Jan Potocki’s Unstable Turkeys
Journal: Perspektywy Kultury
Year: 2025

This study presents two distinct moments in Jan Potocki’s engagement with Turkey, separated by more than twenty years. The first concerns his journey to Egypt in 1784, when the 23-year-old stopped for two months in Constanti­nople, a formative experience that nurtured his enduring passion for the Orient. The second moment occurs in 1806–1807, when, serving as an adviser to the administration of Tsar Alexander I and as a knowledgeable connoisseur of the Near East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia,