Historica Olomucensia

Baptisms of Muslims in the Archdiocese of Prague at the Time of the Great Turkish War (1683-1699)

The theme of baptisms of Muslims in the Early Modern Period has not been paid attention to in Czech historiography up until now. This is definitely not the case in the neighbouring countries, where the baptisms of 'Turks' have been dealt e. g. with by Karl Teply, and more recently by, for example, Markus Friedrich, Manja Quakatz, Boris Golec, Stephan Theilig, Leyla Coşan or Markus Krischer.
The legal adjustment of the baptisms of adults in the archdiocese of Prague was contained in the statutes of the Berka synods from the year 1605, which gave the authority to allow the baptisms of individuals of non-Christian origin to the Archbishop. In practice, these baptisms were usually permitted by the Archbishop's consistory on the basis of a request, submitted most frequently by the priest who was preparing the catechumen for the baptism. It can be inferred from the archival group of the Consistory of Prague that between the years 1683-1699 around 300 baptisms of Muslims were allowed, with the most baptisms taking place in the years 1687-1691. The baptised individuals are referred to most frequently in the sources as Turks, which was the general period labelling for a Muslim. The majority of these catechumens were prisoners of war (mostly women and children), who belonged to someone, which circumstance relativizes to a certain extent the freedom of their decision-making, although there is no direct evidence of forced baptisms. Not all captured Muslims underwent baptism, although the reports of non-baptized persons are less common. In relation to the exchange of prisoners in the year 1699 a list was drafted, according to which there were only eight non-baptized Muslims in the Bohemia, who wanted to return to their country.

Keywords: Religious conversion, Baptism of Muslims, Great Turkish War, Prisoners of war, Ecclesiastical administration, Slavery