To free me from captivity,
Because I have become a Turk—Mohammedan—
For Turkish comfort, good life—unhappy pleasure!”
AKHMET III. AND THE ZAPOROGIANS
S. Rudansky
(The letter written by the Cossacks to the Sultan is in a museum in Russia)
In the year 1600, in that God’s year,
A letter came from Akhmet
To our Zaporogie:
“I, Sultan, the son of Mohammed,