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Not many know that the Bulgars are also Turks in their ethnic origins and ironically it was the Bulgars who put up the stiffest resistance to the Islamic Turks (Ottomans) The Bulgars were one people who put up a stiff resistance to the Islamic Jihad and never surrendered before it, ultimately defeating it. One reason for this could be that the Jihad was brought to the Bulgaria by people who belonged to the same ethnic stock as the Bulgars. The Bulgars, as many do not know, are of Turkish descent. And had settled in Bulgaria in the 8th century onwards. The Bulgars were late converts to Christianity, and had been adversaries of the Byzantine empire, both before and after their conversion. Modern day Bulgarians are a mix of the pre-Islamic Turks (Bulgars), the Avars, Huns and Slavs who settled in Bulgaria over the first millennium.
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The Battle of Nicopolis (Nikopol) is looked upon as the last crusade where Europe put on a combined resistance to throw the Ottoman Turks out of Bulgaria and stem further Muslim incursions into Europe. __________________________________
The Bulgars even retained the title “Khan” even after their conversion to Christianity. In fact the word Bulgar is derived from a Turkish root work “bulgha”, which means to mix. It was ironical that one of the first people that the Ottoman Turks would have to cross swords in Europe were to be the Christianized Turkic Bulgars. By the late 14th Century the Bulgars were involved in a desperate struggle against the Ottoman Turks who presented a very real danger of invading Europe. In 1393, Turnovo, the capital of Bulgaria fell and the last medieval Bulgarian king Ivan Shishman was besieged by Islamic invaders in Nicopolis (the Bulgarian fortress on the Danube River). On 3 July 1395, King Ivan was killed while defending the fortress of Nicopolis. To the south of Bulgaria, the once mighty Byzantine Empire had been reduced to a little more than the city of Constantinople itself and Sultan Beyazid I "the Lightning" had besieged the city.
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In the famous Battle of Nicopolis, a Christian army of French, English, Germans, Italians and Knights Hospitallers under the leadership of John of Nevers, son of the Duke
of Burgundy, the Bulgarian infantry and the Hungarian army under King Sigismund of Hungary
gave a heroic combat against the Islamic army of Ottomans and its Arab allies.
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Beyazid’s father, sultan Murat had created the infantry of Janissaries that was composed of Christian children robbed from their families and converted by force to Islam. They were raised in the Islamic religion in order to create elite troops. The Janissaries played a role of paramount importance in the military and political spheres of the Ottoman dynasty. In response to the occupation of Bulgaria, a crusade was preached by Pope Boniface IX and a Christian army of 10,000 under the leadership of John of Nevers, son of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, marched to the relief of the Christians who were savagely oppressed by the soldiers of Islam. The Battle of Nicopolis (Nikopol) on the Danube River opened the gates of Eastern Europe to the Muslims
In the famous Battle of Nicopolis, a Christian army of French, English, Germans, Italians and Knights Hospitallers under the leadership of John of Nevers, son of the Duke
of Burgundy, the Bulgarian infantry and the Hungarian army under King Sigismund of Hungary
gave a heroic combat against the Islamic army of Ottomans and its Arab allies.
In the late 14th century the worried eyes of Western Europe began to turn to the east as the
old enemy began to reassert himself - the Turks. With a fervor that had not been seen for
decades, the chivalry of western Europe responded by marching east to their greatest ever
disaster. John of Nevers, son of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy leaded an army of
10000 Frenchmen eastward to Danube. He was joined by 2000 German Knights under the command
of Friedrich, prince of Hohenzollern, 1000 Englishmen under the Lord of Lancaster, Polish,
Austrian, Lombard, Croatian soldiers and Knights Hospitalers from Rhodes also joined in. The Venetian admiral
Tomanice Nico commanded the fleet of 44 galleries equipped by Venice and Genoa and joined
later on by ships from Rhodes. They joined a 30,000 army under King Sigismund of Hungary
marching along the Danube. The objective of Sigismund was to retake the strong fortresses of
Nicopolis and Dorostolum and using them as strongholds to chase the Islam invaders
out of Europe.
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At the Battle of Nicopolis, the Ottomans feigned to negotiate a surrender and slaughtered the Christians with guile. Sensing the determination and the fanaticism of the knights, the Ottoman king Beyezid decided to use subterfuge. He offered to open negotiations with the Bulgarians and invited their leader for talks, while agreeing to hand over the fortress of Nicopolis to the French Knights. Beyezid declared that he only intended to fight the Hungarians. This ploy did not divide the Christian allies in their determination to fight the Turks, but created fissures on how to best fight the Turks.
