2. 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.
3. Turkish Suleiman the Magnificent
• 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.
4. 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.”
5. ***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.”
6. ***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.
7. 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.
