Concepts and Images of Islamisation in the Region of Chepino Cover Image
  • Price 4.90 €

Представи и образи за ислямизацията в Чепински район
Concepts and Images of Islamisation in the Region of Chepino

Author(s): Georgi Kumanov
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses itself on the concepts and images of islamisation in a small area – the one of Chepino in the Rhodopi mountains. It is based on interviews with Muslim and Christian inhabitants of the region. Their narratives about islamisation, collected in the 1990s, are based on two types of sources – published studies presenting the official historical point of view and family stories, songs, legends and sagas told and transmitted within the family and peer circles. Contamination of official versions and folk stories with one another are numerous, complex and multidimensional. The Christian community seems to have two different explanations for the conversion to Islam. The first one states that in the beginning the Christians were unified and determined to defend their religious affiliation. Thus, in a Christian folk milieu imposition of Islam was considered a quick and forceful act, which resulted in the fact that parts of them were converted to the new religion. The second explanation interprets the conversion either as sharply negative – as a betrayal to Christianity on behalf of the newly converted, or, more moderately – as an unavoidable act of self-defence. The versions of the Muslim community are different and unstable. They undergo changes in respect to contemporary political realities, as well as in respect to the relations to Christians and other Muslims. The author comes to the conclusion that the contacts between the two confessional communities affect the contemporary views to one another. Their folk narratives are representative for their lack of a narrow minded views of history. This makes them reliable historical sources about concepts and images of islamisation. Their use is capable of correcting the simplified picture of the official historical interpretations of the problem under consideration.

  • Issue Year: XXVI/2000
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 88-97
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Bulgarian