Nagy Pienaru
The Trip of Stephen the Great to Istanbul (1498) | p. 33–44


Keywords
Bayezid II, Istanbul, Oruç bin Adil, Stephen the Great, trip

Abstract

The author brings to light and analyzes an unknown passage from Oruç bin Adil’s chronicle, in which the Turkish narrator recorded the news of Prince Stephen the Great’s presence on the shore of Bosporus in the spring of 1498. Within the pages of two copies of the chronicle preserved in the manuscripts named Supplement Turk 1047 and Ancien Fonds Turc 99 from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, but which are in contradistinction to Supplement Turc No. 922, it was noted that Stephen the Great went together with his son to the court of Sultan Bayezid II to bring the yearly tribute. Presumably, the princely offspring was the future Prince Stephen V Locust. The Moldavian voivode made his trip to Istanbul to obtain the Turkish military support needed to strike Poland. The Turkish suzerain promptly responded to Stephen’s request, and at the end of April, Ottoman warriors initiated extensive predatory raids and destruction in the Polish territories.