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Violence as Identity: Christians and Muslims in Hungary in the Medieval and Early Modern Period

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Wrote Miklós Zrínyi (Nikola Zrinski) in the mid seventeenth century about those who died fighting against the Ottomans. The poet, who himself was engaged in both politics and war, defined Hungarian identity as Christian and premised on warfare unto death against Muslims.

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Georgius de Hungaria (b. 1422/23) went through extraordinary experiences while being a slave in Ottoman Turkey for the two decades after he had been captured in 1438. In his subsequent account, Tractatus de Moribus (first written down in 1481/82), he not only reflects upon his woeful experiences as a slave, but also provides detailed information about Ottoman culture. For some time Georgius seems to have been on the brink of converting to Islam and experienced forms of mystic visions that confirmed this new belief. But he eventually returned to Christianity and later, while writing his account, made every attempt to assert his firm adherence to Christian teachings. As a critical analysis of his treatise demonstrates, however, his open admiration of Ottoman culture is undeniable, and his sharp criticism of Islam ultimately proves to be the writer's self-defense against a deep-seated fear of having transgressed traditional European norms.
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Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43651/1/11186_2004_Article_243859.pdf
At the Gate of Christendom, 212. 43 References to ethnic hatred certainly do not explain such events, see, e.g
  • Philadelphia
Philadelphia, 1979), 3–6, 30; Berend, At the Gate of Christendom, 212. 43 References to ethnic hatred certainly do not explain such events, see, e.g., Rogers Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups (Cambridge, MA, 2004);
28. They propose a range of other terms (such as " identification " ), to replace " identity " as a scholarly term. Recent work with additional bibliography on the author and his great-grandfather: Ágnes R. Várkonyi, Európa Zrínyije: Válogatott Tanulmányok [Europe's Zrínyi: Selected Articles
  • Brubaker
  • Cooper
45 Brubaker and Cooper, " Beyond 'Identity,' " 28. They propose a range of other terms (such as " identification " ), to replace " identity " as a scholarly term. Recent work with additional bibliography on the author and his great-grandfather: Ágnes R. Várkonyi, Európa Zrínyije: Válogatott Tanulmányok [Europe's Zrínyi: Selected Articles] (Budapest, 2010);
References to ethnic hatred certainly do not explain such events, see, e.g., Rogers Brubaker The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the
  • Nora Berend
  • V P Gagnon Jr
NORA BEREND 43 References to ethnic hatred certainly do not explain such events, see, e.g., Rogers Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups (Cambridge, MA, 2004); V. P. Gagnon Jr., The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s (Ithaca, 2004).
Identity and Violence, 61; quotation at 67
  • Sen
Sen, Identity and Violence, 61; quotation at 67.
Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget
  • Bk Zrínyi
  • Szigeti Veszedelem
Bk. 13, vv. 25–26, Zrínyi, Szigeti Veszedelem, 174, Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget, 205–06; Bk. 15, v. 77, Zrínyi, Szigeti Veszedelem, 203, Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget, 247. 49
Rezeption 52–60; Chronica unnd Beschreibung der Türckey
  • Klockow
  • Georgius De Hungaria
44 Klockow, Georgius de Hungaria, chap. IV, " Rezeption, " 52–60; Chronica unnd Beschreibung der Türckey. Mit eyner Vorrhed D. Martini Lutheri, introduction by Carl Göllner (Cologne/Vienna, 1983), Schriften zur Landeskunde Siebenbürgens, vol. 6 (reprint of 1530 Nuremberg ed.).
CXCV; analysis (including the charge of voluntary conversion to Islam
  • Augustinus Theiner
  • Vetera Monumenta Historica Hungariam Sacram
  • Illustrantia
Augustinus Theiner, Vetera Monumenta Historica Hungariam Sacram Illustrantia, vol. 1, 1216–1352 (Rome, 1859), 30, 60–61, 94, 114–15, nos. LVIII, LIX, CXXVII, CLXVIII, CXCV; analysis (including the charge of voluntary conversion to Islam) in Berend, At the Gate of Christendom, 152–60.
Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget, 7; Bk. 2
  • E G Zrínyi
  • Szigeti Veszedelem
E.g., Bk. 1, v. 6, Zrínyi, Szigeti Veszedelem, 28, Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget, 7; Bk. 2, v. 72, Zrínyi, Szigeti Veszedelem, 48, Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget, 34; Bk. 6, v. 86, Zrínyi, Szigeti Veszedelem, 96, Zrínyi, Siege of Sziget, 100. 50