THE 1707 RAID OF KECSKEMÉT BY SERBS AND ITS DIPLOMATIC CONSEQUENCES IN HABSBURG–OTTOMAN RELATIONS
Jan. 1, 2022
Keywords:
Osman Agha of Timişoara
Dietrich Heinrich Baron de Nehem
Elçi Ibarhim Pasha of Belgrade
Kuruc
Kecskemét
Habsburg–Ottoman diplomacy
Habsburg–Ottoman borderland
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Abstract
At the beginning of 1707, about sixty Turkish and Greek merchants arrived in Szeged from Timişoara and Belgrade
to then sell their goods on Hungarian territory. In Szeged they paid the usual customs duty and then received
permission from the Habsburg imperial general to proceed. The merchants then went to Kecskemét, which was
then in the hands of Hungarians (Kuruc insurgents), where they were arrested and forced to sell their goods at a
fixed price, and were not allowed to leave the city. While the Elçi Ibarhim Pasha of Timişoara sent his interpreter,
Osman Agha, to the kuruc generals, the imperial commander of Slavonski Brod stormed the town of Kecskemét
with Serbian hussars and hajduks, and the merchants were also killed in the attack. The present study examines,
using primarily Hungarian and German language sources, the raid on Kecskemét and its causes, as well as the
Habsburg–Ottoman diplomatic wrangling that unfolded afterward, lasting for years. The case provides a detailed
insight into the management of a border conflict between the two empires, the different ways in which the administrators
of the two sides worked, and the less rule-bound ‘negotiating techniques’ of the Ottomans as well.
