Captivity

This article reckons with the figure of Blackness in the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, from captives who are racialized as both Muslim and Black to the invocations of racism and slavery in discourses incited by the prison. Broad continuities between the War on Terror and various forms of anti-Black state violence have long been observed by critical commentators, but this article aims to theorize these relationships with greater precision through the analytic of captivity. As a modality of racialization, captivity entails mobility across contexts as well as encounters of captivation through public narrative. This approach offers a distinctive vantage point on how the War on Terror's racialization of Muslims cross-cuts diverse geographies of Blackness, including in Muslim-majority societies. This essay follows the memoirs of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Mauritania) and Walid Muhammad al-Hajj (Sudan) and is informed by the author's experiences as an attorney and activist working to close the prison.

Kontakty českého království a braniborského markrabství představují ve 13. století poměrně barvitý obraz intenzivních vztahů.  Nejvíce je z tohoto hlediska v literatuře i v obecném povědomí známo období braniborské správy českých zemí 1278-1283. Ponecháme ale stranou problematiku vnitřního vývoje království v této době, neboť tím se zabývala téměř každá práce české historiografie hodnotící tuto epochu. Naopak se zaměříme na otázky, které si dosavadní literatura doposud nepoložila. Jednou z takových je v zásadě jednoznačná záležitost pobytu Václava II. na dvoře braniborského markraběte Oty V. v letech 1279-1282-3.

Some wildlife rehabilitation centers have been created specifically to help sick or injured sea turtles and to reintroduce them back into the wild. The diet given to the animal is an important issue in captive management. Our objective was to compare the growth rates of two groups of posthatchling Olive
Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtles that were treated with two different diets; the turtles were from a nest in Puntarenas on the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The group treated with a diet formulated by the rescue center presented higher growth rates than the group treated with an alternative diet.
However, there was not a significant difference in the specific growth rate nor in the feed conversion rate. The study
done at our center, “Parque Marino del Pacifico,” showed that the center’s diet, a controlled variety of seafood and a
mixture of vegetables, constituted a good food supplement for these turtles, as revealed by the growth-rate results.

Resumen: Este artículo revisa la idea de que habría existido una pérdida de control jerárquico de la Armada argentina sobre la represión en la Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), uno de los mayores centros clandestinos de detención de la dictadura militar en Argentina (1976-1983). El trabajo sostiene que la autonomización del «grupo de tareas» de la ESMA respecto de la estructura de Inteligencia de la Armada se circunscribió a una etapa específica de su funcionamiento.

Abstract: This paper reviews the idea that there would have been a loss of hierarchical control by the Argentine Navy over the repression in the Navy Mechanics School, one of the largest clandestine detention centers of the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). The article argues that the autonomization of the ESMA «task force» from the Navy's Intelligence structure was limited to a specific period of its existence.

Esta edición de Los cautivos de Argel cumple el deber de reivindicar una valiosa obra del Siglo de Oro y ponerla al alcance de la comunidad académica y el público general en forma fiable. Su publicación en Clásicos Castalia viene a suplir un vacío en la historia editorial de esta pieza que bien merece ingresar en el canon de nuestras letras. Se trata de una fuente esencial para entender la literatura de cautiverio en su modalidad de espectáculo, así como la representación de las relaciones entre cristianos y musulmanes en un período de la vida de España marcado por la coyuntura de la lucha contra el islam, la guerra del corso en el Mediterráneo, la persecución de las minorías religiosas y la construcción de una embrionaria identidad nacional sobre la base de unos mitos de origen que la obra pone de relieve y explota. También suscita interés por el aliciente añadido de cuanto le debe a la primera comedia de Miguel de Cervantes, escrita a finales de 1580, al regreso del cautiverio en Argel. Numerosas notas de esta edición procuran dilucidar ese asunto al que no se le resta importancia, porque se trata, en definitiva, del más prolongado diálogo intertextual entre las dos figuras más universales de las letras áureas.

This paper analyzes the effects that the international politics in the central Middle Ages had on the slave trade, and the Byzantine slave trade in particular. The geopolitical changes of the seventh and eighth centuries, which transformed the late Roman Empire into a medieval world composed of different civilizations, radically changed the economic dynamics of these regions and the Byzantine slave market as a consequence. However, the paper examines the Byzantine slave trade not only as a consequence of these dynamics, but also as one of their causes. In other words, it focuses on the way in which international politics and economy, especially the economy of slavery, intertwined, and in fact became one.

