The recent outpouring of contemporary English literature focusing on the Great Siege of 1565 augurs well for our island as Malta takes central position on the world literary stage. At this point in time many international airports’ bookshops exhibit a number of blockbusters based on the Siege – Tim Willocks’s The Religion, described by literary critics as “a classic of its kind”; James Jackson’s Blood Rock subtitled “an age of brutality, a time for heroes” and David Ball’s nerve-jangling account in The Sword and The Scimitar.
... many historians consider Malta’s stand against the might of the Ottoman Empire as one of the bloodiest sieges in the world’s military history- Lino Bugeja
These inspired fictional novels are developed at three equally convincing levels, namely a historically accurate account, a well-crafted plot at a time when savage cruelty was no crime as well as the genuine efforts of the three authors to underline man’s capacity for inflicting and enduring physical pain and violence. In the wake of the Great Siege the famous Elizabethan dramatist Christopher Marlowe inspired by the tragic events of the Great Siege wrote the powerful play The Jew of Malta and the great German playwright and dramatist Schiller in the early 19th century attempted a tragedy based on the events of this occasion.
In the 16th and 17th century the heroic deeds of the siege captured the imagination of famous authors and historians to the extent that the great French thinker Voltaire in the 18th century could say, with some justification that “nothing is better known than the Siege of Malta”. For the Ottoman attack on Malta was no ordinary battle. The siege was characterised by strategic blunders from the Turkish high command. It was also marked by feats of bravery and savage cruelty on both sides; but so great was the exceptional heroism of the Knights and the Maltese under the leadership of Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette that after four harrowing months on September 8, 1565, the Turkish leader, so uncharacteristically of him, ordered a hasty retreat.
Without any recrimination or triumphalism but in a spirit of reconciliation it has to be pointed out to the cynics who insist on downgrading this memorable event as a minor skirmish, that many historians consider Malta’s stand against the might of the Ottoman Empire as one of the bloodiest sieges in the world’s military history.
Historians, diarists and military strategists of the period reveal that Vittoriosa, the city of the siege, was reduced to a state of almost unimaginable horror.
In 1705 the Vittoriosa University in collaboration with the Knights of St John, built an impressive Great Siege monument in its historic piazza, in the shadow of the lofty watch tower a conspicuous landmark on siege maps published all over Christian Europe. The monument was later embellished by Grand Master Pinto so that “this victory column would for ever proclaim the great event and ensure its commemoration on the exact site where our heroes we buried”.
The positive outcome of the Great Siege started Malta on its long road towards nationhood; in fact the rest of Europe considered our island as a de facto sovereign state, no longer an extension of Sicily or North Africa. In 1922 in the aftermath of the Sette Giugno and the granting of a new Constitution, September 8 was declared a National Day and special celebrations were held at the Vittoriosa monument to celebrate these auspicious events. At this time of the year Senglea celebrates with great pomp the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady (Il-Bambina) and Vittoriosa commemorates the event with special church services and an impressive ceremony in the main square .
The traditional colourful regatta held in the afternoon on festa day in the Grand Harbour has always been a great attraction watched by thousands of fans and visitors from every vantage point along the shores and bastions of this historic port.