Theyear was 1453. Soon after he had conquered Constantinople, an event that wouldchange the entire history of the East and West, the determined young Turkish Sultan/EmirMehmet II, only 21 years old, victoriously entered the city. Among the captiveswas a Latin named Angelo Boldoni, Ambassador of Ancona, Italy. However, as soonas Mehmet learned that Boldoni was a relative of Othman Lillo Ferducci, the sonof his father Murat II's close friend,Boldoni was released without ransom. Othman Ferducci's gratitude for Mehmet'sgenerous gesture was expressed years later by his commissioning (and writing aDedication to) an epic poem in praise of Mehmet’s conquests and adventures, anepic in the tradition of the Aeneid, Iliad, and Odyssey.The commission was given to the poet Gian Mario Filelfo, biographer of Danteand son of one of the leading humanists of the Renaissance, Francesco Filelfo.And so Amyris, a poem of about fivethousand lines, was completed in Italy in 1476.
Amyris has remained in obscurity as a singlemanuscript copy, virtually a banned book, for centuries, perhaps because,unlike most other Western writings during the Renaissance, it is not whollyderogatory toward a Turkish and Muslim Sultan. Now, approximately 550 yearsafter the poem’s composition, Associate Professors Filiz Barın Akman andBeyazıt Akman publish annotated Turkish and English translations of the poem,together with comprehensive introductory chapters offering historicalinformation, textual analysis, commentary and criticism. The Akmans are expertsabout the image of the Turks and Islam in Western literature andhistoriography. The translation from Latin into English poetry is by Mark Hermanand Professor Emerita Ronnie Apter and the Turkish translation is by AhmetDeniz Altunbaş.