The Representation of the European Commission in Malta will be launching Arnold Cassola's latest book, Süleyman the Magnificent and Malta 1565 - Decisions, Concerns, Consequences at Dar l-Ewropa, 254 St Paul Street, Valletta, on Thursday 12 October at 19:00. Those interested in attending should send an email to: comm-rep-mt@ec.europa.eu or mark.vella@ec.europa.eu.

In his latest book on the topic, Arnold Cassola utilises exclusively primary Ottoman sources (1564-1566), supplemented by contemporary evidence based on Balbi di Correggio’s 1568 diary in Spanish, to recount the 1565 Great Siege of Malta in a different way, i.e. from Süleyman the Magnificent’s perspective.

What preparations did the great Lawgiver undertake before the Siege? What were the concerns, worries, the daily needs, the technicalities that he had to attend to during the siege, and in its immediate aftermath?  Based, as he was, in Constantinople (Istanbul), thousands of kilometres away from where the action was happening in Malta, how did the Sultan handle and coordinate the military action on the ground, whilst having to tackle other pressing problems arising in the different corners of his Empire, from Crimea to Algeria, from Morocco to the Epirus and Aetolia-Acarnania regions, from Anatolia to Macedonia?

Cassola’s book will try to answer these questions through the behaviour, actions and thoughts of Süleyman, as they transpire from the original commands and orders that he sent out in 1564-1566 to the various and different areas of the Ottoman Empire in Anadolu (Asia), Rumeli (Europe) and the Maghrib (North Africa).