Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World (Audiobook) (repost)

Empires of the Sea tells the story of the fifty-year world war between Islam and Christianity for the Mediterranean: one of the fiercest and most influential contests in European history. It traces events from the appearance on the world stage of Suleiman the Magnificent—the legendary ruler of the Ottoman Empire—through "the years of devastation" when it seemed possible that Islam might master the whole sea to the final brief flourishing of a united Christendom in 1571.