There can hardly be any major doubts of the huge and multifaceted influence that church hierarchs have on the communities in the Orthodox world. In view of this, it is barely surprising that the various aspects of their life, work and creativity provoke and will continue to provoke the scientific interest of generations of scholars. The research efforts in this article also are prompted by the desire to add touches to the role of Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos in the foreign affairs, as evidenced in two of the earlier letters in his abundant epistolary legacy.

Based on a large corpus of multi-lingual sources, this study aims to provide a preliminary analysis of the fate of captives in Mongol Eurasia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, both in the United Empire (1206-60) and in the four successor states centered in China, Iran, Central Asia and the Volga region. It seeks to explain who was taken captive, why and when? How were captives treated? How did captivity end? And what can be learnt from the captives' stories about Mongol society and social mobility under Mongol rule?

It is doubtless that attempts to present the relations and struggles between the First Bulgarian state and principalities of Serbs since the second quarter of the 9th century onwards are a challenging task. Of course the vast majority of research initiatives are highly dependent on the nature and quantity of the preserved written evidences. The peculiarities of the source base on the history of Early Medieval Bulgaria and even to a larger extent quite modest volume of notices about the earliest history of Serbs from their settlement on the Balkans until the beginning of the 11th century reduce the aspects that can be traced. However, the problem of prisoners of war and abducted population provides an opportunity for inflicting some additional touches.

In this study, biology and behavior of Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), Chinkara (Gazella bennettii), Hog Deer (Axis porcinus),
Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) and Chital (Axis axis) was studied at the Safari Park and Karachi Zoo. During the four year period
from 2009-2012, the overall breeding success in target species was studied which in Karachi Zoo was from 03 to 06 in case of Hog
Dear, from 09 to 13 in Nilgai, from 14 to 18 in Blackbuck and in Chital from 05 to 09. In Safari Park, the overall increase in the
rumber of Hog Deer was from 14 to 21,in Nilgai it was from 31 to 36, in Blackbuck, it was from 44 to 65, in Chital from 64 to 86, and
in Chinkara from 07 in 2011 to 08 in 2012. It was also observed that captive animals develop different kind of behaviour depending
upon the environment provided. In Zoo, where space is small, they develop repetitive and purposeless behavior like wandering to and
fro and self grooming but in the Safari Park due to enough space and better living conditions they are more active in comparison to the
Zoo where they are less responsive and mostly resting. Safari Parks and Zoos have a capability to become centers for animal
behavioral.

The deprivation of liberty is one of the defining components of Christendom-Islam relationships in the Medieval Mediterranean. In this context the Kingdom of Granada is a perfect framework within which to study a frontier society both in the Nasrid and the Castilian periods, in which the daily presence of prisoners and slaves show social and economic features common to the rest of the Western Mediterranean and also specific traits related to the particular historical characteristics of the Iberian Peninsula. In line with the current trend that supports the joint study of captivity and slavery overcoming the juridical differences that divide them, this article collects the state of knowledge on the matter. It reviews the classic bibliography and moves forward to include the latest studies in an attempt to deal with the subject from an integrating perspective. Given that very few Late Medieval Mediterranean territories offer the documentary richness and the economic, social and structural complexity of the Kingdom of Granada, there emerges a panorama of great clarity for the question under study.

Traditionally, countries at war upheld the ancient custom of exchanging prisoners during hostilities. However, conflict with the French during the period 1778-1815 overturned this practice. A change in French policy resulted in the nation’s refusal to partake in cartels, the established prisoner exchange system. Some cartel ships did sail, but negotiating prisoner exchanges was time consuming; in 1807, the number of French prisoners was 23,699. In the space of three years, these numbers had increased to 44,585. By 1814, there were as many as 70,000 captured French sailors and soldiers held in Britain. With the Admiralty forced to bear the expense, the economy suffered under the immense strain of providing lodgings, food and clothing for the tens of thousands of enemy troops. Perceived as a threat to public safety, the decision was made to confine prisoners at remote locations. Numbers were broken up; officers, exempt from a life in prison, were stationed in parole towns across the country. Ordinary servicemen were sent to locations far removed from naval bases, such as the newly commissioned Dartmoor prison. But establishing prison camps across the country was still not enough to cope with the influx of prisoners; with little choice, the Admiralty pressed prison hulks into service.

