ВО ПОТРАГА ПО ПРОЛЕТНИТЕ ПОПЛАВИ: КОН ПРАШАЊЕТО ЗА ТОА КАКО И КОГА ОСМАНЛИИТЕ ЗАПОЧНАЛЕ СО ПРОИЗВОДСТВО НА ОРИЗ НА БАЛКАНСКИОТ ПОЛУОСТРОВ
IN SEARCH OF THE SPRING FLOODS: ON THE QUESTIONS OF HOW AND WHEN THE OTTOMANS STARTED RICE PRODUCTION IN THE BALKAN PENINSULA

Summary/Abstract: Since the 1970s, scholars of Ottoman history such as Nicoară Beldiceanu, Irène Beldiceanu-Steinherr, Halil Inalcik, and Aleksandar Stojanovski have attributed the spread of rice cultivation in the Bаlkаn Peninsula to Ottoman conquest. The central regions of this new agricultural production included Thrace, particularly in the valleys along the Maritsa River; Macedonia in the valleys of the Vardar, Struma, and Mesta rivers; Thessaly; the valley of the Osum River in Albania; and the Nishava River in Serbia. These were also the regions through which the Ottomans advanced into the Balkan Peninsula in the last decades of the 14th century. Despite the initial studies on risiculture in the region, which primarily focused on its political and economic aspects, little has been written on how the introduction of rice cultivation influenced agricultural practices and knowledge in the early years. This article aims to address this gap by utilizing Ottoman archival and narrative sources that shed light on the creation on new forms of agricultural practices and knowledge. It argues that the earliest rice plantings occurred in areas prone to late winter and spring floods, which enriched the soil with organic matter and minerals, enabling ricegrowers to maintain soil quality and sustain continuous rice cultivation. Additionally, the article discusses the spread of rice cultivation and consumption in Western Asia before the Ottoman introduction of rice to the Balkan Peninsula. It suggests viewing the spread of rice cultivation and consumption in the Balkans as one episode in the global history of rice, tracing the expansion of fast-ripening rice varieties from China, through the Mongol conquest, to northern Iran and northern Anatolia between the 11th and the 14th centuries

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