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After the notorious persecution of its Khurasani protagonists, profiting from the political and ideological vacuum of the interregnum and the upsurge of the Shiite propaganda of the late 15th century, the Hurufi teaching penetrated Eastern and Central Anatolia, partly disguised under the tenets of different Batini indoctrinated groups, making these regions by the end of the century, its new stronghold. The main stage of the events became the Ottoman lands. Particularly in the years after the Ankara disaster of 1402, Asia Minor and the Balkans became a fertile soil for all unorthodox doctrines, especially those, like Hurufi one, nurturing apocalyptic or messianic expectations. Simultaneously, Persian and the Gurgani vernacular retreated before the Anatolian Turkish as its written medium. The paper concentrates on the exegetical attempts of the second generation of Fażl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 1394)’s disciples, in particular the first Turkish translations and commentaries on his seminal works.
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The article analyses an Athonite poetical text which describes a conflict between the monasteries of Zographou and Chilandar over landed property situated inside the Holy Mountain. It refers to no place names, but pays special attention to the visit of a nameless Ottoman governor of Thessalonica, accompanied by the consuls of France, Russia and Austria, to Mount Athos. His intention was to solve the difference and to reconcile the two monasteries, but his efforts failed. He then granted a special document (ilam) to Zographou, and met an unnamed ex-patriarch of Constantinople in the monastery of Espigmenou. The authorized representatives of Zographou and Chilandar, Dositheos and Onouphrios, travelled to Constantinople in order to present the case to the sultan’s court, but during their stay in Istanbul cholera struck the city and the final decision was postponed until the end of the epidemy. Three Greek and two Turkish documents make it clear that Zographou and Chilandar were claiming the terrain of Giovantza on the northwest coast of Mount Athos as well as that the conflict was rather important for the two monasteries.
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The article focuses on problems relating to the Jewish community’s origin in medieval Tarnovo, the reasons that provoked the Bulgarian-Jewish conflict from the 1350ies and its aftermaths. The hypothesis that Tarnovo Jews originated from Byzantine and appeared in medieval Bulgarian capital at the end of the 12th century as manufacturers of silk is proposed. The religious clash from the 1350ies is ascribed to the influence exerted by some Talmudic anti-Christian texts on the local Jewish community, to the broken inner status-quo between Christians and Jews after the second marriage of the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander and to the reactions of part of the Christian population against the breach of this status-quo.
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The article tells about the early history of the Bulgarian church in the Romanian town of Braila in the third quarter of the 19th century. In this city at that time there was a large Bulgarian emigrant community, resettled there mainly after the Russo-Turkish war of 1828–1829. It was distinguished by its active economic and socio-cultural activities and in the 1860s turned the city into the cultural capital of the Bulgarian diaspora in Romania. There was a Bulgarian school there, Bulgarian newspapers were published, Bulgarian printing houses functioned; prominent Bulgarian writers, playwrights, publicists such as Dobri Voynikov, Vasil Drumev, Hristo Botev lived and worked in the city for some time… The Bulgarian Literary Society (predecessor of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) was founded there (in 1869), a community center and other social and cultural organizations operated, and a fruitful theatrical activity developed. But even in the 1860s, the Bulgarian community still did not have its own church to worship in their native language. The article traces, on the basis of the currently available documentary and other sources, the preparation and implementation of the construction of the Bulgarian Church of the Ascension of Christ in Braila, carried out mainly in the years 1868–1875. This endeavor was guided by the elected church boards, which managed to mobilize for this purpose the spiritual potential and material resources of the Bulgarian community there. The funds for the construction of the temple were raised through voluntary donations and loans, in which representatives of all strata of the Bulgarian diaspora participated: rich merchants and bankers, as well as smaller merchants, craftsmen, innkeepers, gardeners, etc., as well as many activists of the local intelligentsia, active participants in the national liberation movement, etc. Thus, the construction of the Bulgarian church in Braila, which still exists today – a century and a half later, became a real nationwide affair and despite some accompanying negative phenomena, became one of the most positive and successful pages in the history of Bulgarian emigration to Romania.
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Report from the scientific symposium Mary, Mother of God, in theology and Christian art, Stadniki, May 6th, 2021
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The aim of this paper is to provide a starting point for a comparison between the four edited versions of the Palaea Historica: the Greek one, the first Slavonic translation, the Romanian translation and the recently published second Slavonic translation. The four versions diverge from the very beginning, with the Greek and the first Slavonic translation providing a discussion on the Holy Trinity before moving on to God’s creation of the world, whereas the Romanian version omits the theological introduction and expands the cosmogonical portion with a paraphrase of Epiphanius’ Hexaemeron. The second Slavonic translation omits the entire description of the six days of creation in order to focus on Adam and the symbolic importance of his name. Another point of interest is the treatment of a fragment condemning the heretical view that Satan was Cain’s father, which is not conserved in the first Slavonic version and the Romanian versions.
