Prologue
October 15, 1529
18, Safar, 936
City of Vienna
Holy Roman Empire
Grand Vizier Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, walked the cobblestone streets of what had been the Austrian capital. The "
Golden Apple" as it was so named by the Ottoman forces. Their desire to posses the city for the glory of the Empire, had been unrelenting. And now, he spread his arms wide, filling his lungs with the cool air rolling over the city from the Alps, now the banners of the Emperor, his armies, and his empire flew over it's walls, and it's fortress. The Austrians who had not fled had begun to return to their lives with in the city walls, seeing their faces brought sorrow to his heart. They gave off an air of a people defeated, and broken, they eyed their occupiers as if they were monsters, and demons risen from hell to destroy them. An elderly woman, tripped, her basket of withering fruit spilling over the streets, a single Janissary guard, a younger man Greek or Albanian by the look of him helped her to refill her basket, even giving her a piece of his own bread. She looked at him, both stunned and afraid before nodding and muttering a prayer and walking off at a hurried pace to her home. İbrahim had seen her the day they took possession of the city. She was the mother of a blacksmith, a man who had been killed defending Vienna. He had seen younger men, likely her other other son's or grand children working in her home. She would survive. His eyes scanned the city before him from horse back. Other's though...
Rubble and ruin still covered the streets of the city. Burned out buildings, destroyed walls and defences, ruined barricades, even dead horses were all still visible. At least the dead, both Christian and Muslim, had been removed from the streets, and given their proper respects. Now the last of the cleaning was being done, after the men had finished looting the city of most of it's wealth. the great defensive walls, that had nearly kept the Turks out were being repaired now. The walls of...
İbrahim Pasha stopped and thought to himself for a moment. Ala Hazrat-i-Aqdas-i-Hümayun Sultan Suleyman Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, would likely rename Vienna to something more fitting it's new place as the forward most expanse of the Empire. An Istanbul of the North, an Islamic fortress in the centre of Christendom, a spearhead pointed at the heat of Europe. The future laid out before them would be rocky and uncertain, and the battle hardly yet begun. Knowing that the battle had been lost, the Holy Roman Emperor had fled with a token force for his defence. Even now scouts searched the country side for the Christian Emperor, but hardly a hair had been found. He would have had laid out plans for this event months, maybe years before if he were a wise man. He could have gone south, towards Rome to ask the Pope for his assistance, north into the HRE to rally the German States to his cause, or west, across the Alps, and France, into Spain to rally his kingdom there. A vengeful and determined force would soon descend upon the city. He had to be ready. Already he had sent out two letters at the behest of the Emperor, on to Istanbul calling more forces forward, the other to a western ally. He closed his eyes and bowed his head in thought. Then, he heard it, a wonderful sound stirring his his soul just as the golden rays of the sun warmed the earth below, a call from St. Stephen's Cathedral:
"Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Ash-hadu an-la ilaha illa llah, Ash-hadu an-la ilaha illa llah. Ash-hadu anna Muħammadan-Rasulullah, Ash-hadu anna Muħammadan-Rasulullah. Hayya 'ala s-salah, Hayya 'ala s-salah. Hayya 'ala 'l-falah, Hayya 'ala 'l-falah. Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar. La ilaha illa-Allah."
The Cathedral began its new life as a Mosque with the call to prayer cutting through the chilled morning on the back of the rising sun. "I give my thanks to God." İbrahim Pasha said raising his hands a smile taking his face, as he felt the warm glow of the sun cover him. "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar." And with that he turned his back to the west, and the troubles that haunted his mind, and moved towards the Great Mosque of Vienna.