Konstantin Mihailović, born a Christian Serb in the early fifteenth century, was taken as a prisoner of war and trained as a Janissary—a member of the elite corps of the Ottoman army. As a Janissary, Mihailović was an eyewitness to important events such as Sultan Mehmet II’s sieges of Belgrade and Constantinople in 1453 and the campaign to Wallachia against Count Dracula. In 1463, when his garrison of Janissaries was captured by the Hungarians, and he redeclared Christian faith. He drew on his unique first-hand experience among the Turks to write his memoirs, in an attempt to show the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the Ottoman army as well as the daily habits of these “heathens” to his fellow Christians. Reach...
