ABSTRACT
The Knights, by their conquest of Rhodes in 1309/10, inherited a defensive system which had evolved in response to a constant series of attacks in the pre-Hospitaller period. Under Byzantine rule, the inhabitants had been subject to multiple incursions by Arabs, notably in the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries.1 Later, the Venetians had attacked in 11242 and the Nicaean Greeks in 1233,3 when they had been trying to recover the island from the breakaway Byzantine governor, Leon Gabalas. There had been other assaults, in 1248-50 by the Genoese,4 who temporarily occupied at least Rhodes town, and several by the Turks from about 1278 onwards.5 Indeed, it has been suggested that the Turks had settled in a large part of the eastern section of the island, though Luttrell has since withdrawn his earlier endorsements of this idea.6
