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| Bitwa pod Cecorą (Battle of Cecora) - Witold Piwnicki |
During the early modern period Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire shared a frontier that stretched over 1,000 kilometers through the Pontic Steppe and into the Carpathian Mountains, encompassing territories in modern Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and Slovakia. Within this deep frontier zone, the Crimean Khanate, vassals of the Ottoman Sultan, engaged in the Black Sea slave trade, which resulted in the disappearance of some 2,000,000 individuals between 1500-1700 from the north Caucasus, Muscovy, and Poland-Lithuania (Kołodzejczyk, 2006). Prisoners of war often supplemented this trade, which funneled an immense body of human chattel south to work on farms, in manufacturing, as house slaves, or as galley slaves. The fates of these individuals are all but unknown.
A swashbuckling tale of enslavement and escape accredited to a Polish nobleman named Marek Jakimowski was published in multiple European languages in the early 17th century. It serves as a quintessential example of the anti-Ottoman literature that circulated throughout Christendom during periods of conflict with the Padishah. In Poland-Lithuania, the continued popularity of the harrowing tale of nobleman-come-galley slave Marek Jakimowski for several centuries was emblematic of a society whose identity as the antemurale christianitatis (bulwark of Christendom) was tied closely to its shared frontier with the Ottoman Empire.
A swashbuckling tale of enslavement and escape accredited to a Polish nobleman named Marek Jakimowski was published in multiple European languages in the early 17th century. It serves as a quintessential example of the anti-Ottoman literature that circulated throughout Christendom during periods of conflict with the Padishah. In Poland-Lithuania, the continued popularity of the harrowing tale of nobleman-come-galley slave Marek Jakimowski for several centuries was emblematic of a society whose identity as the antemurale christianitatis (bulwark of Christendom) was tied closely to its shared frontier with the Ottoman Empire.
Marek
Jakimowski, a szlachcic
(nobleman/citizen) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who was born near the
town of Bar in the province of Podolia, in present-day Ukraine. A participant
in the 1620 battle of Cecora on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
he was taken prisoner by Ottoman forces, and sold into slavery in Istanbul. His
account explains that he was purchased was “Kassem Beg”, the Ottoman governor
of Damietta and Rosetta and admiral of a fleet of galleys. Marek Jakimowski was
assigned to Kassem Beg’s lead kadırğa (galley),
where he was given a position that allowed him freedom of motion on board the
craft.
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| Lepanto - Tommaso Dolabella |
As
the leader of the mutiny, Marek Jakimowski was given a special audience by the
new Pope, Gregory XV, during which he made a personal gift of a banner he had
taken, in return for which he was decorated with high honors. The former slaves
were also received in Rome by Cardinals Cosima de Torresa and Francesco
Barberini. While in Rome, Jakimowski married a certain Polish woman named
Katarzyna, who he had allegedly freed from slavery and returned to Poland.
Jakimowski and his wife made it successfully to Kraków on the 8th of
May, 1628.
There
is some debate as to when these events actually occurred; an account of
Jakimowski’s adventure was printed in Rome, perhaps as early as 1623, under the
title “La conquista della galera di
Alessandria nel porto di Metelline, coll’oepra e gran coraggio del Capitano
Marco Jakimowski Polacco”. Five years later, the tale was reprinted in
Rome, Florence, and Kraków in Italian, German, and Polish. As no original copy
of the 1623 publication has survived, it remains unclear whether the mutiny
occurred in the year 1621, 1622, or 1627.
Regardless
of whether or not Marek Jakimowski’s mutiny on Kassem Beg’s kadırğa actually occurred, the
popularity of the tale is evidenced by its publication in Italian, German, and
Polish- three of the major languages of the Ottoman/European frontier. The
event was commemorated by the Venetian painter Tommaso Dolabella, active in the
court of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) and his son, King Władysław IV
Vasa (1595-1648), whose work depicted the marriage of Marek and Katarzyna. The
dissemination of the tale and its enshrinement in Polish national consciousness
continued into the 20th century.
