De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune

The 150 years of the close cohabitation with the Ottoman Empire has certainly left numerous traces in the Hungarian culture. With regard to literature, the relative poorness of available documents does not allow us to even to venture in the road of the “Turkish question”. Here we shall study what it...

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Main Author: Györgyi Mate
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre d'Études Balkaniques 2008-12-01
Series:Cahiers Balkaniques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ceb/1531
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author Györgyi Mate
author_facet Györgyi Mate
author_sort Györgyi Mate
collection DOAJ
description The 150 years of the close cohabitation with the Ottoman Empire has certainly left numerous traces in the Hungarian culture. With regard to literature, the relative poorness of available documents does not allow us to even to venture in the road of the “Turkish question”. Here we shall study what it appears to be a subject that is fundamental as well as recurring, that of the question of honor and the word given. We shall further analyze these questions this along three axes: personal engagement - political and military - religious conversion, where we find al sorts of topics relating to religion and finally coexistence, which is more complex by itself. The texts illustrating those three different approaches are of a great diversity. Within such corpus we may find slave memoirs, epical songwriting, as well as the equally important XIXth century novels. The image of the Ottoman Empire has been through a considerable transformation over time in Hungary. In the fifteenth century one of the first existing European accounts of the country shows a well regulated regime, with moral values that constitute an example the whole Christian world should probably follow. Around the middle of the sixteenth century though, Hans Dernschwam finds that the empire is full of “ridiculous and vicious eccentricities". At the same time the epic poems of Tinódi show that sultan Suleiman was an enemy feared by the western forces. A century later, the poet Miklós Zrínyi makes a legend out of the same monarch. New voices appear during the XIXth century: Jókai’s romanticism depicts the deep oriental soul, while Tömörkény's realism portraits the little people in particular. In the XXth century, the ottoman element may be represented either as the incarnation of an age-long enemy, or as the people Hungarians are peacefully coexisting.
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spelling doaj-art-df3b899dbb2e4c15a3c509c7e4b1187e2025-08-20T03:07:51ZengCentre d'Études BalkaniquesCahiers Balkaniques0290-74022261-41842008-12-013621323010.4000/ceb.1531De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortuneGyörgyi MateThe 150 years of the close cohabitation with the Ottoman Empire has certainly left numerous traces in the Hungarian culture. With regard to literature, the relative poorness of available documents does not allow us to even to venture in the road of the “Turkish question”. Here we shall study what it appears to be a subject that is fundamental as well as recurring, that of the question of honor and the word given. We shall further analyze these questions this along three axes: personal engagement - political and military - religious conversion, where we find al sorts of topics relating to religion and finally coexistence, which is more complex by itself. The texts illustrating those three different approaches are of a great diversity. Within such corpus we may find slave memoirs, epical songwriting, as well as the equally important XIXth century novels. The image of the Ottoman Empire has been through a considerable transformation over time in Hungary. In the fifteenth century one of the first existing European accounts of the country shows a well regulated regime, with moral values that constitute an example the whole Christian world should probably follow. Around the middle of the sixteenth century though, Hans Dernschwam finds that the empire is full of “ridiculous and vicious eccentricities". At the same time the epic poems of Tinódi show that sultan Suleiman was an enemy feared by the western forces. A century later, the poet Miklós Zrínyi makes a legend out of the same monarch. New voices appear during the XIXth century: Jókai’s romanticism depicts the deep oriental soul, while Tömörkény's realism portraits the little people in particular. In the XXth century, the ottoman element may be represented either as the incarnation of an age-long enemy, or as the people Hungarians are peacefully coexisting.https://journals.openedition.org/ceb/1531ottomanhungarian litteratureHungarythirteenth centurysixteenth centuryseventeenth century
spellingShingle Györgyi Mate
De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
Cahiers Balkaniques
ottoman
hungarian litterature
Hungary
thirteenth century
sixteenth century
seventeenth century
title De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
title_full De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
title_fullStr De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
title_full_unstemmed De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
title_short De l'honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
title_sort de l honorable ennemi au compagnon de fortune
topic ottoman
hungarian litterature
Hungary
thirteenth century
sixteenth century
seventeenth century
url https://journals.openedition.org/ceb/1531
work_keys_str_mv AT gyorgyimate delhonorableennemiaucompagnondefortune