Pécs in the Ottoman Era

8/3/2019 Pcs in the Ottoman Era

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SZABOLCS VARGA

GARDEN OF IREM

PCS IN THE OTTOMAN ERA(15261686)

Theological College of Pcs Pcs Trtnete Alaptvny

Pcs, 2009

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Pcs is going to be the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010 togetherwith Essen and Istambul. Preparing for the occasion, scholarsstarted to investigate the history of the city from new aspects.Interestingly enough, whereas Essen is in the heartland of theChristian civilization, and Istambul is the capital of the Islam, Pcs issituated on the border of the two worlds, and has the characteristicsof both. Its architecture links the two cultures.

The research results of the past few years have confirmedthat investigating the history of the Ottoman domination should beseparated into several periods, as an overall negative tendency cannot



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be displayed. Despite the Ottoman conquest, the Hungarian economyflourished throughout the 16th century, and the society soonregenerated after the first shocks. The excellent cultural conditionsand the intensive peregrinations were striking evidence of that. Infact, it was the period of the Thirteen Years War that disrupted the sofar effective economic system and undermined the Hungariansettlement structure. This process was also affected by the generalEuropean recession and the opening of new trade routes whichdeeply influenced the whole Mediterranean, including the Kingdomof Spain, the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The cause

of the 17th century decline in Hungary, which was clearly perceivedby the contemporaries, did not lie only in the Ottoman presence butalso in the spreading of the western European events over Hungary.More precisely, the two factors together brought about the negativepicture of the Ottoman domination that was reflected in the 18th-century sources, and which led later historians astray.

This duality can also be seen in the history of the Ottoman

Pcs. Despite its difficult situation, the city prospered throughoutthe 16th century; its relations, cityscape and population were almostthe same as they had been at the end of the late Middle Ages,irrespective of the change of rule in the area. Nevertheless, in the17th century, though the city did not suffer serious damage duringthe Long War, its Hungarian inhabitants started to move away,and the ones who remained saw impoverishment. Thus, the

community could no longer support its formerly flourishing school.The Ottoman presence could not cause this alone, because the rulingmechanisms of the Ottoman Empire did not change, or, where itcould be seen, the sources suggested the softening of the regime.

Thus, it is worth investigating on the microlevel where, whenand to what extent did the Ottoman Empire induce the exchange ofthe existing economic, social and administrative structures or, on thecontrary, why it let them operate invariably. To understand this, one



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has to look at the late medieval state of affairs of Pcs (at that timestill in Christian hold).During the Middle Ages, Pcs was the seat of the Diocese of Pcs,and that of the County of Baranya. Therefore, it functioned as amiddle-level religious and lay administrative centre. Beside itsadministrative role, its favourable environmental conditions alsocontributed to its significance within the Kingdom of Hungary.Grapes producing excellent wine grew in the vineyards that weremarketable among the inhabitants of the city. They could generateconsiderable profit from wine trade, although the industry was

dominated by the merchants of Tolna and Buda. Due to this trade,Pcs had strong connections with Buda and the settlements of Tolnaalong the River Danube.

Although legally Pcs was only a market town (under theauthority of the bishop of Pcs and that of the chapter), its cityscapewas more urbanised than that of the majority of the oppidums. It wasmainly due to the religious institutions it housed as the centre of the bishopric. The Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, thePremonstratensians and the Benedictines all had monastic seats in the

city, which further strengthened its religious character. Emphasising



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this is also important because Pcs was not an agricultural towndespite its excellent environmental conditions. Rather, trade andcrafts determined its economy which aimed at meeting the demandsof the religious institutions. The large bishopric court, the extensivechapter and the monks all created great demands for goods. Thesophisticated needs of the bishopric court accounted for thepreponderance of the guild of goldsmiths in the city.

