За центъра на провинция Румелия (от края на XVIII век до 1839 г.)
The Centre of Rumeli Province (from the end of the 18th century to 1839)

Summary/Abstract: This article studies the problem of the centre of Rumeli eyalet at the end of the 18th – the beginning of the 19th century. Based on the fact that two towns, Sofia and Manastir (Bitolja), functioned as seats of the provincial government of the period, an attempt has been made to solve the problem whether they were alternative centres of Rumeli or there was a process of shift of the centre. To solve this issue, the author presents and analyses the factors that had an influence in determining Ottoman provincial centres: province territory and boundaries, economic state of the respective towns, the political situation and proximity to problematic regions. In addition, there is a presentation of the popular practice in the Ottoman Empire in which alternative government centres existed on both provincial and all-imperial level. The activity of provincial administration and more specifically that of the appointed governor, the vali, is taken into account as a factor in determining the centre of Rumeli province. Because of the specifics of the vali’s work, he governed without settling permanently in one place for a long period of time – a vali took part in may military campaigns in the region and administrated the province while travelling. At the end, the author comes to the conclusion that in the case of the Rumeli eyalet there was a process of gradual shifting of the centre, which was caused by the sum of all above-mentioned factors. This process ended with the establishment of the Tanzimat period in 1839 when new rules of organization were established for provincial administration and Bitolja became a capital of a new type, in accordance with the standards of the modern age.

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