The Ottoman "Profesional Prisoners" on the Western Borders of the Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (tran. Filip Šimunjak)

Abstract

U ovome radu autor na temelju neobjavljene građe iz arhiva obitelji Batthyány daje prilog proučavanju procesa razmjene i otkupa zarobljenika na habsburško-osmanskom pograničju tijekom 16. i 17. stoljeća. Glavna teza rada jest da se tijekom ovog perioda javlja skupina pojedinaca koji su poslovali kao „profesionalni zarobljenici“ i ostvarivali profit kao posrednici tijekom procesa otkupa. Na kraju rada autor donosi nekoliko dokumenata koji govore o procesu otkupa, ali i o teškim kaznama koje su čekale jamce ako se njihov sakupljač nikada ne bi vratio.This paper, based on unpublished material from the archives of the Batthyány family, aims to contribute to the study of the process of exchange and ransom of prisoners on the Habsburg-Ottoman border during the 16th and 17th centuries. The main thesis of the paper is that during this period there was a special group of people who operated as "professional prisoners" and who made a profit as intermediaries during the process of ransom. At the end of the paper, the author presents several documents dealing with the process of ransom, that also show the severe penalties that awaited the guarantors if their collector would never return