The location of the religious institutions determined thestructure of the city. The Ottoman charitable institutions operatedon the site of the medieval sacred antecedents and thus, ensured the

continuity of the space structure.Pcs was also an important educational centre. Its famous

cathedral chapter school attracted the students until as late as theOttoman conquest. Beside the chapter school, the mendicant ordersalso provided education in the city. Mikls Istvnffy, the famousHumanist, wrote that 2,000 students attended differents schools inPcs at the same time. Although it might be an exaggeration, it

underlines the student city character of the town. Many of thestudents acquiring the basic skills here continued their education atforeign universities. Sixty-four students from Pcs enrolled in theuniversities of Krakow and Vienna in the late Middle Ages. It meantthat the knowledge gained in the local schools was enough for thestudents to cope with the university. The fact that Pcs was one ofthe centres of the Hungarian Humanism was partially due to the

high level of education. The other reason for the presence of theHumanist sense in the city was that according to the documentspreserved in the Vatican many of its inhabitants visited Rome. Theintensive Italian connections promoted the fast spread of the newcultural ideal. At the end of the Middle Ages Pcs was a regionalcentre of organ making which required extensive knowledge. Theprofession was taught by the Dominican friars.

These miscellaneous data also reveal that the location of thecity along the route to Italy meant that it was a link between Buda



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Thus, Pcs surrendered, and became the centre of an

Ottoman border province for long decades.The change of rule occured without troubles because the

Ottoman soldiers were forbidden to plunder the city and, moreover,the city magistrates were generously allowed to choose the new, atthat time an Ottoman, commander. The role of the city in the publicadministration remained unaltered during the Ottoman domination.Although the county apparatus fled to Szigetvr and the bishop also

moved his seat, Pcs became the regional centre of the Ottomanpublic administration which developed paralelly. Although thewhole of South Transdanubia officially belonged to the Sancak ofMohcs, the office operated in Pcs in practice. The bey leading thesancak had his seat here most of the time, and the kadis office alsoworked in the town. Therefore, Pcs was not only the centre of themilitary administration of South Transdanubia but also that of thecivil one. The significance of the city is obvious from the fact thatwhen on 5 February 1545 the Beylerbey of Buda, Muhammad,



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announced the peace treaty with Ferdinand, the commissioners forsupervising it were appointed in Buda, Velike, Jszberny and Pcs.

The city could not fulfill a significant role in defence in theOttoman period either, with which the Ottoman military leadershipwas well aware of. The Ottomans managed to occupy other castlesin Tolna and Baranya as early as 1545, which led to the saferposition of Pcs. As a result, the number of guards were constantlyreduced, and they were sent to serve in the nearby castles. Then, thelogistic importance of the city came to the forefront again thesupplies could be accummulated here, and the soldiers of theadjacent castles were often fed from Pcs. The city had an extensiveand dry cellar system suitable for storing large quantities of fodder,

food and wine. If there were not enough grains, some of the stockscollected in Sriem and stored in Belgrade were sent up on theDanube, and were transported by carriage from Tolna. Therefore,one can suppose a supplying network centred in Belgrade withmany regional depots, whose only aim was to provide the soldiersof the region. The depot in Pcs supplied the castles of SouthTransdanubia. Thus, the city was part of a network with an

unprecedented North-South axis.



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After the occupation of Kanizsa during the Long War,Pcss military importance further declined from the point of viewof the Ottoman military leadership, and its military role completelyfaded into the background, similarly to its medieval state. In thisrespect the Ottoman rule, ignoring a short intermezzo, did notproduce any changes.

Nevertheless, the ethnic composition of the populationaltered significantly in this period. However, this process has to bedivided into two parts. Whereas there did not occur radical changesin the 16th century, the population of the city altered greatly in the

17th century. On the days preceding the Ottoman conquest, manyinhabitants ran away in fear. All the German inhabitants movedfrom the city, as well as the bishopric court, the chapter and themonks. However, fleeing away was not a general trend. Many of thelay priests remained in the town several of them lived in Pcs inthe middle of the 16th century and served in the church of theChristian suburb. Since the town surrendered without fight, no

damage was caused to human lives or buildings. Despite severalinhabitants moving away, the population of the town did notdecrease drastically, or the immigration from the neighbouringvillages compensated the losses. Its ethnic composition changedonly slightly in the 16th century, thus, the change of rule did notmake a break in the local population structure. Although in thesedecades the Hungarians dominated, at the beginning only a few, but

from the 17th century a growing number of South Slavs moved intothe town, and finally formed the majority. They were mainlyCatholics, but several renegade South Slavs arrived, too, who hadconverted to Islam and served as soldiers. A Balkanian inflowbrought about a growth of population in Pcs during the Ottomandomination. At the end of the 16th century almost exclusively SouthSlav guards protected the castle. They brought their families withthem, which further strengthened the South Slav-Muslim presencein the town. Ragusans (called Latins), Jews and Gypsies (called



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Kiptis) also arrived in the town. The latter were the most populousamong them, and their conversion from the Orthodox religion toIslam was the fastest. The new inhabitants with their way of life andarchitecture so different from European customs altered thecityscape, and enriched it with many Balkanian elements. Therefore,whereas the population could be regarded as continuous in the 16thcentury, a sharp fluctuation occured in the 17th century. However, itwas triggered by economic changes rather than the Ottoman rule.

