The Battle of Nicopolis (1396), Burgundian Catastrophe and Ottoman fait divers

This article compares ideological production in the Burgundian sources with the Ottoman sources and ascertains that there was a contrast in their respective treatments of the battle of Nicopolis (1396). This event was the first major encounter between the Ottoman Empire and the Western European states of the later Middle Ages. A paradox can be observed between the Burgundian sources on the one hand and Ottoman chronicles on the other : in the Burgundian sources, there was an explosion of narratives concerning this battle in this way, the memory of the defeat at Nicopolis developed into a genuine historiographical patron and literary myth on the 'barbarian Turk'. In contrast, Nicopolis was not considered as a key event in the Ottoman historiography. The Ottoman chronicles paid little attention to this event. This paradox between French and Burgundian accounts and Ottoman narratives are situated within distinct retrospective trajectories of state building and accompanying ideologies.

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