Етнодемографски промени в Добруджа (X–XVI в.)
Ethnic and Demographic Changes in Dobrudja (10th – 16th c.)

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the ethnic and demographic changes in Dobrudja in the long period between the 10th and the 16th c. The author draws his conclusions on the basis of the interdiscriplinary method. In the 8th to 10th c. the region is densely populated with Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians who live together, and towards the end of the 9th c. and the beginning of the 10th c. bring about the creation of a united Bulgarian nation. In the second half of the 10th c., as a result of Varangian-Russian campaigns of Svetoslav, and the Russian-Bulgarian-Byzantine armed conflicts, the Bulgarian population leaves a number of the unfortified settlements and moves to the stone castles. Together with their local inhabitants, the latter also shelter Byzantine garrisons and federates – late Nomads. During the Petcheneg forays in the second quarter of the 11th c., the castles in the interior of Dobrudja were burned down and deserted forever. It is assumed that part of the original population was destroyed, another part took refuge in the strongholds along the Danube and the Black Sea coast, and a third part moved to the fortified by their mountainous nature Balkan, Sub-Balkan and Fore-Balkan areas, rebuilding some of the early Byzantine castles, deserted in the 6th and 7th c. Thus a demographic vacuum was created in the interior and the Northeastern lands of Dobrudja. which lasted for five centuries. Demographic vacuum came to an end after the Ottoman invasion. According to the registers there were 300 settlements in the interior of Dobrudja in the 16th c. The big villages were Bulgarian and were situated 5-30 km off the Danube or the Black Sea coast: the native population had presumably moved into the interior to avoid the recurring raids along the waterside. Some of the newly founded settlements were inhabited by Yuruks who settled down there in the 16th c. Absorbing at least 25% of the local Christians, they contributed to the islamization of the Bulgarians. The registers also mention settlements of Nogai Tatars, Cumans, and Shiite Muslims. Thus the interior of Dobrudja was inhabited in the 16th c. by both Bulgarians and Muslims. In their majority the latter differ, ethnically and culturally, from the Ottoman Turks.

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