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The article compares two fiction books by the Romanian author Ana Blandiana and fellow Bulgarian writer Teodora Dimova. As the analysis reveals the books share a lot of similarities in their approach to the “totalitarian experience”. In these literary works, we can see how through the child’s viewpoint the two female writers show different solutions in times of crises and harrowing circumstances. In summary, Blandiana and Dimova demonstrate in a brilliant aesthetic way the endless possibilities of literature to find salvation even in tragic accidents, and an exit from exile.
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Content of the main Bulgarian scientific journals for the current year in linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography, archaeology and art studies.
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Defended Ph.D. theses in Bulgaria in the field of linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography and art studies.
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Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2021.
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The study, published in Greek in 1983–1985, is devoted to a phenomenon in the Eastern Orthodox Church that had not, until then, been the subject of a special research in the field of social history. Based on a vast array of historical sources, the author presents and comments on facts about the production and distribution of indulgences from the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch from the 16th to the 20th century. The emergence and gradual establishment of the institution of indulgences in Eastern Orthodoxy is traced within the socio-political and cultural context of four centuries, focusing on the reasons for the introduction of indulgences, the stages of gradual standardization of their text, and the various forms of their distribution. The phenomenon is reflected in detail, taking into account its extension into the field of dogma, economics, social and political relations. The study sheds new abundant light on important issues in the history of the church, societies and attitudes in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy. An inventory of 57 printed Orthodox indulgences is also attached.
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In 1858 Petko R. Slaveykov (1827–1895) was already an influential public figure in his homeland – the regions of Tarnovo and Tryavna. Gradually, it was becoming more and more visible nationally – especially in the field of the church struggle against the Patriarchate of Constantinople and its metropolitans on Bulgarian lands. Slaveykov’s literary endeavors were becoming more and more recognizable. In this context, one of his unpublished and unknown pamphlets is presented and interpreted in the paper. The attribution of the manuscript is based on a wide range of data – archival, biographical, literary. The connection with the other components of the writer’s work is implemented through facts, topics and language specifics. The full text of the manuscript is presented in compliance with the current rules for publishing archival materials from the Revival epoch.
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The monograph “Women beyond the Archive. Invisible Histories of Women in Bulgaria” is focused on researching the archives of and for women in Bulgaria. The proposed model encompasses the chronological framework of the period of the communist regime and considers the historical conditions of the founding of the State Historical Archives in 1951. The object of the study are the archives of women vis a vis the traditional historical archives. I try to outline the presence of the history of women and women’s lifes in the documental heritage. The purpose of the research is to define the models of archive availability in Bulgaria, related to the history of women and more specifically to define the historiographic situation in the sphere of researching gender and the history of women. The archive policies which are part of the general policies of the totalitarian period predetermined the documental presence of history of women. Today we possess a huge ammount of documents – mainly official, about the state activists as well as about the distribution and the manegement of the documentation of the period. It is to be noted that women, who did not fit the ideological narrative of the period are neglected by the archives, because of the well known ideological and institutional standing of the establishment of the State Archives in Bulgaria. Women of diverse minority groups, women who belonged to the political opposition, women workers in the factories, field workers and so on are left out of the collections of the State Archives – or they are present only with especially selected showcase faces. In addition, in the post-socialist archives in Bulgaria once again are absent the a number of groups of women like Gypsy women, Pomak women, Turkish women. Generally speaking, women from the low class – or of diverse ethnic or religious background – are marginalized as well as in the global documental heritage. This situation defines the difficulties which face the researcher of the history of women in Bulgaria. A number of topics and research fields are ignored being unclear and documentary not supported. Still, these obstacles could stimulate the use of non-conventional sources and methods, enriching the research methods. The use of oral history and interdisciplinary methods that unite the approaches of different humanitarian and social sciences gains specific importance. Both the academic discussions and the new research fields, developed after the fall of the Iron Curtain found their place in our scholarly discourse. I have to emphasise that I was not led by the often used practice to adjust the ‘big’ theory to my own research. I have chosen the vice versa method – to let the results of my research found their theoretical justification. Part of my academic inquiries inscribed into the modern theories of the postcolonial studies, minority studies, intersectional theories of accumulation of inequalities and marginalization, and modern identity archive theory. Onether purpose of my research is outline some fields in the archival system which could not be studied by conventional methods. The developing research fields of Gender Studies, History of Women and History of Gender Relations