The long siege and ultimate fall of Candia left a profound imprint on both learned and popular literature. Many of the named and anonymous authors were eyewitnesses to the events, and their accounts thus carry considerable historical significance.  In Greek literature, five metrical compositions survive, largely lamentations, all inspired by the wartime events.

Corresponding sources, primarily historiographical in nature, also survive from the Ottoman side, recording events from the conquerors’ perspective. For the Ottoman political and literary elite, which commissioned, produced, and studied these narrative sources, the Cretan War was a matter of prestige.