Lehistan Stories · Episode 5
Wojciech Bobowski, or Ali Ufki
Istanbul, the 17th century: a young Pole becomes a musician at the sultan's court, writes its music down, and translates the Bible into Turkish.
1610–1675 · 79 s
The story
Nearly four hundred years ago, a young Pole became a musician at the sultan's court.
Wojciech Bobowski was born around 1610, in Lviv, or perhaps in Bobowa, the town his name recalls.
As a young man he was taken captive, most accounts say in a Tatar raid, and sold in Istanbul.
He entered the palace, where he played the santur and learned many languages.
He became a Muslim, and took the name Ali Ufki.
At court, music was rarely written down: masters taught their pupils by ear.
Ali Ufki wrote hundreds of pieces down in European notes, among the oldest written sources of Ottoman music.
After many years he left the palace a free man, and worked as an interpreter for European envoys.
In the 1660s, for a Dutch envoy, he translated the whole Bible into Turkish.
He also set fourteen psalms in Turkish verse, to European tunes in Ottoman modes.
He died in Istanbul around 1675.
Today, musicians around the world still play the songs he saved.
What is documented, and what is told
His work is documented: his collection of notated music, Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz, is in the British Library (Sloane 3114), a second manuscript is in Paris (BnF, Turc 292), and his Turkish Bible, made in 1662–1664 for the Dutch envoy Levinus Warner, is in Leiden University Library. His early life is not: his birthplace (Lviv or Bobowa), the year and the way he was taken captive vary between sources, which is why the film says "perhaps" and "most accounts say". The film says "among the oldest" written sources, not "the first", because older Ottoman notation systems exist. The story that the sultan ordered the Bible translation is a myth and is not used.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "Ali Ufkî Bey"
- C. Behar, Ali Ufki ve Mezmurlar (1990)
- British Library, Sloane MS 3114: Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz
- Leiden University Library, Legatum Warnerianum: the Turkish Bible of Ali Ufki
- Wikipedia, Ali Ufki
- Marzanna Pomorska, Maciej Kwaśniewski, Za co Polacy kochają Turcję / Polonyalılar Türkiye'yi neden sever (2023)
Credits and rights
The stories draw on Za co Polacy kochają Turcję / Polonyalılar Türkiye'yi neden sever by Marzanna Pomorska and Maciej Kwaśniewski (2023). The book is its authors' work: we tell the stories in our own words, check every fact independently and reproduce none of its text or pages.
Historical paintings are in the public domain. Each is credited with its artist, collection and source.
Archive pictures
- Constantinopolis, Matthäus Merian, 1635 (public domain)
- Leopolis (Lwów), Braun & Hogenberg, 1618 (public domain)
- Wojciech Bobowski (imagined portrait), Antoni Oleszczyński, 19th century (public domain)
- Musicians and dancers, Levni, c. 1720 (public domain)
- Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen at his audience with Sultan Ahmed III, Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, 1727, Rijksmuseum (public domain)
- Istanbul seen from the Dutch embassy in Pera, Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, Rijksmuseum (public domain)
Scenes marked "Illustration" are AI-generated and show no real people. The voice-over and the music were produced with AI tools.
The films and texts are © TURKPOL, shared under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 licence: you may share and adapt them for non-commercial purposes, crediting "TURKPOL, Lehistan Stories" with a link to this page.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0 · For any other use, write to info@turkpol.org.pl.