Apocalypticism and the Ottoman–Habsburg Rivalry in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean
By Ebru Turan, Columbia University Press.
The early sixteenth century saw the rise of two Mediterranean empires—the Christian Habsburgs, based in Spain and Austria, and the Muslim Ottomans, centered in the Balkans and Anatolia—with strikingly similar ambitions. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) and Sultan Süleyman (1495–1566) each pursued grand universalist visions, seeking to unite Islam and Christendom under a universal monarchy that would resolve wars and conflicts, dissolve religious divisions, and usher in an age of peace, unity, and justice.