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The King of Vidin Kingdom (remnant of the Second Bulgarian empire), Ivan Sratzimir joined the Christian army. The fortress of Vidin was the strongest defense in the North-West Bulgaria and the action of Bulgarian King providing significant resources and cavalry troops greatly facilitated the Crusading army. Afterwards he was besieged and overwhelmed by Ottomans, and sent imprisoned in Anatolia. The Christian army
continued eastwards capturing Bulgarian towns with the help of Christian population, and
advanced deep into Bulgarian territory. But the Crusaders had brought no siege equipment, trusting on
their courage to defeat the Turks. Instead, Turks held the fortress of Nicopolis for over two
weeks, waiting for reinforcements.
The Ottoman sultan, Beyazid, did not rush into reaction, and waited for his entire
army to muster before responding. He gathered an enormous army - some 200 000 Islamic Jihadi
warriors, according to the crusader chronicles and some ottoman chroniclers. With the Crusaders stalled at Nicopolis, the Ottoman sultan saw his chance and marched to the town's rescue, choosing a defensive
position straddling the road to the city with his flanks protected by ravines. Ottoman
army formed up some four miles south from the Crusader camp, and invited attack.
At the military council before the battle, Sigismund advised a cautious approach and
proposed to use his own horse-archers as the first attack, with the Crusader cavalry in
reserve to deliver the decisive blow against the Ottoman lines. The French crusaders
refused any role that denied them the first attack and declared “If God
dropped the sky on our heads, we would maintain it with the tops of our lances!”. At the Battle of Nicopolis, the Ottomans feigned to negotiate a surrender and slaughtered the Christians with guile Sensing the determination and the fanaticism of the knights, the Ottoman king Beyezid decided to use subterfuge. He offered to open negotiations with the Bulgarians and invited their leader for talks, while agreeing to hand over the fortress of Nicopolis to the French Knights. Beyezid declared that he only intended to fight the Hungarians. This ploy did not divide the Christian allies in their determination to fight the Turks, but created fissures on how to best fight the Turks. Against the advice of the Hungarian king and leaving the Hungarian army behind, the Franks entered the Ottoman lines to take charge of the fortress that Beyazid was offering to hand over to the Franks. Once they had crossed the ottoman lines, the Ottomans closed ranks behind the Franks and trapped them. On realizing that they had been betrayed by the wily Ottomans the Franks rushed to break through the enemy ranks. The French Knights charged the centre of the Ottoman lines, where they could see that the Ottomans had placed a cavalry force to attack the trapped Franks. And once the French knights came within range, the first Ottoman line made of horse-archers moved aside to make way for the French cavalry to rush straight into a trap, of well dug-in archers behinds rows and
rows of sharpened wooden stakes planted in the ground. The ottoman arrows rained down on the Franks causing huge casualties and the chronicler wrote “… no rain neither hail can flow so densely from the sky“. So, the crusaders were forced to dismount their horses and fight on foot from an unfavorable position.
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At the Battle of Nicopolis, it almost looked like the Christian army might win the day until the Jannisaries and the Arab contingents emerged from an ambush and charged the
Hungarians. This attack broke the Hungarians, and when Sigismund's banner was cast down, the entire Hungarian army dissolved.
The imprudent behavior of the French knights of falling into the Ottoman lure of taking over the fortress of Nicopolis which the Ottomans pretended to surrender to them was the major cause of the disaster at the Battle of Nicopolis. The Christian army was divided into independent troops that were defeated and massacred one by one. This was unlike the unity seen among the Muslims, be they Ottoman, Arab or Malaysian, all of them stood united in one single purpose – to massacre the Christians and took orders from one man, The Yazid the Ottoman Bey or Beyazid. This is a lesson in strategic unity for us in fighting today’s War on Terror against the same Jihadist enemy. __________________________________
But even on the ground, the French knights fought a terrifying battle against the
Janissaries and succeeded to break their lines killing more than 10,000 of the Jihadis. Despite
taking heavy casualties, crusaders broke through to third Ottoman line, and were also able
to hold off an attack by Ottoman cavalry. When they reached the top of the hill, where the
sultan quarter was, they discovered the Ottoman cavalry and Anatolian sipahis (soldiers) kept in the rear as reserve. But as they were cut off from the main part of Christian army, the Crusaders began to retreat. Attacked from all sides by Islamic fanatics and their allies, the Christian army was
defeated and massacred, and finally many of them were captured. Meanwhile, far to the rear, the Hungarian royal army was moving towards the battle. Sigismund preferred to slaughter the disorganized ottoman infantry instead of rushing to help the encircled French knights. Having defeated and
massacred the Western crusaders, Bayezid committed his main forces against the Christian army. Sigismund, leading his royal bodyguards, also entered into the dreadful battle.
