The meticulously researched "Victory of the West: The Great Christian-Muslim Clash at the Battle of Lepanto" has so many elements to commend that it's difficult to know where to begin.

Italian scholar Niccolo Capponi puts us smack into the ever-shifting alliances, intrigue and war set primarily but not exclusively in the eastern Mediterranean as the power of various empires waxes and wanes. From the West, the Mediterranean looks like one smallish, almost enclosed body of water. Up close, from Capponi’s depiction, we see the warring states and competing interests of the cities and states as they scramble for primacy while constantly on watch for the breakdown of an ally or the rise of a new force. Capponi seems to be no fan of Machiavelli, yet the latter’s name is so well known that it’s hard to not regularly think of him when reading about the palace intrigues and broken alliances that led to or ended so many aspirations. Not to mention claimed lives and established permanent political divisions.

We are introduced to the Habsburg empire and the rise of Lutheran and Calvinism; the schemings of the Venetians, the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine collapse; the struggles between the French and the Popes and the wars between various Italian city states. Though somewhat more unified, the Muslims—who sought to take advantage of the Christian divisions—had their own problems, with the Safavids of Persia attempting to move in on the Ottoman empire and, the biggest threat of all, the Mongols from the East.

Capponi is excellent at putting things in to perspective, giving us a we-were-there sense of the time and place. He covers the rise of various religious factions on both the Christian and Muslim ends even as he hastens to point out that Muslims, in particular, were religious but not fighting purely for the sake of religion. Instead, because Islam makes no distinction between religion and political life, the language of faith is what we often hear. But Capponi regularly reminds us that the need for land to keep the troops satisfied was a major factor in the Ottoman drive for conquest, and he explains at some length how soldiers were brought into service and then rewarded for their efforts. He tells of the dozens of little fiefdoms and recurring battles and wars that ranged from the Mongol lands up through France, working in details, such as Dracula's impaling of Turkish soldiers that, rather than distract from his main story, simply add rich detail.

But all of this serves merely as the backdrop for the Battle of Lepanto on Oct.7, 1571. For military history fans, few accounts will match Capponi’s rich detail about the men who led the battle, fought it, the machines and the conditions of warfare at the time.

As he notes, a great Muslim fleet set sail from Lepanto, a force far larger than the Christian fleet assembled by the Holy League, made up of Venice, Spain, the Papacy, including Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Knights of Malta and other lesser states. The Ottomans had not lost a major sea battle since the previous century and had no reason to believe this day would be any different. They sailed from Lepanto on the western edge of Greece into the Gulf of Patras, full expecting a significant victory.

But the Catholic fleet prevailed in the five-hour battle, in part because of the Christian use of large, heavily armed and fast-moving ships known as galleasses that cut many Ottoman ships to ribbons. Dozens of Ottoman ships were captured intact and their Christian galley slaves freed; the Ottomans suffered tens of thousands of casualties, with Capponi estimating a total of killed, wounded or missing at 35,000. The Christians reported about 20,000 casualties. But it was the loss of so many Ottoman ships and the fact that the Christian fleet pushed them back toward the east that had such historical impact. With this defeat, the Ottoman empire’s expansion came to and end and began its long decline into the “sick old man of Europe” as it was described until its end in the 20th Century.

The quarrelsome Christians failed to capitalize on its victory. Soon after, many of the states big and small returned to arguing and warring with each other. Instead of pressing forward with its victory and, say, recapturing Constantinople, the Christian coalition simply walked away to do battle with its religious brethren. The Ottomans attempted to recover and rebuild, relying in part on some of the ships and handful of naval officers who managed to get away from the battle. But they were never to return to their former glory. European tactics and superior armament had prevailed over the better fighters and the Ottomans, though hardly dislodged, were never to be the threat they had been to European cities.

The research done by Capponi yields fascinating elements, even if the material isn’t a big factor in the story.
For example, he cites some reporting on how the Ottoman sultan learned of the great defeat, based on letters from Jews in Constantinople to relatives in Venice. There’s this citation, which focuses on the sultan having been awakened two nights in a row by wails and screams but is apparently not moved to learn precisely why:

The third night, with the whole city wailing and screaming because no one could hide any more the grief for such a loss, the Great Turk, concerned and irked by all the moans and tears, demanded to hear the truth. It was answered that it was impossible now to hide the news that his fleet had been all burnt, sunk and taken by the Christians, with the death of all his great soldiers, captains and his General (Ali Pasha). Hearing this he gave a deep sigh and said, “So, these treacherous Jews have deceived me!” And having the Lord’s
utterance spread through the palace and the streets, everyone started shouting, “Death to the Jews! Death to the Jews!” and there was much fear that this would degenerate into a general massacre.”

Capponi speculates that, if the account is accurate, the sultan might have been blaming one Joseph Nassi, a Spanish-born Jew who had become friends with the sultan and was a political player.

He also provides scads of material on the order of battle, explanations of the monetary system, transliterations of names, a who’s who of key players, a glossary of Islamic, Christian and military terms, a chart of armaments and more.

This is a tremendous work, a well-written and better-researched account of geo-politics and battle most Americans know little or nothing about but which has helped shape our own history.

Recommended: Yes