Timur’un Elçisi Sultaniyeli Johannes ve Libellus de Notitia Orbis adlı eserinden bazı parçalar

Abstract

The rout of Yildirim, in the battle of Ankara, who had defeated the crusade in the Nigbolu battle attracted the attention of Europe to Iran. They were thinking that the suitable occasion had emerged to eliminate the threat of Turk completely but, at the same time, they were aware of the fact that they could not do that alone. Therefore, it is seen that the idea of making alliance with Timur had emerged among some intellectuals. If the Clavijo’s visit to Timur is taken into consideration, it can be observed that this idea had affected the statesmen too. But they could not draw any positive reply from Timur. But he didn’t hesitate to get into touch with European states to improve the economical relations. In 1402, he sent Johannes who was in the charge of the church in Sultaniye to Europe for this purpose. It is seen that he had firstly served in Italy and then in France and after England in Spain. Even if the results of his activities in Italy had not been reflected in the sources, he could take positive responses from other countries. But as a result of the death of Timur during his travel and the struggles for the throne he could not deliver the letters to the Timurid palace. From that perspective, it is seen that his diplomatical duty has mired down. However, he has written two works during his travel. One of them is Libellus de Notitia Orbis which means the Booklet of World Infromation. Even if it is understood that the main aim of the writer, while writing this work, had been to give general informations about the position of Christianity in eastern countries, the informations which he gives while doing that are very important in terms of culture and political history. In this work we will present the translations of political and cultural subjects stated in the work after giving informations about the travel of Johannes