Bayezid was wounded and his horse killed but nevertheless he continued the ferocious
fighting. The Hungarians attack began to take its tool on the Ottoman invaders and many of them fell victims to the crusader swords. For a while it almost looked like the Christian army might win the day until the Jannisaries and the Arab contingents emerged from an ambush and charged the
Hungarians. This attack broke the Hungarians, and when Sigismund's banner was cast down, the entire Hungarian army dissolved into a disorganized.
The imprudent behavior of the French knights in falling into the Ottoman lure of surrendering the fortress to them was the major cause of the disaster. The Christian army was divided into independent troops that were defeated and massacred one by one. This was unlike the unity seen among the Muslims, be they Ottoman, Arab or Malaysian, all of them stood united in one single purpose – to massacre the Christians. This is a lesson for us in strategic unity when we are fighting the same Jihadist enemy in today’s War on Terror.
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His Majesty Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor was infused with a crusading spirit to free Europe from its infidel (Muslim) occupiers. He did his utmost during his reign from 1410 to 1437 to fight the Ottomans. The bitter experiences of his youth in the battle of Nicopolis in 1396 shaped his attitude towards the Muslims which remained an overriding element of his efforts throughout his life and reign. __________________________________
Nicopolis was a devastating loss for Europe. The French took severe casualties, including Philip, Count of Bar, and Jean de Vienne, the Venetian
Admiral
Tomanice Nico and many others. Many more were captured. Sigismund escaped by ship, but John was
captured and later ransomed. John's ransoming was the exception; Bayezid, enraged by the
heavy losses (around 60,000 Islamic Jihadi warriors perished according to several authors and estimates), slaughtered most of the Christian prisoners the next day organizing the horrendous
massacre ceremony that has been immortalized by the painting of Jean Froissart. The dark shadow of Islam looming over Europe in the 14th century was frighteningly real
This massacre and dismemberment of Christian prisoners the sufferings and misery and of the
Christians was an eye-opener to the Europeans who believed that Islamic soldiers like any other enemy they had faced, respect the military customs of not slaughtering soldiers who had laid down their weapons and had surrendered. The massacre of captured Christian soldiers by the Ottomans after the Battle of Nicopolis proved the Europeans to have been sadly mistaken about the beastly nature of the Islamic threat. The question is “Is our assessment of today about the same enemy who beheads civilian captives and blows up buses of school kids any different?”
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The traditional costume of a Bulgarian lady shows the Turkic origins of the Bulgars. There are philological affinities between the Bulgarian and Turkic languages even today. The pre-Christian Bulgars referred to god as Tanri or Tangri. The Ottoman Turks also used the same pre-Islamic term for god. Variations of the term include; Tengri (Uyghur, Mongolian), Tanri (Turkish), Tangri (Kazan Tatar, Azeri, Turkmen), Tangara (Yakut or Sakha), all of which refer to divinity. The Bulgars however, came under increasing Slavic influences and are today looked upon as a Slavic people, but they still show lingering traces of their Turkic ethnic origins. __________________________________
At Nicopolis, the French survivors returning with accounts of the disaster sent a chill thru France and the defeat
sent a wave of fear across Europe. Powerless against the well organized and hugely backed
Islamic invasion in East Europe, the Western monarchs and Italian republics tried to find a
new way to resist the impending doom coming in the form of a Saracen invasion. For three centuries the Ottoman empire cast a shadow of doom on the
French, Italian and German monarchs and republics who watched with increasing fear the Ottoman attempts to overpower the Christian kingdoms of Eastern
Europe. Only in late 17th century the Western powers found an ally formidable enough to roll back the Islamic threat, - the Polish king Jan Sobeiski and later the Russian empire under Katerina (Catherine) and Peter the Great.
