Rhodes was conquered by the Ottomans in 1522, ending the Knights Hospitaller’s rule over the island.
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent launched the campaign after the Hospitallers’ earlier successful defense against an Ottoman siege in 1480. Rhodes was strategically important because its fortified harbor and location near the Anatolian coast allowed the order to threaten Ottoman shipping and communications in the eastern Mediterranean.
The siege lasted from 26 June to 22 December 1522. Ottoman artillery, infantry assaults, and underground mines gradually damaged the city’s formidable walls. The exhausted defenders, led by Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, eventually negotiated terms that allowed the knights to leave with their weapons and possessions.
The order later received Malta, Gozo, and Tripoli from Charles V in 1530, becoming known as the Knights of Malta. Malta, therefore, is a common mix-up: it became their main base later, but Rhodes was the island captured in 1522.