The Ottoman domination did not make a break in theeconomic life of Pcs in the beginning, it remained significant

throughout the 16th century. It is obvious that the Hungarianeconomy disregarded the state of war and functioned properly.Contemporaries looked to the future with optimism in spite of thepolitical setbacks. The invading power also regarded the pacificationof the territory as important and thus, it did not restrict trade.Moreover, since the customs duties went to the Ottoman budget, itwas in the Ottoman authotitys interest to maintain them. This trade

enriched the inhabitants of the market towns of the region, whichproduced spectacular cultural results. It also contributed to theformation of a strong Unitarian community supporting a library anda school, which resulted in the birth of influential theological worksin the era. It is enough to think about Gyrgy Vlasztis polemicwriting Pcsi disputa or Mihly Bogti Fazakass commentary onthe Apocalypse. The Ottomans did not threaten foreign capital,

either. The merchants from Pettau and Italy were present in thetown throughout the 16th century, and they also had commercialagents in the town after its Ottoman occupation. The first colony ofthe Ragusan merchants appeared in 1545. It meant the slight shift ofPcss economic relationships because they traded in fabrics, andbought their goods no longer from the western markets but from theBalkan. Thus, they made the town diverse and divided. The Hunga-rians purchased their goods from the West, but the Muslims preferredthe Balkanian products, which created two parallel economic spaces.



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This fact further strengthened the position of the town in thesedecades. However, the volume of the Balkanian trade was lowerthan that of the richer Hungarian trade, which explains why Pcsflourished only during the western European economic boom.

The fall started with the outbreak of the Thirteen Years War.

The roots of the fights, on the one hand, lay in the social andeconomic mechanisms of the Ottoman Empire, because Constanti-nople in the 1580s went through a severe financial crisis which itattempted to overcome with succesful offensive wars. On the otherhand, an overall economic crisis, relating to the decline of theMediterranean, affected the region as the focus of trade shifted tothe Atlantic Ocean. The Ottoman Empire rather suffered this eventthan brought it about. Complex outer causes (collapse of the westernmarkets, the end of some commercial relationships caused by theThirty Years War) brought about the economic decline of the town.Mainly the Hungarian merchants suffered the decline, because theywere interested in the maintenance of the traditional route. Theyimpoverished during the regression, and they could not have ashare of supplying the growing Muslim population, either, becauseit was, and remained the monopoly of the South Slav merchants.

Following the Thirteen Years War, the volume of the North-South



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trade increased to supply the Muslim demands. More and moreBalkanian tradesmen emerged in the town, who also brought theircultures with them. However, the new immigrants did not have asignificant role in the trade of Ottoman Hungary, and the sources donot indicate any rich Muslim-Ottoman merchants who could go intocompetition with the Ragusan or the Hungarian tradesmen. Thepopulation migrating to the town from the Balkan remained ineconomic dependence on the conquered inhabitants, and they couldnot get into the market or introduce any goods that could haveincreased their importance in the Ottoman Hungary. The cause of

the impoverishment of the Hungarian merchants lay in the fact thatthey could not create new foreign markets in the 17th century.

The growing number of Balkanian immigrants in Pcs alsohad its positive effects. Due to their demands the Ragusanmerchants did bigger and bigger trade with their Balkanianpartners. As a result, the largest fabrics market of the OttomanHungary operated in Pcs in the 17th century, where all the goods of

India and Yemen could be found. Beside fabrics, they activelytraded in wine, honey and wax, too. Presumably they were the onesto carry on tin trade, too. The material was badly needed for roofingthe Muslim buildings, but the raw material had to be imported fromthe Balkan because of the lack of Hungarian tin mines. Pcs was alsothe centre of lead trade, perhaps due to the Ragusan activity. Thenew immigrants also secured the survival of the goldsmith

profession. The Hungarian goldsmiths of the late Middle Ages hadvanished from the sources by the end of the 16th century, and in thenext century solely South Slavs, mainly Croatians arriving fromBosnia, practised this profession. Thus, the tradition continueddespite the altered conditions.

