French    German    Spain    Italian    Arabic    Chinese Simplified    Russian

Western Civilisation

Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was  superior to anything Islam had developed.  Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam.  Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions.  Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'.  Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.   

Back     Printer Friendly Version  

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bookmark and Share

Andrew Wheatcroft's, 'The Enemy at the Gate'

Hapsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe.

by Ferdinand III


 Highly recommended.

For the hobbyist historian interested in just how close the Ottoman-Moslem empire came to conquering Europe I would suggest you read this book, after first reading the excellent 'Defenders of the Faith' by James Reston, [reviewed here]. Reston covers the period of Ottoman advance from 1520 to 1560, with an especial focus on the failed Moslem siege at Vienna in 1529 – a very close run thing to quote Wellington. Wheatcroft picks up the storyline from the early 17th century down to the second siege at Vienna in 1683, and then beyond to the improbable Hapsburg successes which ousted the Turk from most of its European possessions by the mid-18th century. Both books are excellent, accurate, well-sourced and full of new and surprising information that the lay historian might not be aware of.

The only quibble with Wheatcroft's magnificent volume is the lack of maps and supporting imagery as he details the siege of Vienna in 1683. The topography and geography of Vienna and its surrounding rural area is as important to the tale as the actual battle in front of the city's walls. It is hard for the reader to follow the maze of details without referencing some maps and visuals, which are provided but rather oddly near the end of the book when the story has shifted to the late 17th and early 18th century reconquest by the Hapsburg's, of Hungary.

If Vienna had fallen in either 1529 or in 1683, the Turks would doubtless have sent large armies of Anatolian Moslems, Christian slaves and Tartar horsemen [Moslems from the Crimea and the southern steppes of Russia]; both north towards Warsaw and west towards Bavaria. It is doubtful that they could have defeated a unified Christian army, or a Protestant-Catholic alliance based around the powerful Hussars of Poland; and the well-trained professional soldiers of a temporarily focused Germany, in which the Catholic-Protestant-Lutheran struggle would be put aside to deal with the Turk. But who knows. The psychological damage done by a Moslem victory at Vienna might have made the Turk seem invincible, and often times in war, the battle can be won or lost even before it begins.

For as Wheatcroft relates in the first part of his book, nothing terrorized European imaginations quite like the image of the ferocious, raping, stabbing, screaming, dark-skinned Turkish Moslem warrior or Gazi of Allah. The Turk and his more savage associate the Tartar were emblematic of Oriental ruthlessness and barbarous cruelty – at least for Europeans. The Turks enslaved or killed some 3 million Hungarians from 1521 to 1683 in a series of wars, raids, and Jihadic plunders out of a total population of 5 million. Similar fates were meted out to Slavs, Poles and Balkan populations – at least to those who resisted the cult of Allah. The Turk of 1683 was certain that the Allah idol would grant them dominion over Europe; just as many Moslems today are equally certain that Islam will dominate the globe. Not much has changed in 329 years.

Tartar raiders fought only for profit and sought out weak victims such as an undefended village or an outlying abbey....Their tactic...was simple. They watched a settlement over several days, observing when the villagers left to work in the fields and when they returned....Tartar stemmed from the Latin 'Tartarus', the bowels-of-the-earth goddess Gaia, and by extension the deepest pit of hell. Implacable in their savagery, recklessly disregarding any danger, tireless and bold, the peasants of the west named them the devil's horsemen.” [p. 49]

After Constantinople was taken in 1453, the push into Europe proper, using the subjugaged Balkans as a base began in earnest. This epoch of Moslem Jihad would not stop until the 19th century. Vienna was the logical successor as a target for Jihad, as Belgrade, Pest and Buda, Gyor and even Venice, had been before. For example:

