Prisoner of the Infidels

The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in Seventeenth-Century Europe
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-0-520-38339-5
Verlag: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Inc/Bloomsbury

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 125 mm x 195 mm, Gewicht: 200 g

Reihe: World Literature in Translation

Victor Hugo meets Papillon in this effervescent memoir of war, slavery, and self-discovery, told with aplomb and humor in its first English translation.

A pioneering work of Ottoman Turkish literature, Prisoner of the Infidels brings the seventeenth-century memoir of Osman Agha of Timisoara—slave, adventurer, and diplomat—into English for the first time. The sweeping story of Osman’s life begins upon his capture and subsequent enslavement during the Ottoman–Habsburg Wars. Adrift in a landscape far from his home and traded from one master to another, Osman tells a tale of indignation and betrayal but also of wonder and resilience, punctuated with queer trysts, back-alley knife fights, and elaborate ruses to regain his freedom.

Throughout his adventures, Osman is forced to come to terms with his personhood and sense of belonging: What does it mean to be alone in a foreign realm and treated as subhuman chattel, yet surrounded by those who see him as an object of exotic desire or even genuine affection? Through his eyes, we are treated to an intimate view of seventeenth-century Europe from the singular perspective of an insider/outsider, who by the end his account can no longer reckon the boundary between Islam and Christendom, between the land of his capture and the land of his birth, or even between slavery and redemption.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Timisoara, Osman Of

Casale, Giancarlo

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Maps
Acknowledgments xi
A Note on Transcription from Ottoman Turkish
A Note on the Translation

Introduction: On Being Osman
1. Surrender
2. Ransom
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Death and Resurrection
5. Respite
6. Bonds of Love
7. To the Capital
8. A Friend in Need
9. An Unexpected Turn of Events
10. Into the Lion's Den
11. Grifters
12. To the Border
13. The End

Appendix: The Main Characters in Osman's Narrative
Notes

Index of People
Index of Places

Über Autor(innen)

Giancarlo Casale is Chair of Early Modern Mediterranean History at the European University Institute and Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.