‘Hulks’, primarily decommissioned and dismantled naval warships, were not fit to sail but still habitable. Stripped of their masts, rigging and sails, these floating prisons held up to 500 men at any one time. During the period 1778-1815, forty-three prison hulks were maintained by the Admiralty, housing over thirty thousand prisoners in estuaries neighbouring the Royal Naval Dockyards of Portsmouth, Plymouth and the Thames. The history of prison hulks has been almost entirely overlooked by scholars, but a report compiled by Admiralty commissioners in 1798 declared that enemy prisoners had become the object of public attention. This paper will examine the extent of that attention in relation to escape attempts of French prisoners of war held on board the hulks. It will reflect upon the proliferation of newspaper reports and prisoner memoirs on the subject, notably Louis Garneray’s Mes Pontons, or The Floating Prison, in which the hulk Prothée was described as a “sombre tomb, an immense sarcophagus”. By focusing on the dynamic between print media, the public, and the prisoners themselves, the paper will ultimately explore the nature of public hysteria at a time when there was a real threat of enemy invasion on British soil.

Are there “fates worse than death,” to use Kurt Vonnegut’s title? Is captivity one such fate? Captive for Life examines these questions through the lens of conservation biology’s ex situ models of captive management — and captive breeding in particular — for wild animals, and especially for species that have been designated as Critically Endangered or as Extinct in the Wild. Drawing on interviews with leading conservation biologists, the chapter describes the erosion of the distinctions between species management in captivity and in wild nature, often referred to among experts as ex situ and in situ conservation. The chapter examines situations in which the extinction, or near-extinction, of a species in the wild is imminent, and a captive breeding program is initiated — typically by zoos — to ensure this species’ survival. Finally, I hint toward the possibility of abandoning the “in” and “out” paradigm, that has so characterized modern conservation narratives, in favor of an understanding of conservation that focuses on a more dynamic and less predetermined view of ecosystems and populations. Such a holistic model breaks with the bifurcations of modern conservation to offer relational configurations for managing wild life.

Current studies on Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the wild rarely include behavioural traits of this species.
Moreover, being a cryptic species, its behaviour is very difficult to be studied in the wild. In order to record
and analyse the lynx behaviour during the breeding season, a cameratrap was put in a lynx enclosure
in Sofia Zoo for 64 days to follow the reproductive period of the lynx pair. A total of 2972 video clips were
collected and analysed in order to define the frequency and duration of the social/ non-social behaviour,
the influence of the temperature, time of the day and the moon phase. The analysis of behavioural acts, 28
non-social and 20 social, showed a high frequency of the social behaviour during the day. There was no
significant difference between the number of exhibited behavioural acts in males and females, although
the male showed more pronounced marking behaviour, mating calls and approaches to the female. Totally,
29 acts of head-tossing were observed as part of the lynx courtship behaviour. Six copulations were also
recorded, followed by successful pregnancy and birt

The neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.” The politic developed by the larger movement of neo-insurrectionist Queers, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse. Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement. Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers. Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity.”

The paper focuses on the latter years of captivity of the ca. 700.000 German and Austro-German war prisoners in Russia. In contrast to the discourse surrounding the "culture of hatred", it concentrates on the extent to which POWs in Russia were able to converge with local populations as well as the processes that enabled these interactions. A central question is how the End of the First World War was perceived by POWs in Russia and the consequences of the Russian Revolutions on their existence.

Andrea Binsfeld (Hrsg.), Marcello Ghetta (Hrsg.), Ubi servi erant? Die Ikonographie von Sklaven und Freigelassenen in der römischen Kunst
Ergebnisse des Workshops an der Université du Luxembourg (Esch-Belval, 29.-30. Januar 2016), Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei, 43, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2019, p. 53-72.

    Über die Reihe

2019.
LIV, 276 S.

Prisoner treatment was an omnipresent topic during the First World War, whereby the need for information about the fate of individual prisoners or the living conditions in the camps initially predominated. The topic was finally emotionally charged by news about bad conditions in the camps, epidemics and violence against prisoners. The reports on the Wittenberg camp played a special role in this context. No other German camp is likely to have been the subject of so much foreign reporting during the First World War. By the end of April 1916 at the latest, it had become the reference point for the poor treatment of British prisoners in Germany. From then on, if the question was raised as to whether the conditions in other camps were possibly "Another Wittenberg", newspaper editors could be sure that their readers knew what was meant. This article reconstructs the representation of the camp in British and American media.

