По стъпките на паметта от XIV до XVI век: Никополският владетел“ Шишман в османската история на Кемалпашазаде
On the Tracks of Memory from the 14th to the 16th Century: Shishman, “The Ruler of Nikopol”, in the Ottoman History of Kemalpashazade

Summary/Abstract: This paper offers a reproduction, Bulgarian translation, and analysis of a previously unexplored account in the “Annals of the Ottoman Dynasty” by the Ottoman scholar Kemalpashazade (ca. 1468–1534). The text of the source concerns the relations between the anonymous Byzantine lord of the town of Bolayır on the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Bulgarian ruler of Nikopol called Shishman in the context of the early Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The purpose of the research is to reveal the historical figures and events included in the account as well as the possible paths by which the memory of them reached Kemalpashazade. The juxtaposition of Kemalpashazade’s text with a number of historical sources from the 14th through 18th century has allowed for two major conclusions. Firstly, the lord of Bolayır is probably identical with the Byzantine governor of Gallipoli who appears with the name of Asen tekfur in Enveri’s Dusturname and can be identified with either Manuel Asen or John Asen, the sons of the Byzantine aristocrat of Bulgarian origin Andronikos Asen. Secondly, the image of Shishman in the “Annals” has likely resulted from a contamination of the memory of several representatives of the Shishmanid dynasty such as the Bulgarian tsars Mihail III Shishman, Ivan Alexander, and Ivan Shishman as well as, possibly, the latter’s namesake uncle. Particular attention is paid to some parallels with the information about Bulgarian-Byzantine relations at the time of Tsar Michael III Shishman as described in the fifteenth-century History of Laonikos Chalkokondyles, whose possible reception among Ottoman literati including Kemalpashazade is also discussed in the paper.

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