Ислямизацията между полюсите на паметта: балкански паралели
Islamisation between the polarities of memory: Balkan parallels

Summary/Abstract: The text traces the memory of Islamisation in various Balkan narratives created and spread in different historical periods and in different political conjunctures. It seems that this process, thought of as the most traumatic (at least in Bulgarian memory), is interpreted by other national historiographies and folk narratives in a completely opposite way. Islamisation is remembered as the liberation from the aspirations of the Catholic and Orthodox churches (in Bosnia) or as a national awareness and cohesion (in Albania). Weather the different narratives choose as a motivation of the process the grievances of heretics ( the Bogomils thesis ) or the adoption of Islam primarily by the aristocracy which wanted to keep its property and privileges (class thesis) in most cases the conversion is presented as voluntary . Some isolated cases of violence are mentioned but a mass forced Islamisation policy of the Ottoman Empire is dismissed - with the exception of Bulgaria. The attitude of the non-Muslim majorities to the converts and the interconnection of the narratives with specific political conjunctures are also traced.

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