Mosaic Kara Mustafa Pacha's tent, Vienna

The relief shows the Turkish tent city in front of Vienna and behind it, the burning town with St Stephen's Cathedral and the city wall. In the foreground is a castle tent with two crescents, surrounded by several smaller tents. Besides several men with turbans and beards, a Turkish horseman can be seen, sabre-wielding on a prancing horse. Further on, two camels are led through the tent city. While in the background, the besieged Vienna burns, the tent city is relatively quiet, men chatting, and no one seems to be in a hurry. The far-left corner of the mosaic shows the Kahlenberg, where the Ottomans and the Christian relief army would later fight fierce battles. The relief was created by Walter Beens and installed in 1955. Source: AÖW/Marion Gollner.

The pompous official tent of Kara Mustafa Pasha was captured by John III Sobieski and kept in the collection of the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw for a long time but was probably destroyed during World War II.

The battle."Five o'clock had sounded, and he Sobieski had to give up for the day the grand struggle, when the provoking composure of Kara Mustapha, whom he espied in a splendid tent of tranquilly taking coffee with his two sons, roused him to such a pitch that he instantly gave orders for a general assault. It was made simultaneously on the wings and centre. He made towards the pasha's tent, bearing down all opposition and repeating loudly, "Non-Nobis, nonNobis, Domine Exercituum, sed nomini tuo da gloriem!" He was soon recognised by Tartars and Cossacks, who had so often beheld him blazing in the van of the Polish chivalry; they drew back while his name rapidly passed from one extremity to the other of the Ottoman lines, to the dismay of those who refused to believe him present. "Allah!" said the Tartar khan, "but the wizard is with them, sure enough!" At that moment, the hussars, raising their national cry of "God for Poland!" cleared a ditch that would have long been arrested by the infantry and dashed into the deep ranks of the enemy. They were a gallant band; their appearance almost justified the saying of one of their kings - "that if the sky itself were to fall, they would bear it up on the point of their lances". The shock was rude and for some minutes dreadful, but the valour of the Poles, still more the reputation of the leader, and more than all, the finger of God, routed this immense host; they gave way on every side, the khan was borne along with the stream to the tent of the now despairing vizir. "Canst not thou help me?" said Kara Mustapha to the brave Tartar, "then I am lost indeed!". "The Polish king is there!" replied the other, "I know him well! Did I not tell thee that all we had to do was to get away as quickly as possible?" Still, the vizir attempted to make a stand, in vain - as well might he have essayed to stem the ocean tide. With tears in his eyes, he embraced his sons and followed the universal example of flight. Europe was saved!".

From: Poland under Sobieski. In: The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Volume 19, 1831, edited by Robert Walsh, Eliakim Littell, John Jay Smith.

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