The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

~ OF PRISONERS, SLAVES AND THE CHARITY OF STRANGERS ~ 121
books have not often been studied with the specific purpose of investigating the
fates of war captives, but have been treated as ordinary travelogues. 8
Where the situation of Ottoman captives in the Habsburg lands, Venice or the
Papal States is concerned, there are very few studies by Turkish historians, in
part certainly because of the language barriers involved. But another reason is
doubtless the relatively marginal status of military history on the Turkish
historiographical scene. Military history is sponsored by the Turkish General
Staff, as happens elsewhere, but the number of publications in this field directed
at professional historians is relatively limited, especially where the pre-1850s/
pre-1270s period is concerned; and, in any case, military history as sponsored by
army authorities is, for the reasons described above, not very much interested in
the fate of war captives. But I think that reasons for this neglect go rather deeper:
there is typically very little inclination to study the fates of ‘Ottomans abroad’ at
least as long as the travellers in question were not official envoys. 9 As a result,
prisoners of war have tended to fall into a ‘black hole’, and our knowledge concerning
Ottoman captives in early modern Europe is very partial and provisional.
The present overview cannot avoid reflecting this situation.
~ Captured: how ordinary people paid the price of inter-empire conflict
and attempts at state formation
To a significant extent, information on European captives in Ottoman hands concerns
those taken at sea, or else in corsair attacks on villages and small offshore
islands. Lands belonging to the Spanish crown were most at risk. Not only were
they situated at a convenient distance from Algiers, Tunis and Tripolis, but the
Spanish monarchs made their first formal treaty with the Ottoman Empire only in
the later eighteenth century and did not deal directly with the local governments
of the three North African provinces. The latter thus regarded the inhabitants of
Spain proper, and those of the Italian possessions of the Spanish Empire as legitimate
prizes. Moreover, not a few corsair captains and sailors had originated
from the Italian coastlands; and while many were unwilling to attack their former
fellow villagers, perspectives might change if, for instance, a vendetta was
involved. Thus, as late as 1798/1212–13, the town of Carloforte on the island of
San Pietro was attacked by Tunisian corsairs with the aid of former inhabitants of
the place; several hundred prisoners were taken, whose liberation was the subject
of arduous negotiations lasting for several years. 10
But corsairs from North Africa also operated further afield: some of them
might make agreements with the commanders of Ottoman fortresses on the Adriatic
coasts. The latter would provide the protection of their guns if the corsairs
were pursued, and also the facilities for selling slaves and valuables. In exchange
they probably received presents, and various dues from the booty marketed. It is
also likely, but cannot be proved in the absence of sources, that some governors