Lessons from the Battle of Nicopolis At Nicopolis, the Turks used techniques of hoodwinking the Bulgarians and the French Knights into feigned negotiations, luring them into a trap and then slaughtering them mercilessly. These are techniques that are still used by the Jihadis in waving white flags and then gunning down the American marines in Iraq, or of using women and children as human shields to act as cover for the suicide bombers in Israel. We need to realize that it is the Instruction Manual of Hate and Murder (Quran) brainwashes Muslims to use foul means which they used against the French Knights at Nicopolis. The knights, drawn from all over Europe, had gone into battle assuming that they faced a fierce, but honorable enemy. But with the massacre of the prisoners of war, the Europeans were reminded in 1396 at Nicopolis that they could henceforth expect no mercy if captured by the invading Muslims. At Nicopolis thousands of Christian soldiers who had laid down their weapons were slaughtered in a bloodthirsty orgy lasting several hours after the battle had ended. In the next three centuries thousands of European soldiers were to meet their end in this brutal way. In normal warfare, the opening of negotiations was normally used to end hostilities or to stop hostilities from taking place. But with the subterfuge used at Nicopolis, with devastating effect, taught the Europeans that the Muslims were never to be trusted. The Battle of Nicopolis reinforced the reality that the Muslims by instinct were (and are) a dishonorable people.
The Ottoman Empire was the
longest lasting Muslim invasion of European soil ever. Lasting from the
beginning of the 13th Century right to the start of the 20th, this group of
mixed race Middle Eastern Turks, driven by a fanaticism molded by their Muslim
religion, occupied vast stretches of central and southern Europe. They were
turned back twice at the very gates of Vienna in their attempts to seize all of
Europe. The impact and legacy of the
Ottomans upon central and southern Europe is therefore vast, and crucial to any
understanding of the racial and cultural mix which has made south-eastern Europe (Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo)the volatile place that it is today.
As we saw, the defeat at Nicopolis in 1396 followed by Varna in 1444, blew away the last hope of Bulgarian people for delivery from Muslim tyranny. Thus, 1396 is considered as the year when Bulgaria plunged into the Dark Ages under the oppressive Islam domination for almost 5 centuries. So after passing through many hands during the course of history, by the middle of the second Christian millennium, Bulgaria was in the hands of the Ottomans. After their surreptitious victory at Nicopolis, the Ottomans led by Murad's successors kept on
pressing further and further into Europe, meeting feeble resistance all along
the way. In 1439, Serbia was formally
annexed to the Ottoman Empire and in 1440, the city of Belgrade was besieged,
although it was not seized by the Ottomans at that time. In 1444, a renewed
Christian assault on the Ottomans was again defeated at the battle of
Varna in Bulgaria.
The Battle of Varna After Nicopolis the Christian states of the Balkans continued to struggle desperately against the tyrannical Ottoman dynasty. The Ottomans were determined on invading deeper into Europe, and devastating the Balkans under the banner of Islam was only the first step. For the Christian states in Balkans, their final tryst with a cruel destiny arrived with the second disaster of the Battle of Varna in 1444. With this defeat faded away the last hope of Bulgarian and other Christians for delivery and ended, for centuries, any serious attempts to prevent the Muslim invasion of Eastern Europe by the Ottomans.
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One of the more remarkable ways in
which the Ottomans kept their fighting strength up was through a unit of
soldiers known as the Janissaries. The Janissaries were the Ottoman's elite
forces - and they were also originally European Christian Children taken by force from their families. One of the Ottoman leaders, Emir
Orkhan (1326 - 1359), who was the first to occupy European continental soil,
issued an edict to the conquered Europeans in the Balkans that they must hand
over to the Ottomans 1,000 male babies "with faces white and shining" each
and every year. These babies were brought up as Muslims and grew to adulthood, oblivious of their Christian parentage. On attaining youth, they were presented to the Ottoman sultan, and the best
of them - in terms of physique, intelligence, and other qualities - were
selected for education in the palace school. There they were made well versed in the Islamic religion and its culture, learned Turkish,
Persian, and Arabic, and were compelled to serve the Ottomans. With their
origins being concealed from them, they became the best and most trusted armed
unit within the Ottoman Empire. But some of them retained a faint memory of their origins. The most illustrious among them was Mustapha Kemal Pasha or Ataturk, who on seizing power after the end of WW1, did his level best to roll back Islamic influences from Turkey and forcibly Westernized the Turks - a supreme act of irony that Turkey was Westernized by a descendant of ones who had been forcibly Islamized by the Ottomans. __________________________________
The battle of Varna was vividly described
in a letter from Aenas Sylvius Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, to Filippo Maria
Visconti, Duke of Milan, written immediately after the battle. "Our men did not
shrink from joining battle, which began on the feast of St. Martin itself, 11
November 1444. So fierce and savage was the fighting that rarely could such a
battle had ever been fought between mortal men! For a long time its outcome was
uncertain; it was contested with equal force by both sides. As long as our men
fought for Christ our Lord and Savior and our opponents for Mahomet the Infidel, enthusiasm for battle was such
that fifteen thousand were wounded on each side. "So long as the battle
was equal, neither side wished to stop. The more blood that was spilled, the
keener the hand-to-hand fighting. Those who escaped
from the field say that no battle as bloody has been fought anywhere in Europe
within the memory of our fathers. They also say that no fewer Turks than
Hungarians fell, and, if the record is correct, eighty thousand men died in this
battle."