Constantinople badly suffered the 17th century crisis, as theOttoman Empire was incapable of adopting reforms due to itsorganizational structure. The Ottoman Empire remained a militaryeconomy that did not tackle commercial issues thoroughly. The



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Porte raised direct taxes when attempting to solve economicproblems, and thus, it crippled the conquered territory, andundermined the basis of its own rule. This economic policy mademany of the towns inhabitants move to the territories beyond theDanube where the pressure of the invading apparatus was gentler.The failure of the Ottoman economic policy and also that of theOttoman organisational structure is clearly indicated by the fact thatunlike formerly, in the 17th century the Ottomans also started to usethe Hungarian currency in the Ottoman Hungary. However, theagony of the Ottoman Empire went on for a century in the

Hungarian territory, during which time the Balkanian character ofPcs could deepen.

Despite the survival of the Christian population and theeconomic dominance, Pcs had turned to be an Ottoman-Muslimtown by the 17th century. Like in other towns of the OttomanEmpire, the fall of Baghdad was also celebrated in Pcs in 1639.During the festivities, the Muslim inhabitants influenced by the

wine they had consumed, started to vandalise in the town, andimprisoned and flogged the Jesuits. It clearly shows the drawbacksof the social development of Pcs during the Ottoman era, when atruly Balkanian atmosphere pervaded the town.

The Ottoman conquest caused not only the change of theethnic composition, but the legal status of Pcs also suffered a majorsetback. The Ottoman legal system did not know urban autonomy.

The main characteristic of an Ottoman town was that the governorand the kadi residing there were direct representatives of theOttoman state. The aim of the Ottoman organisational structure wasto make the population of the invaded territory depend upon thesetwo officials, and to homogenise the different social groups havingvarious privileges. The invaders often departed from this concept inthe Hungarian territories, and the towns beyond the Danubeenjoyed a surprisingly wide range of liberties. However, Pcsbelonged to the group of towns where the institutions of autonomy



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could function only with limited authority. A considerable numberof Muslims settled in these towns after the Ottoman conquest, wholived next to a great number of original inhabitants forming aspecial co-existence. Pcs was undoubtedly the most populouscentre of South Transdanubia, but its prominent role was slightlytraceable in the autonomy of the Christian community. They coulddecide upon only minor religious issues, like the person of the priestor the celebration of feasts, but they did not take part in theadministration of justice.

Unlike in the towns beyond the Danube, the forums of

Ottoman jurisdiction occupied a central role in forming the life ofthe community in Pcs. The office of the kadi operated constantly inthis period. The official had a wide sphere of authority, and hisinfluence was often strengthened by the beys having their seats inPcs. Beside the kadi, a customs officer also lived in the town whichalso had its own chief architect and town supervisor. These officesalso made the fortified town a great attraction for the Balkanian

craftsmen and merchants who settled in Pcs with pleasure, whichfurther increased the South Slav presence in the town. TheBalkanisation of the town was a self-stimulation process, becausekadis were appointed in places with significant Muslim population,and the Balkanian settlers preferred places where the office of thekadi operated. Thus, the possibilities of the Christians alarminglylessened in the town in the 17th century. The Christian

congregations living in Pcs often wanted to resolve their conflictswith the help of the Ottoman judge, which also added weight to theoffice of the kadi. Under these conditions the only was for theinhabitants of the town to represent their interests was bribery, ie.giving presents in return for goodwill, which stood in strikingcontrast to the European legal practice.



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As a result, the town became enriched with significantBalkanian element during the Ottoman era. In 1543 a so far

unknown way of life arrived in the town with the conquerors, and aspecial European culture characterised by Balkanian marks startedto flourish in the next decades. Parallel to this, the cityscape alsochanged, as the new inhabitants brought their own customs, andattempted to shape the town according to their way of life. As aresult of the new function of Pcs, there were some modest militarybuildings and a few charitable institutions for the everyday life ofthe town. With their Christian antecedents, they formed a peculiarcityscape characteristic of both cultures. The main difference between the European and the Ottoman town structures was thatwhile the former organised its community on the basis of the streetstructure, the latter divided the towns into neighbourhoods, or so-called mahalles. These were formed on congregational basis, and areligious building complex formed their centres. The function of thestreets also changed. The Ottomans roofed the streets which became

more narrow because of the stalls, and the site of everyday life



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shifted from the houses to the public space. The street network wasnot so important for the new inhabitants because the rhytms of theirlife was controlled by the rituals performed in the religious buildings in a set order. Despite the different usage of space, thelong Balkanian presence did not change the basis of the roadnetwork significantly, but the 17th century Pcs resembled more tothe centre of any Balkanian province than to its medieval selfbecause of its inhabitants way of life.