Die Gefangenenbehandlung war während des Ersten Weltkrieges ein omnipräsentes Thema, wobei zunächst das Bedürfnis nach Informationen über das Schicksal einzelner Gefangener bzw. die Lebensbedingungen in den Lagern überwog. Emotional aufgeladen wurde das Thema schließlich durch Nachrichten über schlechte Bedingungen in den Lagern, Epidemien und Gewalt gegen Gefangene. Den Berichten über das Wittenberger Lager kommt in diesem Zusammenhang eine Sonderrolle zu. Kein anderes deutsches Lager dürfte während des Ersten Weltkrieges so häufig Gegenstand ausländischer Berichterstattung geworden sein. Spätestens Ende April 1916 war es zur Referenzgröße für die schlechte Behandlung britischer Gefangener in Deutschland geworden. Wurde in Bezug auf die Bedingungen in anderen Lagern fortan die Frage gestellt, ob es sich womöglich um "Another Wittenberg" handelte, konnten die Zeitungsredaktionen darauf vertrauen, dass ihre Leser wussten, was gemeint war. Der Beitrag rekonstruiert die Repräsentation des Lagers in britischen und amerikanischen Medien.

In this paper, I respond to a major oversight in contemporary animal ethics discussions: the moral problem of captive predation. While attention has been given to wild animal predation, most notably by Jeff McMahan, the suffering caused in sustaining captive carnivorous animals is absent from the discourse. McMahan argues that humans have an obligation to reduce suffering by aiding prey animals in the wild. I present his arguments in favour of interfering with predation as well as arguments against such obligations. McMahan lays the moral groundwork for a wide range of interference; however, interfering to the extent he suggests is currently infeasible. His arguments become stronger when applied to captive animals. Captive predation presents a situation in which humans have already interfered, and where further interference to alleviate suffering caused in sustaining captive carnivorous animals is practical and morally necessary. The carnivorous animals I consider are those kept as pets, in zoos and aquariums, and in rehabilitation centres. Cultured meat is the ideal candidate to replace the meat being fed to these animals. Current research is predominantly directed toward supplementing meat consumption by humans. I argue that it makes sense to direct research and development of cultured meat toward supplementing the diets of captive carnivorous animals. Feeding these animals cultured meat would result in an immense reduction in suffering and death for animals who would otherwise be killed to sustain them.

AbstrAct The ransom is the price paid to free a person who has fallen into enemy hands as a prisoner (captivus) and reduced to slavery. The fixing and payment of this price are parts of a long process —redemption— that involves various subjects (both individuals and institutions) who often have different religious affiliations. Ransom is connected with priva-teering, a military, commercial and financial phenomenon that entails the continuous exchange of men, commodities and money. By comparison with the religious orders and secular and religious institutions specialised in ransom, it is more difficult to identify and quantify the innumerable private initiatives, whether informal or institutionalized, on the part of individuals or a group, starting with those of the captives' relatives: all those categories of redeemers whose traces have to be sought in banal activities —buy-ing, selling, undertaking an activity for gain, taking a risk, planning a business deal, grasping an opportunity— and do not therefore appear in institutional sources. It is an established but untenable commonplace to suppose that Muslims did not ransom their fellow believers who fell into Christian hands, but limited themselves to occasional exchanges. In as much as the Muslim world did not have organizations equivalent to those of Catholic Europe, the intensive commercial relations of a group of Moorish merchants between Palermo and Tunisi help us to understand the pervasiveness of the activity of ransom , the interconnection between commercial exchanges and redemption, and the shared profits obtained by commercial agents of different religions. More generally, they help us to reflect on the contact between neighboring or adjacent societies, even though frequently in conflict with one another.

Les services captifs sont des services qui sont fournis dans un système concurrentiel ou à travers des processus qui limitent le choix, le contrôle et le pouvoir des consommateurs (Rayburn, 2015). Dans ce cadre, la captivité des services est la perception par les consommateurs que pour obtenir ce service, ils n’ont pas d’autre option que leur fournisseur actuel (Rayburn, 2015). Cette captivité peut être créée par différents types de contraintes plus ou moins importantes (Botti et al., 2008). Certains services publics, comme le transport ferroviaire de passagers et le courrier postal, sont des monopoles d’État pour lequel les consommateurs n’ont pas d’autre choix. D’autres services en
situations concurrentielles développent des processus pour rendre leurs clients captifs, comme certaines entreprises de téléphonie mobile ayant des systèmes d’abonnements relativement longs et des conditions d’annulation contraignantes. Cette situation de captivité crée chez les consommateurs une perception de déséquilibre de pouvoir en faveur du fournisseur de service et influence leurs attitudes et leurs comportements.

