The first excerpt describes Schiltberger’s earliest experiences as a slave in the service of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (1360-1403). He was initially employed as a foot runner. His duties would have involved running ahead of the Sultan and carrying correspondence between nobility. After serving in this capacity for six years, Schiltberger was allowed to ride on horseback to deliver correspondence. Access to horses was considered more prestigious; this would have been a normal progression as Schiltberger grew older and was granted more responsibilities.

One of the powers that slave owners expected to exercise over the enslaved during this period was control over their religion. Christians captured and enslaved by the Ottomans, including Schiltberger, were therefore forced to convert to Islam. This event, portrayed in the second excerpt, was a large and ceremonial public affair. However, after his escape and return to Bavaria, Schiltberger needed to demonstrate to his readers that he had maintained his Christian faith while enslaved in order for his return to be accepted. Among other strategies, he consistently referred to Muslims as “heathens” in the original German. This word choice was preserved in the translation in order to convey Schiltberger’s tone when writing about Islam.

Translated from the German by Kathryn Greenberg and Hannah Barker. Published in Hans Schiltbergers Reisebuch, ed. Valentin Langmantel (Tübingen: Litterarischer Verein in Stuttgart, 1885), sections 3 and 55, pages 7-9 and 93-94. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Excerpt 1

Then the Turkish king left the people dead, and we were taken captive in the aforementioned city, as it is written above. After the third day, he marched off through the land of Hungary and crossed over the water, that is named Sau[1], at a city called Mittrotz and took the entire land, and stretched along the duke’s land to Pettau. And he took with him sixteen thousand men from the land with women, children, and all of their belongings. He won the above city, burned it out, and took the people with him. He left a portion of the people in the land of Greece, and he took the other people with him to Turkey. Soon after he came over the water, that is named Sau, so in the city of Gallipoli he bid and made [it happen] that we were brought over the sea. And we were marched there over the sea, where we were taken to the king’s capital, that is named Bursa, where we stayed until he himself came to the city. He came into the city, and he took the Duke of Burgundy with those he had saved and placed them next to his palace in a house. Then he sent a lord named Kodor of Hungary[2] to the king-sultan[3] with sixty boys according to his rank, and he also wanted to send me with those sent to the king-sultan; but I was badly wounded, because I had three wounds, so that he worried that I would die on the way. Therefore, I stayed with the Turkish king. He also reached out with captives to the King of Babylon[4] and the King of Persia[5]. He sent them also to White Tartary[6], Greater Armenia[7], and also to other lands. Then I was taken to the Turkish king’s palace. There for six years I had to run on foot in front of him wherever he went, because it was the custom for one to run on foot before the lord wherever he went. After I had served six years, I was allowed to ride, and I thereafter rode for seven years with him. I was therefore with him for thirteen years[8]. And what the Turkish king took up in those thirteen years is hereafter written.

[1] The Sava River, a tributary of the Danube.

[2] Ladislaus from Kodor appeared as a witness in a Hungarian document from 1393.

[3] A reference to Barqūq, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Greater Syria.

[4] A reference to the Jalayirid ruler of Baghdad, Aḥmad ibn Uways.

[5] It is not clear to whom this refers, since Persia had been recently conquered by Timur (Tamerlane) and divided among his sons and other military commanders.

[6] This reference is difficult to interpret, but he may mean Turkmen living in eastern Anatolia.

[7] The kingdom of Armenia located in the Caucasus region, as opposed to Lesser or Cilician Armenia in Anatolia.

[8] Bayezid I’s reign only lasted until 1402, so Schiltberger can only have served him for six years.

Excerpt 2

55. Ceremony for the conversion of a Christian to Islam

When a Christian wants to become a heathen, he must first raise a finger before all, admonishly, and say the words, “La illach illalach Machmet rasul ullach.”[1] That translates to German thus: “True God [is] almighty and Muhammad [is] his true messenger.” If he says that, then the heathens take him to the highest priest[2] and he must then speak the words written above in the presence of the priest. He must then disown the Christian belief, and when he does that, they put new clothes on him, and after that the priest places a white turban upon his head. And they do it so that he shows that he is a heathen, because all heathens wear white turbans on the head. The Christians that are in the heathendom wear blue turbans on the head, and the Jewish people wear yellow. After that, the priest calls all of the people to put on their armor and come to him. Whoever can ride should ride, and all the priests that are in the same district must also come. And when the people come, then the highest priest sets the one who has become a heathen on a horse. The remaining people must ride before him and the priests behind after him, and they ride with pipes and trumpets and cymbals. They then lead him around the city and two priests ride next to him and the heathens shout with one voice and praise Muhammad. And when they come into the street, the two priests say this to him for him to repeat: “Thary bir dur, Messe kuli dur, Mariam kara baschi dur Machmet rasuli dur.” And that is often said: “There is one God, and the Messiah is his servant, and Mary his maid, and Mohammed his favorite messenger.”  And when they have traveled all around the city, afterwards they lead him into the temple and circumcise him. After that, if he is poor, they make a large collection and the important lords honor him especially and make him rich. They do it so that the Christians want to convert to their religion all the more. Also when a Christian woman converts to their religion, she also goes before the highest priest, and she must speak the above words. Then the priest takes the woman’s girtle, cuts it apart, and makes a cross with it. Then the woman must stomp on it three times, renounce Christianity, and must then speak the above words.

[1] This is Schiltberger’s phonetic memory of the shahāda, the profession of faith: “Lā ilāha illā allāhu, Muḥammadu rasūlu allāh.” It is often rendered in English as “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

[2] In this passage, Schiltberger is using the word priest to mean a religious leader, in this case a Muslim leader who would act as witness to the conversion.

Discussion Questions

  1. The translator of these sources decided to give them the title “Hans Schiltberger’s Slave Narrative” to highlight their connections with other first-person accounts by enslaved people. That is not the title that Schiltberger chose. He called his account a Reisebuch, a travel narrative or travel book. Why do you think Schiltberger might have preferred to emphasize his experiences as a traveler rather than his experiences as a slave?
  2. In 1488, the owner of one of the oldest manuscripts of Schiltberger’s travels decided to bind it into a book together with the travel narratives of Marco Polo, St. Brendan, Sir John Mandeville, and Ulrich of Frioul. Are you familiar with any of those travelers? How might reading this set of travelers together change your perspective on Schiltberger?
  3. In the present day, we tend to think about religion as a matter of personal belief and conviction. How did Schiltberger think about his religious identity? How was his religious identity connected to his status as a runner at Nicopolis, a slave at the Ottoman court, and a fugitive trying to return home?
  4. How did enslaved men and women experience the processes and rituals of conversion differently?

Related Primary Sources