Pál Fodor: Ottoman spying in Hungary
Pál Fodor: Ottoman spying in Hungary
After having briefly outlined the main features of the Ottoman intelligence service in the 15th and 16th centuries, the author publishes a document of 1559 in Latin original and Hungarian translation which serves to illustrate a special form of Ottoman spying in Hungary. The report which was 126forwarded to the ban of Croatia and Slavonia contains the statement of Hasan Agilović, an Ottoman spy of Southern Slav origin. Agilović had been sent to gather information about Hungarian defence and morale in Slavonia. In order to be able to accomplish his task, he was obliged to stay in the enemy’s territory for six months, but he came to be detained by Hungarian authorities shortly after his arrival. Had he managed to perform his mission, he and his brother, who was a subaşisomewhere in Ottoman Croatia and forced him to engage in this dangerous undertaking, would have been rewarded with a lifetime subaşi office and a timar estate with a yearly income of 40,000 akçe. The brothers belonged to those Southern Slav elements who, in the hope of making a living, entered Ottoman service in large numbers. Benefiting from their local experiences and connections, they supplied their masters with outstanding information about Hungarian (and later Habsburg–Hungarian) military and political plans.
