Jihad against the Bulgarians (1393-1877)

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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