Siege of Tripoli
1551 CE.
Shown on the map at 32.902°, 13.186°.
The siege of Tripoli was a successful Ottoman siege of the North African city of Tripoli, then held by the Knights Hospitaller, in August 1551. The attack, which was led by Sinan Pasha and Dragut, appears to have been launched in retaliation for the capture of Mahdia by the Spanish and Hospitallers the previous year. The siege followed a brief Ottoman attack on the Kingdom of Sicily and Hospitaller Malta, during which the island of Gozo was invaded and sacked and some 5,000 to 7,000 inhabitants were taken as slaves. The Ottoman forces then sailed to North Africa, where local forces bolstered them from Tajura led by Murad Agha. Tripoli was besieged, and the city's governor Gaspard de Vallier capitulated after six days of bombardment. Through the intervention of French ambassador Gabriel d'Aramont, the Hospitaller knights and part of the garrison were allowed to depart Tripoli for Malta, while the rest of the garrison was massacred or enslaved. Murad Agha was appointed as beylerbey of Tripoli, and he was later succeeded in this position by Dragut.
Text from the Wikipedia article Siege of Tripoli (1551), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.