[1] The novel was partly rewritten by Kadare after he moved from Albania to France in 1990; most of the changes were references to the Christian beliefs of the Albanian garrison, which had been cut from the original version by the communist censors.

The besieging army vastly outnumbers the beleaguered garrison, and is led by the experienced commander Tursun Pasha, but it is also racked by petty jealousies and rivalries.

Saruxha recommends a lengthy artillery bombardment before any assault is attempted, but the mufti persuades the pasha to order an attack the following day, citing a favourable prediction by one of the army's astrologers.

The elderly Janissary Corps commander Old Tavxha suggests the traditional trick of using a thirsty horse to sniff out the real aqueduct, and this proves successful.

Desperate to bring the siege to an end by whatever means he can, Tursun Pasha decides to try Sirri Selim's controversial idea of releasing diseased animals into the castle.

The besiegers successfully release rats onto the battlements during another assault by escalade, but several of the Turkish soldiers handling the animals are themselves infected and subsequently succumb to the disease.

That night the autumn rains arrive, replenishing the garrison's water reserves and dashing the besiegers' final hope of forcing the castle to surrender.

The Council of War Tursun Pasha's Harem Other Turks Albanians The Siege was written during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, and specifically during the period when the dictator was paranoid about a possible invasion by the Warsaw Pact.

Indeed, there are numerous anachronistic elements in the story which seem to allude to the contemporary situation - for example the Quartermaster-General's analysis of the Ottoman campaign in explicitly nationalistic terms, Sirri Selim's understanding of the germ theory of disease and scientific approach to biological warfare, the question of whether it is morally acceptable for scientists to be involved in military research (reflected in Saruxha's story about his mentor Saruhanli), and the concern expressed by Lejla at the very end of the book about a perpetual arms race.