The Last Crusaders: The Hundred-Year Battle for the Center of the World »

Barnaby Rogerson is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Heirs of Muhammad: Islam's First Century and the Origins of the Sunni-Shia Schism, The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography, and A History of North Africa. He has lived and worked in many parts of the Arab world, and currently resides in London.

An exploration of the later Crusades, written "with the skill of a historian and the flair of a novelist" (The Guardian)

The Crusades were the bridge between medieval and modern history, between feudalism and colonialism. In many ways, the little explored later Crusades were the most significant of them all, for they made the crisis truly global. The Last Crusaders is about the period's last great conflict between East and West, and the titanic contest between Habsburg-led Christendom and the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. From the great naval campaigns and the ferocious struggle to dominate the North African shore, the conflict spread out along trade routes, consuming nations and cultures, destroying dynasties, and spawning the first colonial empires in South America and the Indian Ocean.

Acclaimed scholar of Islamic history and author Barnaby Rogerson illuminates the Last Crusades in an accessible and skillful manner. He shows how, to this day, the disputed borders of the Crusades era stand as defining frontiers and dividing lines between languages, nations, and religions. From Constantinople to Fez, from Rhodes to Granada, The Last Crusaders is narrative history at its richest and most compelling.

Library Journal

Rogerson (The Heirs of Muhammad) focuses not on the more famous Crusades from 1095 and 1291 but on a later series of clashes between various Christian and Muslim forces in and around the Mediterranean, beginning with Portugal's capture of the city of Ceuta in 1415 and ending with the battles at Lepanto in 1571 and Alcácer Quibir in 1578. The author imbues his text with an excellent sense of person and place, presenting not only the exploits of both Christians and Muslims on the battlefield but also their shifting alliances and internal struggles. He also explores how military technologies and the expansion of trade and exploration helped shape the conflicts. This thoroughly readable book provides a vibrant and well-organized account of this tumultuous, lesser-known period of history. Highly recommended for both students and general readers.—KM

Maps

Introduction 1

Pt. I Birth of New Powers

1 The Crusader Prince of Portugal: Henry the Navigator, 1415-60 13

2 The Navigator's Nephew: King Afonso the African, 1455-81, and King John II, 1481-95 42

3 The Great Eagle: Mehmet the Conqueror of Constantinople, 1450-80 63

4 Reconquista: The Crusade of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile against Muslim Granada, 1480-1510 114

5 Barbarossa: The Emergence of the Muslim Corsairs, 1480-1510 148

6 The Just and the Grim: The Transformation of the Ottoman Empire under Sultans Bayezid II and Selim I, 1480-1520 165

Pt. II Struggle

7 Conquest of Commerce: King Manuel, Hammer of Morocco, Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest of the Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India, 1499-1515 187

8 Sharifs, Sheikhs, Sufis, Sultans and Smugglers: The Moroccan Struggle against the Portuguese Crusade, 1515-50 205

9 The Rivals: The Division of Christendom between Charles V and Francis I 230

10 The Ottoman Golden Age: Suleyman the Magnificent and the Five Victories: Belgrade, Rhodes, Mohacs, Tabriz and Baghdad, 1520-36 260

11 Corsair Kingdoms: The Barbarossa Brothers, Uruj and Khizr, and Condottiere Andrea Doria, 1512-34 273

12 Emperors and Sultans: Conquests, Crusades and Family Killings 289

Pt. III Destruction

13 Skull Islands: The Battle of Djerba and the Siege of Malta, 1560-70 341

14 A Beard For An Arm: The Conquest of Cyprus and the Holy League's Victory of Lepanto, 1570-4 367

15 The Last Crusade: The Battle of the Three Kings 399

Key characters 423

Comparative timelines 432

Family trees for the rulers of Morocco, Spain,Portugal and the Ottoman Empire 446

Notes 450

Further reading 454

Index 460