Byron and the Janissary Vampires of the Ottoman Empire

One of the most famous institutions of the Ottoman empire from the 14th century onwards was the Janissary corps; recruited through the child levy or practice of devsirme in the Balkans. The Janissaries formed a link between the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul and contact zones in “Turkey-in-Europe” where the relationship between blood, ethnicity and national identity was in flux.

Both Ottoman and European sources discuss the way the Janissaries became entangled in the post -1720 “vampire craze.” This talk will offer an entirely new reading of Byron’s The Giaour (and some other works such as Lara) through the lens of this controversial and haunting Ottoman institution. Dr Piya Pal Lapinski will argue that in The Giaour, the protagonist is imagined as an Ottoman subject and a vampire janissary carrying the cultural legacy of devsirme, which linked Istanbul to the Balkans and embodied a radical way of reimagining the connections between blood, family and nation. This talk will also draw on accounts of vampirism (some involving janissaries) in neglected texts and “fatwas” by Ottomans as well as European travelers in the Ottoman empire such as Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (footnoted by Byron), Robert Walsh, and Julia Pardoe.

Host or Publisher The Byron Society