when were bagels invented

Bagels as we know them today were invented in Poland by Jewish bakers, with the first official mention of bagels dating back to the early 1600s. The method of boiling the dough before baking it, which gives bagels their distinctive soft and chewy texture, was already established by then. The predecessor of the bagel is believed to be a pretzel-like bread made in Germany in the Middle Ages, which was brought to Poland and evolved into a round bread with a hole in the center called "obwarzanek." This specific Polish bread then developed into the modern bagel in the 17th century. One popular but likely apocryphal story credits the invention of the bagel to a Viennese baker in 1683 who shaped the bread to resemble a stirrup as a tribute to King Jan Sobieski of Poland. However, documentary evidence shows bagels were mentioned in Polish Jewish communities at least as early as 1610. In summary, bagels were invented by Jewish communities in Poland in the early 1600s, evolving from earlier German pretzel-like breads and becoming distinct with their boiling-then-baking preparation method.