Matthew McHolland

History 150

Professor Arguello

Defenders of the Faith • “Defenders of the Faith,” is a book written by James Reston Jr. In

this book, he goes indeed to explain the ottoman wars or the Turkish wars that took place during the 1500s.

• The main characters of this time are Charles V and Suleiman the magnificent.

• Reston describes how the Ottoman Empire almost conquered Europe.

• Each character at some point was the most powerful man in his country. Each was called “the Defenders of the Faith.”

• Both characters had to encounter rebellions with relation to religion in their domains.

• Turkish Suleiman the Magnificent is an important character from the book “Defenders of the Faith” because he reigned the Ottoman Empire from 1520-1566.

• The main reason why he is such an significant character is because he had the ability to build a strong army and once he had his militia, he went ahead and conquered the Christians of Belgrade, Rhodes and Hungary.

• He is also known for his ability to dominate the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and even the Persian Gulf.

Turkish Suleiman the Magnificent

Turkish Suleiman the Magnificent • He was an amazing military campaigner because triumph

was in his blood. His father and his great-grandfather had been in the same position as him, of course, years before.

• Believe it or not, Suleiman was a poet and he was able to writer in Persian and Turkish.

• His most famous verse is the following: • “The people think of wealth and power as the greatest

fait, but in in this world as spell of health is the best state. What men called sovereignty is a worldly strife and constant war; worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all states.”

***Charles V*** • He was the heir of the three leading dynasties in

Europe.

• He had the ability to rule over the extensive domains in Central, Western and Southern Europe and even some of the Spanish colonies in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Asia.

• His realm has been described as “The empire on which the sun never sets.”

***Charles V*** • A cool fact about Charles V: In Mexico there is even a

bar of chocolate named “Carlos V-Charles V,” and I used to eat it when I was young.

• Much of his reign was devoted to the Italian wars against the French King, Francis I.

Conclusion • After finishing reading the book “Defenders of the Faith,” I realized

that both characters Charles V and Suleiman the Magnificent, were extremely powerful human beings who had the ability to conquer huge areas of the world. For instance, Charles V’s domain expanded from Europe all the way to Latin America

• My favorite part about doing extra research in order to create this power point was that Suleiman was a poet. Once I read this, my perspectives towards this character changed for the better. Before I used to think of Suleiman as a evil person who wanted to conquer Europe but once I read about his work in literature, I discovered that he was just a simple human being. Both characters are important in world history because at one point they rule the world and because of Charles and his militia, Europe is not a Muslim continent.