Dogma, Brauch, Volksfrömmigkeit. Synkretistische Züge des pomakischen Islam
Dogma, Custom, Folk Piety. Syncretistic Elements in Pomak Islam

Summary/Abstract: After the conversion to Islam of the Bulgarian Pomaks between the 16th and the 18th cent. they adopted the most important dogmas and behaviours of their new religion. At the same time, however, the religion was affected by the contact with Pomak culture. The world view of the Pomaks, who live rather isolated in the Rhodope mountains, reflects a unique cultural wealth. Their religious practices became a melting pot of popular, pre-Christian and pre-Islamic customs. In the article, the following complexes of religious ideas and practices are dealt with as indicative of the syncretistic nature of Pomak folk Islam: (1) forms of piety which manifest themselves in saints' worship; (2) the belief in supernatural beings and in the magic powers of nature; (3) magic actions which protect against the evil powers in nature, in fertility rites, and as part of folk healing; (4) customs and beliefs which have to be understood as relics of Christianity. Finally the article deals with the present religio-cultural reality in which the Pomaks find themselves after the political changes in Bulgaria of 1989. It is a situation in which religious and cultural freedom is restituted, but at the same time one can observe a new politico-religious schism in the group: conservatism versus modernism in Islam.

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