Pour les entreprises offrant des services captifs, cette situation de captivité offre un certain nombre d’avantages par rapport aux entreprises de services dont les clients ne sont pas captifs. En effet, les consommateurs captifs, même insatisfaits, ne peuvent pas changer de fournisseurs, et ces entreprises peuvent augmenter leurs prix sans que la consommation diminue de façon importante. Cependant, cette situation pose également un certain nombre de défis managériaux et marketing en terme de relation client :

1. Est-ce que ces entreprises doivent vraiment chercher à maximiser (ou à améliorer) la satisfaction de leurs clients étant donné que ceux-ci n’ont pas le choix et que les coûts risquent d’augmenter de manière importante ?

2. Est-ce que ces entreprises peuvent se contenter d’offrir une qualité de service minimale ou doivent-elle chercher à améliorer la qualité de service afin de mieux satisfaire leurs clients ?

3. Quelles sont les conséquences pour ces entreprises de n’offrir qu’une qualité minimale ne satisfaisant pas pleinement leurs clients, étant donné que ceux-ci ne peuvent pas s’en aller ?

One can say without hesitation that during the highly dynamic medieval epoch rivalries and military clashes were of paramount importance in the struggles for dominance over the Balkan Peninsula. During the entire period, war-time activities included the capturing of those who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the enemy. Various groups of soldiers and civilians alike have repeatedly tested the bitterness of captivity. Attempts to trace the fate of war-captives are, for understandable reasons, directly dependent on the data in the written records. The comparison of the various historical accounts is rather typical, even if the records deal with events that are different in time, place and participants. The present paper also compares two descriptions. This study encompasses two well-known historical accounts: the first one is from the chronicle (Synopsis historiarum) of John Skylitzes, while the second one is excerpted from Kritoboulos’  History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Despite all distinctions, there are some particular similarities. Both fragments concern the division of the spoils of war and the fate of the captured population and provide additional knowledge of the practices relating to prisoners of war in the Balkan medieval past.

I denna uppsats studeras den pietistiska väckelsen bland krigsfångar från Karl XII:s armé i Sibirien under åren 1709-1722. Undersökningen har gjorts i form av ett historiskt studium
av både tidigare publicerat och i Sverige opublicerat material. Studien har visat att orsakerna till väckelsens framväxt framförallt var den karolinska fromheten som fångarna bar med sig in i fångenskapen kombinerat med påverkan från den sociala situation som fångarna befann sig i, framförallt under fälttåget före fångenskapen. Studien har dessutom visat att väckelsens spiritualitet kan karakteriseras som hallepietism genom dess betonande av omvändelsen, kampen mot synden och bedrivande av konventikelverksamhet kombinerat med socialt engagemang för utbildning genom drivandet av en skola som i praktiken kom att fungera som ett barnhem. Den pietistiska spiritualiteten bar på stora likheter med den samtida lutherska ortodoxins spiritualitet. Gemensamt för de båda var bibelläsningen, synen på gudomlig vedergällning och tron på nåden allena. Skillnaderna bestod främst i synen på läran och dess funktion samt synen på det individuella kontra det kollektiva i tron. Den sibiriska pietismen saknade vissa av de separatistiska drag som senare kommit att bli typiska för pietismen. Detta gjorde att svenska lutherska ledare under fångenskapen lät pietisterna utöva sin tro så länge denna inte konkurrerade med eller gick
emot den lutherska tron.

One can say without hesitation that during the highly dynamic medieval epoch rivalries and military clashes were of paramount importance in the struggles for dominance over the Balkan Peninsula. During the entire period, war-time activities included the capturing of those who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the enemy. Various groups of soldiers and civilians alike have repeatedly tested the bitterness of captivity. Attempts to trace the fate of war-captives are, for understandable reasons, directly dependent on the data in the written records. The comparison of the various historical accounts is rather typical, even if the records deal with events that are different in time, place and participants. The present paper also compares two descriptions. This study encompasses two well-known historical accounts: the first one is from the chronicle (Synopsis historiarum) of John Skylitzes, while the second one is excerpted from Kritoboulos’ History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Desp...