The Janissaries: the "stolen European children" became the ottoman elite One of the more remarkable ways in
which the Ottomans kept their fighting strength up was through a unit of
soldiers known as the Janissaries. The Janissaries were the Ottoman's elite
forces - and they were also originally European Christian Children taken by force from their families. One of the Ottoman leaders, Emir
Orkhan (1326 - 1359), who was the first to occupy European continental soil,
issued an edict to the conquered Europeans in the Balkans that they must hand
over to the Ottomans 1,000 male babies "with faces white and shining" each
and every year. These babies were brought up as Muslims and grew to adulthood, oblivious of their Christian parentage. On attaining youth, they were presented to the Ottoman sultan, and the best
of them - in terms of physique, intelligence, and other qualities - were
selected for education in the palace school. There they were made well versed in the Islamic religion and its culture, learned Turkish,
Persian, and Arabic, and were compelled to serve the Ottomans. With their
origins being concealed from them, they became the best and most trusted armed
unit within the Ottoman Empire. But some of them retained a faint memory of their origins. The most illustrious among them was Mustapha Kemal Pasha or Ataturk, who on seizing power after the end of WW1, did his level best to roll back Islamic influences from Turkey and forcibly Westernized the Turks - a supreme act of irony that Turkey was Westernized by a descendant of ones who had been forcibly Islamized by the Ottomans. This yearly tribute of collecting European babies - reminiscent
of the demand by the Moors for White virgins from the unfortunate Goths in Spain
- was continued for an astonishing 300 years until 1648, during which time not
only were 300,000 formerly Christian European babies absorbed into the Ottoman hierarchy (and for the
greatest part also into the Turkish elite's bloodstream) but the Janissaries also
became known as one of the most efficient army of soldiers in the world. It is no exaggeration to say that the Janissaries sustained the Ottoman Empire in Europe for much of its existence, playing a
not inconsiderable role in many of the great victories of that
Empire.
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The fall of Bulgaria opened the gates for the fall of
Constantinople The city of Constantinople had
managed to hold grimly on through all these Ottoman advances in the Balkans that were taking place far behind the walls of Constantinople. As the
Muslim front line struck deeper into Europe, the city grew weaker and weaker, as it was now besieged by the Muslims from all sides. Finally, in 1453, the Ottoman army
launched a mighty effort to break the city. After bombarding the city walls with
cannon fire for months, a determined overnight attack, saw the city fall at last
- the official end of the Eastern Roman Empire, defended only by 7,000 Byzantine, Frankish
and other European knights from all over Europe against a Turkish army numbering in the hundreds of
thousands. Constantinople was made the new
Ottoman Muslim capital and renamed Istanbul, a name by which it is still known.
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The Turks delusion about themselves being Europeans and their false case for admission into the EU There is European blood among the Turks. This is so as every year, one thousand European male babies were taken by
the Ottomans for indoctrination into Islam. In Asia Minor (Turkey) the Europeans
were raised to serve the Muslim empire, as soldiers or administrators. In this
way hundreds of thousands of Europeans entered the modern Turkish gene pool - and contributed to the European blood stream among the Turks. The belief of the Turks today that they are Europeans, comes from this forced abduction of European children their forced conversion to Islam and their conscription into the Ottoman army as Janissaries. On this falsehood also rests Turkey’s case for admission into the EU (European Union). The Janissaries were
only finally disbanded in 1826 after a large rebellion against their Ottoman Muslim
masters saw many thousands of the Ottomans killed.
