Qualla: Siege of Rhodes (1480) https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Siege of Rhodes (1480) https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480 Siege of Rhodes (1480): Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of July 27, 1480, the Ottoman army threw 2,500 janissaries at the Tower of Italy on the eastern wall of Rhodes city. They got over the parapet. They were inside. Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson, already wounded in five places, came at them with a lance and the rest of the Knights followed. Three hours of close-quarters fighting later, between three and four thousand Ottoman soldiers lay dead on the breach, the survivors had been pushed out, and the Hospitaller counterattack had reached the Vizier's tent and seized the holy standard of Islam from where it had been planted. By August 17, Mesih Pasha would order what was left of his army to embark. Rhodes had held.

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/sw7v-siege-of-rhodes-1480-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Rhodes (1480): Mehmed's Calculation https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480/ Photo credit Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II spent the next two and a half decades pushing Ottoman frontiers in every direction. By 1480, the empire stretched from the Crimea to Albania, with the Black Sea closed to non-Ottoman shipping and the Aegean increasingly d...

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Image: Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/sw7v-siege-of-rhodes-1480-mehmeds-calculation.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Rhodes (1480): The Tower of Saint Nicholas https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480/ Photo credit Master of the Cardinal de Bourbon, Public domain. On May 23, 1480, an Ottoman fleet of 160 ships and an army of about 70,000 men appeared off Trianta on the Rhodes coast. Mesih Pasha's first objective was the Tower of Saint Nicholas, a fortified position controlling the entrances to both Mandraki and Akandia harbors. The Turkish...

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Image: Master of the Cardinal de Bourbon | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/sw7v-siege-of-rhodes-1480-the-tower-of-saint-nicholas.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Rhodes (1480): The Morning of July 27 https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480/ Photo credit MarkusMark, CC BY-SA 3.0. At dawn, the Ottoman commander committed his elite. About 2,500 janissaries stormed the Tower of Italy and got across the parapet. They opened the way for the main assault force behind them. The town stood in genuine danger of falling in the next hour. Pierre d'Aubusson, by now w...

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Image: MarkusMark | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/sw7v-siege-of-rhodes-1480-the-morning-of-july-27.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Rhodes (1480): The Withdrawal https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480/ Photo credit Karelj, Public domain. Mesih Pasha did not order an immediate departure. The Ottoman army stayed in position for nearly three weeks, regrouping and considering whether another assault was possible. It was not. Casualties were too heavy, morale was broken, the campaigning season was running out, and the...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/sw7v-siege-of-rhodes-1480-the-withdrawal.mp3 0:06 5 full Siege of Rhodes (1480): The Book That Carried the News https://qualla.com/siege-of-rhodes-1480/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Among those who watched the siege from inside the walls was Gulielmus Caoursin, vice-chancellor of the Hospitallers. He sat down afterward and wrote *Obsidionis Rhodiae Urbis Descriptio*, a detailed eyewitness account that Edward Gibbon would later translate into English as part ...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/7/v/siege-of-rhodes-1480-wp/sw7v-siege-of-rhodes-1480-the-book-that-carried-the-news.mp3 0:06 6 full