DOZSA, GYÖRGY (d. 1514), Hungarian revolutionist, was a Szekler squire and soldier of fortune, who won such a reputation for valour in the Turkish wars that the Hungarian chancellor, Tamás Bákocz, on his return from Rome in 1514 with a papal bull preaching a holy war in Hungary against the Moslems, appointed him to organize and direct the movement. In a few weeks he collected thousands of so-called Kuruczok (a corruption of Cruciati), consisting for the most part of small yeomen, peasants, wandering students, friars and parish priests, the humblest and most oppressed portion of the community, to whom alone a crusade against the Turk could have the slightest attraction. They assembled in their counties, and by the time Dozsa had drilled them into some sort of discipline and self-confidence, they began to air the grievances of their class. No measures had been taken to supply these voluntary crusaders with food or clothing; as harvest-time approached, the landlords commanded them to return to reap the fields, and on their refusing to do so, proceeded to maltreat their wives and families and set their armed retainers upon the half-starved multitudes. Instantly the movement was diverted from its original object, and the peasants and their leaders began a war of extermination against the landlords. By this time Dozsa was losing control of the rabble, which had fallen under the influence of the socialist parson of Czegled, Lörincz Mészáros. The rebellion was the more dangerous as the town rabble was on the side of the peasants, and in Buda and other places the cavalry sent against the Kuruczok were unhorsed as they passed through the gates. The rebellion spread like lightning, principally in the central or purely Magyar provinces, where hundreds of manor-houses and castles were burnt and thousands of the gentry done to death by impalement, crucifixion and other unspeakable methods. Dozsa’s camp at Czegled was the centre of the jacquerie, and from thence he sent out his bands in every direction, pillaging and burning. In vain the papal bull was revoked, in vain the king issued a proclamation commanding the peasantry to return to their homes under pain of death. By this time the rising had attained the dimensions of a revolution; all the feudal levies of the kingdom were called out against it; and mercenaries were hired in haste from Venice, Bohemia and the emperor. Meanwhile Dozsa had captured the city and fortress of Csánad, and signalized his victory by impaling the bishop and the castellan. Subsequently, at Arad, the lord treasurer, István Telegdy, was seized and tortured to death with satanic ingenuity. It should, however, in fairness be added that only notorious bloodsuckers, or obstinately resisting noblemen, were destroyed in this way. Those who freely submitted were always released on parole, and Dozsa not only never broke his given word, but frequently assisted the escape of fugitives. But he could not always control his followers when their blood was up, and infinite damage was done before he could stop it. At first, too, it seemed as if the government were incapable of coping with him. In the course of the summer he took the fortresses of Arad, Lippá and Világos; provided himself with guns and trained gunners; and one of his bands advanced to within five leagues of the capital. But his half-naked, ill-armed ploughboys were at last overmatched by the mailclad chivalry of the nobles. Dozsa, too, had become demoralized by success. After Csánad, he issued proclamations which can only be described as nihilistic. His suppression had become a political necessity. He was finally routed at Temesvár by the combined forces of János Zápolya and István Báthory, was captured, and condemned to sit on a red-hot iron throne, with a red-hot iron crown on his head and a red-hot sceptre in his hand. This infernal sentence was actually carried out, and, life still lingering, the half-roasted carcass of the unhappy wretch, who endured everything with invincible heroism, was finally devoured by half-a-dozen of his fellow-rebels, who by way of preparation had been starved for a whole week beforehand.
See Sándor Marki, Dozsa György (Hung.), Budapest, 1884.
(R. N. B.)
