In his latest landmark publication, Defiant: The Knights at War 1522-1535, Gozitan historian Joseph Scicluna delivers a meticulous and gripping account of one of the most turbulent interludes in the millennial history of the Hospitaller Order of St John.
Following the critical success of his award-winning biography of Jacques François de Chambray, Scicluna shifts his focus to a pivotal window that saw the Order transformed from an Aegean bulwark into a sovereign Mediterranean power based in Malta.
The narrative centres on the "memorable and unparalleled" Siege of Rhodes in 1522, where the mighty Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, unleashed a vast force against the knights tasked with defending the eastern frontiers of Christendom. Scicluna provides what Professor Victor Mallia-Milanes describes as an almost "day-to-day account" of the siege, capturing the "brutal and ferocious" reality of 16th century warfare, marked by both extraordinary heroism and the "vile act of treachery" committed by the Order's own chancellor, Andréa d'Amaral.
What distinguishes Defiant from a standard military chronicle is Scicluna's ability to situate these events within the broader "geopolitical and ideological currents" of the era. He masterfully illustrates how the fall of Rhodes was not an isolated tragedy but a consequence of a fragmented Christendom, where the bitter rivalry between the Habsburg and Valois dynasties squandered the collective strength of Europe.
The book traces the Order's "painfully uneasy eight-year odyssey" following their honourable surrender in 1522, a period of exile where they wrestled with questions of identity and legitimacy while seeking a new home. Scicluna reveals that Malta was never their intended destination; even after settling on the island in 1530, the arrangement was long regarded as provisional, with the knights initially more focused on a bold, though ultimately aborted, plan to recapture Rhodes and later made an unsuccessful attempt to seize Modon.
The final chapters delve into the rise of the notorious corsair lord Khaïr-ed-Dîn Barbarossa, whose presence at the gateway to Europe sent shockwaves through Christendom. This culminates in a vivid retelling of Emperor Charles V's 1535 conquest of Tunis, an event Scicluna describes in his epilogue as a moment of "vindication and warning" for the knights - reaffirming their vocation as defenders of the Faith while exposing the fragile nature of Christian unity.
Visually, the volume is a triumph. Published by Kite Group, it features the exquisite artistry of Paul Cassar, including the eight coats of arms of the Order's langues, alongside the authoritative military architecture illustrations of Dr Stephen C. Spiteri.
By embedding the "short-term" disturbances of battles and sieges within the "long-term" structures of Mediterranean history, Scicluna has produced a work that Prof. Mallia-Milanes identifies as a "solid contribution, interesting and significant, to Hospitaller scholarship". Defiant is a profound study in contingency and the stubborn will to endure against all odds.