The invasion of Gozo, also known as the siege of Gozo (Maltese: L-Assedju t'Għawdex), was an Ottoman invasion of the island of Gozo, then part of Hospitaller Malta, in July 1551. The attack, which was led by Sinan Pasha, Dragut, Kambil Bey and Salah Rais, appears to have been launched in retaliation for the capture of Mahdia by the Spanish and Hospitallers the previous year.
The Ottoman force briefly attacked Sicily before landing on the main island of Malta on 18 July, where the city of Mdina was briefly besieged and some villages were plundered. They then abandoned Malta and landed on nearby Gozo, where the Castello was bombarded for two days before its garrison capitulated on 26 July. The fortress was sacked and between 5,000 and 7,000 people – the majority of the island's population – were enslaved and taken to North Africa or Constantinople. The same Ottoman force went on to capture Tripoli from the Hospitallers on 14 August 1551.
Some of the enslaved Gozitans were ransomed or freed, while others are known to have died in slavery or converted to Islam. Most of them never returned to the Maltese Islands, and it took about a century of resettlement for Gozo's population to recover. The Hospitallers made efforts to improve the defences of Malta after the attack; the fortifications they built later played a key role in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565.
Background
Gozo's population is estimated to have stood at around 8,000 people in 1530, while according to another study the island had around 6,050 inhabitants prior to the attack. At the time, Gozitan society included a few noble families who were of Sicilian origin, while most of the population were peasant farmers known as beduini who owned small parcels of land. Like most of the population of the Maltese Islands, these were mainly descended from Siculo-Arabic-speaking Muslims who had converted to Christianity in previous centuries. Most of Gozo's population lived in one town which consisted of a medieval fortress known as the Castello and a suburb known as the Borgo (now collectively known as Victoria or Rabat). The rest of the island had been virtually abandoned as it was vulnerable to attacks by pirates or corsairs.
The Maltese Islands were subject to occasional razzias and attacks by Arabs from North Africa, and later by Barbary corsairs and the Ottoman Empire, throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. The frequency of raids by the latter increased after the Hospitallers established themselves on Malta in 1530. Gozo was particularly vulnerable to such attacks, and various sources mention raids on the island occurring in 1500, 1511, 1521, 1525, 1526, 1531, 1533, 1540, 1541, 1544, twice in 1545, 1546, 1547 and 1550. Ottoman corsair Dragut led several of these raids, including the 1540 raid in which 50 Gozitans were enslaved and the 1544 raid during which Dragut's brother was killed in the fighting; vengeance for this might have been a motivating factor for the 1551 attack.
In September 1550, the town of Mahdia in modern Tunisia – which Dragut had been using as his base – was captured by a Spanish-led expedition with Hospitaller support. This led the Ottoman sultanate to send a punitive expedition against Hospitaller Malta and Tripoli in 1551, with the capture of the latter being the primary objective. Starting in May 1551, several Hospitaller knights including Gaspard de Vallier and Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon began informing Grand Master Juan de Homedes that a large Ottoman force was being assembled in Constantinople and that Malta and Tripoli were its targets. These rumours were dismissed by Spanish and Italian knights including Homedes, who believed that the intended destination of the Ottoman fleet was Toulon. The Grand Master reportedly believed that the Ottomans were going to rendezvous with the French fleet and attack Naples.
Attack
Prelude: attack on Sicily
The invading forces were led by Ottoman admiral Sinan Pasha, the corsair Dragut who acted as Sinan's lieutenant, the artillery general and army engineer Kambil Bey, and Salah Rais. Their fleet consisted of 145 ships carrying some 10,000 to 12,000 men. The fleet arrived off Messina in Sicily on 13 July 1551, and Sinan Pasha sent a letter to the Viceroy of Sicily in which he demanded that the Spanish and their allies vacate North Africa. The Ottomans briefly attempted to besiege Catania and attacked the harbour of Augusta on Sicily. The Viceroy informed the Hospitallers of this incursion and warned them that Malta and Tripoli were likely the Ottomans' next targets.
Initial landing on Malta
On 18 July, the Ottoman fleet appeared off the main island of Malta and entered into Marsamxett Harbour. A cavalry force of 30 Hospitaller knights and 400 Maltese volunteers led by the English commander Upton and 100 knights and 300 arquebusiers on foot led by the Spanish commander De Guimeran engaged the Ottomans in an attempt to prevent them from landing on the otherwise undefended Sciberras Peninsula, but they retreated to the Hospitaller base at nearby Birgu upon seeing the invaders' numerical superiority. The Ottomans were able to land and they briefly occupied the peninsula, from where they reconnoitered Birgu and determined that the city's defences – consisting of Fort St. Angelo and newly-built fortifications – were too strong for it to be easily conquered.
The Ottomans then attacked and plundered the Maltese countryside including Birkirkara, Qormi, Naxxar, Lija, Mosta and other villages, before turning their attention to the inland city of Mdina. The city's fortifications had recently been upgraded with the addition of bastions, but its garrison was small and the city was overcrowded with thousands of Maltese peasants who had sought refuge inside. The Ottomans briefly besieged Mdina and plundered the nearby unfortified suburb of Rabat. Mdina's governor, the Genoese knight George Adorno, sent a messenger to Birgu requesting assistance from Homedes. The latter was reluctant to send a substantial number of reinforcements, but Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon and six other knights were sent and they managed to sneak past the Ottomans into the city.
