George of Hungary ( 1422–1502) was an
Ottoman slave that escaped and reverted from
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
to
Christianity, writing afterwards about his experiences. As per his own description, when George was 15 or 16, he was taken prisoner and sold into slavery when the Ottoman Turks invaded the town of Mühlbach (now
Sebeș) in 1438. George had arrived to the city a year earlier, probably to go to a school in the local Dominican monastery.
He would spend 20 years being a slave before he could escape, later becoming a
monk in
Rome. Here, he wrote ''Tractatus de moribus, condicionibus et nequitia Turcorum'' ("Treatise on the morals, customs
and treachery of the Turks"), published in 1481 in
Latin. In 1539 it was translated in German language along with a preface by
Martin Luther.
The
ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
of George is not known, possibly being either a
German or a
Hungarian. It is thought that he grew up in a bilingual environment and did not have a clear concept of his national identity.
After his escape, George began to radically condemn and reject Islam.
See also
*
Konstantin Mihailović (born in 1430) Escapee slave of the Ottoman Empire who wrote slave narratives
*
Johann (Hans) Schiltberger (1380 –
c. 1440) Escapee slave of the Ottoman Empire who wrote slave narratives
*
Emily Ruete, author who wrote narrative about slave mother's captivity.
*
Ex-Muslims
*
List of former Muslims
*
List of converts to Christianity from Islam
History
:''Section contains alphabetical listing of converts from earlier times until the end of the 19th century''
A
* Abo of Tiflis – Christian activist and the patron saint of the city of Tbilisi, Georgia''Collected Papers in Greek And ...
*
Margaret Himfi
Margaret Himfi de Döbrönte ( hu, döbröntei Himfi Margit; died after 1408) was a Hungarian noblewoman at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, who was abducted and enslaved by Ottoman marauders. She later became a slave mistress of a wealthy ...
*
Lovisa von Burghausen
Lovisa von Burghausen (1698 – 20 January 1733) was a Swedish memoirist who became famous for her story about her time in captivity as a slave in Russia after being taken prisoner by the Russians during the Great Northern War. She was sol ...
*
Bibliography
An English Translation of Georgius de Hungaria's Treatise on the Customs, Living Conditions, and Wickedness of the Turks (1481) ~ Stevenson, David Ryan (2016)etd.library.emory.edu
* Christian Slaves of the Ottoman Empire: An analysis of the fifteenth-century captive lives and writings of Konstantin Mihailović, Johan Schiltberger and Brother George of Mühlenbach ~ Patrick Smith (BA Honours) La Trobe University Victoria, Australia August 2020
Williams, Stephen Christopher (1991)''"Cronica der Turckey" Sebastian Franck's Translation of the "Tractatus de Moribus, Condicionibus et Nequitia Turcorum" by Georgius de Hungaria.'' PhD thesis, University of Leeds.
* Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 7 Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600): Volume 7. Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600). Netherlands, Brill, 2015.
References
Slaves from the Ottoman Empire
People who wrote slave narratives
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Islam
Turkish escapees
15th-century Hungarian people
15th-century German people
Year of birth uncertain
1502 deaths
{{Hungary-bio-stub