Prisoner of the infidels : the memoirs of an Ottoman Muslim in seventeenth-century Europe / Osman of Timisoara ; edited, translated, and introduced by Giancarlo Casale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Timisoara, Osman of, Author.

Contributor:

Casale, Giancarlo, toimittaja, kääntäjä.

Osman Ağa, active 1671-1725, contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Osman Ağa, active 1671-1725.

Osman Ağa.

Austro-Turkish War, 1716-1718--Personal narratives, Turkish.

Austro-Turkish War, 1716-1718.

Prisoners of war--Romania--Timișoara--Biography.

Prisoners of war.

Physical Description:

1 verkkoaineisto

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021]

Summary:

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 Timişoara--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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

contents

List of maps

Acknowledgments

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.

Notes:

Helsingin yliopiston lisenssi. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:hulib-201510133690

Kuvailun perustana verkkoaineisto; nimeke PDF-nimiösivulta (EbscoHost, katsottu 2.9.2022).

ISBN:

9780520383401

0520383400

OCLC:

1301548883