mesta. Tremendous social mobility developed. The aristocracy was very small, and peasants maintained their freedom.

Next 100 years skirmishes continued. Both sides became more and more aligned to religious lines.  Muslims were united under one political system while Spanish were divided. So in the twelfth century the Almohads (who replaced Almoravids from same place) could stop the Reconquista but this was mostly due to the lack of Christian political unity. The beginning of the thirteenth century again saw a Christian Spanish refinement corresponding in its vigour to the Almohads. Warrior Crusader-monks began to arrive from Palestine and joining Reconquista.

On the other hand Almohads were ultra-orthodox and unbending in their interpretation of Islam, and they alienated even the Muslim urban elites. Thus, they were not able to maintain political ascendancy in Muslim Andalusia, and were eventually forced out. In the 1220s, then, Muslim Spain began to politically fragment all over again, at the same time as Ferdinand III of Castile was reaching majority and James of Aragon was coming into his own. Starting from 1229 and lasting up to 1250, the majority of Spain was retaken by the Christians. This was highlighted by the fall of Cordoba in 1235, which was once the Umayyad capital. The Christian conquest of Seville by Ferdinand in 1248 was the next high watermark of the Reconquista. Only the Muslim kingdom of Grenada persisted in the southern coast of Spain.

But, in the thirteenth century, the Christian kingdoms in Spain had mostly Muslim populations. To attract Christians, kings had recourse to the same preferential policies as were used from Alfonso on, including land and legal freedoms better than feudal arrangements elsewhere. A Christian rush into Iberia emerged in the 1240s to 1260s, providing the demographic backbone and elites for the expanding Christian states into the fourteenth century.

Through the eight centuries of warfare, the reconquista liberated Spain. Once liberated Spanish rulers went about to restore Spain. They either destroyed or converted all mosques into Churches, forcibly re-converted the Muslims who stayed back into Christians and burnt at the stake all those who refused to embrace the Christianity. Thus they wiped out all traces of the eight hundred year long Muslim tyranny in Spain. Muslim rule in Spain became a faint memory that was overshadowed by the grandeur of Catholic Spain that came later. The Centuries of Golden era that followed with the opening up of the New World and the legendary El Dorado, with the Colonization of the Americas and of the East Indies, all contributed to the Muslim occupation of Spain being forgotten even as an aberration, or a nightmare.

Crusades

Crusades were military campaigns sanctioned by the Latin Roman Catholic Church during the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages. Main aim of Crusade was to reconquer Jerusalem and other Christian domain under Muslim occupation. In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to holy places in and near Jerusalem. Following the First Crusade there was an intermittent 200-year struggle for control of the Holy Land, with seven more major crusades and numerous minor ones. In 1291, the conflict ended in failure with the fall of the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land at Acre, after which Roman Catholic Europe mounted no further coherent response in the east.

Many historians and some of those involved at the time, like Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, give equal weight to other papal-sanctioned military campaigns undertaken for a variety of religious, economic, and political reasons, such as the Albigensian Crusade, the Aragonese Crusade, the Reconquista, and the Northern Crusades.

Some historians see the Crusades as confident, aggressive, papal-led expansion attempts by Western Christendom; some see them as part of long-running conflict at the frontiers of Europe; and others see them as part of a purely defensive war against Islamic conquest. Crusading attracted men and women of all classes. The massacres involved were mainly attributed as being caused by disorder, individual audacity and economic distress.

The Byzantine Empire was unable to recover territory lost during the initial Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs in the Arab–Byzantine Wars and the Byzantine–Seljuq Wars; these conquests culminated in the loss of fertile farmlands and vast grazing areas of Anatolia in 1071 A.D., after a sound victory by the occupying armies of Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert. Urban II sought to reunite the Christian church under his leadership by providing Emperor Alexios I with military support.

Several hundred thousand Roman Catholic Christians became crusaders by taking a public vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. These crusaders were Christians from all over Western Europe under feudal rather than unified command, and the politics were often complicated to the point of intra-faith competition leading to alliances between combatants of different faiths against their coreligionists, such as the Christian alliance with the Islamic Sultanate of Rum during the Fifth Crusade. Furthermore, Pope Urban II promised forgiveness of all sins to whosoever took up the cross and joined in the war. While there were additional motivations for taking up the cross—opportunity for economic or political gain, desire for adventure, and the feudal obligation to follow one’s lord into battle—to become a soldier for Christ was most appealing to the Crusaders . Certain monarchs across Europe also pledged their servants for service for the perks of being a part of the war.