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By 1500, European explorers
had discovered a sea route to the East, and after this year Portuguese fleets
began to attack Arab ships in the Indian ocean, seriously affecting the
Ottoman's trading routes to the east. An Ottoman sea fleet was built
especially to destroy the Portuguese fleets - several engagements followed, some
successful for the Portuguese, others successful for the Turks. It was only in 1571, that an
alliance of European nations, inspired by Pope Pius V with the aid of the Spanish
and the Venetians, destroyed Turkish sea power in the Mediterranean at the
Battle of Lepanto.
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In 1574, the Janissaries had
20,000 men in their ranks - by 1826 the unit numbered some 135,000. The overtly
racial make-up of the Janissaries always created problems of its own. Every now
and then, these soldiers of European descent would rebel against their Turkish masters -
numerous Janissary rebellions are recorded, each being suppressed, until a famous
rebellion in 1826 saw the unit finally disbanded. The fall of Bulgaria opened the gates for the fall of
Constantinople The city of Constantinople had
managed to hold grimly on through all these Ottoman advances in the Balkans that were taking place far behind the walls of Constantinople. As the
Muslim front line struck deeper into Europe, the city grew weaker and weaker, as it was now besieged by the Muslims from all sides. Finally, in 1453, the Ottoman army
launched a mighty effort to break the city. After bombarding the city walls with
cannon fire for months, a determined overnight attack, saw the city fall at last
- the official end of the Eastern Roman Empire, defended only by 7,000 Byzantine, Frankish
and other European knights from all over Europe against a Turkish army numbering in the hundreds of
thousands. Constantinople was made the new
Ottoman Muslim capital and renamed Istanbul, a name by which it is still known.
Spurred on by this great victory, the Ottomans proceeded swiftly to seize
all of Greece, Albania and Bosnia. A plan to invade Italy was only aborted after
the Ottoman emperor of the time died half way through the planning.
War at sea – The Portuguese Spanish and Italians
confront and defeat the Turks at Lepanto By 1500, European explorers
had discovered a sea route to the East, and after this year Portuguese fleets
began to attack Arab ships in the Indian ocean, seriously affecting the
Ottoman's trading routes to the East. An Ottoman sea fleet was built
especially to destroy the Portuguese fleets - several engagements followed, some
successful for the Portuguese, others successful for the Turks. It was only in 1571, that an
alliance of European nations, inspired by Pope Pius V with the aid of the Spanish
and the Venetians, destroyed Turkish sea power in the Mediterranean at the
Battle of Lepanto in that same year. The Battle of Lepanto saw the two
fleets - together comprising at least 500 ships and about 100,000 men - engage
each other for a whole day, ending with a great European victory - about 80 Turkish
ships were sunk and a further 130 captured.
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The Turkish Ottoman invasion of Kosovo in 1389, saw the Serbian army defeated at the Battle of Kosovo Polje, but sporadic
fighting between the Serbs and the Turks continued till 1459, when the Ottomans captured Smederevo, south of Belgrade. After which, Serbia then came under
direct Ottoman rule.
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At Lepanto, the Turks were routed at sea - a
significant event as it marked the first time that the Muslims had been
defeated by an European force after the Battle of Tours (Poitiers) and the Crusades.
The psychological effect of this
victory upon Europe was marked - the Spanish writer Cervantes noted in his
novel, Don Quixote, that the battle "revealed to all the nations of the world
the error under which they had been laboring in believing that the Turks were
invincible on Sea." On land however, the struggle
between the various European nations and the Turks continued unabated. In many
regions the Turks exacted as cruel a punishment on the locals as they had on the
inhabitants of Constantinople.
The Ottomans attempted to lay
siege to Belgrade in 1456, but were defeated by Janos Hunyadi a Hungarian national hero, whose
name is still celebrated today. The Ottomans finally seized
Belgrade in 1521, and in 1526, the Turks inflicted a crushing defeat on the
hastily gathered Hungarian army at the battle of Mohacs, where the
Hungarian King and more than 20,000 European soldiers were killed. The Turks went on to capture the
city of Buda (later to join with a neighboring city, Pest, to become the city of
Budapest) in 1526 - but then withdrew from western Hungary, leaving that part of Eastern Europe to
its own devices. By 1483, the Turks had conquered
most of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The two territories remained provinces of the
Ottoman Empire for the next 400 years, although unsuccessful uprisings against
the Turks occurred frequently during the 19th Century. Macedonia, bordering on Greece and
Turkey, was one of the first territories to fall to the Ottoman invasion - it
remained under Turkish rule until the Balkan War of 1912 which saw the Ottomans
driven out. The Turkish Ottoman invasion of
1389, saw the Serbian army defeated at the battle of Kosovo Polje, but sporadic
fighting between the Serbs and the Turks continued till 1459,
when the Ottomans captured Smederevo, south of Belgrade. Serbia then came under
direct Ottoman rule.
