The capture of Mahdia is an amphibious military operation that takes place from June to September, 1550, during the struggle between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Habsburgs for the control of the Mediterranean.
A Spanish naval expedition under the command of the Genoese condottiero and admiral Andrea Doria and the Spaniard Bernardino de Mendoza, supported by the Knights of Malta under their Grand Master Claude de la Sengle, besieges and captures the Ottoman stronghold of Mahdia or Mahdiye, defended by the Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis, known as Dragut, who is using the place as a base for his piratical activities throughout the Spanish and Italian coasts.
Mahdia is abandoned by Spain three years later, and all its fortifications are demolished to avoid a re-occupation of the city by the Ottomans.
