ABSTRACT
The focus of this portrait is a slave on the estate of a lay landlord in the Kingdom of Hungary under the Árpád dynasty. The person, Zalava, was a real slave mentioned, along with his brother Zulav, in a series of charters from the 1270s. The central event of his life depicted in this portrait is also real and is the actual subject of these charters from which I have taken his name. Since the charters mentioning Zalava and all other servi from the period were focused upon the transactions and activities of the elite in society, the servi who frequently appeared in them show up merely as items. Therefore many of the details of Zalava’s life and the lives of other slaves mentioned in the portrait are in part the product of imagination and educated guesses. At the same time, all the events in this portrait are based upon actual incidents found in the charters. Of course they did not all happen around Zalava, but I have included them in his life story so as to give an impression of the lives of these voiceless men and women.
