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Old 29th November 2005 | 15:42
  #10 (permalink)  
mooretk
 
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3
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From: Nottingham, UK
Malta yok

Off-topic but it might help to solve a minor mystery.

"Malta yok" roughly translates as "there is no Malta". In the year 1645, the story goes, the Ottoman sultan Ibrahim the Mad ordered his fleet to attack the Christian island of Malta in the western Mediterranean. Upon receiving the order, however, Ibrahim's chief admiral, fearing such a move would end in disaster, placed a candle on his naval map, allowed the wax drippings to fall on the little island until they covered it, declared to his adjutants "Malta yok," and sailed off to attack the Venetians in Crete.
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