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The research on the well-known Ottoman sources, “The Book of Travels” by Evliya Çelebi and “Stating the Essence of Laws of the Ottoman Dynasty” by Husen Hesarfen, shows that their data have not been introduced into the scientific use. However, these data are unique with regard to the political history of Circassia in the 17th century, which was a decentralized monarchy of representatives of nobility in the form of a federative princely republic. The data obtained from the Ottoman, Russian, and European sources allow to analyze the status of the representatives of the ruling princely dynasty of Inaledes in Circassia, as well as to disclose the international and legal status acquired by them in the 17th century. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the Ottoman-Circassian-Crimean relations in the light of the Ottoman doctrine that connected the confessional supremacy with the military and political one. It has been revealed that the relations in the military and political spheres played the key role in contrast to the confessional ones. This conclusion is confirmed by the facts of a fierce confrontation between the most early Islamized territories of Circassia, including Kabarda, Bzhedugia, Besleney, Hatukai, and Zhaney, and the Ottoman-Crimean coalition, despite they must have been regarded to as “countries of Islam” (dar al-islam) according to their political rhetoric. In that period, the Ottoman-Crimean coalition demanded mostly a military alliance following the adoption of the Islamic faith as their official religion, whereas the Inaledes refused to accept the fact that the religious community should grant any military, political, and economical rights to sultans and Crimean khans in Circassia. Such discrimination between the confessional and military-political factors shows that the military-political aspect played a more important role in the relations with the Circassians than the confessional one for the Ottoman-Crimean coalition in the Caucasus. This is precisely why the whole territory of Circassia in the 17th century, excluding that of the Zhaney (some of its princes had suzerain-vassal relationships, while the other ones were allies), was a “country of war” (dar al-harb).
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Прослава стогодишњице Ι устанка обележена је низом манифестација, током скоро целе 1904. године. Рад на овоме резултирао је и великом количином списа. Она је, и поред спољњег познавања догађаја из те године, остала највећим делом, сем архивистима, непозната нашој научној и широј јавности. Задатак архивисте је да своје знање о овој, као и о другој грађи пренесе и својим колегама и најширој јавности. Из улоге коју имају архиви, а то је да служе потребама друштва у целини, пре свега науци, произлази и њихов задатак да архивску грађу учине приступачном јавности и тиме омогуће научноистраживачки рад у свим доменима друштвеног живота.
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The archives of Bulgarian entrepreneurs from the National revival period contain valuable primary sources that allow us to investigate different issues. Such is the situation with the documentary collections of brothers Hristo, Nichola and Ivan Todorovi Pulievi, and their relatives Evlogi and Hristo Georgievi. One can find in those primary sources information concerning the division of the Bulgarian lands in the production of certain agricultural and craft goods; for little-known or unknown businessmen, for commercial practices, for certain events of regional and national scale. Some of the problems mentioned above have been the subject of scientific interest and research, but there are still “white fields” that deserve attention.
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Studies in the field of trade show that the main contingent of traders originated in urban communities and worked on urban and international markets. But as far as nine out of ten of the subjects of the sultan in Bulgarian lands were peasants, it is logical to assume that some of them earned their living in the field of trade. In this regard, it should be noted that the issue concerning the involvement of peasants as professional traders in the economic life of the Ottoman Empire has remained poorly investigated in the historiography on the subject. The study seeks to outline an approximate portrait of the itinerant and settled rural merchants who participated in the trade, both between a town and a village, and among different regions of the empire at the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Features of their family and property status have been reconstructed on the basis of individual case studies. Issues related to the legal regulation of their business activities are analyzed. The assortment and volumes of the goods sold by them are also investigated. The author examines the problems related to the commercial practices of association of rural traders and crediting such traders. Conclusions were drawn regarding the involvement of institutions in regulating business and relations between traders and their families, partners and creditors; the level of their literacy; the role of their journeys on the level of awareness of the communities in which they operate; the importance of their professional activity in the formation of the modern traders in the Bulgarian society from the pre-Tanzimat period. The study relies on unpublished Ottoman-Turkish documents – estate inventories of deceased merchants, litigations on associations and loans, sultan fermans, petitions and complaints, tax registrations, as well as promulgated laws, travelogues, and more.