The impact of the crusades was profound, and judgment of the conduct of crusaders has varied widely from laudatory to highly critical. Jonathan Riley-Smith identifies the independent states established, such as the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Crusader States, as the first experiments in "Europe Overseas". These ventures reopened the Mediterranean to trade and travel, enabling Genoa and Venice to flourish. Crusading armies would engage in commerce with the local populations while on the march, with Orthodox Byzantine emperors often organizing markets for Crusader forces moving through their territory. The crusading movement consolidated the collective identity of the Latin Church under the Pope’s leadership and was the source of heroism, chivalry, and medieval piety. This in turn spawned medieval romance, philosophy, and literature. However, the crusades reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism that ran counter to the Peace and Truce of God that Urban had promoted.

The crusaders often pillaged the countries through which they travelled in the typical medieval manner of supplying an army on the move. Nobles often retained much of the territory gained rather than returning it to the Byzantines as they had sworn to do. The Peoples' Crusade prompted Rhineland massacres and the murder of thousands of Jews. The Fourth Crusade resulted in the sack of Constantinople by the Roman Catholics, effectively ending the chance of reuniting the Christian church by reconciling the East–West Schism and leading to the weakening and eventual fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans. Nevertheless, some crusaders were merely poor people trying to escape the hardships of medieval life in an armed pilgrimage leading to Apotheosis at Jerusalem.

Ottoman thurst in Cetre of Europe & Resistance

In twelve century several things were happening together in Muslim heartland. Mongols destructed Muslim States but could not replace, thereby created a vacuum in central Asia. Mongols hoard converted to Islam and gave birth to Taimur Lang, the terror and subsequently Mugals who moved south. Arabs disintegrated and formed multiple emirates. It was left to the newly converted Turks to take the centre stage. The Turks filled the gap in central Asia and created a great Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Empire claimed Caliphate as well and took the leadership of Muslim world for next 800 years. Eastern migration brought Turks to Anatolia in conflict with Byzantine Empire. For the first time Muslims were at the centre of Europe. Ottoman Turks slowly decimated Christians from Anatolia. Christian Europe tried to reconquer Anatolia through Crusades. Crusades delayed but inevitable happened. Ottoman attacked Central Europe and Europe resisted. Muslim Christian war continued in central Europe till 1^st world war.

The Ottoman wars in Europe, known also as the Ottoman Wars or Turkish Wars for short, were a series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and a number of European states from the Late Medieval period to the 20th century. Military activities began with the Byzantine–Ottoman Wars from the late 13th century, complemented by the Bulgarian–Ottoman Wars and the Serbian–Ottoman Wars in the 14th century, whereupon the Ottoman Empire rapidly conquered the Balkans. The initial Serbian–Ottoman Wars, Croatian–Ottoman Wars and the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars allowed the further expansion of the Ottomans into Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Turkish political domination was nevertheless kept at bay after the unsuccessful Siege of Vienna (1529) and the Ottoman–Habsburg wars. Ottoman Empire reached its zenith in seventeenth century. Balkans, Greece, Hungary and Even Poland were under Ottoman occupation.

At that time Ottoman Empire represented almost whole of Muslim land barring peninsular India, both politically and militarily. It was a very powerful country backed up by Muslim concept of Jihad. European countries in Central Europe, on the other hand, were politically fragmented and were opposed to each other. Sometimes one Christian state would ally with Turks for material or political benefits. Ottoman Turks engaged one place at a time and ceaselessly advanced into Christian land. European countries were unequal against Turk’s superior military power, tactics, vast manpower and jihadi spirit. However, there were numerous incidences of valour, counter attack and reversals.

General János Hunyadi

János (the Hungarian name for John) Hunyadi is a truly universal folk hero. In a Serb epic, he is Sibinyanin Janko; the Slavs generally called him Ugrin Janko (John the Hungarian). To the Romanians, who claim he was of Wallachian extraction, he is Ion of Hunedoara. To the Bulgarians and Macedonians he is Jansekula. Greek folk singers arbitrarily changed his name to Janko of Byzantium. Dukas, the Greek historian, compared him to the two most valiant figures of Greek mythology, Achilles and Hector.