Every year from 1469 until the Sultan's death in 1481 mounted raiders would cross the rivers as soon as the snow had melted....In the word's of Mehmed's biographer Franz Babinger: 'Everywhere churches, monasteries, and settlements went up in flames; men and cattle were carried off by the thousands; no one was sure of his life.' In the same year, thousands of mounted raiders burned the villages around Venice...Countless bags of full of heads, noses and ears were sent to sultan to demonstrate success.” [p. 57]

and

A sultan's hereditary duty and rule extended not only to the faithful, but to all humanity; he should bring all people under Ottoman rule and under the authority of Islam.” [p. 85]

Wheatcroft rejects the 'decline' theory that by 1683, the Ottomans were weak and in a pattern of inevitable declination against the West. The Balkans, large parts of Poland and the Ukraine, and huge tracts of Hungary had all been conquered by the Moslem Ottomans in the 16th and 17th century. The Hapsburg capital at Vienna seemed to be within easy reach and its capture would signify a monumental psychological and geographical shift in power, from Europe's most important empire, to that of the Moslem Turk. The Ottoman Sultan was a dictator and autocrats can mobilize large resources, and war machines much faster than the independent, cynical, squabbling, careful, and self-interested states and empires both large and petty of Europe.

Objectively, the political and military position of the two adversaries was unusually favorable to the Ottoman cause in 1682-3. Although in theory Christendom was uniting to resist Turkish barbarism, gaping political fissures had opened within the Christian camp.” [p. 106]

The French were at war with the Hapsburg's and openly allied with the Turk. A legacy of self-deceit and nescience that few today remember. The northern states were aware of but rather indifferent to the Moslem threat. Even Russia and Poland were hesitant in allying with the Hapsburg's to throw back the Moslem Jihad.

The Ottomans were extremely well organized, methodical, and sure of themselves. In most matters of literacy, technology and military organization they were behind the West in the 17th century, but the sheer scale of the Moslem Caliphate allowed it to tap unlimited resources:

For the campaign of 1683, the imperial tent makers supplied more than 15,000 tents large and small, and every other provision was on the same scale....No possible need for army at war was neglected....wagons loaded with rice and flour. On the move, the army had its own flock of sheep....with the butchers ready to slaughter the livestock and prepare meat at each night's halt...even field latrines were dug to a prescribed pattern...” [p. 16]

and

But the Ottomans had a secret weapon. Beside the guns in the camp lay the engineers' encampment, full of huge cranes, pontoons, coils of rope, baulks of timber for bridging the network of rivers....Western fortifications were superior, but few armies in the west could equal the skill and resourcefulness of the Ottoman engineers.” [p. 17]

The Turks were the masters of siege warfare. They would sap under walls, use gun power intelligently to batter down palisades and fortifications, and send unlimited numbers of men against any and all bulwarks of defence to slowly wear down the defenders. Vienna in 1683 seemed an easy enough target for the Turks to take. It was weak and defended by a small force:

...it became clear that Vienna was woefully unprepared for a siege. The city, in military terms, was a thirteenth-century walled town, to which, through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, more effective and modern fortifications had been added piecemeal to older defenses.” [p. 121]

The difference in the battle was that the Hapsburg's had 10.000 men inside the city, ably managed, with an excellent general Starhemberg at their lead. The Turk's were commanded by the 2nd man of the empire, the Grand Vizier, the ruthless, muscled, tall and arrogant Mustafa. The Ottoman system did not allow for much in the way of communications, flexibility or adaptability. It was a dull brutish mass of human slaves impelled forward by the will of the Grand Vizier. Even though he had 80.000 men, and depots full of equipment and supplies, this gaping defect of centralized despotic and arbitrary authority would prove the Turks undoing.