However, the old and the new space structures existedparalelly for a long time, their continuity can be clearly seen from

the names. In 1554 the Christian taxpayers were listed in twelvemahalles that were named after Christian saints, which referred to aChristian building or a monastery in all cases. They also left thename of the street referring to a Hungarian profession in the case ofthe Fazokas utca mahalle, and the name of the street inhabited byGermans before the Ottoman conquest was also kept in spite of theirinhabitants running away. It underlines the fact that the Ottoman

town was an organic continuation of the one before the conquest,and because there was not a siege, it was not necessary to rebuild it.By the time of the War of the Holy League, no street names hadsurvived from the late Middle Ages: the streets were named aftertheir prominent Ottoman, Croatian or Hungarian inhabitants, orafter some of their characteristics. But it was the consequence of the17th century migration. The Balkanian mentality also appeared

because the new inhabitants, perhaps as a result of their way of life,did not care about the conditions of the houses as they did notconsider them valuable. It is not by chance that no buildings fromthe Ottoman era has survived in the town, which can be explainedpartly by their building of undurable materials.



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In fact financial causes explain the seemingly low standardsof the arriving Ottoman population. Many wills show that at thebeginning the invaders were much poorer than the local inhabitants.The arrivals attempted to increase their income as they could: theytried to rent shops, or if they did not manage to do so, they knockedtogether a small stand mainly from wood and mud, where they couldpractise their profession as a part-time job. In 1546 the treasury

collected about 10,000 akes of rent from thirty-six shops, and the fivebutchers had to pay 839 akes. There were also duties to be paid onthe pubs and the markets, and taxes were levied on the bazaar andthe beer house. In 1564-65 forty-two shop-keepers had to pay duties,and the three butchers had to pay 850 akes. The buildingscharacteristic of a commercial centre (the covered warehouse forstoring the goods and the customs house aimed at putting on duties

on the imported goods) were also present in Pcs. The Ottoman



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authorities even spent some money on the latters restoration in1570. These data do not reveal an outstanding trade volume, butthey suggest a lively retail trade typical of the Balkan. The Christiantravellers might have been misled by these shanty stalls and houseswhen forming their opinions. The poverty of the invaders and theBalkanian immigrants brought about the drastic reshaping of thetown which the European travellers considered as a destruction.

The expulsion of the Christians from the town in the secondhalf of the 16th century also contributed to the declining cityscape.The Christians had to withdraw to the suburbs, and the Christian

buildings of the town not used by the Muslims began to decay, andmany of them had disappeared by the end of the 17th century.However, the Christian population remained continuous despite itslimitation to the suburbs. There they could practise their religion,opened workshops and stores and had their schools. Jesuitmissionaries and Unitarian ministers were both integral parts of thecommunity. They had a significant role in preserving the identity of

the Christian population, and their activity formed an interestingsyncretism among the Muslims of the area. For instance, Ottomanwomen being afraid of the pains of child bearing asked for SaintIgnotuss help. In spite of the survival of Christianity, Pcs becamemore and more impoverished and decayed in the 17th century.



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The negative economic and social effects were compensated by the constant cultural significance of the town. Moreover, Pcswas not only the preserver of the old Christian culture but it also became the flourishing centre of the Muslim religious life in theOttoman Hungary.

The Turkish atmosphere of the current cityscape was created by the multitude of religious and charitable institutions that madePcs one of the towns with the richest Ottoman architecture. Thereligious and charitable institutions included mosques, monasteries,

mektebs providing basic education, academic schools or medreses,baths, and fountains. The latest reserach has revealed 11 mosques inPcs. The Muslim mosques differed most sharply from the Europeanarchitectural customs since they did not have a western-eastern, buta south-eastern aspect as they faced towards Mecca. Thus, theyfitted in the structure of the towns of Ottoman Hungary withdifficulty, and greatly modified the cityscape of the Christian Pcs.

