Ali Ufkî Bey (Wojciech Bobowski) - Well-Known Musician, Forgotten Political Figure. A Luminary in the 600 Years of Turkish-Polish Diplomatic Relations

In 2014, Turkey and Poland celebrated the 600th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations. The six-century-old relations have been full of ne - gotiations, agreements, peaceful times and conflicts, commercial ties and cultural interplay. Among the cultural interactions, many figures have played important roles for the cultural and political history of both countries. Ali Ufkî Bey (Wojciech Bobowski) (1610?-1675?) is certainly one of those personalities who deserve more scholarly debate. From a historical perspective, his contributions in the fields of culture, diplomacy, music, theology and linguistics illustrate how important the role of an individual as a non-state actor might be in the discipline of International Relations (IR), which constitutes the main focus of this article. Ali Ufkî (Bobowski) is certainly one of those individuals whose contributions need to be analysed in a profound manner, with special emphasis on inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue. This article also aims at accentuating the historic importance of the 600 years of diplomatic ties in today's foreign policy making process, which might be the subject of further study in IR.(original abstract)