The Viennese razed buildings in the area around the city walls in order to deny the enemy cover, and brought livestock and provender into the city to prepare for a siege. As the Muslim hordes approached Vienna, King Leopold fled west with most of the citizens, leaving a garrison of about 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 citizen volunteers to hold the city against the Turks. Under the leadership of the Grand Vizier, Pasha Kara Mustafa, and with their Tatar and Malaysian allies, they made their preparations and fought their way towards the capital, overrunning Austrian villages and smaller cities in their path and taking many captives. Having failed to take Vienna in the siege of 1529, the Turks prepared a second attempt in 1683. The Ottomans had designs on Vienna, since the fall of the city would open the way into the heart of Austria and the rich principalities of southern Germany. They turned Protestant Hungary into a compliant vassal and made war repeatedly on Austria and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Sultan’s armies overran Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia. Wherever the Muslim armies went, they plundered cities, took slaves, turned churches into mosques, and converted many thousands of Christian captives to Islam at the point of a sword. The Ottoman Empire had been expanding into Europe ever since Constantinople fell to the Turks, and even before that. I refer, of course, to the other 9-11: September 11th, 1683, the day when an alliance of Christian armies led by Jan III Sobieski, the King of Poland, arrived at the Gates of Vienna. So this year I will do something different: I will commemorate the events of five years ago by revisiting events of 323 years ago. Sanity, and CUANAS, and all so much better than my own. There were some excellent posts and photo essays, notably at Michelle Malkin, Dr. Last year on September 11th I composed a memorial post, and then went browsing among all the other bloggers who had posted their own memorials.
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