DOZY, REINHART PIETER ANNE (1820-1883), Dutch Arabic scholar of French (Huguenot) origin, was born at Leiden in February 1820. The Dozys, like so many other contemporary French families, emigrated to the Low Countries after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, but some of the former appear to have settled in Holland as early as 1647. Dozy studied at the university of Leiden, obtained the degree of doctor in 1844, was appointed an extraordinary professor of history in 1850, and professor in 1857. The first results of his extensive studies in Oriental literature, Arabic language and history, manifested themselves in 1847, when he published Al-Marrakushi’s History of the Almohades (Leiden, 2nd ed., 1881), which, together with his Scriptorum Arabum loci de Abbaditis (Leiden, 1846-1863, 3 vols.), his editions of Ibn-Adhari’s History of Africa and Spain (Leiden, 1848-1852, 3 vols.), of Ibn-Badrun’s Historical Commentary on the Poem of Ibn-Abdun (Leiden, 1848), and his Dictionnaire détaillé des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes (Amsterdam, 1845)—a work crowned by the Dutch Institute—stamped Dozy as one of the most learned and critical Arabic scholars of his day. But his real fame as a historian mainly rests on his great work, Histoire des Mussulmans d’Espagne, jusqu’à la conquête de l’Andalousie par les Almoravides, 711-1110 (Leiden, 1861; 2nd ed., ibid., 1881); a graphically written account of Moorish dominion in Spain, which shed new light on many obscure points, and has remained the standard work on the subject. Dozy’s Recherches sur l’histoire et la littérature de l’Espagne pendant le moyen âge (Leiden, 2 vols., 1849; 2nd and 3rd ed., completely recast, 1860 and 1881) form a needful and wonderfully trenchant supplement to his Histoire des Mussulmans, in which he mercilessly exposes the many tricks and falsehoods of the monks in their chronicles, and effectively demolishes a good part of the Cid legends. As an Arabic scholar Dozy stands well-nigh unsurpassed in his Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes (Leiden, 1877-1881, 2 vols.), a work full of research and learning, a storehouse of Arabic lore. To the same class belongs his Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais, dérivés de l’Arabe, edited with Dr W. H. Engelmann of Leipzig (Leiden, 1866; 2nd ed., 1868), and a similar list of Dutch words derived from the Arabic. Dozy also edited Al Makkari’s Analectes sur l’histoire et la littérature des Arabes d’Espagne (Leiden, 1855-1861, 2 vols.), and, in conjunction with his friend and worthy successor, Professor De Goeje, at Leiden, Idrisi’s Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne (1866), also the Calendrier de Cordoue de l’année 961; texte arabe et ancienne traduction latine (Leiden, 1874). Het Islamisme (Islamism; Haarlem, 1863, 2nd ed., 1880; French translation) is a popular exposition of Mahommedanism, of a more controversial character; and De Israelieten te Mekka (“The Israelites at Mecca,” Haarlem, 1864) became the subject of a rather heated discussion in Jewish circles. Dozy died at Leiden in May 1883.
(H. Ti.)
DRACAENA, in botany, a genus of the natural order Liliaceae, containing about fifty species in the warmer parts of the Old World. They are trees or shrubs with long, generally narrow leaves, panicles of small whitish flowers, and berried fruit. The most remarkable species is Dracaena Draco, the dragon-tree of the Canary Isles, which reaches a great size and age. The famous specimen in Teneriffe, which was blown down by a hurricane in 1868, when measured by Alexander von Humboldt, was 70 ft. high, with a circumference of 45 ft. several feet above the ground. A resin exuding from the trunk is known as dragon’s blood (q.v.).
Many of the cultivated so-called Dracaenas belong to the closely-allied genus Cordyline. They are grown for the beauty of form, colour and variegation of their foliage and are extremely useful as decorative stove plants or summer greenhouse plants, or for room and table decoration. They are easy to grow and may be increased by cuttings planted in sandy soil in a temperature of from 65° to 70° by night, the spring being the best time for propagation. The old stems laid flat in a propagating frame will push young shoots, which may be taken off with a heel when 2 or 3 in. long, and planted in sandy peat in 3-in. pots; the tops can also be taken off and struck. The established plants do best in fibry peat made porous by sand. In summer they should have a day temperature of 75°, and in winter one of 65°. Shift as required, using coarser soil as the pots become larger. By the end of the summer the small cuttings will have made nice plants, and in the spring following they can be kept growing by the use of manure water twice a week. Those intended for the conservatory should be gradually inured to more air by midsummer, but kept out of cold draughts. When the plants get too large they can be headed down and the tops used for cuttings.