Villegaignon's arrival boosted the garrison's morale, but the governor was informed that no further reinforcements would be forthcoming and the knights are said to have been ready to die. However, on 20 July, the Ottoman fleet moved to St. Paul's Bay and by the next day the invaders retreated and embarked onto their ships. The reason why the Ottomans retreated from Mdina is a matter of debate. While the city was surrounded, its inhabitants had organised a religious procession in which they placed a statue of Saint Agatha on the city walls; it is possible that when the Ottomans saw large numbers of people on the walls they may have thought that the city was manned by a large garrison and that besieging it would have cost them a lot of time. False rumours of a possible Christian relief force led by Andrea Doria arriving from Sicily might have also been a factor.
Attack on Gozo and sack of the Castello
Before the attack on Gozo began, some boats carrying Gozitan women and children were reportedly sent to Malta, but Homedes is said to have refused to allow them to take refuge in Birgu and turned them back, stating that the Gozitan men would be motivated to fight harder if they had their women and children with them.
The Ottomans landed on Gozo on 22 July. The Castello was under the command of the knight Galatian de Sesse, who had been appointed as Governor of Gozo earlier that year. Its defences were obsolete and it had only a small garrison, but as had been the case with Mdina, the fortress was full of people as Gozo's population sought refuge within its walls.
De Sesse sent the jurat Paolo di Nasis to request help from Malta, and Homedes sent a boat loaded with gunpowder and arquebuses but this never arrived as it was captured by the Ottoman fleet while on its way to Gozo. Several soldiers and bombardiers were also captured along with di Nasis, and only a single English bombardier was left on duty inside the Castello. Di Nasis falsely claimed that Gozo was well-defended when interrogated by the Ottomans, but Dragut was already aware of the poor state of the island's defences and he persuaded Sinan Pasha to launch the attack.
At around midnight on 23 July, some Gozitans escaped from the Castello by climbing down ropes along its northern walls. Historian Giacomo Bosio stated that some 300 managed to escape in this manner, but later historians have estimated that the number might have been around 500 to 700 people, most of whom were likely able-bodied men.
According to Bosio, Sinan Pasha deployed artillery near the Porta Reale and the parish church of St George, and the Castello began to be bombarded on Friday 24 July. The lone English bombardier was one of the early casualties of the attack. De Sesse convened a council meeting with Gozo's elites, and they decided to seek a truce with the invaders on the condition that 200 of the wealthier citizens be spared and allowed to keep their possessions. An Augustinian monk, Bartolomeo Bonavia, was sent as an emissary to negotiate with Sinan Pasha, but the latter only agreed to spare 40 people as he knew that the castle was about to fall.
On Sunday 26 July, after two days of bombardment, de Sesse and the Gozitan elite decided to accept Sinan Pasha's terms and the Castello's gate was opened. The Ottomans rushed in and proceeded to sack the fortress, burning down the Matrice church and the archives and rounding up its inhabitants. Sinan Pasha decided to spare 40 elderly men instead of 40 elites. Bonavia convinced the Ottomans to also spare one woman who was about to give birth, and he himself was also spared as it was customary to not harm any emissaries.
The remaining people inside the Castello – around 700 soldiers and a few thousand inhabitants including women and children – were captured and enslaved. Sources disagree on the exact number: Bosio stated that 5,000 were enslaved, de Nicolay gave a figure of 6,300, while de Soldanis gave a figure of 6,000 to 7,000. This constituted the majority of the island's population, and Gozo's elites including many members of the Università Gaudisii (the island's governing body) and some Hospitaller knights including de Sesse were among the captives. One Sicilian soldier, Bernardo de Opuo, is said to have killed his wife and two daughters in order to spare them from being raped and enslaved. He then killed two Turks before he himself was killed in the fighting.
After the Castello was taken, the rest of the island was also plundered, other churches were burnt, and the captives were embarked onto the Ottoman fleet which departed Gozo on 30 July, heading towards North Africa.
Aftermath
Siege of Tripoli
After leaving Gozo, the Ottoman fleet proceeded to North Africa and landed at Zuwarah and Tajura in the vicinity of Hospitaller Tripoli. The Ottomans besieged the city and captured it on 14 August 1551. Unlike the garrison on Gozo, the Hospitaller knights in Tripoli managed to negotiate safe passage to Malta for themselves, but the rest of the city's garrison was also enslaved or massacred. One source claims that de Sesse was allowed to return to Malta along with the knights from Tripoli, but this is contradicted by other sources.
Fate of captives
Some of the enslaved Gozitans remained in North Africa, and there are records of some being sold in Tajura, as evidenced by witness testimony in a court case concerning a Gozitan woman who was purchased there by a Turk before being taken to Tripoli, where she became his concubine and later his wife after converting to Islam. According to tradition, some enslaved Gozitans were taken to Tarhuna in modern Libya, where they and their descendants converted to Islam and assimilated into the local population. Some reportedly maintained memory of their Maltese ancestry until as late as World War II: J. Manara, a Maltese who lived in Tripoli, claimed to have heard a resident of Tarhuna state "Siamo Maltesi della vendetta di Dragut" (Italian for "we are Maltese of Dragut's revenge").
After the capture of Tripoli, the majority of the slaves were taken to Constantinople. Many of the adult men – including the former governor de Sesse – are believed to have ended up as galley slaves. A number of surviving court cases and other records from the 1550s and 1560s make reference to Gozitan slaves in the Ottoman capital, including some who were eventually freed or ransomed, some who converted to Islam, and others who died in slavery. It is believed that the majority never returned to the Maltese Islands, while some of those who did manage to obtain their freedom decided not to return to Gozo and instead settled on the main island of Malta (especially within the urban area around the Grand Harbour) or moved to Sicily.