In
the course the complex evolution of Polish national consciousness, the tale of
Marek Jakimowski served multiple purposes over the centuries. In more recent
times, the “Turkish Threat” of the 17th century and the imagery and
vocabulary of the antermurale
christianitatis was redirected to the struggles of stateless Poles in the
19th century. In 1858, centuries after the events in question, and
after the partition and dissolution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by
its neighbors Prussia, Russia, and Austria, playwright and Polish nationalist Alexander
Groza wrote a piece based the life of Marek Jakimowski. In
the romantic nationalism of the 19th century, old conflicts and
heroic figures were given new life through allegory. By this time,
the usefulness of Jakimowski as a symbol of Poland’s role as the antemurale christianitatis vis-à-vis the
Ottoman Empire had diminished. Instead, Groza portrayed him as a symbol of the
defunct Polish nation’s struggle under the bondage and tyranny of the Tsar. Groza epitomized
the bravery and sacrifice of Jakimowski, Satanowski, and Jan of Tulczyń, the enslaved
veterans of Cecora, in the following manner:
And
within the crowd [of captives] newly gathered
with
whom should he meet? Jan of Tolczyń
and
[a man] of Szatanów, two eagles,
his
brothers – Podolians.
At
Cecora, that unlucky venture,
they
persevered courageously, persevered gloriously...
Oh!
If only all [had been] like them,
the
Turk would not have watered his horse in the Dniester,
nor
would the bones of our knights rot
in
the sands of so many riverbanks...
In
Groza’s play, the battle of Cecora, where Jakimowski and his fellow Poles were
captured, served as a stand-in for more recent Polish defeats at the hands of
Russia during the Bar Confederation (1768-1772) and the November Uprising (1830-1831).
Marek engages in hand-to-hand combat with “Mustafa Pasha”, though it is clear
that Groza’s Turk is in fact the Russian Tsar. In this aspirational tale
highlighting the historical sacrifice of Poland on the “altar of nations”, Groza’s
“second David” (i.e. Marek Jakimowski), had returned to slay Goliath once again.
Here follows the account of Marek
Jakimowski:
"The
might of the Turkish state, as well as that of all of its members (clients)
began once again to fall upon pious peoples and Christian life through the law
of the Council of Trent, bringing in particular much suffering, and weakening
the soldier of the sea, who is usually the foremost defense of every province.
Through this, much succor was imparted to the heathen, who, in the past,
ordinarily would have always taken into slavery young captured Christians. Their galleys, which in the past [were]
a terror [and] were full of Christian prisoners of every nation and ruled the
entire sea, in these days are so weakened that, if not for the Tatars alone
constantly invading the country[s] of Ruthenia and Muscovy, filling the Turkish
armada with people, it is certain that the Turkish Monarchy, though it is so
strong, would be without its arms upon the sea; Already [at present] on their
galleys, prisoners are not commonly seen aside from the above mentioned
nations, who [the Turks] purchase for money, rule over, beat and lacerate [at
will] as their personal slaves.
In
recent times, Kassymbek, a Turk from Alexandria, governor of Damiata and
Rosseto, [who was] very wealthy in his properties, which are large in Egypt,
and through various trade, which he undertook constantly in those countries
with his brother Mehmed, having become for a period of four years the captain
of four galleys, which guarded the port and navigation of Alexandria, filled
his own foremost two-masted galley with two hundred Christian prisoners; among
them were three Greeks, two Englishmen, an Italian and the rest were from
either Ruthenian or Muscovites.
It
came to be that the Lord God gave the [favorable] weather and occasion to a
Christian to bring low that monstrous pagan, who everyone feared a great deal.
This Kassymbek, remained for a while before [friendly] Turkish guns upon the
[Black Sea] where the Dniester flows in for the building of a fortress at the
orders of the [Turkish] Emperor
[to guard] against the invasion of Cossacks, a people who all Turks
greatly fear. After the onset of winter, while returning home, [Kassymbek] took
upon his galley in Constantinople Isuph Kadego with his wife and servants, who
was a well-known judge from the Porte to Aleksandria. Traveling, then, along
that route, they put in at the city of Metellino, which is located on the
Aegean Sea; there they were provisioned with necessities at the beginning of
the month of November. They put to sea many times, but they always had to
return due to great storms and high seas. Aside from this galley there were
three other galleys, which, on the last return [to port], remained apart from
the lead galley; not far, about a third of a mile. At that point three galleys
remained in the port known as Szeroki and in the port of Caramusciali; captain
Kassymbek alone remained in the port called Stretto or Scisly. On the 12th
of November he put to shore to refresh himself, having with him around seventy
Turks, there being altogether one hundred and fifty soldiers, as well as
officials, who he took with him, so that no more than eighty [Turkish soldiers]
were left aboard.
