Siege of Rhodes (1522)

The Siege of Rhodes in 1522 was Suleiman the Magnificent's first major military campaign after becoming sultan, and it ended the Knights Hospitaller's use of Rhodes as a base for piracy against Muslim shipping and pilgrims. The Knights Hospitaller had held Rhodes since 1309, and their previous resistance to a Mehmed II siege in 1480 had become legendary. Suleiman assembled an enormous force and a massive artillery train. After six months of brutal siege warfare, including extensive tunnelling and counter-tunnelling, the defenders — reduced by casualties to a fraction of their original strength — negotiated a surrender. Suleiman granted remarkably generous terms: the knights and any civilians who wished to leave could do so with honour, taking their weapons, valuables, and sacred objects. The knights relocated eventually to Malta, from where they continued their activities. The fall of Rhodes secured Ottoman naval dominance of the eastern Mediterranean.