Introduction

Biblical texts and their accompanying illustrations had been linked with Islam and the Near East within Christian European theological scholarship even before Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into the German vernacular. Earlier manuscript traditions, specifically those dating from Islamic contact in the Crusades which began in the eleventh century, had strongly influenced incunabula Bible illustrations. This intensified with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the further expansion into Christian European territory. Sixteenth-century printed images built on medieval illuminated manuscript interpretations but specifically referenced Turkish costume as the Ottoman army drew even closer to German-speaking Europe. The Ottoman victory in the 1526 Battle of Mohačs and their 1529 Siege of Vienna highlighted the direct military threat. As theologians analysed their own times through biblical events, the expansion of the sultan and his armies took on heightened significance. This was enhanced by the religious upheavals in the Holy Roman Empire, which were to lead to the German Reformation.