In The Battle for Central Europe specialists in sixteenth-century Ottoman, Habsburg and Hungarian history provide the most comprehensive picture possible of a battle that determined the fate of Central Europe for centuries. Not only the siege and the death of its main protagonists are discussed, but also the wider context of the imperial rivalry and the empire buildings of the competing great powers of that age. Contributors include Gabor Agoston, Janos B. Szabo, Zsuzsa Barbarics-Hermanik, Gunhan Boerekci, Feridun M. Emecen, Alfredo Alvar Ezquerra, Istvan Fazekas, Pal Fodor, Klara Hegyi, Colin Imber, Damir Karbic, Jozsef Kelenik, Zoltan Korpas, Tijana Krstic, Nenad Moacanin, Gulru Neci poglu, Erol OEzvar, Geza Palffy, Norbert Pap, Peter Rauscher, Claudia Roemer, Arno Strohmeyer, Zeynep Tarim, James D. Tracy, Gabor Tuskes, Szabolcs Varga, Nicolas Vatin.

Notwithstanding the spectacular upswing in the research, there are areas of Ottoman slavery that have still not received the attention they deserve. This volume intends to take a step towards bridging this gap. The twelve studies it contains are organised around connected themes: the hunt for, the trade in and the treatment of captives in the Balkans and in Central Europe. The area under scrutiny is focussed on Hungary, and some other border regions extending from the Crimea to Malta. It offers both an analytic and synthetic approach based on a great deal of so far unpublished Ottoman and European archival material. It not only examines Christian slavery in the Ottoman Empire, but also provides greater insight into the tribulations of Ottoman slaves in the Christian world and sheds light on the devastating effect of captive-related transactions on trade and sometimes on the financial position of whole communities.