The Redemption of Slaves in Dubrovnik Republic
One of the Most Beautiful and Noble Endeavors of Old Dubrovnik
“The poet Hanibal Lucić (1485-1553) presented an interesting theme in his play ‘The Slave Girl’: In Dubrovnik’s square, a young nephew of the Croatian ban (Viceroy) Derenčin recognizes his fiancée among the slaves, who had been captured by the Turks. Derenčin redeems her and takes her with him, and the Dubrovnik nobility, led by the Rector, organize a feast in honor of the young couple, whose ancestors were well known among the people for their reputation and valor in battles against the Turks. – Jorjo Tadić (December 22, 1930)
Literary historians, seeking to determine where Lucić found inspiration for writing the first secular play in Croatian literature, have made various speculations. However, it is very likely that our poet was much simpler in his sources. The inspiration and content for this work, which stands out for its originality and value among our old literary creations, Lucić found in the very life of that time.
For what he portrayed in his verses in ‘The Slave Girl’ was nothing other than the depiction of scenes that frequently occurred in Dubrovnik of that era. Perhaps Lucić himself witnessed something similar during a possible stay in Dubrovnik and later described it in his play upon returning to his native Hvar.
After all, his contemporary, the poet Petar Hektorović, also from Hvar, visited Dubrovnik to see this only free center among our people and to meet some of its prominent figures. Judging by some of Lucić’s poems, in which he highly praises Dubrovnik and its aristocratic governance, it seems that our noble-poet was quite familiar with the Dubrovnik Republic.
Even as far as his native Hvar, and throughout Dalmatia up to Senj and beyond, there circulated the reputation of Dubrovnik as a city where Christian slaves could be ransomed from Turkish captivity. Located on the very border with the Ottoman Empire, and living in eternal neutrality with everyone, Dubrovnik was ideally positioned for this. Therefore, people whose relatives or friends had fallen into Turkish hands would come to Dubrovnik.
Through Dubrovnik, they could find information about their loved ones or even arrange their liberation through a local intermediary. Dubrovnik thus gradually became a mediator between the slaves and their families, and after every major battle or Turkish incursion into neighboring lands, people would come to Dubrovnik to save the captives. Some returned satisfied having saved their kin, while many learned the harsh truth about the deaths of their loved ones.
In all of this work, the people of Dubrovnik played a significant and honorable role, as evidenced by numerous old records. However, we will here present only a few cases from the second half of the 15th century, when the redemption of slaves in Dubrovnik had just begun, and when young Lucić might have drawn inspiration for his ‘Slave Girl’.
Right from the start, among the first reports of slave redemptions, there is a case that closely resembles Lucić’s play. In September 1470, Ivan Marković, a Croatian nobleman, came to Dubrovnik to seek his captured wife. He brought with him a Turk named Mustafa, whom the Croatian deputy ban, in whose captivity Mustafa had been, gave him to exchange for his wife. Two Dubrovnik merchants residing in Sarajevo, where Marković’s wife was located, mediated and helped execute the exchange in Dubrovnik, along with an additional payment of 500 ducats to Marković. The funds were provided by the distinguished Vrhbosna sanjak-bey, Isaber Isaković, while he was still governing Bosnia.
The Dubrovnik merchant Maroje Milutinović, in 1471, redeemed for 25 ducats a girl named Agnija, the niece of a priest from Skradin, named Petar. However, when she was to return to Skradin via Dubrovnik, she died in Novi Pazar.
In March 1472, a Dubrovnik barber-surgeon received 150 ducats to liberate a captive in Sarajevo and escort him to Dubrovnik. In 1473, a man named Miho Bazilijev from Trieste arrived in Dubrovnik seeking help to liberate a larger group of captives from Friuli. In 1474, with the mediation of the Dubrovnik dyer Ivković, a woman from near Šibenik who had been enslaved in Bosnia was liberated. To ransom her, a captured Turk named Alija was to be sent from Šibenik via Dubrovnik to Bosnia. If Alija was not freed, a payment of 180 ducats would be made instead, or the woman would be returned to slavery.