In 1437 Sigismund, King of Hungary appointed Hunyadi chief of defence of southern Hungary, which stretched from eastern Transylvania to the Adriatic. After Sigismund's death that same year, the next king of Hungary, Ladislas (Laszlo) V, made him captain of Nandorfehervár (Belgrade) and the voivode (prince) of Transylvania. As if by providence, the king put the right man in the right place at the right time. The years preceding Hunyadi's appointment saw a gradual Turkish advancement on the Balkan Peninsula toward Hungary. The Turks were also carrying out forays throughout the terrified southern regions of the country. Whole villages were being destroyed, thousands were killed, and thousands of others, including women and children, taken captive to be sold in the slave markets of the Ottoman Empire.

After he was appointed commander of southern Hungary, János Hunyadi decided it was time to put a halt to Turkish intrusions. He first attacked Beg Iszhak, commander of the Turkish garrison occupying Szendro. Iszhak assumed that, as usual, the Hungarians would attack the main body of his army with cavalry. Instead, Hunyadi sent his own elite foot soldiers to meet the central Turkish force in hand-to-hand combat. At the same time, the Hungarian cavalry attacked the flanks of the Turks, who were unprepared for mounted assault from the flanks. The battle was soon over.

In the following year, 1438, Hunyadi prepared another fateful surprise for another Turkish potentate, Mezid Pasha, at Nagyszeben, Transylvania. By that time, Hunyadi was so feared by the Turks that the night before the battle Mezid Pasha planned to concentrate his forces to kill Hunyadi and defeat his army. Hunyadi switched his armour with a volunteer and devastated the Turk army when they thought they have killed him.

A larger army under the leadership of Sehabeddin was sent to conquer Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania. Hunyadi's army stood waiting for the Turks at the Iron Gate, the narrows where the Danube River leaves Hungary. Although his forces totalled only 15,000, they were crack soldiers. So when the Turks attacked, they were massacred. Numerical superiority did not help.

In the ensuing years, Hunyadi and his troops continued to fight the Turks, winning some battles and losing others. In 1444 at Varna, acting against Hunyadi's advice, King Ladislas V engaged the enemy in close combat and was killed by Janissaries (elite Turkish infantry, recruited from captured Christian youth). Though Hunyadi was appreciated all over Europe, no state came to aid him in his war with Turks. In fact he had to go through interstate rivalry with Serbia and Romania.

On May 29, 1453, Europe experienced one of her darkest hours. Constantinople, the capital of Christian Byzantium, fell to the Ottoman Turks. The conquerors did not spare even monks and nuns. In Hungary, the fall of Byzantium was considered especially grave news. It was clear that the sultan's next move would be against them.

In December 1455, the young Sultan Mehmet II began making plans for the capture of Belgrade (then known as Nandorfehervák). He believed that once Belgrade fell he would have little trouble with the Hungarians. He would be in Budapest in two months. The sultan assembled an army of 3,00,000 men at Edirne in order to be ready for a campaign in the spring of 1456. The nobles including 16-year-old king of Hungary, Ladislas Posthumus, fled Budapest for the safety of Vienna.

In those trying days only the new pope, Calixtus III, who called Hungary the 'Shield of Christianity,' did everything in his power to come to Hunyadi's aid. He sent a Franciscan monk, John of Capistrano, to arouse the people of Hungary. An impassioned orator, John succeeded in recruiting thousands from all walks of society to fight the Turks. Peasants were inducted in the army. Hunyadi could master about 50,000 ragtag soldiers.

When Hunyadi arrived Belgrade in early July 1456, he found it already encircled by the Ottoman army while the Turkish navy lay astride the Danube River. His first task was to break the naval blockade, which he succeeded in doing on July 14, sinking three large Ottoman galleys and capturing four large vessels and 20 smaller ones. That done, Hunyadi was able to transport his troops and much-needed food into the city.

Meanwhile, Turkish heavy artillery bombardments breached Belgrade's walls in several places and rubble filled up the trenches. On July 21, Mehmet ordered an all-out assault, which began at sundown and continued all night. The Janissaries led the attack, and the ferocity of their charge carried them within the walls. Hunyadi, however, directed the defence with great resourcefulness. He ordered the defenders to throw tarred wood, sulfur-saturated blankets, sides of bacon and other flammable material into the moat, and then set it afire. Soon a wall of flames separated the Janissaries fighting in the city from their comrades outside the walls. Those caught in the moat were burned to death or seriously injured, and the Janissaries remaining inside the city were massacred by Hunyadi's troops. On the morning of the 22nd, a lull in the fighting set in, allowing more reinforcements to cross the river and relieve Belgrade's defenders.