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Radivoj Raduković, from Cernica (near Gacko), and his servant, Obrad Dobranović, from Rudine, were arrested and brought before the Kotor court. They were accused of trying to take to Cernica one of the daughters of Radič Mladenović from the village of Strp, and hand her over to a sub-pasha Skender. On the other hand, a Jurašin Mladenović from Perast also complained about Radivoj, stating that he took part in his arrest and handing over to the aforementioned Skender. However, the investigation established, through the statements of witnesses and the accused, that Radič's daughter willingly accepted to go to the Cernica sub-pasha, so that he free her father from captivity, while Jurašin admitted that Radivoj did not take part in his arrest and handing over. Therefore, the court decided that the arrested Radivoj and Obrad be freed, after 44 days spent in the solitary confinement (between 10 July and 23 August 1477).
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Sixteenth century is the time of dramatic expansion and demographic changes for the Ottoman Empire. A certain impact on people's everyday life has the environment and more specifically environment consequences in the means of increasing population, changing patterns of production, transitions from nomadic to settled agriculture communities. The village territory and the peasants' agrarian activities are of great importance for the economic history researchers, ethnologists and scholars interested in the Ottoman Empire and more specifically in the reclamation of the agrarian space. The present paper examines the procedure on fixing the boundaries of the village territory as it was recorded in the judicial records - huccets, included in the detailed (mufassal) defter of 1570 containing information on the vakifs of Pasa sanack. The judicial records refer to the village territories of four settlements - Kul Ibrahim, Sruca Reis, Boazkesen and Hizir bey on the territory of the kaza of Stara Zagora during the 16th century. The examined copies of huccets give detailed information about the two main elements of the village territory - arable lands and pastures, but also provide data on the environment of parts of the territory of the kaza of Stara Zagora.
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This study focuses on some aspects of the ways and mechanisms for preserving the memory of traumatic events during military conflicts among the subjects of the Sultan. These aspects have to do with the functioning of the Ottoman bureaucratic, judicial and military institutions on local and central level, and communication with the local population. For this purpose, the study analyzes the case with the citizens of Silistra and their conduct, as well as that of the Ottoman authorities, during and after the war with the Holy League in 1593–1606 and the late 17th century. The analysis of the sources reveals that the process of preserving and passing on the information involved functionaries from all levels of the Ottoman hierarchy and that various bureaucratic practices were applied related to the registration and taxation of the population, and to the creation of formal and informal archival collections. There were several ways of preserving and passing on of the memory: by means of written communication among the institutions (through document flow toward the centre and back to the provinces); by oral communication between the representatives of the authorities and taxpayers in the kadı court, and discussions among the members of the community and its elders who attended the court sittings. Written evidence of the war events, or more specifically, of the feelings that overwhelmed the people and the disturbing thoughts that haunted them in those troubled times was left by a number of literate Bulgarians in marginal notes on pages of liturgical books and even on church walls. These short notes testify that the clash between the warring armies did not bring any hope to the Christians, but only fear in their souls and awareness of the trouble that had befallen them in those “severe and turbulent times”. Finally, the folklore also provides information about the war, transforming in a specific way the memory of events and people, people’s attitude towards the afflictions that befell on them. The analyzed sources show that the memory which the Bulgarians have preserved and transmitted to next generations is charged with predominantly negative assessment of the traumatic events during the war and of Michael Viteazul’s image. It seems that the scope of the devastation and the suffering caused by the Wallachian armies to the Christian population were a stronger factor in the process of constructing the collective memory of the events than the war victories of the Voivode over the Ottoman ruler in the lands south of the Danube. That is why the themes of killing, enslavement and displacement of the population as well as the motif of the unforgivable sin of Voivode Michael stand out in the Ottoman documents, in the marginal notes, and the folk songs.
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Representatives of the Turkish population in the town of Samokov develop a rich literary activity during the Ottoman period. Seven authors and 47 copyists create a very rich production, especially in 18th century. Ahmed el-Keshfi es-Samakova (d. 1747) is among the most prominent names from the end of 17th - first half of 18th century. He is a prolific writer, copyist, commentator of esoteric works and creator of a rich waqf library in Samokov. His production as a copyist counts 101 volumes, part of which feature collections containing two or more works. The earliest copy - Sharh Manar al-anwar li'n-Nasafi, which is a work in the field of Islamic law, has been completed in 1685. The analysis of the production of the authors and the copyists from Samokov gives us a reason to define this town as a center of literary activity of the local Muslim population.