The first siege of
Vienna - Turks seize the Ukraine In 1521, the Ottomans finally
managed to capture Belgrade and the island of Rhodes in 1522. By 1529, the
Muslim Ottoman armies had reached Vienna. By sheer tenacity, the
city withheld the siege, and the Ottomans were forced to retreat. In 1571, the Ottomans seized the
island of Cyprus and even began raiding the emerging Russian state to the northeast of their extensive empire on the European mainland. In 1661, the Ottomans
captured much of present day Ukraine from Poland, and in 1669, conquered the
island of Crete. With one great last effort, the Ottomans then re-launched their
attack on Vienna in 1683. But by 1683, the Christian armies of
Europe had prepared their alliances with the Poles, Prussians, Lithuanians, Austrians, Italians, Spanish all knit together with a single purpose of liberating the Balkans from Turkish occupation. In 1683, their armies routed the
Ottomans, giving a death blow to the Muslims. The Ottoman ambitions for the conquest of Europe was dealt a death blow by the arrival
of a Polish army at Vienna. The Poles were thirsting for revenge against the Turks from whom the Ottomans had captured part of the
Ukraine which was then a province of the Polish empire. The origin of the Croissant bread commemorates the defeat of the Crescent by the armies of the Cross The great victory feast held by
the European armies after this victory at Vienna led to the origin of the bread now known as
the Croissant (Crescent). The European victors ordered bread to be made in the shape of the quarter
moon shape of the Turkish flag, so that they could physically eat the emblem of
the enemy at the feast. From then on the Croissant, a curved sickle moon shape
bread, became popular in all Europe. After their rout at Vienna, the Ottomans fell back in
confusion - at last the Europeans had seized the initiative, and they pressed home
their advantage.
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In a swift campaign, the Russians drove the Ottomans
back to Constantinople and forced them to sign the Treaty of San Stefano of
1878, which stripped them of most of their European territories, including
Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thrace. Britain gained possession of Cyprus in return
for an opportunist and unprincipled pledge to the Saracen Ottoman Sultan to aid him if he needed military
assistance in the future against their Christian compatriots. Incidentally this was a guarantee that would never be acted upon. The Ottoman Empire was now in
terminal phase and at the mercy of the Europeans. On all fronts the European powers had seized Ottoman territories - Tunisia was
taken by the French in 1881, and Egypt (which had briefly been reoccupied by the
Ottomans after Napoleon had left) was taken by the British in 1882. This was followed by the occupation of Mesopotamia (Iraq) by the British and of Syria by the French after WW1. __________________________________
In 1697, a new Austrian commander, Prince Eugene of Savoy,
defeated a huge Ottoman army at Senta in northern Serbia, inflicting massive
casualties upon them.
The Ottomans were forced to sue
for peace. In terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Ottomans were forced to cede substantial parts of Eastern Europe, including Belgrade, to the victorious
European army. This was to mark the beginning of the Ottoman retreat from the
Balkan Peninsula.
Renewed European assaults
sound death knell for Ottomans The Russians, after their initial failure against the Turks in 1711, launched their renewed assault on the Turks in 1714, And in a surprise attack
saw the Ottomans in Rumania defeated.
This spurred unrest among other Balkan people who had been suffering under Turkish tyranny. After 345 years of subjugation, the Serbs launched a nine
year long revolt in 1804, but were suppressed by the Turks in a brutal campaign
in 1813. Undeterred, the Serbs launched yet another attempt to eject the Turks
in 1815, and this time were successful - within a few months most of Serbia was
cleared of Turks. The Ottomans then accepted the de facto situation and granted Serbia self-government. Following the Russian
Turkish Wars of 1828 and 1829, Serbia gained even greater autonomy. Finally, the
Ottomans withdrew all claims to Serbia in 1867. Greece became independent in 1829
after launching military campaigns against the Ottomans, backed with material
support from both Britain and Russia.