In 1475, Ivko Rajanović from Dubrovnik reported that two years earlier, near Mostar, he had redeemed a three-year-old Croatian girl for four ducats and entrusted her, with compensation for expenses, to a local citizen named Vukotić. In 1477, efforts were made to free a captive from Istria. In 1478, two Germans held captive in Foča, a man from Šibenik imprisoned in Skopje, and a mother with her child from near Split were liberated.
On October 17, 1475, a Dubrovnik citizen named Jakob, returning from Sarajevo, came to the Dubrovnik notary’s office and reported the following: While in Sarajevo, he met Martin Tomasović from Muć above Split, who was in captivity there. Martin told him that he could be freed for 20 ducats. Jakob relayed this news in Dubrovnik in the hope that someone would take pity and provide the ransom. Indeed, a man named Ciprijan Dobrin from Šibenik promised to cover Jakob’s expenses if he managed to liberate Martin. However, something suddenly changed, and the contract between Ciprijan and Jakob, initiated at the notary’s office, was never finalized, leaving poor Martin likely still in captivity, awaiting someone to rescue him.
At the beginning of 1497, Croatian nobleman Emerik Kos from near Zagreb entrusted 160 ducats to the Dubrovnik citizen Petar Radilović to search for his captive brother Petar. On April 14, a contract was signed, and Emerik’s servant Đurko accompanied Radilović to Anatolia to help identify Petar. For three months, they searched through Turkey, reaching areas east of Bursa, but they did not find Petar Kos, although they encountered his captured servants, who told them that Petar had died in battle. Returning to Dubrovnik, Radilović submitted detailed accounts of his expenses and received a wage of six ducats per month. The remainder of the money was sent to Emerik via Đurko, along with the sad confirmation of his brother’s death.
In 1494, a woman named Simka Martinčić from Senj was ransomed in Sofia for 47 ducats and brought to Dubrovnik. As Jero Nenković, the Dubrovnik citizen who liberated her, did not immediately receive the full sum, Simka promised to pay the remainder in firewood sent from Senj. Another citizen from Senj owed 44 ducats to Dubrovnik’s Marko Durmitorović, who had paid for his ransom. His captor was ‘Čelebija,’ the stepson of Jakub-Pasha, Sanjak-bey of Vrhbosna, likely captured during the Battle of Udbina in 1493, where Jakub decimated the Croatian army and captured Ban Derenčin himself.
This intermediary work of the Dubrovnik citizens in redeeming Christian captives continued later but became even more intense and better organized. Throughout the 16th century, battles between Christians and Turks produced captives on both sides. Dubrovnik acted as mediator for both, and through Dubrovnik, exchanges took place between prisoners from Italy, Sicily, Malta, and Spain and those held in Turkey. The people of Dubrovnik warmly welcomed the captives, honored them according to their social rank, and helped them return home. They even provided special ships to take them to Italy. Funds for ransoms were sent through Dubrovnik and maintained through correspondence with their families. This activity was especially strong around the mid-16th century, after the battles of Malta and Lepanto (1571).
When Turkish ships, commanded by Kara-Hodža, plundered Hvar and other islands in the summer of that year and returned past Dubrovnik, the citizens of Dubrovnik went out to meet them, buying back Dalmatian captives. Those whose origins were known were returned to their homes, while children unable to identify their families were cared for lovingly in Dubrovnik.
Later, both state authorities and private citizens continued these efforts. Hundreds of wills preserved in the Dubrovnik archives show how the citizens competed in charity and supporting humane causes. Every wealthy citizen would leave something for the redemption of Christian slaves from Turkish or pirate captivity. All this work represents one of the most beautiful and noble efforts of old Dubrovnik. Once it is fully researched and published, the reputation of Dubrovnik and its citizens will be greatly enhanced, and it will be seen that Hanibal Lucić was right in thinking so highly of them,” concludes Jorjo Tadić, himself from Hvar.
Author: Đivo Bašić
Source: https://dubrovnikportal.com/kolumne/crtice-iz-povijesti-grada/otkupljivanje-robova-u-dubrovniku/