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The study is based upon the representative ottoman historical narratives - the histories of Silahdar Mehmed Aga and Defterdar Mehmed Pasha - in search of typology of social behaviour of the Christian inhabitants of the Ottoman Balkan provinces during the war between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire in the end of the 17th century . The Ottoman authors whose reports will be analyzed are part of the historiographic direction that presents the military and political events in the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the 17th century. At the same time the chroniclers involve information about the life in the provinces, as a reflection of the war upon the reaya, and its reactions. The purpose of this report is to present the Ottoman viewpoint in the light of Ottoman historiography, as concrete events, happened in the Ottoman rear during the successful advance of the Habsburg forces. From the presented examples, concerning in particular the reaya of Dragoman, will be outlined some conclusions, characterizing the behaviour of part of the non-Muslim population in the context of the specific political situation.
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The aim of this text is to present briefly the works of the well-known Russian historian- émigré Anthony Vassilievitch Florovsky (1884–1968) that have to do with the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878 and the first years of restored Bulgaria. These works not only enrich the historiography on different problems associated with that important period of Bulgaria’s new history, but also extend the ideas of the development and of the image of Russian émigrés’ historical thought, and also show Florovsky’s purely human, friendly feelings towards the people of Bulgaria.
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Article 27 of the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi Treaty provides for the exchange of ceremonial embassies to promote peace and friendship between the two empires. The residence of the Russian ambassador in Constantinople had to comply with the rules established between the Sublime Porte and the European countries most respected by it. It is no coincidence that the embassy was headed by a famous general, a participant in the war, who had signed the peace in Kyuchuk-Kaynardzha, Prince Nikolay Vasilievich Repnin. The organization of the solemn embassy of 1775-1776 provided for the observance of the established specific ceremony both during the trip and in the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The object of the proposed study is the preliminary preparation of the trip, as well as the specification of the ceremony and the rules that both parties were obliged to follow. The embassy’s journey to Constantinople in 1775 is briefly traced. The study aims to present the disputes, clarifications, decisions on important elements of the rituals and the ceremony as an expression of the relations between the two empires immediately after the peace of 1774 - relations in which the Russian side demonstrates strength, above all determination but also readiness for reasonable compromises. Some organizational decisions are also mentioned, which complement the overall picture of the movement both within the borders of the Russian Empire and within the Ottoman territories.
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The author aims to focus on the traditional customs in Macedonia regarding wedding and marriage; on the attitude of IMARO towards these institutions; the new marital “rules” imposed by the Organization and engagement norms between the partners; the techniques used by IMARO, and the goals it pursued. In the end, an attempt is made at revealing the effect of the Organization’s activity in this direction, the changes made and the results achieved. The researcher uses a variety of sources, including a large amount of memoirs, as well as program and other documents issued by IMARO.
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The article, based on documents from Bulgarian Exarchate’s archive and other sources, analyses the trends of temporary labour migration of Bulgarians from the region of Kastoria and the adjacent areas of Florina, Bitola, Prespa and Ohrid. While the traditional patterns involved destinations within the Ottoman empire or newly established states Romania, Bulgaria or Greece, at the turn of the century the flow was gradually directed also towards North America. For example, in 1911 38% of migration from Kastoria area was to the New World, 34% – to other regions of the Ottoman empire, including its capital Constantinople, and 22% – to the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The local village or micro-regional factors greatly influenced the migrants’ choice. However, the labour migration to both traditional and new destinations until the Balkan wars of 1912–1913 was temporary (up to several years), and involved only working-age men, between 50% and 80% of them in most of South West Macedonia.
