Battle of Karpathos
1498 naval battle
The Battle of Karpathos was a battle in 1498 in which the Ottoman fleet under the command of Kemal Reis defeated the Knights Hospitaller fleet under the command of Nicolas Centurione, which blocked its way between Karpathos and Crete on its return from Egypt in July 1498.
Background
The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, who implemented an active maritime policy, accelerated these efforts after the death of Cem Sultan. Bayezid II, who especially aimed to make substantial preparations against Venice, invited Kemal Reis to Istanbul in 1495 and allocated a significant budget to create a large fleet. In the same year, Kemal Reis made a show of strength in the Mediterranean with the navy he had expanded.
In 1498, Kemal Reis was assigned to transport the incomes of the foundations of the Haremeyn (Mecca and Medina) in Anatolia to Alexandria by sea, since the land route was not safe. This intended 13-piece (5 galleys, and 6 fusta Ottoman fleet reached Egypt at the beginning of June 1498 via the Aegean Sea-Eastern Mediterranean. If the Ottoman trade was harassed by the Knights Hospitaller off the coast of Crete, Kemal Reis warded off the harassment in order to risk the loss and avoid getting into trouble.
Battle
The Ottoman fleet under the command of Kemal Reis was harassed again by the Knights Hospitaller on its way back in July. This time, the Ottoman navy, which had taken up battle formation to carry valuable cargo, attacked the Rhodian navy under the command of Nicolas Centurione (called "Sunturluoğlu" by the Ottomans). The Turkish navy, which sank the flagship and captured Centurione, also captured five Rhodian ships.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q118946809. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1498 and 1495.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Karpathos” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.