This contribution intends to analyse textually three contemporary narratives : La Quarantaine (1995) by J.M.G. Le Clézio, Guyane : Traces-mémoires du bagne (1994 ; photographs by Rodolphe Hammadi) and Un dimanche au cachot (2007) by Patrick Chamoiseau. The aim is to explore the way these writers give a “poethic” (Pinson) of the captive body, witness or victim of the colonial yoke. Cell of the Maîtres-békés, Flat Island in quarantine, Guianese penal colony, what tell those concentration-camps to these “ragmen” (Benjamin) of the History ? Could the scars of the colonial past be – not “objectified” (Ricœur) – but emotional and synesthesic ? As oppressing as the prison is, could it turn to be liberating of self-consciousness and communalism ? Which aesthetic and ethical questions the perception and figuration of a palimpsestic body raise about the indescribable of the chained human condition ?

Abstract: The region of La Janda, especially its three main population centers Vejer de la Frontera, Medina Sidonia and Alcalá de los Gazules, witnessed a permanent conflict between Christians and Muslims during the 13th century, when Christians were made captive in Moorish land every single day. This article, based on the Milagros romanzados de Santo Domingo de Silos by the monk Pedro Marín, presents the testimonies of some slaves who managed to escape and reach some of these towns.
Resumen: La comarca de La Janda, en especial sus tres grandes núcleos de población Vejer de la Frontera, Medina Sidonia y Alcalá de los Gazules, asiste en el siglo XIII a un escenario de permanente conflicto entre cristianos y musulmanes. En él fue cotidiano el hecho de la entrada en cautiverio de cristianos en tierra de moros. Este trabajo, apoyándose en la obra de los Milagros romanzados de Santo Domingo de Silos del monje Pedro Marín, recoge los testimonios de algunos esclavos que lograron escapar y que en su huida llegaron a algunas de estas poblaciones.

In the past few years, philosophy studies regarding environmental and animal ethics have focused more and more on the relationship between animals and humans. Specifically, the contemporary scientific discussion also centres on using animals as entertainment and its moral issues. By capturing animals, exposing and training them, places like zoos, dolphinaria and circuses cause radical changes in the animal nature. The living conditions have consequential effects on the animal itself, for this reason, keeping animals in captivity changes the essence of animals themselves which are deprived of their specie and individual identity.

Türkler ile İtalyanlar arasındaki ilişkilerin kökeni oldukça erken dönemlere kadar gitmektedir. En temelde ticaret yoluyla başlayan bu ilişkiler daha sonra hemen her alanda kendini göstermiştir. Elbette bu temasların düz bir çizgide, sorunsuz olarak gittiğini söylemek de doğru değildir. İtalyan kent devletleri ve daha sonra Osmanlılar arasında farklı zamanlarda birçok savaş cereyan etmiştir. Bu savaşların en yoğun yaşandığı yer ise denizler olacaktır. Akdeniz özelinde savaşların/karşılaşmaların diğer bir boyutu ise korsanlık kaynaklıdır. Bu noktada korsanların çıkış yerleri çoğunlukla Cezayir, Tunus ve Trablus’dur. Buradan hareket eden korsanlar farklı İtalyan gemileri ile karşılaşmışlar ve çarpışmışlardır. Denizlerdeki mücadelenin neticesinde her iki taraf için de ortaya bir sorun çıkacaktır: Esirler. Esaret altına alınanların hapsedildikleri yerlerde kaleme aldıkları Osmanlıca mektuplar bu çalışmanın konusunu oluştururken daha özelde Napoli’de bir savaş sırasında esir düşmüş 15 Müslümanın yazdıklarına odaklanılmaya çalışılmıştır.

Origins of the Turkish-Italian relations date back to very early periods. These relations that initially started through trade extended later to almost every field. It would naturally be wrong to assert that these contacts went smoothly on a straight line. Several wars broke
out between Italian city states and then the Ottomans, at different times. Where such battles took place most densely would be the seas. Another aspect of the warfare/battles peculiar to the Mediterranean region resulted from piracy. At that point, the points of
departure for the pirates were mostly Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli. The pirates departing from those spots encountered various Italian ships and clashed. As a consequence of the clashes at sea, a problem would emerge for both parties: The captives. The letters in Ottoman Turkish, written by those held captive in jails, constitute the main subject of this
study which more specifically focuses on the letters written by 15 Muslims who were captured during a war in Naples.