Sarmatism

At its core was the unifying belief that the people of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth descended from the ancient Iranian Sarmatians, the legendary invaders of contemporary Polish lands in antiquity.

The Polish gentry wore a long coat, called kontusz, knee-high boots, and carried a szabla (sabre), usually a karabela.

Sarmatia (Polish: Sarmacja) was a semi-legendary, poetic name for Poland that was fashionable into the 18th century, and which designated qualities associated with the literate citizenry of the vast Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

[1] According to the Geography by Ptolemy, Sarmatia was considered to be territory of Poland, Lithuania, and Tartary and consisted of Asian and European parts divided by the Don River.

[12] Sarmatism was used to integrate the ethnically different Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobles into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and also elevated Ukrainian Cossacks as part of this identity despite their non-noble status.

[13] Historian Karin Friedrich points out, from the writings of Commonwealth scholars Christoph Hartknoch and Thomas Clagius, that the German-speaking Protestant burghers of Royal Prussia also identified themselves with the ideology of Sarmatism, in particular, with its values of liberty, which they contrasted with Swedish or Imperial (German) identities which they associated with tyranny.

Elaborate preparations were made in the period between a nobleman's death and his funeral, which employed a large number of craftsmen, architects, decorators, servants and cooks.

Heraldic shields, which were placed on the sides of the coffin, and a tin sheet with an epitaph served a supplementary role and provided information about the deceased person.

This horseman would enter the church and fall off his horse with a tremendous bang and clank, showing in this way the triumph of death over earthly might and knightly valour.

Some funeral ceremonies lasted for as long as four days, ending with a wake which had little to do with the seriousness of the situation, and could easily turn into sheer revelry.

[citation needed] Some Polish nobles felt that their supposed Sarmatian ancestors were a Turkic people and accordingly viewed their Turkish and Tatar enemies as peers, albeit ones who were unredeemed because they were not Christians.

During the Baroque era in Poland, the art and furnishings of the Persians and the Chinese, as well as the Ottomans, were admired and displayed in separate chambers or rooms.

[22] Sarmatism popularised Ottoman-styled clothing and attire for men, such as the żupan, kontusz, sukmana, pas kontuszowy, delia, and szabla.

In accordance with their views on their supposed Turkic origins,[23] Sarmatists' costume stood out from that worn by the noblemen of other European countries, and had its roots in the Orient.

[25] Adherents of Sarmatism acknowledged the vital importance of Poland since it was considered an oasis of the Golden Liberty for Polish nobility, otherwise surrounded by antagonistic realms with absolutist governments.

They also viewed Poland as the bulwark of true Christendom, almost surrounded by the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and by the errant Christianity of the Orthodox Russians and the Protestant Germans and Swedes.

[citation needed] The democratic concepts of law and order, self-government and elective offices constituted an inseparable part of Sarmatism.

[28] Nonetheless, a crippling political anarchy came to reign, due to cynical use of the free veto by individual szlachta in the Sejm,[29] and/or to the acts of unpatriotic kings.

But because the gentry insisted on jealously guarding its privileges, preventing their extension to other social groups, it doomed the structure of the Commonwealth to atrophy and to the revenge of the lower orders.

[citation needed] "Certainly, the wording and substance of the declaration of the Confederation of Warsaw of 28 January 1573 were extraordinary with regard to prevailing conditions elsewhere in Europe, and they governed the principles of religious life in the Republic for over two hundred years" – Norman Davies.

[33] The Commonwealth of Poland was a place where the most radical religious sects, trying to escape persecution in other countries of the Christian world, sought refuge.

[34]In the sphere of religion, Catholicism was the dominant faith and heavily emphasized because it was seen as differentiating the Polish Sarmatists from their Turkish and Tatar peers.

[35] Art was treated by Sarmatists as propagandistic in function: its role was to immortalise a good name for the family, extolling the virtues of ancestors and their great deeds.

In the 19th century the Sarmatist culture of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was portrayed and popularised by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his trilogy (Ogniem i Mieczem, Potop, Pan Wolodyjowski).

The octagonal or hexagonal portraits were fixed to the headpiece of the coffin so that the deceased person, being a Christian with an immortal soul, was always represented as alive and capable of holding a dialogue with mourners during lavish funeral celebrations.

Such portraits were props which evoked the illusion of the dead person's presence, and also a ritual medium that provided a link between the living and those departing for eternity.

A scholarly journal on Poland, central and eastern Europe, was launched by Polish-Americans, published at Rice University and called the Sarmatian Review.

[40] Some Lithuanian historians of that time claimed that their people were descended from Scythians who had settled in ancient Rome, which had become the home of their pagan high priest.

By the late 18th century the word 'Sarmatism' had gained negative associations[6] and the concept was frequently criticized and ridiculed in political publications such as Monitor, where it became a synonym for uneducated and unenlightened ideas and a derogatory term for those who opposed the reforms of the 'progressives' such as the king, Stanisław August Poniatowski.

[6] Particularly in the aftermath of the November Uprising, when the genre of gawęda szlachecka ("a nobleman's tale"), shaped by Henryk Rzewuski, gained popularity, Sarmatism was often portrayed positively in literature.