Konstantin Mihailovic
Encyclopedia
Konstantin Mihailović was a Serbian who served as a Janissary
during the 15th century for the Ottoman Empire
. Born in the village of Ostrovica, near Novo Brdo
around 1430 , Mihailović is remembered for having kept memoirs of his service and in doing so he allowed a unique insight into life in the Ottoman Army. His memoirs were written at the end of 15th century, probably in period 1490—1501 under the name Memoirs of a janissary . Konstantin Mihailović wrote his memoirs with aim to present as many as possible details about state and military structure of Ottoman Empire
. He believed that only those who know Ottoman Empire well can be successfully fight against it. This motif was the basis for writing his memoirs, emphasised in the text he wrote about Skanderbeg
.
Mehmed II
laid siege
to the castle
of Novo Brdo for forty days. The Ottoman Army had marched from Edirne
via Sofia
in a campaign to establish certain control over the area that is now Kosovo
. At the time, Novo Brdo was a rich mining city for silver
. The garrison surrendered on June 1, 1455. According to Mihailović, the Sultan stood at the small gate of the castle and sorted the boys from the girls. He then sorted the women on one side of a ditch, and the men on the other. He then ordered all men of any distinguished rank or importance decapitated. The young women and girls, some 700 of them, were taken to serve as wives to soldiers and Ottoman commanders. http://www.kosovo.net/batak5.html
Following this, the young boys, some 320 of them, were taken to be trained as members of the janissaries, to include Mihailović and his two brothers. He wrote later that he and nineteen other boys ran away during the night near a village called Samokovo
, only to be recaptured, bound, and beaten. The area in which he was referring to was most likely Samokovo in Serbia, located about 63 kilometers north of Pristina
, and 204 kilometers south of Belgrade
. http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.1444974/Samokovo/ He writes that one year later he was present at the Siege of Belgrade. While it is likely that he was present, he had not been with the Ottomans long enough to have become a janissary by that time. Mihailović goes into great detail about that siege and the events that followed.
, who would later be the inspiration for the novel
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
. In this segment, Mihailović confirms the use of impalement
by Vlad III, and adds the fact that Vlad III often cut off the noses of Ottoman soldiers and sent them to Hungary
to show the number of enemy soldiers he had killed. He states that in one battle, while the Ottomans were crossing the Danube
, some 250 janissaries were killed by the Wallachians, but the sheer numbers of the Ottoman force eventually drove Vlad III's forces away.
He also records that during the night the Ottomans were most fearful of Wallachian attack, and that they protected their camps with wooden stakes and around the clock guards. This still did not prevent attacks, and they lost many soldiers, camel
s and horse
s. He gives some mention of the "forrest of the impaled" that has since become legend
, in which Vlad III is alleged to have lined the roadways with thousands of impaled Turkish soldiers, but Mihailović never actually saw this, being in the rear of the army, thus writing about it on the word of others.
His next writings were about the campaign to take Bosnia
in 1463. He details the sieges involved in that campaign, and as it comes to a close he and a garrison of janissaries are left to hold the fortress at Zvecaj. By this time he seems to have had a considerable rank. His force was not able to withstand a siege led by Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, and Mihailović was one of the prisoners taken. After his identity and ethnicity was discovered, he was repatriated back into his own culture.
Janissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
during the 15th century for the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Born in the village of Ostrovica, near Novo Brdo
Novo Brdo
Novo Brdo is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of eastern Kosovo. The population of the municipality is estimated at 6,720 people .-History:...
around 1430 , Mihailović is remembered for having kept memoirs of his service and in doing so he allowed a unique insight into life in the Ottoman Army. His memoirs were written at the end of 15th century, probably in period 1490—1501 under the name Memoirs of a janissary . Konstantin Mihailović wrote his memoirs with aim to present as many as possible details about state and military structure of Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. He believed that only those who know Ottoman Empire well can be successfully fight against it. This motif was the basis for writing his memoirs, emphasised in the text he wrote about Skanderbeg
Skanderbeg
George Kastrioti Skanderbeg or Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu , widely known as Skanderbeg , was a 15th-century Albanian lord. He was appointed as the governor of the Sanjak of Dibra by the Ottomans in 1440...
.
Memoirs
His memoirs give no insight into his early life. Instead, they begin in 1455, when an army under the command of SultanSultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Mehmed II
Mehmed II
Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...
laid siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
to the castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
of Novo Brdo for forty days. The Ottoman Army had marched from Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
via Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
in a campaign to establish certain control over the area that is now Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
. At the time, Novo Brdo was a rich mining city for silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
. The garrison surrendered on June 1, 1455. According to Mihailović, the Sultan stood at the small gate of the castle and sorted the boys from the girls. He then sorted the women on one side of a ditch, and the men on the other. He then ordered all men of any distinguished rank or importance decapitated. The young women and girls, some 700 of them, were taken to serve as wives to soldiers and Ottoman commanders. http://www.kosovo.net/batak5.html
Following this, the young boys, some 320 of them, were taken to be trained as members of the janissaries, to include Mihailović and his two brothers. He wrote later that he and nineteen other boys ran away during the night near a village called Samokovo
Samokovo
Samokovo is a village in the municipality of Kuršumlija, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 61 people....
, only to be recaptured, bound, and beaten. The area in which he was referring to was most likely Samokovo in Serbia, located about 63 kilometers north of Pristina
Pristina
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina and Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district....
, and 204 kilometers south of Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.1444974/Samokovo/ He writes that one year later he was present at the Siege of Belgrade. While it is likely that he was present, he had not been with the Ottomans long enough to have become a janissary by that time. Mihailović goes into great detail about that siege and the events that followed.
Campaign against Vlad III and in Bosnia
After completing his janissary training, he next serves with the Ottoman Army during its advance against Vlad III of WallachiaWallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, who would later be the inspiration for the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
by Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
. In this segment, Mihailović confirms the use of impalement
Impalement
Impalement is the traumatic penetration of an organism by an elongated foreign object such as a stake, pole, or spear, and this usually implies complete perforation of the central mass of the impaled body...
by Vlad III, and adds the fact that Vlad III often cut off the noses of Ottoman soldiers and sent them to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
to show the number of enemy soldiers he had killed. He states that in one battle, while the Ottomans were crossing the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, some 250 janissaries were killed by the Wallachians, but the sheer numbers of the Ottoman force eventually drove Vlad III's forces away.
He also records that during the night the Ottomans were most fearful of Wallachian attack, and that they protected their camps with wooden stakes and around the clock guards. This still did not prevent attacks, and they lost many soldiers, camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
s and horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s. He gives some mention of the "forrest of the impaled" that has since become legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
, in which Vlad III is alleged to have lined the roadways with thousands of impaled Turkish soldiers, but Mihailović never actually saw this, being in the rear of the army, thus writing about it on the word of others.
His next writings were about the campaign to take Bosnia
History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1463–1878)
The arrival of the Ottoman Turks marked a new era in Bosnian history.-Ottoman Rule:The Turks had conquered Slavonia and most of Hungary by 1541. In the next century, most of the Bosnian province wasn't a borderland and developed in relative peace...
in 1463. He details the sieges involved in that campaign, and as it comes to a close he and a garrison of janissaries are left to hold the fortress at Zvecaj. By this time he seems to have had a considerable rank. His force was not able to withstand a siege led by Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, and Mihailović was one of the prisoners taken. After his identity and ethnicity was discovered, he was repatriated back into his own culture.