
On his long journey to Rome, Paul stopped at Rhodes, the island just off the coast of what is now Turkey. A section of the coastal area has been designated as Paul’s harbor, although, along with other Biblical sites, one can never be sure.
During the Middle Ages Rhodes in 1310 became the headquarters of one of the crusading orders, the Knights of St. John, or the Hospitalers. The crusading orders were an expression of religious enthusiasm that characterized the time and a response to the Turks who were threatening Christendom. The Turks arrived in the eleventh century from the steppe lands of central Asia and adopted Islam as their religion. They then turned their attention on Muslim lands living under a government much weakened by economic and political distress. The Muslims had been ruled by the Abbysid Caliphate since 750 with their capital at the glorious city of Baghdad, but in their decline they were susceptible to the rising Turkish power.

In 1055 the Turks conquered Baghdad and, with one of their major enemies vanquished, they focused their efforts on the other enemy, the Roman Empire with its capital at the seemingly invincible city of Constantinople where they had held sway since 330. They moved first against Anatolia, the center of population, economic strength and military resources. Anatolia was the true stronghold of the Roman Byzantine Empire, but it fell at the battle of Manzikert in 1071, and Byzantium never recovered.
The Christian world of Europe was now threatened by the seemingly unstoppable force of the Turks as they witnessed more and more lands fall, even the holy lands which had some measure of protection for Christian sites. The Abbysids were relatively tolerant of Christians and their holy places, largely because they were more interested in trade than conquest. But the Turks were on the march, and they were determined.

The Christian reaction was to organize groups that would retake the holy lands from the Turks and allow pilgrims once again to travel safely to Jerusalem and other Christian sites. There were three orders: the Knights Templar, so named because they supposedly took their oath on the site of the temple in Jerusalem; the Knights of St. John of Hospitalers who offered medical care for pilgrims, and the Teutonic (German) Knights. The crusaders marked the high point of Medieval chivalry.
The Knights of St. John built imposing dormitories for each of the national groups in Rhodes, and those structures still remain. When the Turks eventually conquered Rhodes in 1522, the Knights of St. John moved their headquarters to the island of Malta where they remain to this day.
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