But as Wheatcroft details, the Moslems came very close to conquering Vienna. They encircled the city quite quickly in the early summer of 1683. Turkish gunners and sappers began the slow demolition of the walls which in one particular point were extremely vulnerable. As the siege developed all became carnage and terror:

Nothing until the battle for Stalingrad in 1942 equalled the relentless struggle in the ditch before Vienna. In both battles men fought over mountains of debris, shattered buildings and a landscape of utter destruction.” [p. 150]

By September 1683, plague, disease and fetid conditions began to take their toll on both the besieged and the besiegers. By September 10th only 40% of the original 10.000 man garrison remained alive. Vienna would have fallen but for the relief force of some 20.000 Polish Hussars, and 20.000 German Protestant and Catholic infantry and horse. Remarkably it was papal money which financed this expedition. Without the munificence of Rome it is highly unlikely that the relieving army would have been organized and sent out to save Vienna. Every man was paid, and paid well by the pope to ride or march to the rescue of Christendom.

The Turkish commander Mustafa was not an able leader. He left his camp undefended by palisades, ditches or even crude stakes circumvallating his encampment. No scouts were appointed and sent out to monitor the movements of a relief army which was highly likely to be sent out given Vienna's importance to the Hapsburg's. When 20.000 Germans appeared improbably through rough terrain and insidious geography above the Turkish camp in mid-September, the Turks were caught by surprise. The Polish Hussars, the best cavalry in Europe, enveloped the Moslems from the rear. The Turks who had casually disregarded the spirit of their enemies and their superiority in many aspects of waging war, were trapped. Within 14 hours on September 12th, the relief force attacked the Turks from front and rear, devastating and wiping out most of the Moslem host. Mustafa and his remnants fled back into Turkish Hungary. He was later killed by the command of the Sultan for this and subsequent defeats to the Hapsburg's. Of the original 80.000 man army which had camped in front of Vienna in the summer of 1683, sure of victory, maybe 10.000 escaped alive.

The victory at Vienna in 1683 was financed by the papacy, and it inaugurated over 100 years of crusading reconquest in central and Eastern Europe. It marked a high point of papal influence. Vienna was of course a decisive turning point in history. But the Moslem power of recuperation within the structure of the Ottoman Caliphate was as Wheatcroft makes clear, impressive. The Turk was not necessarily in terminal decline. If the Moslems had taken Vienna in either 1529, or in 1683, the history of the world might have been very different – and far worse.


Article Comments:

Related Articles:

Books Reviewed


12/10/2023:  EurArabia and EU Dhimmitude

11/5/2023:  The Palestinian Delusion, by Robert Spencer

9/4/2023:  'The Templars', by Michael Haag

8/27/2023:  The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam, Jonathan Riley-Smith (2008)

7/30/2023:  Simon Webb: ‘The Forgotten Slave Trade; The White European Slaves of Islam’

7/5/2023:  Scanderbeg: A History of George Castriota and the Albanian Resistance to Islamic Expansion

6/29/2023:  Defenders of the West. Raymond Ibrahim. Another must-read.

6/21/2023:  A must read book, Raymond Ibrahim’s ‘Sword and Scimitar’.

5/29/2023:  Judith Herrin, ‘Byzantium. The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire’.

5/26/2023:  Review: 'Byzantium and the Crusades', by Johnathan Harris.

5/18/2023:  Johathan Harris, The Lost World of Byzantium

5/13/2023:  History of the Byzantine Empire, Sir Charles Oman, 272 pages, 2018

11/7/2022:  Christopher Dawson 'Religion and the rise of Western culture'

8/26/2022:  Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. By Peter Brown

4/14/2022:  Henri Pirenne, 'A History of Europe: From the Invasions to the XVI Century'

1/22/2022:  ‘Through the Eye of A Needle’ by Peter Brown

11/28/2021:  Peter Hammond: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam. Exposing the moon cult and Jihad

11/14/2021:  The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000. Peter Brown.

10/4/2021:  Henri Pirenne: Mohammed and Charlemagne

9/27/2021:  Henri Pirenne: Mohammed and Charlemagne. Rome never 'Fell'. It was replaced.

8/9/2021:  The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich L. Lehner. Nicholas Bergier, defender of the Church.

