Un oraş musulman pe pământ creştin: Giurgiu în relatările călătorilor străini
A Muslim City on Christian Land: Giurgiu in the Accounts of Foreign Travelers

Summary/Abstract: Taking into consideration the conceptual reform process of the Romanian historiography, the history of cities can be a real challenge by highlighting certain known elements which might be poorly represented. The history of Giurgiu is inextricably linked to the Danube River, the river being the one to emphasize both its economical importance – port, customs, river crossing point and junction on the route of important trade corridors linking the Northern Danube area and the Balkan Peninsula, - and its strategic importance – a well fortified city protected on one hand by islands of different sizes and by the Danube River branches, and on the other hand by its vicinity with the capital city of Walachia. Ottomans – who ruled Giurgiu between 1420 and 1829 – were interested in the direct control of Giurgiu, imposing here a very strict administrative governance, representative for the whole Empire, touched by the tolerance towards infidels in order to maintain peace, good management and fiscal profitability. As a matter of fact, the Ottoman Empire had an important role in the development of the city of Giurgiu in the medieval period, being part of a state with geographical connections across continents. The accounts of different people that in time transited Wallachia, people generically known in the Romanian historiography as “foreign travelers”, offered a very good picture of Giurgiu during the Ottoman administration. Thus we can find all the necessary elements for defining a city with a dominant Oriental characteristic, of Ottoman influence: a medium-sized civilian settlement, a cosmopolitan population, although dominated by Wallachians an economically and port-adapted intense life, adjusted to the Ottoman economy, fragile elements of cultural activity and religious marks of a lifestyle dominated by Islam, but tolerant of other faiths.

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