DOI number: 10.14754/CEU.2016.07 Doctoral Dissertation Images of Distance and Closeness: The Ottomans in Sixteenth-Century Hungarian Vernacular Poetry Ágnes Drosztmér Supervisor(s): Marcell Sebők György Endre Szőnyi Submitted to the Medieval Studies Department and the Doctoral School of History Central European University, Budapest of in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Medieval Studies, and for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2016 DOI number: 10.14754/CEU.2016.07 Images of Distance and Closeness: The Ottomans in Sixteenth-Century Hungarian Vernacular Poetry Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 5 1. 1. Definitions and Limitations 6 1. 2. Theory and Methodology 6 1. 2. 1. Traditions of Reflecting the “Other” 8 1. 2 .2 Traditions of Presenting the Ottomans 10 1. 3. The Hungarian Context 14 1. 3. 1. Possible Approaches 14 1. 3. 2. The Challenges of Orality and Literacy 16 1. 4. The Structure of the Thesis 20 1. 5. The Context 24 1. 5. 1. Religious Context and Settings 24 1. 5. 2. The Military Context 36 1. 5 .3. The Literary Context 43 2. THE OTTOMAN RULERS IN HUNGARIAN VERNACULAR POETRY 61 2. 1. Representations of the Ottoman Sultans before Suleyman 63 2. 2. Suleyman the Magnificent 73 2. 2. 1. Suleyman in Ottoman and European Contexts 74 2. 2. 2. Hungarian Representations – Images of the Universal Ruler 79 2. 2. 3. Hungarian Representations – Images of the Conqueror 89 2. 3. Ottoman Sultans of the Sixteenth Century after Suleyman 103 CEU eTD Collection 3. THE OTTOMANS IN RELIGIOUS CONTEXTS 107 3. 1. Self-Oriented Reflections 107 3. 1. 1. Apocalypticism 107 3. 1. 2. Lamentation Traditions 117 3. 1. 3. Crusading 124 3. 2. The Ottomans as Muslims 127 2 DOI number: 10.14754/CEU.2016.07 3. 2. 1. Reflections to Islam 127 3. 2. 2. Religious Practices and Doctrines 132 3. 3. Cases of Transition 145 3. 3. 1 .Turcification 145 3. 3. 2. Religious Mediation: The Hymnus by Dragoman Murad 149 3. 3. 3. Conversion in Practice and its Reflections 155 4. LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF MILITARY INTERACTIONS 163 4. 1. Military Themes and Formulas 163 4. 2. Narratives of Military Events 171 4. 2 .1. Campaigns 171 4. 2. 2. Decisive Battles and Sieges 177 4. 2. 3. Success and Defeat 188 4. 3. Protagonists of Military Events 197 4. 3. 1. Heroes 197 4. 3. 2. Female Heroes 206 4. 3. 3. Anti-heroes 209 4. 3. 4. Captives 214 5. CONCLUSIONS 222 PRIMARY SOURCES 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY 234 CEU eTD Collection 3 DOI number: 10.14754/CEU.2016.07 Látom, hogy nagy sokan krónikákat írnak, Hatalmas uraknak életekről szólnak, Erős vitézeknek halálokról írnak, Sok veszedelmekről, hadakról tanítnak. Azoknak írások kedvesek uraknál, Látom, gyönyörűség az írástudóknál, Nemesnél, községnél és sok tanítóknál, Az elmúlt időkről, hogy szép dolgokat hall.1 Images of Distance and Closeness: The Ottomans in Sixteenth-Century Hungarian Vernacular Poetry 1. INTRODUCTION The aim of the current work is to offer a detailed analysis of the manners in which Ottomans were represented in sixteenth-century Hungarian literature, in particular in vernacular Hungarian literary discourses. The “Turks” often appeared in various forums of cultural discourse and public discussion in Hungary as the stereotypical enemy, which image was nourished by religious texts (both Protestant and Catholic) and historiographical sources. At the same time, descriptions of campaigns of the constantly expanding Ottoman Empire provided new kinds of information and experience. Further, under the Ottoman rule there were longer periods when the Ottomans and Hungarians lived together through necessity, not in an explicitly peaceful, but in a balanced relationship, creating a unique platform of cultural exchange between the occupiers and the occupied. In more or less peaceful periods – for instance, between the “fortress campaign” of Suleyman (1549–66) and the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) – the everyday interactions of CEU eTD Collection Ottomans and Hungarians were determined by a peculiar mix of rivalry and curiosity towards each other in both military acts and cultural encounters. This novel experience resulted in novel perceptions. The representations of the Ottomans varied 1 “I see many chronicles written, / About the lives of great lords, / And deaths of strong soldiers, / Teaching about perils and armies. // These writings are enjoyed by the lords, / And they amuse literates, / Nobles, communes and teachers, / To hear about nice things about past times.” Lőrinc Vajdakamarási, A jövendő rettenetes ítélet napjáról, 1-8. 