In 1543 the cathedral of the town was immediately convertedinto a mosque which was named after Sultan Sleyman. However, itwas not rebuilt extensively, and perhaps it explains its lack ofpopularity among the believers. Only a few Muslims visited it, andit had become closed by the second half of the 17th century. Themosque of Memi Pasha next to the Szigeti Gate in the western partof the town was built at the same time on the site of the medieval

Franciscan monastery. The sanctuary of the Franciscan church waspulled down to erect the mosque, and a portico and a minaret were built in front of the northern facade. A bath and a medrese alsobelonged to the mosque.

The biggest mosque of Pcs and alsothat of Hungary waserected by Kasim Bey in the middle of the 16th century. Kasim Beydeveloped a close relationship with the town he was the firstcommander of Pcs. He was a renegade Croatian, who hadconverted into Islam. He earned distinction in many campaigns.



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Kasim Beys mosque was built in the centre of town, on the site ofthe medieval Church of Saint Bartholomew, of the stones of thechurch. It was the only Islamic church of considerable importancenorth of the Danube. Its height was 22 metres, the diameter of itsdome was 16 metres. Kasims energy is clearly indicated by the factthat he ordered the pulling down of an intact, three-naved church,and he did not content himself with the symbolic rebuilding of it (aswas the case with Sleymans mosque). The mosque had an aspecttowards Mecca, its entrance was on the north-west, and thesanctuary was erected in the south-eastern part of it. A hospice for

travellers (zaviye) was also established near the mosque which wasalmost completed in 1546, and a few years later it was mentioned asa medrese in the sources. Evliya elebi also mentioned a bath nextto it, but its building could start only after 1546. Interestinglyenough, Kasims favourite town was not Pcs but Osijek where thesources revealed much more of his foundations, and he was also buried there. Thus, due to the Ottoman conquest Pcss cultural

relationship with the areas south of the Drava became closer, too,while its western connections gradually broke down.

The strengthening of the Balkanian relationships is indicated by the fact that Ferhad Pasha also founded a mosque in Pcs. Hehad also emerged in the North-Balkanian theatre of war, and wasappointed Beylerbey of Bosnia several times. Ferhad also had strongconnections in Banja Luka where many of his foundations survived.

It was not by chance, because he was the one to occupy the town,and rebuilt it to his own taste. He had a mahalle in the town wherehis palace stood, and the most beautiful mosque of Banja Luka,which was surrounded by charitable institutions and served as theburial place of the well-to-do, can also be connected to his name. Hebuilt a bath, an elementary and an academic school there. Therefore,it is very interesting why he set up so many generous foundations inPcs where he was a sancakbey only for a month.



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Of the important mosques of Pcs the mosque of YakovaliHassan was established the latest. This is the most intact of all thesimilar buildings in Hungary, even its minaret survived the passageof time. Hassan also opened a mevlevi monastery, which refers to aclose relationship with Sarajevo. Moreover, the layout of the ritualhall in Pcs is similar to that of the Ghazi Hszrev mosque inSarajevo. Hassan also came from the Balkan, and was a relation ofFerhad Pasha. His homeland was akovo that his great grandfather,Memi Pasha had occupied in 1536, and had also established amosque and a bath in Pcs in the 1540s. Hassans mosque lay next to

his great grandfathers, which suggests that they were members ofthe Bosnian clan that erected most of the Ottoman historical buildings in Pcs. The parallels in the architecture of Osijek, BanjaLuka, akovo and that of Pcs underpin the concept of the closerelationship between the Transdanubian town and the northernBalkan. The soldiers stationed in Pcs, the new settlers of the town,the merchants and their goods also arrived from the latter territory,

as well as the effects that completely changed the outlook of thetown, making it similar to those of the Balkan. Behind the mosqueone can still find period Ottoman tombs.