The final blow to the Ottoman
military machine was a huge revolt by the White Janissaries in 1826 which ended
in the Ottomans having to execute thousands of the Janissary soldiers. In this year
the Ottomans finally disbanded the Janissaries. Bulgaria throws off the Jihadi Yoke Fifty years later, a rebellion in
Bulgaria saw tens of thousands of Muslims being slaughtered by avenging Bulgarian
Mobs. This led to reprisals by Muslims in which tens of thousands of Bulgarian were
slain in what became known as the Bulgarian Atrocities.
Russo-Turkish War of
1877 and the final freedom of Bulgaria Russia then declared war on the
Ottoman Empire in 1877. In a swift campaign, the Russians drove the Ottomans
back to Constantinople and forced them to sign the Treaty of San Stefano in
1878, which stripped the Turks of most of their European territories, including
Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thrace. Britain gained possession of Cyprus in return
for an opportunist and unprincipled pledge to the Saracen Ottoman Sultan to aid him if he needed military
assistance in the future against their Christian (Russian) compatriots. Incidentally this was a guarantee that would never be acted upon. The Ottoman Empire was now in
terminal phase and at the mercy of the Europeans. On all fronts the European powers had seized Ottoman territories - Tunisia was
taken by the French in 1881, and Egypt (which had briefly been reoccupied by the
Ottomans after Napoleon had left) was taken by the British in 1882. This was followed by the occupation of Mesopotamia (Iraq) by the British and of Syria by the French after WW1. Thus ended the last Muslim invasion of Europe that used violence as their passport of entry, the first being turned back by Charles Martel in 732. The Next Muslim Invasion of Europe The Muslim invasion of Europe was not to take place after WW2. We see this happening today thru the medium of those Muslims who are entering Europe in the guise of immigrant workers, many of whom are Turks. Especially in some cities in Germany, the Turks represent nearly 10 percent of the population. If Europe takes the unfortunate decision of allowing Turkey into the European Union, then we shall see opened the gates of Europe to a third Muslim invasion, when they will overrun Europe through the immigration of non-Turkish Muslims into Turkey who would then migrate onward into Europe. The Muslim game-plan today is to conquer Europe by swamping it with Muslim immigrants who will multiply manifold using the womb as a weapon to change Europe’s character into a majority Muslim country where the Europeans will be intimidated with threats, terror and murder like that of Theo Van Gough at Amsterdam and the London and Madrid attacks. Time is running out for us to stem the tide of the third Muslim invasion of Europe that is gaining strength with every passing day. Our history with the struggle against Islam is a lesson for us. Today, our way of life, our culture, our security and our very existence is at stake. If we do not learn from our history and act fast, decisively and in unison, as we did at Poitiers and Lepanto, we would soon find ourselves on the losing side of this mortal combat with our hoary enemy – the Muslims.
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* For those uninitiated, PBUH expands to Perpetual Battle Upon Hagarism (Islam) – founded by the mass-murderer and pedophile pretender prophet Mohammed-ibn-Abdallah (Yimach Shmo – May his name and memory be obliterated).
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The Chronicle of John Coptic Bishop of Nikiu (circa 690 A.D.), translated by Robert Henry Charles, reprint from 1916 edition, APA-Philo Press Amsterdam, Holland
The Vanished Library, A Wonder of The Ancient World, by Luciano Canfora, University of California Press
The Story of The Church of Egypt, Volumes I and II, by Edith L. Butcher, reprint of 1897 edition by AMS Press Inc, New York, N.Y 1975
Coptic Egypt, by Murad Kamil, Le Scribe Egyptien, 1968
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Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict, by Obadiah Shoher
Jihad in the West: Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st
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by Paul Fregosi
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Srdja Trifkovic
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Growing Faith by Robert Spencer
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Islam)
by David Cook
Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq
Onward Muslim Soldiers by Robert Spencer
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Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeor
What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary by Ibn
Warraq
Islam and Terrorism: What the Quran Really Teaches About
Christianity, Violence and the Goals of the Islamic Jihad
by Mark A. Gabriel, Mark A. Gabriel
A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden
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Spencer
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by Ibn Warraq
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Unfortunately for humankind, the end of the death-seeking fiery cult of Islam can only come about through a fiery death-giving weapon. Ironically such nuclear mushroom clouds would be the blazing hell-fire that the Quran talks about and acknowledges will bring about an end to Islam such that there will be no one across the globe to say “Lah ilah il Allah, Mohammed ur Rasoolallah” (There is no god but allah and Mohammed is his prophet).
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