Among
the Christian prisoners on that galley was Marek Jakimowski of a family from
Bar in the region of Podolia. Having trained since youth in the knightly arts,
he was at the battle of Cecora, and having been captured there he fell into the
hands of the enemy. Seeing at that time that the captain of the galley [had]
put ashore with no small portion of the Turks, he placed himself in the care of
the Lord and began to think of how he and the crew might free themselves. He
therefore entrusted his plan to two others; Stefan Szatanowski and Jan Stolczyn
both of whom, along with [Jakimowski], were prisoners, [but] were not fettered,
and walked freely about the galley during the daytime in order to [perform] a
variety of duties. These two, not trusting that they would be able to escape,
doubted him greatly. He said, in brief, that in such brave counsel one must
have more faith in God and in the strength of [ones] mighty hand for the protection
of ones own health and honor, than in the use of reason and common ability.
Having
declared that he [was] absolutely prepared and resolved to do what he could,
and having neither arms nor armor, he took three rods from those which the cook
used in the fire; and when the cook defended himself, Jakimowski hit him in the
head so well that he immediately fell dead. And having given the other two
[mutineers] rods, he leapt to the stern, where Turks normally keep numerous
cannons; but a soldier, a Turkified Greek, barred his way with a raised saber.
Marek, taking the rod from the fire began to struggle with him and, though he
was already wounded on the left side of his head and shoulder, [Jakimowski]
overcame the soldier and killed him. Entering then the stern of the galley he
got weapons, of which there were many, and with great speed distributed them
amongst the prisoners, his comrades, who already defended themselves and beat
the enemy with whatever they could reach; rods, paddles, barrels, and cooking implements.
Captain Marek made his way to the aft of the galley where [there was a certain]
Mustafa, [a man] of Naples, who did not know what was happening, because the
galley was covered. He only knew that there was some kind of activity amongst
the prisoners, which was nothing new.
Seeing,
however, that Marek was hurrying towards him with his comrade, he seized two
sabers, wanting to defend himself; but the manly Marek, [already] bloody and
wounded, struck Mustafa between the ribs, killed him, and dumped him into the
sea. At that point the Turks gathered the ropes of the cover [stretching over
the length of the vessel] in order to enshroud and entrap the prisoners; at
Marek’s order, [the prisoners] rolled up the canvas covering, and already
having weapons, fought gallantly with the Turks, killed one and cast the other
into the sea. Next
they severed the lines and anchors that held the galley near the shore and beat
out to sea from the port, at which point thick gunfire erupted behind them from
the defensive works of the city and from the port’s fortress, although without
[incurring] any damage.
Captain
Kassymbek ran to the shore and waded out up to his belt in the sea crying out
and cursing, tearing as his beard until he calmed down and returned. But the
victorious Christians beat out to the deep sea where they were chased by three
other galleys. Beginning at eight o’clock in the evening that day up until the
morning of the second day and a few hours after daylight, at which time there
came, probably through the will of God, a great and awful storm with winds,
rain and thunder until those [pursuing] galleys had to return to Metellina,
failing to give [further] chase to the galley commandeered by the Christians."
- Groza, Alexander. Marek Jakimowski, Duma Historyczna. (Wilno: Drukiem Józefa Zawadzkiego, 1858).
- Knoll, Paul W. 1974. “Poland as ‘Antemurale Christianitatis’ in the late middle ages,” The Catholic Historical Review 60, (1974): 381-401.
- Kolodziejczyk, Dariusz. 2006. "Slave hunting and slave redemption as a business enterprise: The northern Black Sea region in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries". Oriente Moderno. 86 (1):
- Ślaski, Bolesław. 1927. Opanowanie w roku 1627 przez Marka Jakimowskiego okrętu tureckiego. Poznań: Czcionkami Drukarni Sw. Wojciecha
- Zielinski, Stanisław. Maly Slownik; Pionierow Polskich Kolonjalnych i Morskich; Podroznicy, Odkrywcy, Zdobywcy, Badacze, Eksploratorzy, Emigranci-Pamietnikarze, Dzialacze i Pisarze Migracyjni. Warszawa: Liga Morska i Kolonjalna, 1933.
