ABSTRACT
Comparison and contrast of the two most important escaped narratives in Reformation Germany. Discusses Ottoman slavery, including slave capture, the slave market, sexual and physical violence against slaves, and escape/re-capture. The authors discuss conversion to Islam, the Islamic profession of faith, and religious law and rituals. There are sections on various ‘sects’ within Ottoman Islam, including one of the earliest descriptions in European literature of the Dervishes. Daily life and gender relations are also discussed. These two pamphlets share many of the same themes, although Georgijevic’s sixteenth-century context produces some important differences in content and perspective. The more extensive military and commercial contact between Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the time from George to Georgijevic adds to but does not displace medieval European views of Islam and the Turks. For example, the Georgijevic pamphlets include both bitter denunciations of the Turks as well as a handy Turkish phrase guide to commercial transactions in the Ottoman Empire. I argue that Georgijevic is the first major European author who utilizes the term ‘Muslim,’ even though he also uses the term “Muhammadan.”
