Anniversary of great historic victory over, uh, uh …

... To be on the safe side, why don’t we just call them radical fascist terrorist anti-freedom dead-enders? You know, like their predecessors in the seventh century who conquered half the world in the name of, uh, radical extremist fascist terrorist extremism.

This, from Wikipida, was sent to me on the 10th:

The Battle of Vaslui (also referred to as the Battle of Podul Inalt or the Battle of Racova) was fought on January 10, 1475 between Stephen III of Moldavia and the Ottoman Beylerbeyi of Rumelia, Hadan Suleiman Pasha. [LA says: Doesn’t “Battle of Podul Inalt” sound like something from The Lord of the Rings?”] The battle took place at Podul Inalt (the High Bridge), near the town of Vaslui, in Moldavia (now part of eastern Romania). The Ottoman troops numbered up to 120,000, facing about 40,000 Moldavian troops, plus smaller numbers of allied and mercenary troops.

Stephen inflicted on the Ottomans a decisive defeat that has been described as “the greatest ever secured by the Cross against Islam,” [whoops!] with casualties, according to Venetian and Polish records, reaching beyond 40,000 on the Ottoman side. Mara Brankovic (Mara Hatun), who had formerly been the younger wife of Murad II, told a Venetian envoy that the invasion had been worst ever defeat for the Ottomans. Stephen was later awarded the title “ Athleta Christi” (Champion of Christ) by Pope Sixtus IV, who referred to him as “Verus christiane fidei aletha” (The true defender of the Christian faith). [4]

According to the Polish chronicler Jan Dugosz, Stephen did not celebrate his victory; instead, he fasted for forty days on bread and water and forbade anyone to attribute the victory to him, insisting that credit be given only to “The Lord.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 14, 2008 12:33 PM | Send