8/8/2021:  The New World Order, by A. Ralph Epperson

7/15/2021:  The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich L. Lehner. From the 16th century to Pope Francis.

7/9/2021:  The Catholic Enlightenment, by Ulrich L. Lehner

3/29/2021:  The Clock and the Camshaft, J. W. Farrell

3/20/2021:  Bearing False Witness, by Rodney Stark, #2.

3/17/2021:  Bearing False Witness, by Rodney Stark, #1.

2/5/2021:  ‘Slavery, Terrorism and Islam’ by Peter Hammond

1/27/2021:  Emmet Scott 'The Impact of Islam' and the mythical Golden Age of Muhammadan Spain

1/24/2021:  The Impact of Islam, by Emmet Scott (part two)

1/20/2021:  The Impact of Islam, by Emmet Scott (part one)

11/20/2020:  The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery, by Seb Falk. Science and sphericity.

11/11/2020:  The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery, by Seb Falk

10/16/2020:  The Age of Plunder, by W. G. Hoskins

10/11/2020:  Michael Wood's 'In Search of The Dark Ages'. Plenty of light, the basis of civilisation

9/8/2020:  The Glory of the Crusades, Steve Weidenkopf (2014)

8/5/2020:  C.S. Lewis and 'The Abolition of Man' by Steve Turley

12/18/2019:  The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Spencer

12/11/2019:  Islam: Religion of Peace?: The Violation of Natural Rights and Western Cover-Up, Fr. Portella

11/25/2019:  2030: Your Children's Future in Islamic Britain, by David Vincent

4/28/2016:  History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution - James MacCaffrey

2/24/2016:  Morris Bishop, 'The Middle Ages'

11/6/2015:  “Medieval Lives” by Alan Ereira, Terry Jones and the 'other side' of the Monkish orders

11/6/2015:  Medieval Lives by Alan Ereira, Terry Jones

8/18/2015:  Dr. Robert Morey, 'Islam Unveiled' – The Real Desert Storm

8/16/2015:  R. A. Morey, 'Islam Unveiled', 1991

1/18/2015:  Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination, by Stefan Ihrig

11/28/2014:  The poorly named Enlightenment - James Hitchcock, History of the Catholic Church

11/27/2014:  Michael Coren's 'Hatred: Islam's war against Christianity' Read it.

11/20/2014:  "The Catholic Church and Science" by Benjamin Wiker

11/14/2014:  Michael Coren: 'Hatred; Islam's war on Christianity'. Stating the obvious.

11/11/2014:  Collins and Christian-Catholic Culture in the West

11/4/2014:  The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, the Creation of Europe in the 10th Century P. Collins

7/25/2014:  James Hitchcock, The History of the Catholic Church

7/19/2014:  William Muir, 1868, 'Life of Mahomet' - the madness revealed

6/30/2014:  Garwood: 'Flat Earth' - a belief only held by atheists and evolutionists

5/1/2014:  How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark

4/23/2014:  The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, + Western Success - Rodney Stark

3/31/2014:  John Freely: 'Before Galileo', Kuhn and the real history of real science.

3/25/2014:  John Freely: 'Before Galileo', Diophantus to Bradwardine, review 2

3/15/2014:  Book Review: John Freely and 'Before Galileo'

2/19/2014:  Christianity, Islam and Atheism by William Kilpatrick (2)

2/18/2014:  Christianity, Islam and Atheism by William Kilpatrick

6/28/2013:  Raymond Ibrahim 'Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians'

4/24/2013:  Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church by George Weigel

4/21/2013:  Robert Spencer: 'Moslem Persecution of Christians'

4/13/2013:  Book Review: Islam: Evil in the name of God

3/31/2013:  The Triumph of the Risen. The Truth of Christianity.

