Byrons The Giaour

Mavi Boncuk | Byron became acquainted with vampires while on his grand tour. The Giaour (the Turkish word for infidel or nonbeliever similar to the Arabic word kafir) is a poem by Lord Byron first published in 1813 and the first in the series of his Oriental romances. The Giaour is also notable for its mention of vampires[1]. After telling how the Giaour killed Hassan, the Ottoman narrator predicts that in punishment for his crime, the Giaour will be condemned to become a vampire after his death and kill his own dear ones by drinking their blood, to his own frightful torment as well as theirs.The Giaour proved to be very popular with several editions published in the first year. By 1815, 14 editions had been published when it was included in his first collected edition. Its runaway success led Byron to publish three more "Turkish tales" in the next couple of years: The Bride of Abydos in 1813, The Corsair in 1814 and Lara. Each of these poems proved to be very popular with The Corsair selling 10,000 copies in its first day of publication. These tales led to the public perception of the Byronic hero. The Giaour illustrates the idea of Orientalism with its characters. Some critics associate Leila, the female character in the tale with whom the Giaour falls in love, as a personification of Greece for the sake of which there was a war between Ottoman Empire and Russia.

French painter Eugène Delacroix used the story as the inspiration of his 1827 painting Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha.

[1] The association of Byron with vampires continued in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori, which was inspired by an unfinished story by Byron. The lead character Lord Ruthven was based on Byron. Polidori had previously worked as Byron's doctor and the two parted on bad terms.