Cem "Sultan" fight for the throne and Pope Alexander VI Borgia

Abstract

The discussion of the second half of the 15th century in the history of the Ottoman Empire and its diplomatic relations with Europe is inconceivable without the history of Jem "Sultan", as these processes played a major role in Ottoman-European relations, especially with Rome. This paper presents one of the most important events in Ottoman history, related to the struggle of Prince Jem against his brother Sultan Bayazid and his European voyage.

The struggle of Prince Jem for the throne has not been studied in detail in Georgian historiography.

There is only general information in the scientific literature on this issue, which led to the writing of this article. In the process of working on the paper, we tried Georgian, Turkish and foreign authors related to this issue (H. Inalcik, D. Emecen, I. H. Uzuncharshil and N. Yorga, G. Japaridze, I. Khubashvili, M. Svanidze, M. Makharadze and others. ) We were informed of the opinions. As far as possible, we studied the sources and, through critical analysis, presented the content of the first extensive work on the tragedy of Prince Jem (who called himself  "Sultan" for the rest of his life), which is a novelty in itself.

When working and translating foreign literature, we first maintained the accuracy of the information, compared it with other materials, and based our opinion on the arguments. This issue is relevant because it concerns not only the European policy of the Ottomans, but also the foreign policy of the Roman pontiffs and European countries - Res Orientalis. The paper shows how all of them tried to use the Jem for their own mercantile and political purposes.

Finally, we must say that European-Ottoman relations are one of the most pressing issues in the history of the Middle Ages and are the subject of constant interest of scholars. So maybe the discovery of new sources will show us a completely different reality and turn another new page in history.