1/12/2013:  Book Review 2: God and Reason In the Middle Ages, by Edward Grant

1/7/2013:  Book Review 1: God and Reason In the Middle Ages, by Edward Grant

1/3/2013:  The Early Middle Ages 400-1000, Editor Rosamund McKitterick, Short Oxford History of Europe

12/17/2012:  Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity, by Michael Coren

12/10/2012:  Medieval Technology and Social Change, Lynn White Jr., Oxford Press, 1968

11/29/2012:  Book Review: Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America, Kenneth Timmerman

11/28/2012:  Book Review: Islamophobia, by Robert Spencer.

11/25/2012:  Part 2: The Gies' - Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel, Review

11/23/2012:  The Gies': Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel, Review.

11/13/2012:  Book: The cult of the Moon God, by Brian Wilson

10/31/2012:  Review 2: Islam Dismantled, Sujit Das, Ali Sina

10/29/2012:  Book Review 1: Islam Dismantled by Sujit Das, Ali Sina

9/22/2012:  Book Review: Michael Coren, 'Why Catholics are Right'.

9/3/2012:  Book Review, Why the West is Best, by Ibn Warraq, Part Two

8/29/2012:  Book Review, Why the West is Best, by Ibn Warraq, Part One

6/12/2012:  Book Review: Poitiers AD 732, Charles Martel turns the Islamic tide. David Nicolle.

6/6/2012:  Review 2: Diane Moczar, Islam at the Gates, How Christendom defeated the Ottoman Turks

5/31/2012:  Review 1: Diane Moczar, Islam at the Gates, How Christendom defeated the Ottoman Turks

5/26/2012:  The Early Middle Ages 400-1000, Editor Rosamund McKitterick, Short Oxford History of Europe

4/13/2012:  Review, Emmet Scott: 'Mohammed and Charlemagne'

4/10/2012:  Henri Pirenne, 'Mohammed and Charlemagne' – Part 2

4/7/2012:  Book Review: Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne – Part One

1/29/2012:  Andrew Wheatcroft's, 'The Enemy at the Gate'

1/22/2012:  Book Review: Defenders of the Faith, by James Reston Jr.

1/11/2012:  Book Review: Norman Berdichevsky, 'The Left is not always Right'

12/10/2011:  Book Review, Nigel Cliff's 'Holy War' – good but flawed.

11/7/2011:  'How Civilizations Die', D. P. Goldman, 2011, 270 pgs.

10/21/2011:  'Religion and the Rise of Western Culture' – Christopher Dawson [Kindle Edition]

9/29/2011:  Book Review: Bynum's 'Allah is Dead'

9/16/2011:  Middle Age Dynamism

8/13/2011:  Malise Ruthven, 'Islam in the World' and the Kabaa-Hajj paganism.

8/12/2011:  EJ Brill and the Ka'ba

8/11/2011:  F.E. Peters and the pagan origins of the Kabaa Shrine

7/14/2011:  Benjamin Walker, Foundations of Islam: The Making of a World Faith 

4/12/2011:  Martin Gilbert: 'In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands', part 3.

4/6/2011:  Martin Gilbert: 'In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands', part 2.

4/3/2011:  Review part 1: Martin Gilbert 'In Ishmael's House'. A History of Jews living in Muslim lands.

3/31/2011:  Book Review: Susan Bauer, 'The History of the Medieval World'

3/24/2011:  Book Review: Empires of the Sea, by Roger Crowley. [The Final Battle for the Mediterranean]

3/22/2011:  Book Review: Will Israel survive? By Dr. Mitchell Bard, expert on Israel's political-economy.

3/20/2011:  Book Review ‘The Great War for Civilization', by Robert Fisk

3/18/2011:  Book Review: Bruce Bawer's “Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom”, Doubleday, May 2009.

3/15/2011:  Book Review: World War IV and Beyond, by Richard Hobbs.

3/11/2011:  Alan Dershowitz's: 'The Case for Israel.'

3/5/2011:  Leaving Islam, by Ibn Warraq

2/18/2011:  Review part 2: D. S. Margoliouth, 'The Early Development of Mohammedanism', 1913.