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The article deals with the history of the Turkish embassy in Russia during 1740–1742. The great ceremonial embassy takes place as a result of the Belgrade peace treaty, which marks the end of the Russian-Turkish war of 1735–1739 and which requires ceremonial embassies between the two empires. The Turkish embassy is led by Emini Mehmed pasha and includes more than 500 participants. The article describes main moments of the diplomatic ceremonial: the interchange of the Russian and the Turkish embassies at the border, the ceremonial public reception and entry in Petersburg, the public and private audiences in the imperial palace. The article contains much information about the maintenance costs, the residences of the embassy and the ambassadorial conflicts.
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Evidence of mining activities in the North-East Serbia dates back to prehistoric times. However, only during the Ottoman Empire did this region become famous for its mines. The most important of them, the Kučajna gold and silver mine, was opened in 1552/3. A mint, bullet workshop and other ancillary facilities were built in its vicinity. As until recently the historiography offered little information about this mine, the construction of the nearby palanka has never been connected with it. The only information about the palanka of Kučajna referrs to the number of garrison troops in the period from 1560 to 1589. The palanka of Kučajna, referred to in the records under the Hungarian name of parkanj, was built on a hill above the mine in the same year when the mine was opened. Its main purpose was to store silver ingots, coins and bullets. There is no record of how the palanka originally looked and it is hard to tell whether its walls were built of stakes tied with withes, or it was surrounded by a double wall of logs filled with earth. Since it was protected by two cannon and depending on construction, small wooden towers or earthen bastions were erected probably at the two corners to the left and right of the main gate. Inside the palanka, there were several specially protected solid buildings. These were the treasury for storing precious metals and coins, bullet and food storage, and a prison, known as the Dizdar's Jail. It was both the military and civil prison of the kaza of Kučajna. The palanka had an Islamic place of worship, houses of dizdars and other members of the garrison, many shops and workshops. The material that palankas were made of required their almost complete reconstruction every 10 to 15 years. According to the information recorded in the accounting books of the mine, the first major reconstruction of the palanka of Kučajna was carried out in 1564/65. A new stage in the history of the fortress of Kučajna began in 1577, after its second reconstruction and building of a stone fortress (Tur. kale). The new fortress was incorporated into the old one making a single fortification called kale-i parkan-i Kuçayna in the records. The fortification remained the same until the Viennese War (1683-1699). After the Austrian capture of Belgrade in 1688, the fortress was taken over by hayduks without fighting. During the retreat in 1690, they destroyed and torched the town and the mine and presumably the wooden part of the fortification, since it was not mentioned in the record made by the Ottoman chronicler Uskudari, who passed through Kucajna a month later. His record says that the town "has a small but strong stone fortress". New palisades were built between 1691 and 1696. They were possibly bigger than the previous ones, since the fortress of Kučajna not only served for the defence of the mine but had gained strategic importance. The number of soldiers at Kučajna fortress varied in relation to general circumstances in the Empire. In the second half of the 16th century, the number of garrison troops (Tur. mustahfız) was between 27 and 41; they were armed with rifles, and while arms and gunpowder were delivered from the arsenal at Smederevo, bullets were made at Kučajna. During the greater part of the 17th century, there were no major military conflicts in the Danube region and only about twenty janissaries (Tur. yerlü) were stationed in the fortress. One of the reasons why the number of soldiers was reduced was the fact that the nearby town of Majdanpek was becoming the mining centre of the region and had its own fortification. After the re-capture of Belgrade in 1690, the fortress of Kučajna became an important military stronghold with more than a hundred soldiers. Even after the 1699 peace treaty and establishment of Belgrade Frontier in 1702, Kučajna maintained a large garrison that included 73 yerlüs. For decades after its construction, the garrison of Kučajna was supported by the revenue from timars. According to the register of timars dating from the late 60s of the 16th century, 27 mustafhizs received income from 5 timars, four of which were in the nahiye of Mlava and comprised the villages of Bradača, Kobila, Mala Duboka, Slana, Crljenci, Rašanica and the Monastery of Oreškovica, while the fifth comprised the villages of Gornja Brestova and Sediče in the nahiye of Resava and the