The Maltese Falcon

A review of a book about the wars between Christendom and Islam for control of the Mediterranean, the origin of the Maltese Falcon, and other very interesting things.

An excerpt.

“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.

“For the second scene, the spotlight moves to the Barbary Coast -- the strip of North Africa running between Tangier and Tunis. Piracy here had always been endemic, but after 1502, when Ferdinand and Isabella evicted all Muslims from Spain, it assumed the dimensions of a holy war. The climax of this war came in 1535, when Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor -- by now effectively the leader of Christendom -- personally led a naval expedition to Tunis against the most dangerous of the pirates, known in Europe as Barbarossa. The foray proved successful, up to a point; but Barbarossa escaped to continue the fight, and the Muslims had their revenge when they utterly destroyed a Spanish fleet off the coast of North Africa.

“After their departure from Rhodes, the Knights had wandered for seven years until, in 1530, Charles had given them the island of Malta, at a nominal annual rent of one falcon -- the famous Maltese Falcon. Malta provides the backdrop for scene three, which presents us with another siege, perhaps the greatest in Mediterranean history. It occurred in 1565, and the story has never been better told. Mr. Crowley has an astonishing gift for narration; his account is as exciting as any thriller. When we read of the arrival of the long-awaited fleet -- the "Gran Soccorso" -- from Spain we can hardly suppress a cheer. And when, a few pages later, what is left of Süleyman's once-great army drags itself back to the waiting ships we mop our brows with relief.”