How an Italian Engineer with 700 Knights Defeated 100,000 Ottoman Troops at the Siege Rhodes
History Unplugged Podcast
History Unplugged
4.2 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Throughout the 16th century, one man stood between the Ottoman Empire and European domination, yet his name has been largely forgotten. Gabriele Tadino was an Italian military engineer whose genius transformed medieval warfare and saved Europe from one of history's greatest conquerors, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1522, Tadino defied his Venetian masters by sneaking away in the night to defend Rhodes, where 700 Knights Hospitaller faced an impossible siege against 100,000 Ottoman troops. His revolutionary innovations—from acoustic devices using stretched skins and bells to detect enemy tunnels, to star-shaped fortifications that could withstand cannon fire—turned him into a legend among Renaissance military minds. Despite losing an eye in combat, Tadino continued directing the defense, holding off Suleiman for six months and forcing the Sultan to negotiate a peaceful surrender rather than achieve outright victory.
Today’s guest is Edoardo Albert, author of “The Man Who Stopped the Sultan.” We see how Tadino's expertise came at a crucial moment when gunpowder was rendering centuries-old walls obsolete and Europe's power-hungry rulers—Henry VIII, Francis I, and Charles V—were too divided to mount a unified defense against Ottoman expansion. He pioneered counter-mining techniques like "camouflets," controlled explosions that buried enemy sappers alive, and ventilation shafts that redirected the force of gunpowder blasts away from fortress walls. His genius extended from Crete's massive Martinengo Bastion, which still stands today, to the walls of Vienna in 1529, where his underground warfare tactics stopped Suleiman's advance into Central.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to keep God's word with you wherever you go? |
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| 0:34.7 | It's got here with another episode of the History Unplugged podcast. |
| 0:38.1 | In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire reached the height of its power. It entered Central Hungary |
| 0:42.3 | by the 1500s and threatened to conquer Vienna. Many figures like Martin Luther thought it would |
| 0:46.9 | eventually conquer the entire European continent. It didn't for a number of reasons, but that |
| 0:51.4 | has to do with key battles that it lost or suffered a period victory. One of those battles is the Siege of Rhodes, but that has to do with key battles that lost or suffered a |
| 0:54.4 | pyric victory. One of those battles is the siege of Rhodes, where one brilliant military engineer |
| 0:59.5 | and 700 knights were able to prolong a siege that led to up to 100,000 Ottoman troop deaths. |
| 1:04.9 | This was Gabriel Tadino, and he was an Italian military engineer whose genius transformed |
| 1:09.1 | medieval warfare and saved Christendom |
| 1:11.0 | from one of history's greatest conquerors, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1522, Tadino |
| 1:15.8 | defied his Venetian masters by sneaking away in the night to defend Rhodes, where 700 knights |
| 1:20.8 | hospitaller faced an impossible siege against 100,000 Ottoman troops. His revolutionary innovations |
| 1:26.6 | from acoustic devices using stretched skins |
| 1:29.7 | and bells to detect enemy tunnels, to star-shaped fortifications can withstand cannon fire, |
| 1:35.2 | turning him into a legend among Renaissance military minds. Despite losing an eye in combat, |
| 1:39.8 | Tanino continued directing the defense, holding off Suleiman for six months and forcing the |
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