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TRIBUTE IN BLOOD IN THE NOVEL THE BRIDGE ON THE DRINA AND IN THE MODERN NARRATIVE
Marko Dragić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-6814
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu
Sažetak
Tribute in blood was introduced by Sultan Murat II. in 1420. Although the tribute
was opposite to the Sharia, every five years the Ottomans took the Christian
children aged eight to ten, and sometimes up to twenty years. Physically capable
children were sent to the sultan’s palace, while other children were sent to the
Turkish families in Anatolia and Romania where they were trained by the Turkish
way of life. Those children were used to create elite military units - the janissary.
Janissaries could marry a Muslim after the military service so their descendants
were exempted from the same fate. With the fall of the Bosnian-Hum kingdom, in
1463. one hundred thousand Christian children were taken away in Janissaries
and harems. Christians would often cut off the finger to their boys, taught them to
turn deaf-mute, tattooed the crosses on their body and in every way tried to save
their own children so they wouldn’t be taken away in the Janissaries. However,
from the 15th century by the end of 17th century two hundred to three hundred
thousand boys were taken away from Balkan to become the Janissaries. Among
those children was a boy named Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic who made a brilliant
career in the Ottoman Empire, becoming the Grand Vizier in 1565. Remembering
his mother when he last saw her with many other mothers, who were on the other
side of the Drina River crying and groaning because they were seeing off their
children in the Janissaries, Mehmed-Pasha Sokolovic ordered to build the bridge
on that place.
Ključne riječi
Christians; Ottomans; janissaries; Mehmed-Pasha Sokolovic
Hrčak ID:
229346
URI
Datum izdavanja:
10.7.2012.
Posjeta: 4.398 *