The next day, while the Turks were burying their dead, suddenly some of the Crusader units crept out from demolished ramparts, and attacked Turkish line. Then some more Crusaders joined those outside the wall. What began as an isolated incident quickly escalated into a full-scale battle. Turks lost heart and started fleeing. Sultan was injured and fell unconscious. It was a big defeat. The sultan's defeat was hailed as a glorious victory for Christendom. TeDeums (ancient Latin prayers of thanksgiving) were sung in churches, church bells sounded and bonfires burned in celebration. The old truism, 'victory has a thousand fathers while defeat is an orphan,' was proved again. Even those who had been hostile or indifferent toward Hunyadi now joined in singing praises to his victory.

On August 11, 1456, Hunyadi died, probably from the plague that had been ravaging Belgrade even before the siege. Two months later, John of Capistrano, the spiritual leader at Belgrade, followed him to the grave.

Turks could ultimately capture vast tracts of middle Europe due to their military and political unity which Europe was lacking at that time. What they did not lack was courage and tenacity. The resistance Turks faced was enormous. In that hundreds and thousands heroes perished. Only a few of the heroes are presented here

Skanderbeg (Albania)

Skanderbeg was born in 1405 A.D. to a noble family. Sultan Murad II took him hostage in 1423 and he served the Ottoman Empire during the next twenty years. He was converted to Islam but he never forgot his past. In 1443, he deserted the Ottomans during the battle of Nis and became the ruler of Kruje. He converted back to Christianity.  In 1444, he was appointed as a commander of the short-lived League of Lezue which proclaimed him Chief of the League of the Albanian people and he defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years. Skanderbeg was not able to do more than to hold his own possessions within the very small area in the North Albania where almost all his victories against the Ottomans took place. Skanderbeg's rebellion was not a general  uprising of Albanians, due to the fact that he did not gain support in the Ottoman-controlled south of Albania or Venetian-controlled north of Albania.

In 1451, he recognized de jure the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Naples through the Treaty of Gaeta to ensure a protective alliance, although he remained a de facto independent ruler. In 1460–1461, he participated in Italy's civil wars in support of Ferdinand –I of Naples. In 1463, he became the chief commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pious II but the Pope died while the armies were still gathering. Together with Venetians he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–79) until his death in January 1468. Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion and he was considered by many in Western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Muslims. Skanderbeg is Albania's most important national hero and a key figure.

Stephen the Great (Moldovia)

Moldavia and its prince, Stephen the Great (1457-1504), were the principalities' last hope of repelling the Ottoman threat. Stephen drew on Moldavia's peasantry to raise a 55,000-man army and repelled the invading forces of Hungary's King Mátyás Corvinus in a daring night attack. Stephen's army invaded Walachia in 1471 A.D. and defeated them.  He again defeated Turks when they retaliated in 1473 and 1474 A.D. After these victories, Stephen implored Pope Sixtus IV to forge a Christian alliance against the Turks. The pope replied with a letter naming Stephen an "Athlete of Christ," but he did not heed Stephen's calls for Christian unity. During the last decades of Stephen's reign, the Turks increased the pressure on Moldavia. They captured key Black Sea ports in 1484 and burned Moldavia's capital, Suceava, in 1485. Stephen rebounded with a victory in 1486 A.D. but thereafter confined his efforts to secure Moldavia's independence to the diplomatic arena. Frustrated by vain attempts to unite the West against the Turks, Stephen, on his deathbed, reportedly told his son to submit to the Turks if they offered an honourable suzerainty. Succession struggles weakened Moldavia after his death.

Jan Sobieski (in Vienna)

Ottoman Turks sent 120,000 strong force and about 2,00,000 auxiliary men under Kara Mustafa to seize and capture Vienna in the year 1683 A.D. The city garrison had about 15,000 fighting men and 10,000 volunteers. All children, women and others fled from the city to avoid Muslim persecution. But the Turks instead of charging straightaway decided to starve out the garrison. They were quite successful in that venture but could not achieve surrender.

Fortunately for the Austrians, and for Christendom, Pope Innocent authorized the papal nuncio in Kraków to use the full resources of the Vatican. The Polish senate authorized their King to ride to the relief of Vienna. When the King of Poland set off for Vienna in early September, the Viennese garrison was in desperate straits. The people of the city were starving, and the city had suffered serious damage from the Turkish bombardment.

