The Great Siege of Malta
Published on 29. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-14-199775-9 (ISBN)
Description
'An epic account ... myth-busting ... Bull writes with knightly brio and packs a great deal of local and global history into his authoritative book' Pratinav Anil, The Times
A major new history 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.
This 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. Sueleyman the Magnificent had conquered and subsumed regions from Hungary to the Persian Gulf; Philip II was building an empire in America and Asia.
Drawing 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.
A major new history 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.
This 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. Sueleyman the Magnificent had conquered and subsumed regions from Hungary to the Persian Gulf; Philip II was building an empire in America and Asia.
Drawing 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.
Reviews / Votes
An engrossing new study... Bull's account of the siege itself is lucid and dispassionate. He has a sharp eye for bombast - representing the failed defence of St Elmo as a heroic act of self-sacrifice, for example - that might obscure uncomfortable truths... Bull has set himself a challenging task: to convey the drama of the siege and the myths that grew out of it while downplaying, if not denying, suggestions of its wider historical importance. It's a difficult balancing act, but one he pulls off with aplomb -- Mathew Lyons * Literary Review * 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 * 'Impressive, deeply researched... Rather than pursue old religious agendas and messianic readings of the triumph Bull places the siege in a broad global economic and political context -- Andrew Lambert * Naval Review * Thorough and propulsive -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman * A vivid account of a close-run thing ... peculiarly fascinating -- David Horspool * The Oldie * Thoughtful and incisive... a great strength of Bull's book is precisely that he often dissents from received opinion... he has provided an impressive reassessment, rich in penetrating insights, of a major moment in the history of the Mediterranean -- David Abulafia * TLS * An epic account... [a] no-nonsense, myth-busting book... [Bull] writes with knightly brio and packs a great deal of local and global history into his authoritative book -- Pratinav Anil * The Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
294 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-199775-9 (9780141997759)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Marcus Bull is Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of North Carolina. He has written extensively on Europe from the tenth to the sixteenth century with a particular emphasis on crusading in all its many forms.