The Sword of Islam

Publication date: 1939

Text online: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400801.txt

There does not seem to be enough information in this novel to establish precise dates for anything except Prospero's recovery from the plague. The best we can do is to follow the progress of the story approximately from month to month.

Many of the characters and events appear in recorded history. Some confirm the chronology, but in far too many cases the history books seem to record some confusing, alternative universe. For example:

Prospero's father, Antoniotto Adorno, actually died on September 12, 1528, not a year earlier as in the novel.
Andrea Doria married Peretta Usodimare in 1527, not 1528, and was created Duke of Melfi on December 20, 1531, not early in 1529.
The battle of Cherchell took place in 1530 or 1531 (I haven't been able to nail it down), certainly not in 1529.
Kheyr-ed-Din's attempted abduction of Giulia Gonzaga (and her escape) was on August 8, 1534, not five years earlier.

Topping all of these, the biggest discrepancy concerns Dragut's entrapment at Djerba and his escape by cutting a canal, which in fact occurred in April 1551, over twenty years later than depicted in the novel. (And yes, Doria was no longer an "evergreen sexagenarian", but was eighty-five years old at the time!)

Given all this confusion, the Timeline generally ignores the suspicious dating to be found outside Sabatini's writing and confines itself to the internal evidence.

For the record, here is a review of The Sword of Islam from Time Magazine.