in Bulgaria rarely pay attention to marginalized women. In the first chapter I contemplate the theories which could be applied to the research of the ‘hidden’ women. My aim is not to cover all theoretical recourses but rather to spot possible research horizons. In the first chapter I follow the processes of interaction between historiography and archives as practice of documentation in the framework of socio – philosophical and archive theoretical doctrines. I take into account the postcolonial theories, the theories of intersection of inequalities and marginalization in the context of their relation to the present academic situation in Bulgaria. One of the purposes of the monograph is to outline as a research field the life stories of sometimes double or triple marginalized women.They could be approached by different research methods – and especially via interdisciplinary methods. In the second chapter I present the origin, the history and the development of the archives of women and for women, their variety and specificity in their international context. The geographical framework includes women archives in Europe, the Balkans and the USA. The varieties of archive practices are connected with the enriching the definition of the archive – surpassing the notion of the classical historical archives. The so called ‘identity archives’, part of which are the women’s archives are the best example for this case. In the third chapter I describe the situation in the Bulgarian State Archives in relation to documental heritage of women. For this task I use statistical methods for outlining its size on the background of the official polices towards women. For data searching in the entire archival system of the Bulgarian State Archives I used the informational system of the institution. I analysed the content of all the files (Фонд) in order to define only the archives related to the history of women. Another important documental resource are the personal files of women (including family records) which I researched in details. What is important to note about the personal archives is that they reflect directly the policy of the archival system in preserving the memory of women. The last chapter includes several case studies of women’s archive stories which I have studied in details and which I have already published (some of them in joint works with other colleagues, including published books). In this chapter I consider their stories only from the point of view of their archive presence and in relation to the statement of Mary Beard “No documents, no history”. Through the prism of postcolonial theories and the theories of accumulation and intersection of inequalities and marginalization I have researched the archival presence of Muslim women and Gipsy women during the totalitarian period. There have been many research obstacles related to the reconstruction of life stories of three women who were activists of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union. Two of them (Rajna Lapardova and Nevena Elmazova) have two ‘archives’ – one ‘official’ prepared and delivered by them to the State Archive – and another one fabricated by the repressive apparatus of the State Security. which outlines different biographical trajectory. The third woman who belonged to the Oppositional Agrarian Union (Tsvetana Tsacheva) has spent years in the communist labour camps after 1947, when the political opposition in Bulgaria was eliminated. Tsacheva does not have official archive and her life story could be reconstructed only using the method of oral history. Although there were some traces in the State Security Archive marking the persecution against her, her own experience would have been unknown if the method of field research was not used. The other similar cases of persecuted women because of their Turkish ethnic origin were the lecturers at the Sofia University Mefkure Mollova and Hayrie Memova-Suleymanova. The persecutions against them are well documented in the State Security Archive at the expense of the lack of any traces of their academic and other professional activities. The last case (the writer Zlatka Cholakova) is about the so called ‘drawer’ literature, which was sent to the State Archive by misunderstanding. This personal archive research demonstrates the benefits of the so called ‘archive revolution’ which has happened in the last decades – with the opening of the archives of the State Security and the Communist Party. The opening of the archives which are classified as ‘secret archive’ provided opportunities for different kind of research, including the one related to women, who are often excluded from the common research interest.
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This paper reviews five texts regarding Padmasambhava, which were written before Zangs gling ma (dBa' bzhed and four manuscripts discovered in Dunhuang – Pelliot tibétain 44, IOL Tib 321, IOL Tib J 644 and Pelliot tibétain 307), in an attempt to outline a historical portrait of Padmasambhava, different from the mythologized portrait shaped by Zangs gling ma and the revealed biographies following it.
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A stereoscopic view on a particular historical event, in which contemporary assessments are combined with mental stereotypes of a medieval man, allows a slightly different assessment of the chronicle plot about the posthumous “baptism of bones” of Oleg and Yaropolk, Princes of Kyivan Rus, in 1044. While from theological positions it is perceived as an absurdity and a direct violation of the rules of the church, in the Middle Ages this act did not contradict the mass religious beliefs. From an ethical point of view, the action of Yaroslav the Wise was regarded as concern for the souls of the ancestors who died pagans and therefore did not claim for the salvation. The soteriological optimism that prevailed in the eleventh century in countries of the late Christianization, including Kyivan Rus, gave hope that living people were able to influence the fate of the souls of the dead. From a political point of view, the baptism of the ashes of the ancestors and their reburial in the family tomb of the Princes of Kyiv in the Church of the Tithes was aimed at expanding the circle of heavenly patrons and protectors of the princely dynasty, expanding the period of the Christian history of Kyivan Rus, and, as a result, legitimizing the power of Yaroslav the Wise.
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