On the evening of 11^th September King, Jan Sobieski arrived at a hill north of the city, leading a force of 40,000 Poles and their German and Austrian allies. The battle began soon afterwards, in the early morning hours of 12^th September. The Austrians and Germans attacked the Turks first at the centre and then on the left flank. The Turks counterattacked but held back a significant portion of their forces in anticipation of entering the city through a breach in the wall. That very morning Kara Mustafa had completed preparation of a powerful charge to be set off under the Lobel bastion; one that would throw the city open to the Turkish forces once and for all. Unfortunately for Kara Mustafa, the Viennese within the city had mounted a counter-tunnelling operation. The Viennese detected the Turkish mine, found the charge and defused it.

In the meanwhile the King of Poland with the fearsome Winged Hussars, 20,000 men behind him, led a cavalry charge down the hill into the right flank of the Ottoman army. The Winged Hussars were one of the most formidable fighting forces of the time. The sound of the wind through the feathers of their artificial wings was said to unnerve the enemies’ horses and drive superstitious soldiers into a panic. The King drove through the Turkish lines, and seeing his success, the Vienna garrison sallied forth from the city and hit the Turks from the rear. Demoralized by attacks from all sides and their failure to breach the wall, the Turks started fleeing. The battle was over in three hours. Turk army fled eastwards in haste, abandoning their tents, weapons, battle standards, provisions, and slaves. The siege was broken and city was saved. Jan III Sobieski was received as the hero of Vienna. Though it was not evident at the time, the Ottoman tide had turned at the Gates of Vienna and was about to recede, beginning its long withdrawal through the Balkans and Greece into Asia Minor over the next two centuries.

What is striking about Jan III Sobieski is the quality of his leadership. More important than arms, manpower, tactics, supplies, and even courage, leadership is what makes the difference in any war. When Jan Sobieski led his men down that hill into the Ottoman flank, it was his presence at the front of the charge that demonstrated his dauntless nature and absolute determination. Character cannot be faked, and men who recognize this kind of character in their leader will follow him.

Later on, the Europeans, united by Christianity, formed the Holy League which was a group of Christian states. They were able to reverse a number of Ottoman conquests during the so-called "Great Turkish War" of the late 17th century, and this resulted in the removal of the foreign and alien influence of the Ottoman Empire from European soil..

The Ottomans were much slower to modernize their military compared to the modern and industrially advanced and financially wealthy Christian nations in the European Holy League. This led directly to rebellion of the few Christian nations the Ottomans briefly managed to occupy. This led to partially-successful Serbian revolution of (1804–1817) and the completely successful Greek War of Independence of (1821–1832). Russian Empire in parallel was pushing Ottomans from Crimea, Ukraine and Balkans. Poland successfully broke away from Ottoman subjugation. Slowly Ottoman Empire became weak and unable to sustain. Finally Ottoman Empire collapsed at the conclusion of World War I, with the signing of the Treaty of Sevres.

The Treaty of Sevres, however, was not well received by all of Christendom. Among the other Allied powers, Greece did not accept the borders as drawn and never ratified it. The Armenians was just recovering from the barbaric and near complete annihilation of their people, caused by the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1918 by the Turks. Surviving Armenians consolidated and beat the Turks to gain independence. Now they wanted a fair deal and sent their President for negotiation for Treaty of Sevres. During the making of the Treaty of Sevres, the President of the United States Woodrow Wilson, on the fourth of June 1918, personally promised to the Armenians an Armenia which would have access to the Black Sea. The Armenians, happy that their nation was restored nearly a millennium after falling to the Turks, were shocked after realising that the territorial change was not going to happen. The lack of unity of the newly formed League of Nations led to political infighting within the organization itself.

The aftermath was obviously not good for the Christian Armenians, as the Muslim Turks did not accept the Treaty of Sevres and broke it almost immediately with the invasion of Armenia in 1918, which carried on to a war between the two countries until 1923. The Armenians were then promised that by joining the Soviet Union it would provide a guaranteed security to their nation, but instead they were forced to accept the much less beneficial Treaty of Batum. To this day the Armenians do not accept the treaty and consider that, due to the fact it was negotiated exclusively by the Soviet Union, it is an illegal document and therefore the borders should be redrawn once more.

Ottoman Turks left Europe ultimately but left a sizable Muslim population in central Europe.

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