Ottoman Empire – Grand Duchy of Lithuania relations. Several documents from the Manuscript Department of the Vilnius University Library

Abstract

Political relations between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (further – GDL) and the Golden Horde, later with Crimean Khanate, are being investigated well enough. Priorities of the GDL’s foreign policy were addressed, on the one side, to the Central Europe, on the other side – to the East Europe. The relationship between Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth are being presented much more detail and broadly in the historiography, but too isolated from the political history of the GDL. Three important manuscript collections were preserved in Vilnius in the interwar period. One of these collections, which contained documents of the uttermost importance, which witnessed political and diplomatic relations between the Crimea, the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was preserved in the Manuscript Department of the Library of Vilnius University. Another collection of Oriental manuscripts, which belonged to the muftiate, was for the most part lost in 1944. The third collection, which consisted of the Karaim museum fund and library, was presented to the state in 1941 by Seraya Shapshal. Oriental sources – yarlyks of the khans and letters of Turkish border pashas, which are stored at the Manuscripts Department of the Library of Vilnius University, were presented in the article of Kılınç, Miškinienė (2014 = Oriental Materials in the Manuscripts Department of the Library of Vilnius University: Yarlyks of the Khans and Letters of Turkish Border Pashas). Article analyses and discusses the condition of the documents, as well as their palaeographic qualities, content and possibility of preservation. The jarlyk of Kaplan Giray written on the 4th of March 1734 to Jan Klemens Branicki, the Voivode of Krakow, is presented in the above mentioned article. This paper presents five documents from the Manuscripts Department of the Library of Vilnius University, funds F 3 and F 5. All five documents according to their structure and content could be assigned to the letters. Letters were written from Khotyn or to Khotyn and addressed to Branicki. There were not only sultans, viziers of the Ottoman Empire, commandants and treasurers of Khotyn and Bender between correspondents of Branicki. Crimean khans were correspondents of Branicki as well. The main purpose of this article is to continue the list of published documents, presenting the transliteration of the texts, the translation to English language and the comments. In this way, coauthors G. Miškinienė and A. Kılınç, continuing the publication of documents, wants to draw attention to the rather interesting sources, which sheds light on the relations of Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.