Book review : 1551 – The Siege that stifled Gozo

Abstract

What scourged Gozo in July 1551 is just too tragic to recount. Never, in the known history of the Maltese Islands, had so much befallen so many in so brief a time. A marauding Ottoman fury virtually annihilated a peaceful rural community. The author uses the verb ‘stifled’ in the book’s title. I generally applaud political correctness, but that is taking things too far. When almost the entire population of an island is butchered, raped or enslaved; when the entire country is plundered, or handed over to arson; when not one church or chapel is left standing; when the archives are destroyed and the wealth of the land looted; when only relentless devastation survives; bitter words can be the solitary deliverance left from hurt and outrage. [Excerpt]