Article I about the Enslavement of Christians by the Muslims in Western Literature:Lord Byron

esperanto |
February 7, 2012

Western Christians enslaved by the Muslims between 1500-1800

Between 1500-1800 at least one million and even 1.25 million were enslaved.

That is the conclusion of Robert Davis.His scholarly book on the theme is “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800 “(2004). It was the done by the Muslim Moroccans,Tunisians and Algerians.

About 90% of those enslaved were men, and the women were destined to be sex slaves in a harem.

Only 5% of them, like Miguel de Cervantes and St. Vincent de Paul, were ransomed or escaped.

Here are articles about Davis’ book:

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/mar/11/highereducation.books

Don Juan / Don John as a slave of the Muslims

But first the story of Don Juan in literature

The legend of Don Juan Tenorio

The mythical figure of Don Juan,born in Seville,has its origin in data in the “Chronicle of Seville.” According to the legend:

1.Don Juan lived in the fourteenth century and was the son of Alonso Tenorio,

2.Don Juan Tenorio killed Commander Ulloa,whose daughter he had seduced.

3.The monks of the convent where the commander was buried were outraged by this act, killed Don Juan and hid the body, telling others that he was struck by heaven and taken to hell as punishment for his refusal to repent,to hide their crime.

But the “Cronicas de Sevilla” and the archives of the Ulloa and Tenorio families say nothing of that story,they do mention the names but not the incidents. Nowhere is there any mention of a suspicious death, let alone the miracle of the stone statue of Commader Ulloa grabbing Don Juan and taking him to hell.

Tirso de Molina (1583-1648)

His real name was Gabriel Tellez and he is, with Lope de Vega, author of “Fuenteovejuna” (1562-1635) and Pedro Calderón de la Barca, author of “Life is a Dream” (1600-1681), the trio of great playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age. He is famous for writing the first play on the mythical character of Don Juan, which is “El Burlador de Sevilla / The Deceiver of Seville” (1630). This is the masterpiece of Tirso de Molina.

Dom Juan (1665)

Moliere, whose real name is Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673) also wrote a play about the adventures of Don Juan.The best writings of Moliere are “Tartuffe,” “The Miser” and “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.”

Don Giovanni (Don Juan in Italian)

This is an opera in two acts and in Italian by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), created in 1787.

Don Juan Tenorio (1844)

José Zorrilla (1817-1893) wrote the second play in Spanish that is about Don Juan, and it is very well written.There is a difference regarding Tirso de Molina,because here Don Juan is not sent to hell but is saved and goes to heaven.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (born in 1960)

“The Night of Valognes” is a play by French author Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. It was published in 1991 and is about the adventures of Don Juan.

Don Juan as a slave of the Muslims

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

He is generally known as Lord Byron, and is a British poet who died at Missolonghi, Greece, then under Ottoman rule. He is one of the most famous poets in the literary history of the English language. He is one of the greatest figures of Romanticism with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats.

A hero who died for the Independence of Greece against the Turkish Muslims

To support the cause of Greek independence against the Turks Byron went to Missolonghi in Greece, where he died due to a fever, at the age of thirty-six.

The Battle of Missolonghi

It was at Missolonghi that there was a titanic battle between the Greeks and Muslims,called the fourth siege of Missolonghi, in 1826.

The Muslims won and 7 000 people tried to flee, about 1 800 men and women managed to make it out safe and sound. Many Greeks decided to blow themselves up with the powder instead of surrendering. The survivors were massacred or sold into slavery.

The battle is commemorated by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), the best French painter of Romanticism in 1826 with the painting “Greece on the ruins of Missolonghi.”

The poem “Don Juan”

It was considered by Lord Byron himself, and by all others, as his masterpiece

Canto I

Don Juan was born in Seville At sixteen, a handsome young man, he disturbs the pure heart of Dona Julia, who becomes his lover. The adultery is discovered and Don Juan must leave Spain for Italy.

Cantos II and III

Caught in a storm, his ship sank. The only survivor, Don Juan lands on a Greek island. He is rescued by a young girl, Haydee, who falls in love with him.

Cantos IV, V and VI

Don Juan is sold into slavery to the Muslims

The father of Haydee,the chief of a band of pirates, discovers their relationship and sends Don Juan to Constantinople, where he is sold as a slave to the wife of the Sultan. He is introduced into the harem disguised as a woman and becomes an object of desire on the part of the Sultan, his wife and all the other wives and concubines of the Sultan.

Cantos VII, VIII, IX

Don Juan escapes from the Muslims, and becomes free

He manages to escape and finds himself at the siege of the city of Izmail,by the Russian army. He displayes gallantry and bravery on the battlefield and saves a small Muslim girl called Leila. He is sent to announce the victory to Catherine II of Russia, and he becomes her favorite.

Cantos X to XVII

But Don Juan falls ill. The doctors recommend a milder climate,so the Empress sent him on a secret mission to England,where he is warmly welcomed by English society. Many women fall in love with him but he chooses Duchess Fitz-Fulke.

(antisharia.com)

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