village of Sena in the nahiye of Pek. The village of Bradača with the annual revenue of 2800 akçes was the only independent timar and it belonged to the kethüda of the palanka. The other timar, the village of Kobila, with revenue of 2800 akçes was divided between two mustahfizs, and the third of 5600 akçes, comprising the villages of Mala Duboka, Slana and the Monastery of Oreškovica, was divided between four of them. The revenue from the fourth timar comprising the villages of Rašanica and Crljenci, in the amount of 12800 akçes, was used by two bölükbasís and seven mustafhizs. The fifth and the largest timar was worth 15400 akçes. Apart from the villages of Gornja Brestova and Sediče it included the unpopulated village of Sena. This timar was divided between 11 mustahfizs. This register does not contain information about dizdar's timar, but other documents show that his income was 3600 akçes. When the annual revenue from the timars is divided by 354 days of the Islamic year, it shows that the approximate amounts of per diems for dizdar, kethuda and mustafhiz were 10, 8 and 4 akçes respectively. Yerlü garrison troops during the 17th century were paid from the national treasury. Their pay often changed due to high inflation rates. Per diems of yerlü janissaries after the Viennese War were 11 akçes. However, the treasury did not have enough funds to pay the troops, and the garrisons now leased the right to collect local tax. The first such example was recorded at Kučajna, where before the end of the war the yerlüs took under lease the revenue of the devastated mine for only 250 groschen a year. Upon the expiry of the three-year lease in 1700, the yerlüs renewed the lease for 700 groschen. The collection of tax by the soldiers was a bad solution resulting in violence against the local population, embezzlements by commanders and overall breakdown of discipline. This was one of the causes of the Ottoman army defeat in the War of Varadin (1716-1718), after which Kučajna was part of the Habsburg Monarchy for more than two decades.
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The image of Ottoman invasion of the Bulgarian lands, the Tarnovo Patriarchate, in its capacity as the "Mother of All Bulgarian Churches", maintained international contacts throughout the Greek Orthodox world. The Patriarchate enjoyed high prestige among Orthodox Slav on account of its consistent anti-Unite stance, adopted after the Church Union of the Council of Lyons (1247). This stance differed drastically from the contradictory policy of Byzantium and the Church of Constantinople which were inclined to make compromises with the West and the Papal institution in Rome as part of an attempt to forge an alliance and oppose the invading Ottoman forces. The Tarnovo Patriarchate strongly adhered the Orthodoxy and resisted Roman Catholic attempts at penetration in the territories under its pastoral care. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church by all probability had a major role in spreading Christianity among Cumans and some Tatars in Wallachia and Moldova in the 13 th and 14 th centuries . The high status of the Head of the Tarnovo Patriarchate was borne out by the participation of Patritach Simeon in the coronation of the Serbian monarch Stephen Dusan (1331-1335) and his Bulgarian wife Elena as Tsar and Tsarina and the transformation of the Serbian Archbishopric into a Patriarchate in 1346. Around the middle of the 14th c. the Tarnovo Patriarchate was established contacts with Russia. In 1352 Patriarch Theodosius II of Tarnovo took part in the ordination of Theodorit, Metropolitan of the Principality of Galicia-Lithuania, as Metropolitan of Russia. For Russia Tarnovo was obviously an important spiritual centre holding authority over all Orthodox Slavs. At more or less the same time we encounter the appellation "Tsarigrad-Turnov" which reflected the idea of the Bulgarian capital as a "Third Rome" and "Second Constantinople". Further proof of the high status of Bulgarian clerics among Orthodox Slavs is provided by the enthronement, in the year 1375, of three patriarchs originating from Tarnovo: Euthymius (Evtimii) of Tarnovo (1375-1393), Ephraem of Pec, Patriarch of Serbia (1375-1380; 1389-1392), and Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev and all of Russia (1375-1406). The survey of Bulgarian-Russian spiritual ties presented above aims at correcting a view still current in historiography according to which, between the 16th and 18th centuries, church influence followed a North-South (rather than a South-North) axis. While we may assume that such a view reflects the state of affairs in the 18th century, the earlier times of Ottoman domination (15th-17th cc.) were marked by attempts on the part of Tarnovo clerical elite to take part in the most important initiative aiming to increase Russia's prestige as the only independent and most powerful Orthodox Slavonic state. Higher clerics made a point of mentioning the names of Russians monarchs in church services intended for Bulgarian Christian congregations and thus seered Bulgarian expectations of political liberation in the direction of Russia.
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