Contrary to common legend, the bagel was not created in the shape of a stirrup to commemorate the victory of
Poland's King Jan Sobieski over the Ottoman Turks in 1683. It was actually invented much earlier in Krakow,
Poland, as a competitor to the 'bublik', a lean bread of wheat flour designed for Lent. In the 16th and first
half of the 17th centuries, the 'bajgiel' became a staple of the Polish national diet. There was a tradition
among many observant Jewish families to make bagels on Saturday evenings at the conclusion of the Sabbath.
Due to Jewish Sabbath restrictions, they were not permitted to cook during the period of the Sabbath and,
compared with other types of bread, bagels could be baked very quickly as soon as it ended. That the name
originated from 'beugal' (old spelling of Bugel, meaning 'bail, bow or bale') is considered plausible by
many[who?], both from the similarities of the word and because traditional handmade bagels are not perfectly
circular but rather slightly stirrup shaped. (This, however, may be due to the way the boiled bagels are pressed
together on the baking sheet before baking.) Also, variants of the word 'beugal' are used in Yiddish and Austrian
German to refer to a round loaf of bread (see 'Gugelhupf' for an Austrian cake with a similar ring shape), or
in southern German dialects (where 'beuge' refers to a pile, e.g., 'holzbeuge', or 'woodpile'). According to
the Merriam-Webster's dictionary, 'bagel' derives from the transliteration of the Yiddish 'beygl'. That should
be more information than you need.
