Sultan Osman II. and Sultan Mustafa II. in the Polish Baroque Literature

Intensive battles encountered between the Ottoman Empire and Poland in the 17th century, which is known in the history of literature as the Baroque period, found wide reflection in the Polish Baroque literature. The focus of attention rested besides on military – political events on the Ottoman material and spiritual culture, the history, structure and functioning of the Ottoman Empire and the historical personalities of that period. Two Ottoman monarchs of the 17th century ( Sultan Osman II. and Sultan Mustafa I.) were portrayed in the following epic poems handling the issue of the first Ottoman – Polish war (1620 – 1621): the most successful epic work of the Polish Baroque literature – “Battle of Khotyn” by Waclaw Potocki and the work entitled “Brave Mission”, which is qualified as a historical documentary to a great extent, by Samuel Twardowski, who had personally participated in the peace negotiations. The main purpose of this image analysis is to specify the range and nature of the portraits presented to the Polish readers. Thus the obtained information about in sequence appearance, biographical data, character features and behavior manner of the mentioned sultans has been examined. Based on the results of this analysis can be concluded that the general negative approach towards enemy Ottomans prevalent in the European Baroque literature is also present in the analyzed images of two sultans. Furthermore the study results are important for the Ottoman history.

Keywords

Baroque, The First Ottoman Polish War, Image, Sultan Osman II., Sultan Mustafa I.