Background
He was born of a noble family in cica 1381, probably at Hollern near Lohof, half way between Munich and Freising, on what was then a property of his family.
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Als Sklave im Osmanischen Reich und bei den Tartaren 1394-1427.
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The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of (Classic Reprint)
(An editor, or a translator, collects the merits of differ...)
An editor, or a translator, collects the merits of different writers, and, forming all into a wreath, bestows it on his authors tomb. Shenstone. The world is indebted to the late Professor Karl Friedrich Neumann, for having rendered the perusal of Johann Schiltberger stravels generally accessible. Until his edition of the Heidelberg MS. appeared, in 1859, there had been no publication of the interesting work, in its integrity, since the year 1700, the supposed date of an edition, sine anno, sine loco; so that, as a fact, the work had become scarce, and could be consulted in a few libraries only, or in private collections of rare books. In 1813, and again in 1814, was published A braham Jacob Penzel sedition of what was known as the Nuremberg MS. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org
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Johann Schiltberger
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In 1394 he joined the suite of Lienhart Richartinger, and went off to fight under Sigismund, king of Hungary (afterwards emperor), against the Turks on the Hungarian frontier. At the battle of Nicopolis (Sept. 28th, 1396) he was wounded and taken prisoner: when he had recovered the use of his feet, Sultan Bayezid I. (Ilderim) took him into his service as a runner (1396–1402). During this time he seems to have accompanied Ottoman troops to certain parts of Asia Minor and to Egypt. On Bayezid’s overthrow at Angora (July 20th, 1402), Schiltberger passed into the service of Bayezid’s conqueror Timur: he now appears to have followed Themurlin to Samarkand, and perhaps also to Armenia and Georgia. After Timur’s death (February 17th, 1405) his German runner first became a slave of Shah Rukh, the ablest of Timur’s sons; then of Miran Shah, a brother of Shah Rukh; then of Abu Bekr, a son of Miran Shah, whose camp roamed up and down Armenia. He next accompanied Chekre, a Tatar prince living in Abu Bekr’s horde, on an excursion to Siberia, of which name Schiltberger gives us the first clear mention in west European literature. He also probably followed his new master in his attack on the Old Bulgaria of the middle Volga, answering to the modern Kazan and its neighbourhood. Wanderings in the steppe lands of south-east Russia; visits to Sarai, the old capital of the Kipchak Khanate on the lower Volga and to Azov or Tana, still a trading centre for Venetian and Genoese merchants; a fresh change of servitude on Chekre’s ruin; travels in the Crimea, Circassia, Abkhasia and Mingrelia; and finally escape (from the neighbourhood of Batum) followed. Arriving at Constantinople, he there lay hid for a time; he then returned to his Bavarian home (1427) by way of Kilia, Akkerman, Lemberg, Cracow, Breslau and Meissen After his return he became a chamberlain of Duke Albert III. , probably receiving this appointment in the first instance before the duke’s accession in 1438.
Schiltberger’s Reisebuch contains not only a record of his own experiences and a sketch of various chapters of contemporary Eastern history, but also an account of countries and their manners and customs, especially of those countries which he had himself visited. First come the lands "this side" of Danube, where he had travelled; next follow those between the Danube and the sea, which had now fallen under the Turk; after this, the Ottoman dominions in Asia; last come the more distant regions of Schiltberger’s world, from Trebizond to Russia and from Egypt to India. In this regional geography the descriptions of Brusa; of various west Caucasian and Armenian regions; of the regions around the Caspian, and the habits of their peoples (especially the Red Tatars); of Siberia; of the Crimea with its great Genoese colony at Kaffa (where he once spent five months); and of Egypt and Arabia, are particularly worth notice. His allusions to the Catholic missions still persisting in Armenia and in other regions beyond the Euxine, and to (non-Roman ?) Christian communities even in the Great Tatary of the steppes are also remarkable. Schiltberger is perhaps the first writer of Western Christendom to give the true burial place of Mahomet at Medina: his sketches of Islam and of Eastern Christendom, with all their shortcomings, are of remarkable merit for their time: and he may fairly be reckoned among the authors who contributed to fix Prester John, at the close of the middle ages, in Abyssinia. His work, however, contains many inaccuracies; thus in reckoning the years of his service both with Bayezid and with Timur he unaccountably multiplies by two. His account of Timur and his campaigns is misty, often incorrect, and sometimes fabulous: nor can von Hammer’s parallel between Marco Polo and Schiltberger be sustained without large reservations.
Works
book
-
The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of (Classic Reprint)
(An editor, or a translator, collects the merits of differ...)
- Als Sklave im Osmanischen Reich und bei den Tartaren 1394-1427.
-
The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of (Classic Reprint)