4 DOI number: 10.14754/CEU.2016.07 along several axes: they were dependent on the cultural and social context; on the author who created or mediated the image, and on the audience for whom the image was made; and on the depicted subject. The goal of this dissertation is to analyze the features, similarities and differences presented by different authors for different audiences: I aimed at collecting and analyzing depictions of Ottomans in poetically constructed texts in the vernacular Hungarian literature of the sixteenth century Hungary. Due to the spread of the printing press and Protestantism, transformations of language and literacy, and because of other developments that will be addressed later, the second half of the sixteenth century corresponds to the period in Hungarian cultural history when vernacular literature emerged and its specific forms and rules evolved. The analysis of the representational patterns of Ottomans and their contextualization has the potential to help reconstruct this process. 1. 1. Definitions and Limitations To clarify the boundaries of the project, definitions and limitations can be applied through the terms of the title. The term “Ottoman” refers to groups of people or individuals who were, or were considered to be related to the Ottoman Empire by religious, ethnic, military, political, linguistic, or by other kinds of criteria by those who observed them. For contemporary authors, but also for today’s observers, “Turkishness was a multifaceted and changing identity,” as Norman Housley put it.2 The terms “poetry” and “literature” are used in this work reflecting the transitionary character of the concepts: in the sixteenth century vernacular literature just started to acquire its own forms and norms. The contemporary concept of literature was multifaceted: literature fulfilled various CEU eTD Collection functions, such as education, memorization and entertainment, however, the function of aesthetic experience had not been yet formulated. Accordingly, every written source belongs to the wider concept of literature. One may narrow the corpus based on formal criteria: the distinction of prosaic and versified forms seems an adequate approach. However, as the clear differentiation of epic and 2 Norman Housley, “The Three Turks,” in Religious Warfare in Europe, 1400–1536 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 131. 5 DOI number: 10.14754/CEU.2016.07 lyric genres was a process that also had not been concluded yet, there is substantial overlapping of literary forms and functions. Taking into consideration these features, an articulate definition of the main source corpus for the research is based on form, function and subject: the corpus I study consists of versified texts with various subjects (narrative or religious content), all of which reflect on the Ottoman presence in Hungary. This corpus consists of approx. 160 items,3 a number that is sufficient to find representational patterns. In the course of the sixteenth century, Hungary had been subject to constant changes along it’s borders, therefore, the geographical framework for the research reflects these shifting conditions. First of all, special attention is to be paid to the defense line and the border areas, which had a special cultural milieu as the result of constant military movements and diverse cultural influences. The frontier zone, being transitional between two or more states politically, was also transitional in the manners of interactions of its population.4 Trade, taxation, military encounters and cultural practices connected people in the border zone. In the case of the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, the actual demarcation line was only a theoretical construction, while in practice, the border was a wider zone, the limits of which were marked by fortifications. This is why fortress sieges characterized the profile of Ottoman expansion, and on occasion, defined the character of entire campaigns, such as in the case of the “fortress wars” between 1549 and 1566. Everyday interactions with the Turks created a unique type of cultural discourse based on different types of relations ranging from fighting to fraternities. At the same time, despite the division of the former kingdom into three parts, Hungarian cultural discourse did not cease to exist. Rather, each geographical unit developed its own patterns of representation and discourse. Therefore, texts from all of the parts of CEU eTD Collection tripartite Hungary: Transylvania, Royal Hungary and the Ottoman Hungary will be considered. The idea of Hungary as an entity also requires clarification. The kingdom had a heterogenous 3 A list of primary sources is presented in the bibliography. 4 Mark L. Stein, Guarding the Frontier. Ottoman Border Fronts and Garrisons in Europe. (London, New York: Tauris, 2007)., 5–6, 14. He also refers to the frontier thesis of Turner, according to what the frontier is the location of the process of expansion and social transformation.