Lehistan Stories · Episode 3
The sultan's invitation
Istanbul and Kraków, 1533–1539: a peace for as long as both rulers lived, and a sultan's invitation to a family celebration.
1533–1539 · 72 s
The story
Five hundred years ago, two neighbours stood at the height of their power.
In Istanbul ruled Sultan Suleiman: the Lawgiver to the Turks, the Magnificent to Europe.
His processions crossed the Hippodrome, in a city of minarets.
In Kraków ruled King Sigismund the Old.
The two states shared a long border, and both fought wars elsewhere.
Between them, the rulers chose peace.
In 1533, Suleiman granted the king a treaty of peace, to last as long as they both lived.
And in 1539, the sultan wrote to the king again.
Two of his sons were to be circumcised, and his daughter was to be married.
He asked Sigismund, as his great friend, to come and celebrate with him.
Historians call it a golden age for both countries.
Neighbours who chose to be friends.
What is documented, and what is told
The peace of 1533, granted by Suleiman to Sigismund for as long as both lived, is documented in the treaty texts (D. Kołodziejczyk, Ottoman-Polish Diplomatic Relations, 2000). The 1539 letter inviting the king to the circumcision of the sultan's sons and his daughter's wedding is known to us from the exhibition catalogue Poseł w drodze; we have not traced it independently, which is why the film names its source on screen. "A golden age" is how historians describe the period.
Sources
- Dariusz Kołodziejczyk, Ottoman-Polish Diplomatic Relations (15th–18th Century): An Annotated Edition of 'Ahdnames and Other Documents (Brill, 2000)
- Poseł w drodze (exhibition catalogue): the 1539 letter of invitation
- 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
- Istanbul, Matrakçı Nasuh, c. 1537 (public domain)
- Suleiman the Magnificent, Workshop of Titian, c. 1538–40 (public domain)
- The procession of Süleyman through the Hippodrome, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, 1553 (public domain)
- Cracovia, Nuremberg Chronicle, Hartmann Schedel, 1493 (public domain)
- Sigismund I the Old, Lucas Cranach the Younger, c. 1553 (public domain)
- Süleymanname, Arifi and court painters, 1558 (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.