Thanks for downloading the Inartime podcast. For more details about Inartime and for our terms of use

Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program

Hello in June 1683 a man called Karam Mustafa Pasha made a journey to Vienna

That a Muslim Turks should come to a Catholic city wasn't unusual, but Karam Mustafa did so at the head of the Ottoman army

Vienna was the capital of the Hapsubeg Empire and he intended to take it. The ensuing siege, a tale of blood and drama, has been held responsible

responsible for many things from the invention of the Quassal to the creation of Viennese coffee

But most importantly it's been used to define a series of boundaries which in Europe and Asia

Christian and Muslim Hapsberg and Ottoman. These boundaries that influence the view between Vienna and Istanbul to this day

We'd mean to discuss the siege of Vienna a Claire Norton lecturer in history at Marys University London Andrew Wheatcroft

Professor of International Publishing at the University of Sterling and Jeremy Black professor of history at the University of Exeter

Jeremy Black, can you explain why the siege of Vienna is considered such an important battle even in world history?

The siege of Vienna and in particular the fact that it ended with the destruction of the Ottoman field army an enormous battle on the 12th of September

83 the siege of Vienna set a pattern for the Turks being slowly driven back so that an Ottoman Empire which had covered a quarter of Europe

By the beginning of the 20th century was shrunk to a fraction where it now is around Istanbul

So it was very important for the redefinition of the boundaries of Europe for the change in the Balkans for Austria becoming a

Balkan power and in the immediate short term

It started a process of war which went on to the end of the 1690s which saw most of Hungary taken out of

Turkish control and

Transferred into that of Christian Europe just for a moment because this is not what we're going to discuss

But just for a moment had the had they taken Vienna what might have ensued?

Well, that's a fascinating question and it's entirely valid to ask counterfactual questions when we're looking at what contemporaries at the time thought was possible

It was probably pretty near the extreme of the logistical capability of the Turkish Empire

...