George of Hungary

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George of Hungary (c. 1422–1502)[1] was an Ottoman slave that escaped and reverted from Islam to Christianity, writing afterwards about his experiences.[2] As per his own description, when George was 15 or 16, he was taken prisoner and sold into slavery when the Ottoman Turks invaded the town of Mühlbach (now Sebeș) in 1438. George had arrived to the city a year earlier, probably to go to a school in the local Dominican monastery.[3][4]

He would spend 20 years being a slave before he could escape, later becoming a monk in Rome. Here, he wrote Tractatus de moribus, condicionibus et nequitia Turcorum ("Treatise on the morals, customs and treachery of the Turks"), published in 1481 in Latin. The ethnicity of George is not known, possibly being either a German or a Hungarian. It is thought that he grew up in a bilingual environment and did not have a clear concept of his national identity.[5] After his escape, George began to radically condemn and reject Islam.[4]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Burke, Peter (2012). Translating the Turks. Brill Publishers.
  2. ^ Dávid, Géza; Fodor, Pál (2007). Ransom Slavery Along the Ottoman Borders: (Early Fifteenth - Early Eighteenth Centuries). BRILL. p. 6. ISBN 978-90-04-15704-0.
  3. ^ Classen, Albrecht (2015-06-01). "George of Hungary". Christian-Muslim Relations 1500 - 1900.
  4. ^ a b Classen, Albrecht (2012-06-01). "Life writing as a slave in Turkish hands: Georgius of Hungary's reflections about his existence in the Turkish world". Neohelicon. 39 (1): 55–72. doi:10.1007/s11059-012-0125-1. ISSN 1588-2810. S2CID 163065526.
  5. ^ Sabatos, Charles (2015). "The Ottoman Captivity Narrative as a Transnational Genre in Central European Literature". Archív Orientální. 83 (2): 233–254.


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