1380 - ca. 1440, Freising, München, Nikopolis, Ottoman Empire, Golden Horde
Act of retribution against the Christians after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, painted in the Chronicles of Jean Froissart in 1470. Source: Bibliothèque National de France, CC
Front cover Heidelberg Writings 1470. Inside the handwritten Story of Johannes Schiltberger in the Ottoman Empire. Source: University Library Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 216
New Edition of Schiltbergers Book 2018. Source: TAM library
Johannes Schiltberger, born around 1380 into a Bavarian noble family, led an - so he narrated his life himself - extraordinary life marked by extensive travels, hardship and survival in a world former unknown to him. His legacy is primarily preserved through his travel account, which provides rare insights into his perspective in the late medieval world.
In 1394, Schiltberger joined the crusade of King Sigismund of Hungary as a foot soldier, embarking on a military campaign against the advancing Ottoman Empire.
However, his fate took a dramatic turn on September 28, 1396, during the Battle of Nicopolis. The Christian armies suffered a devastating defeat, and Schiltberger was captured by the Ottomans. His youth spared him from execution, as the son of Sultan Bayezid I. decided to save him.
For six years, Schiltberger lived in captivity at the court of Sultan Bayezid I, serving the Ottoman ruler. He witnessed pivotal historical events and gained firsthand knowledge of the Ottoman Empire’s customs, politics, and military strategies. In 1402, the tide turned again when the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) defeated and captured Sultan Bayezid at the Battle of Ankara. Schiltberger’s life of captivity continued under Timur and later under Timur’s descendants until 1417.
After Timur’s death, Schiltberger found himself under the rule of the successors of the Timurid Empire, navigating the complex and often dangerous world of Central Asia and the Caucasus. From 1422 onwards, he spent time in the territories of the Golden Horde and the Caucasus, further expanding his experiences and knowledge of diverse cultures, religions, and lands.
In 1427, at the age of approximately 47, Schiltberger finally returned to his homeland of Bavaria. Having spent more than 30 years as a captive and traveler through the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe, he brought back a wealth of stories and observations. These experiences formed the basis of his travel report, which became a historical document carefully conserved at the Heidelberger Handschriften Archive.
Schiltberger’s travel account, first published posthumously in 1470, offers one of the earliest European perspectives on the regions he visited. He has left descriptions of cities like Samarkand, accounts of Tatar customs, and his observations of the Golden Horde’s realm.
In 1554, the first printed edition of Schiltberger’s report was released in Frankfurt am Main, ensuring his stories reached a broader audience. Despite the unclear details of his death, Schiltberger’s legacy lives on through his writings, even though his story is not well known in every day histories, he is one of the first traces of interconnected histories between todays Germany and Turkey. While you might encounter the Histories of the so called „Beutetürken“ a special word for captured Turks there is not a saying like „Beutedeutschen“ in German.
Sources:
Karl Friedrich Neumann (Hg.): Reisen des Johannes Schiltberger aus München in Europa, Asia und Afrika von 1394-1427, München 1859
Karl Friedrich Neumann (Hg.): Reisen des Johannes Schiltberger aus München in Europa, Asia und Afrika von 1394-1427, München 1859