In 1480, Sultan Mehmed II—conqueror of Constantinople—turned his attention to Rhodes. The island was a forward fortress of the Knights Hospitaller, a Christian military order that had already been driven from the Holy Land. From Rhodes, they harassed Ottoman shipping and projected Western power into the eastern Mediterranean. To Mehmed, it was unfinished business. An Ottoman force, likely numbering in the tens of thousands, landed on the island in May. They brought heavy artillery, siege towers,

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