Perhaps Austria’s memory does not preserve a more detailed battle regarding the issue of its identity, more prominent than its siege that took place in the year 935 AH, 1529 AD the first time, and in 1532 the second time, when Caliph Suleiman the Magnificent prepared an Islamic army numbering approximately 120 thousand fighters supported by three hundred cannons to conquer Austria, as Austria almost became an Ottoman state! The Siege of Vienna represented the greatest evidence of the power of the Ottoman Empire and its maximum expansion in Central Europe at the height of the empire’s glory under the rule of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. This siege also represented the beginning of a phase that lasted for one hundred and fifty years of conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, which included many attacks and battles, which culminated in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, which began the Great Turkish War that lasted for fifteen years.
Repercussions of the siege
In the year 932 AH, the Battle of Mohács took place in Hungary between 60,000 fighters of the Ottoman Empire led by Caliph Suleiman the Magnificent and 25,000 fighters of the Kingdom of Hungary under the command of King Lajos II. The Muslims won a landslide victory in that battle that lasted two hours, and as a result the kingdom that had formed a fortress for Christian Europe fell. Ottoman flags were raised in the capital, Budapest, which was called Buda at the time, and the Caliph was appointed King Jan Szapolya. King of Hungary. King Zapolya sent messages to Caliph Suleiman that Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was planning to invade Hungary after agreements he secretly concluded with a number of Hungarian princes under which he would assume the throne of Hungary. Ferdinand embarked on his plan and seized the province of Budin and snatched it from the hands of King Jan Zapolya, appointed by the Ottomans. The Ottoman armies, numbering 100,000 fighters, immediately rushed from Constantinople and advanced towards Hungary to restore Budin. This was done for her and they restored Zapolya as its king. After the battle, King Ferdinand fled to Vienna, which was guarded by a garrison consisting of 20,000 soldiers. Caliph Suleiman the Magnificent insisted on punishing Ferdinand. The Ottomans headed to Vienna and surrounded it with 120,000 soldiers and 300 artillery, but they were unable to open it. However, they inflicted great losses on its suburbs and the surrounding farms. Ferdinand asked his brother, Emperor Charles, for help, but he did not answer for help. After 25 days, the siege ended and some soldiers headed to Vienna. From the Ottoman army forces towards Germany and attacking its king, Charlecan, while most of the soldiers returned from the walls of Vienna due to the Safavids seizing and controlling Baghdad, so the army had to return from Vienna to liberate it.
The beginning of the campaign
Suleiman the Magnificent was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (in addition to personally commanding the army), and in April he appointed Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, a commander with powers to give orders in the name of the Sultan. He launched his campaign on May 10, 1529 and faced many obstacles from the beginning. Sultan Suleiman arrived in Osijek on 6 August. 1529 On the 18th, he arrived at the Mohacs Plain, where he was met by a large cavalry force led by Janusz Zapolya (who would later accompany Suleiman to Vienna). Sultan Suleiman helped him recover many fortresses lost since the Battle of Mohacs to the Austrians. , including Buda, which occurred on September 8. The only resistance came at Bratislava, where the Turkish fleet was bombed as it ascended the Danube. The defenders were supported by a variety of European mercenaries, namely the German Landsknechts and Spanish knights sent by Charles V of Spain. The defense forces discovered some Ottoman mines and successfully detonated several mines intended to bring down the city walls. They then sent 8,000 men on 6 October to attack the Ottoman mining operations, destroying some tunnels, but suffering heavy losses when they attempted to withdraw into the city. Two weeks after the start of the siege, Sultan Suleiman held an official council on October 12 to discuss the issue. One final attempt was decided, a major attack on Vienna, ending with the entry or breaking of the siege of the city. Some historians say that Suleiman’s final attack was not intended to take the city but to cause as much damage as possible and weaken it for a later attack, a tactic he had employed at Buda in 1526.
Campaign results
The campaign in Vienna demonstrated the logistical capacity of the Ottoman Empire to introduce large armies deep into central Europe at that time. This paved the way for the signing of a peace treaty and peace agreement between the opponents in the year 1553, after the Ottomans had initially rejected the settlement on their part. So what prompted the Ottomans to do so? The answer lies in the developments that took place in the east by the Safavids who attacked Baghdad and killed the governor of Bitlis. These developments forced Suleiman the Magnificent to withdraw forces to the capital and re-equip them to confront any possible invasion of Anatolia by the Shiite Safavids, whose movements caused the Muslims to miss the conquest of northeastern Europe, or almost!
