The reflections of the Ottoman defeats in the second half of the XVI th century through the Ottoman history writers and their chronicles

The second half of the XVIth century is a period that many alterationsand radical changes occured both in the world and in the Ottoman Empire.Starting from the second half of the XIVth century and from the first half ofthe XVth century the rapidly growing Ottoman Empire as one of the mostimportant powers of the world, affixed its own seal to the period mentionedabove. However, because of the effects of the important economic, political,technical, social etc. alterations and radical changes that had emerged in thesecond half of the same century, the Empire reached a deadlock. The Siegeof Malta and the Battle of Lepanto, as two important defeats of thecontradictory period between the Golden Age and the standstill, are themessengers of the new power balance emerging from the sea and the swansong of ?The Undefeatable Turk?. This two chaptered work that surveys thereflections of the Ottoman defeats from the Ottoman history writers and fromtheir chronicles, tries to show that in spite of the changing world and statesystem, the history writers sometimes insistently kept writing their chroniclesthrough the learned facts, sometimes under the contradictory effects of thereality or of the advantages of their own and the empire and sometimes in away that makes history useful for the future.Key Words1. Ottoman defeats2. XVIth century3. History writing4. Malta5. Lepanto