 The Kozak attacks so inflamed the hatred of the Muslims toward the Zaporozhian Kozaks and the entire Christian population of Ukraine that the Turks decided to attack the Zaporozhian Seech and raze it to the ground. There is a popular tradition that, before sending his troops to the Zaporozhian Seech, Turkish Sultan Muhammad IV sent to the Zaporozhians a letter demanding they submit voluntarily to him, an unconquerable knight. To the Sultan's letter, the Kozaks responded with free choice of words in a letter of their own. It denied the Sultan all honor, cruelly mocking the boasts of an "unconquerable knight." Many who treasure Ukrainian lore preserve copies of this quaint letter of the Zaporozhians to the Turkish Sultan . UKRAINIAN ENGLISH Letter from the Sultan |