2/12/2011:  Review: D. S. Margoliouth, 'The Early Development of Mohammedanism', 1913.

12/21/2010:  Robert R. Reilly, 'The Closing of the Muslim Mind'. The Communal Fascism of Islam.

12/19/2010:  Robert R. Reilly, 'The Closing of the Muslim Mind'.

10/22/2010:  Rodney Stark, 'For the Glory of God'

10/20/2010:  Andrew McCarthy, 'The Grand Jihad, How Islam and the Left Sabotage America'.

10/18/2010:  Book Review: 'The Dhimmi. Jews and Christians under Islam.' Bat Ye'or.

10/8/2010:  Jamie Glazov: 'United in Hate'. Indeed they are. The Leftards and Muslims that is.

8/31/2010:  'The Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs', Robert Spencer

8/9/2010:  Amil Imani: Iranian and former-Muslim writes about the pagan savagery that is Islam.

7/15/2010:  Book Review: Baran's 'The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular'. A fantasy novel.

6/29/2010:  Serge Trifkovic: 'The Sword of the Prophet'. Jihad, Jihad and endless Jihad.

6/28/2010:  Serge Trifkovic: 'The Sword of the Prophet'. The Madness of Muhammad.

6/5/2010:  Review, 'Medieval Civilization 400-1500' by Jacques Le Goff.

5/31/2010:  Fregosi and Islam's endless Jihad.

5/27/2010:  Book Review, 'The Civilization of the Middle Ages', by Norman Cantor, 1993.

5/21/2010:  Book Review: 'Islam's Black Slaves', by Ronald Segal, 2001.

5/9/2010:  Book Review: 'Race and Slavery in the Middle East.' by Bernard Lewis, 1990.

5/6/2010:  Book Review: 'Slavery in the Arab World', by Murray Gordon, 1987.

5/5/2010:  Book Review: R. C Davis; 'Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters', 2004 edition.

5/1/2010:  Book review: The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran, by Robert Spencer.

4/28/2010:  Book Review; Thomas Cahill, 'Mysteries of the Middle Ages', 317 pages.

4/9/2010:  Book Review: 'The Islamic Anti-Christ', Joel Richardson, 2009, WND Books.

3/26/2010:  Book Review: Wafa Sultan, 'A God Who Hates'. 2009, 244 pages.

3/19/2010:  Book Review: Brigitte Gabriel, “They Must be Stopped”. 2009. 240 pages.

3/1/2010:  Book Review; M. A. Khan “Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery”

2/22/2010:  Book Review: 'Defeating Political Islam' by Moorthy Muthuswamy

2/13/2010:  'Holy Warriors' – the Arab devastation of the Mediterranean

2/10/2010:  Henri Pirenne and why the 'Dark Ages' occurred.

2/20/2009:  Book Review: 'The Great Arab Conquests', by Hugh Kennedy.

1/22/2009:  Book Review - 'Chasing a Mirage' by Tarek Fatah. [2008, Wiley and Son, 410 pages.]

6/15/2008:  Book Review: 'Islamic Imperialism – A History.' By Efraim Karsh.

1/7/2008:  Book Review: Ed Husain, 'The Islamist'

11/22/2007:  Book Review: 'The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy', by Walid Phares

10/16/2007:  Robert Spencer's superb book: 'Religion of Peace: Why Christianity is and Islam isn't'

9/21/2007:  Book Review: 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali- a Somalian-Dutch Muslim Apostate

5/2/2007:  Book Review: Islam The Arab Imperialism, By Anwar Shaikh

4/9/2007:  Book Review: ‘Religion of Peace? Islam’s War Against the World’, by G.M. Davis

2/12/2007:  Book review – ‘The Truth about Mohammad’, by Robert Spencer

2/11/2007:  Book review of 'Because they hate' by Brigitte Gabriel