The Balkanian atmosphere was further strengthened by thepublic wells built in Pcs which were inseparable from the Ottomancityscape. Many Ottoman ornamental wells (cesme), fountains(sardivan) and wells (sebil) were built in the town, and one of them

still operated at the beginning of the 20th century.Pcs became an important Muslim pilgrimage destinationduring the Ottoman era because of the burial place of Idris Baba, avenerated bektashi dervish. Nisandsi Mehmed, an official ofSleyman who died in Pcs during the campaign of 1566, wasburied in the town, too. The importance of the town also arose fromthe Ottoman tradition according to which the much respected Greekphilosopher Plato was buried here. The root of the thought might



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have been the fame of the cathedral chapter school of Pcs theOttomans might have connected Plato with this academy.

In the 17th century eleven mektebs and five medresesoperated in the town due to various charitable foundations. In theOttoman Hungary only Buda (eighteen), Eger (seventeen) and ifwe count it here Sremska Mitrovica (twelve) could boast withmore mektebs. As a result, the town can be regarded as one of themost significant educational centres of Ottoman Hungary, thus, itsrole was similar to its medieval one.

Beside the schools, the monasteries were also important

educational centres. The dervishes living in them might beconsidered as an Ottoman cultural stratum outside of the politicalelite. The monasteries of the ascetic halvetis and those of thebektashis spread in Ottoman Hungary and also in Pcs. The halvetis,being an Orthodox Sunni congregation and a dervish community ofthe borderland, enjoyed the support of the government, and werebitter rivals of the bektashis. They had close relationships with the

soldiers of the Ottoman territory, too. The government also greatlyneeded the bektashis here as they belonged to the more patienttrend of Islam and thus, they could more easily stroke the right tonewith the local inhabitants. They often had schools and publickitchens (imaret) next to their monasteries, and were immenselypopular among the inhabitants.

The most significant dervish monastery of Pcs was erected

by Hassan Pasha for the mevlevis. They were a truly urban order,and were also called whirling dervishes. This was the only knownmevlevihane in Ottoman Hungary and therefore, it became thecentre of mystic poetry and Persian culture in the region. Themevlevi monasteries (also called tekke or zaviye) gave refuge to thedeviationist Islamic mysticism. This was the only monastery of theabout one hundred monasteries of Ottoman Hungary where musicwas taught, and thus, it is certain that Pcs was one of the centres ofmusic life and music education in this area. The dervish



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communities public religious practises coupled with dance andmusic attracted great masses, and they were the only forums wherebelievers could get familiar with music education, mystic poetry orthe language of poetry, the Persian. The order was an interestingspot of the town, and its influence spread over the whole SouthTransdanubia where more people knew Persian than in other partsof Ottoman Hungary.

As a summary, it can be stated that the cityscape changedconsiderably during the decades of the Ottoman conquest. Some ofthe sacral buildings determining the space structure decayed and

new buildings were erected in place of them. The survived churchesalso went under great conversion according to the needs of the newinhabitants. Despite the preservation of the road network, the streetsalso reflected a typical Balkanian way of life. The limits of themedieval urban life were the ones to survive the most intact,because the immigrant Ottomans settled within the town walls and,apart from the areas near the gates of the town, they did not

establish new Muslim suburbs. The town so far built on Europeannorms started to resemble North-Balkanian cities because of thefamily relations of the builders. One can find similar buildings not inVienna or Buda but in Osijek, in Sremska Mitrovica or in BanjaLuka. Whereas at the end of the Middle Ages the travellers wereenthusiastic about the multitude of Christian buildings, a hundredyears later they described Pcs as one of the towns richest in

Ottoman religious buildings in Ottoman Hungary. Paralelly, Pcsdeveloped into one of the most coloured and varied centres of theHungarian towns. It was not only an important stop of the eastern-western connections, but it mediated cultural effects coming fromthe heart of the Balkanian peninsula to the north or from the northto the south, too. The drastic changes forming the town in theOttoman era were caused by the new inhabitants of Pcs comingfrom Sriem, Serbia, Bosnia and Slavonia. The immigrants broughttheir culture, connections and customs with them and as a result,



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they not only transformed the cityscape, but also enriched thetowns society and economy with new elements.

However, the power of the decreasing number of Christianinhabitants can be clearly seen if one consider that after therecapture of the town in 1686 the Muslim world soon fell apart. TheOttoman Empire could not break the Hungarian people, whichshowed the rootlessness of the invaders and that the net of theHungarian society was stronger than that of its Balkaniancounterparts. Due to this, Pcs with its wonderful surviving buildings could win the honorary title of the Cultural Capital ofEurope.

Documents

Pécs in the Ottoman Era