Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in Seventeenth-Century Europe by Osman of Timisoara

Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in Seventeenth-Century Europe Reviews

• 
  Murtaza

  Absolutely remarkable and heartfelt memoir of a seventeenth century Ottoman held captive in Europe for a dozen years. Osman of Timisoara born to parents who were natives of Belgrade and taken captive for a number of years in the Habsburg Empire. He had a life truly full of adventure despite being a slave, and even spent time in Austria where one of his later masters took kindly to him and had him apprentice as a French pastry chef of all things. I won't spoil the narrative, but this book is a surprisingly poignant slice of life left behind from another world. Kudos to the hard work of the translator who revived it from Ottoman Turkish so that we can read it today.
• 
  Shannon Clark

  A very recent translation into English of a very unique Turkish work, the first autobiography written in Turkish of an Ottoman Turk who was captured into the late 1600’s and lived for many years as a captive and servant.
  
  It is a fascinating work - offering an insight to Europe and the world of the late 1600’s/early 1700’s that is rarely seen but which also is recognizable and in many ways feels still very relevant. This is the time period I studied in college (my degree would have been in early modern history with a focus on Ottoman and Armenian history) so I found this especially interesting to read.
  
  As an rpg gamer I also read this I thought that many of these escapades and adventures sound exactly like many role playing games today or classic adventure tales - I could easily see this book as an inspiration for adventure series set in the time frame.
• 
  Hyunwoo Song

  Excellent primary source to understanding the life of an Ottoman in the 1600s.
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  Anna

  I imagine this translation took a lot of work and it's no doubt an important historical document, but it's not the most ravishing read. I'd have loved more detail and more interiority, but I also don't want to judge Osman by 21st century storytelling standards.
  Would make amazing base material for a tv show adaptation though, I hope someone out there is already working on it.
• 
  Jim Jones

  Slave narratives abound in American literature, but we tend not to think about slavery in Europe. We forget that in the 17th and 18th centuries slavery was a worldwide phenomenon. This book gives up a glimpse of how it worked in Eastern Europe. This unique book—a kind of Turkish version of 12 Years a Slave, is the autobiography of Osman of Timisoara who is enslaved after a battle, pays a ransom to be released, and then is forced to live another 12 years being passed around to various Hapsburg military leaders. He details his attempts to escape slavery, the brutality with which slaves (and most people!) were treated, the hatred for Muslims, and the byzantine workings of two enemy empires we have largely forgotten (Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian). The book is written in a simple style and is absorbing from the first page.
  
• 
  Jindřich Zapletal

  Finally, an English translation of this well-known memoir has appeared. Osman Agha is an Ottoman from Temesvar who spent twelve years as a prisoner of war in Austria at the turn of 17th and 18th century before eventually finding his way back to Muslim lands. This book is his report, crammed with events ranging from stereotypical to interesting to horrifying; it is always practical and never boring, offering an unusual perspective, plenty of adventure and heartbreak. Even though it is certainly not satire, it shares some similarities with good soldier Schweik ("We humbly report that the guy we buried two days ago is again here. What should we do with him, Herr Lieutenant?" "Throw him into jail for a week to teach him some manners."). For me, the book actually made the study of the rather stale topic of Habsburg-Ottoman wars more palatable.
  
  The translator clearly spent an enormous effort on the book. His introduction provides valuable historical context as well as the context within the broader arc of Osman's life. One thing I found missing. The translator always treats the book as a literary effort. In view of only one copy existing and the practical language used, it seems to me more likely that it was just Osman's report to a future employer during his later career in Istanbul. This would provide an important new angle from which the book can be viewed, and which puts its style, choice of topics etc. in a much more prosaic light.
• 
  Jenny

  An interesting memoir of a 17th Century Ottoman subject who ends up captured during the Ottoman-Habsburg wars, a period of history I previously knew very little about.
• 
  Ogün

  okuyun, okutturun.
• 
  Ahmet Uzar

  That was plesuare to read about history from different perspective. Tsk Hasan Aga
• 
  Hakan Öztürk

  Macera romanı gibi bir hatırat idi.