Konstantin Mihailović, also known as Constantine of Ostrovica,[1] born in 1430, was a Serbian soldier and author of a memoir of his time as a Janissary in the army of the Ottoman Empire.
[3] His book, Memoirs of a Janissary (Serbian: Успомене јаничара) was written at the end of the 15th century, probably between 1490 and 1501, and provides a unique insight into life in the Ottoman Army of the time.
Instead, they begin in 1455, when an army under the command of Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to the castle of Novo Brdo for forty days.
[8] He wrote later that he and nineteen other boys ran away during the night near a village called Samokovo, only to be recaptured, bound, and beaten.
[8] After completing his janissary training, he next serves with the Ottoman Army during its advance against Vlad III of Wallachia, who would later be the inspiration for the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
He details the sieges involved in that campaign, and as it comes to a close he and a garrison of janissaries are left to hold the Zvečaj Castle.