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This article focuses on the general sketch of “the problem of the Ottoman heritage” today, with special emphasis on the problems of reception, classification and periodization elderly Bosniak’s Literature in the Ottoman language. The paper attempts to indicate the “syncretic” nature of every imperial civilization, including the Ottoman Empire, and to indicate some general features of the historical dilemmas and development of the written word in a meeting with other cultural traditions. The phenomenon of Bosniak’s literature in Oriental languages, including literature in Ottoman Turkish language, is the phenomenon very interesting for our literary trends in literary production of the Balkan peoples too. It is, simply, about a live tradition that has influenced and still influences on the occurrence of literary works very relevant not only for contemporary Bosniak literature, but for literature of other Slavs in the Balkans. It is a fact worthy for scientific research.
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The article summarizes the preliminary results from the research project “Topoi of Memory”, which is a joint venture between the New Bulgarian University and the American University in Bulgaria. The major goal of the research team is to investigate the level of modernization of Bulgarian society using the mechanism of historical memory. Thus we are trying to answer the question: whether there exists one coherent and normative Grand Historical Narrative, inspired by “the inventors of tradition” – and how does it function. Or, whether there are diverse narratives which circulate among the various social, ethnic and religious groups, according to their own value systems. Another aim of the research is to establish the generators of memory, which are at odds between the institutional education and the traditions of the different groups. The results are quite clear: the Grand Bulgarian Historical Narrative is centered on the last decade of the Ottoman Rule in Bulgaria (the 1870’s) which presents the climax of the national liberation movement and the Liberation from the “Turkish Joke”. Still, the “joke” is marked primarily by the heroic discourse. This is in sharp distinction with Serbia, where the traumatic discourse is dominant. The heroic discourse allows much more wider deployment of the narratives of epic heroism, than the traumatic national memory of martyrdom. The leading topoi of memory among the majority of Bulgarians and the diverse minorities groups are relatively similar, still they differ on the level of repetition of these topoi. Even the representatives of the Turkish minority consider the Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman rule the most important historical event. This fact does not mean that these Bulgarian Turks highlight a distinct “martyrdom memory”, or feature a high level of integration in Bulgarian society. It rather presents (in the majority of the cases) a special mimicry of the minority group versus the majority.
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Turkey’s policy towards the Balkan peoples, since the attack on the Peninsula, was characterized by a desire to dominate and the total subordination of the local population. Therefore, immediately after the conquest, the Turkish authorities have pushed them to the margins of social life. Extensive system of benefits and duties, and thereafter the draconian taxes had ruined Balkan villages and towns, contributing to the decline of agricultural production and handicrafts. Any form of resistance were ruthlessly suppressed by the Turks, and the raging terror during the occupation had consumed hundreds of thousands of lives. Despite these actions the Ottomans were unable to break the spirit of resistance. Neither persecution nor attempt Islamisation of Balkan populations did not produce any effect, because one of the main reasons was attachment to the traditions and faith of their ancestors. When the Turkish state has slowed and European powers had began to intervene in the internal affairs of the state, Greeks, Serbs, Montenegros, Bulgarians, Romanians, also Albanians, began efforts to throw off foreign domination. These activities were indirectly ended by the Congress of Berlin in 1878, and the so-called final solution of the Turkish issues occurred during the Balkan wars of the years 1912–1913.
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The article is an excerpt of the dissertation „Religious syncretism and anti-syncretism in the light of the coexistence between Muslims (Pomaks) and Orthodox Christians in the Western Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria”. Dissertation is based on field research I did in 2005–2009 in the area of Gotse Delchev, a town in Blagoevgrad Province. I have interviewed community members invested with considerable symbolic potential, such as the mayor and the mufti, Orthodox clerics, hodjas, teachers and quack doctors. I conducted a total of 63 in-depth interviews with 76 people. My findings show that the local Orthodox population is more susceptible to the influence of Islam than vice versa. What is quite striking in this context is that examples of deep syncretism can actually be found among the Christians. This includes the practice of kurban or blood sacrifice, which they regard as a replication of Abraham’s sacrifice and invest with a level of importance that makes it a central aspect of their religious life (possibly more important than the Eucharist). Although Balkan Slavs had practiced blood sacrifice even before the arrival of Islam in the region, the Christian interpretations of the practice evince deep parallels with the Muslim practice of kurban. Both religious groups identify Abraham’s sacrifice as the origin of the practice, and treat the sacrificial lamb as a substitute for a specific human life. Although the scholar Florentina Badalanova has interestingly suggested that the narrative of Abraham’s sacrifice, which is popular in Bulgarian folklore, may have persisted in an unchanged form ever since it originally emerged in ancient Ur and became transmitted orally to the Balkans, her thesis must remain purely conjectural. Where it comes to the Western Rhodopes, I suppose that the motif of Abraham’s sacrifice filtered into Christian religious symbols and narratives via the traditions of adat Islam, many of which had retained close links with Judaism. By adopting the Ottoman Turkish term (kurban) rather than its Semitic variant (qorban), the Christians also adopted the related set of ideas about the sacrifice and its sacred aetiology. The precise ramifications of this example of deep syncretism for the religious experience of Orthodox Christians, though interesting, would require additional in-depth research.
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The main problem of the research was to prove that ethnical background has the influence over the people who bear important political functions. For the subject of the research we chose the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, who has Muslim roots. During the considerations of the research it was proved that provenience of him in this case seriously determined his attitude and political behavior. It is wondrous that with no trouble he could stay faithful to his beliefs and was officially expressing his religious doctrines, still holding civil functions. Unfortunately, it was all connected with traumatic experiences for hundreds of thousands of Serbian and Croatian people. It is deeply surprising that all his cruel actions as well as his contacts with dangerous separatist Muslims movements have been forgotten.
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In the second half of the fourteenth century, more than twenty political bodies functioned in Balkans, which were more or less independent, often in conflicts with each other, joining into leagues and alliances. The Ottomans were a valuable ally, with which the Balkan rulers came in close political and military relationships. The study of evolution and the nature of these relations meets serious difficulties due to lack of surviving documents, defining the nature of bilateral relations of the Ottomans with particular Balkan states, while other sources, usually from a later period, are not very precise. The difficulties of interpretation concern such fundamental matters as the chronology of Turkish conquests, conflicts and peace agreements. However, the analysis of preserved source material leads to the following conclusions: 1. Subordination of the Balkan countries by the Ottomans was a long-term process, and their relationships with the Balkan states were diverse in nature. 2. Payment of the tribute for the benefit of the Turks could, but did not have to mean the entry into vassal relations, however gave an evidence about the entry into peaceful relations. 3. Orhan, Murad I and Bajezid I were satisfied on the territory of Europe with the establishment of the allied, tributary relationships and over the time with the strengthening of own vassal position. However, at the end of the fourteenth century, all the Balkan states were at some stage of such relations, mostly on the last of them. 4. Entry into close, family relations with the ruling sultan meant usually a close political and military cooperation. Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian wives of the sultans had the right to remain in the Christian faith and often exerted a strong political influence. The support and protection of the closest relatives of the wife was fulfilled by the Turkish rulers. Thanks to it, for example Serbia of Stefan Lazarević was essentially strengthened, becoming at the same time the most serious support of Bajezid I in the Balkans. 5. The defeat of Ottoman Turkey at Ankara in 1402, led to the collapse of the Turkish plans for more expansion to the east and to the collapse of the elaborated system of allies and vassals in Europe. In the fifteenth century, an escalation of the ideological war from both sides was performed with the religious factor as an essential theme for military activities. In this situation, the confrontation between the Christian and Islamic world become inevitable.
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