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As to my personal project plan for the coming six years on the issue of present concern, I shall in the following present my hypothesis––a hypothesis which is about to take shape, while I am looking up for a moment from behind the heaps of books taken from my bookshelf. The reason why I shall submit my hypothesis at this stage is that I hope that you might prompt me––by expressing your appreciation or doubts to what you read––to advancing new perspectives and new ideas.
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In this paper a hypothesis has been discussed that during a certain period of time at the beginning of 19th century at the tekke of Salaheddin baba (which turbe has been built by the famous Osman Pazvantoglu in the town of Vidin in 1801), there was a book collection or a library. This case study has been examined in the context of several topics: 1) the history of the town of "Islam serhad" Vidin; 2) Osman Pazvantoglu and his family; 3) Osman's activity in the field of Islamic charity and his building works; 4) the cult of Muslim Martyrs, precisely of "late" sehids, and the image of sehid Salaheddin/Salatin baba, killed in the battle when the Austrians besieged the Vidin castle in 1689; the tekke is mentioned in documents as a tekke, baba hanegah, zaviye, dergah and financially was supported in the 19th century by the vakf of Osman Pazvantoglu; according to the Muslim' folklore from Vidin his turbe became a worship place and Salaheddin was honoured as a healer; 5) the library of Osman Pazvantoglu; 6) Data found in the Catalogue of the Osman Pazvantoglu's Library from 1837 and in a manuscript from the same library, support the hypothesis of the existence of a book collection or a library in the tekke of Salaheddin baba, the books of the tekke have been moved to the public library of Pazvantoglu probably before 1837. The collection consisted of 30 manuscripts, 11 of which were described in the section "Sufizm, moral and sermon" of the Catalogue from 1837.
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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 paper presents in analytical way to Fund of the Ottoman documents about Mecca and Medina, kept in the collections of Oriental Department of the National Library "St St Cyril and Methodius". The documents are grouped in six main sections according to their content. The author presents in annotated form multiple documents of that fund. The paper includes an annex of the inventory of documents from fund Hijaz (Arabia).
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This article to challenge the notion of an entirely harmonious Christian-Orthodox parish that dominates the historiography of the Ottoman Balkans. The interrelations between Orthodox priests and their flocks are analyzed here in the light of the so-called Chronicle of Serres (ca. 1642), composed by Papa Synadinos, a Greek Orthodox priest and a member of the local Christian elite. It is claimed that two distinct images of the parish, quite opposite to each other, emerge from the text of the Chronicle. The first one is the image of the "ideal" parish, free of any conflicts between the priest and his parishioners. In the Chronicle it was exemplified with the parish of Papa Siderus, Synadinos' father, who has been portrayed as e perfect priest and a role-model for his time. This image, however, proves to be no more than a literary construct. Much more interesting is the second image representing the "real" parish led by Synadinos himself. It was depicted as a place where frictions between the "enlightened" priest and his flock were a common occurrence. The present study attempts to delineate the economic as well as the cultural (in the broadest sense of the word) cause which stood behind the constantly evolving tensions between laity and priests. It is argued that disagreements deepened even more due to options available to both sides to compete against each other by petitioning either to the Ottoman or the Church authorities.
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Throughout the 15th-18th centuries the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire paid significant attention to the orphans' and poor children's relief. However, none of the Sultan's subjects set up an orphanage. The children in need were raised as fosterlings. Many extramartial infants were abandoned. If the abandoned children survived until 4 years of age, they entered the gangs. From 1839 onward the Ottoman officials considered the socialization of the orphans, pauper children and delinquents as an essential state affair. As early as 1860s they endeavored to set up industrial or reform schools. The paper of the author focuses on the very idea to establish such schools and casta light on their network in the Ottoman Empire. It summarizes the hypotheses for their origin; the available information about some West European models of social assistance for the children in need; the Ottoman initiative to train orphans, pauper children and delinquents; the role of Midhat Pasha; the origin of the term "islahhane"; the mutual rhetoric and rules of the Belgian and Ottoman reform schools. It advances the suggestion that the islahhanes or the industrial schools embodied the Ottoman attempt effecitvely to manage the periodically increasing number of the children in need. Perhaps the initiative combined the "domestic" model of the Catholic boarding schools, this one of the reform schools run by the Belgian government and the religious imperative for the orphans' and pauper children's socialization. While serving as a provincial governor, in 1863-1866 Midhat Pasha sought to carry out the actual state attempt. From 1867-1868 onward the project was developed by other provincial governors, as well.
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Information on the 19th century history of pharmacy in Bulgaria is too scarce. Present publication includes documents for the development of pharmacy in Bulgaria from the documentary heritage of the Hungarian chemist Gyorgy Szilagyi, kept in the Bulgarian Historical Archive at the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library. Gyorgy Szilagyi's pharmacy existed for a period of eighty years, during which rich archival material accumulated. It is unique as a historical source for the development of pharmacy in Bulgaria, because it highlights the many-sided aspects of a foregn pharmacist's professional activities. Part of Gt. Szilagyi's archival fond are letters from his friends, acquaintances and colleagues that contain information on the fate of Hungarian and foreign pharmacists; they also reveal interesting facts about the relationship between Gy. Szilagui and his colleagues (local doctors and pharmacists) and clients as well. Another part of the fond is the documentation to the half-century-old activity of his pharmacy.
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The paper presents part of a hoard containing items of armaments, horse trappings and everyday objects discovered accidentally on the land of the village of Markovo, Shumen region. While inspecting the site of the discovery on the surface the author came across an array of heavily decayed iron items from tools, cattle-breeding equipment, animal bones as well as some fragments of building ceramics and pots of engraved linear decoration and polished strips from the VIII-th - X-th c. The Old Bulgarian signs engraved on some of them refer to the same period and have numerous analogies from Pliska, Madara and Preslav. Then the author assumed that a medieval settlement probably existed in the site of the discovery or the objects fell there by obscure circumstances most probably from the nearby large but insufficiently studied Hambarluk fortress from late Antiquity and the Middle Ages which came into existence in the V-th - Vi-th centuries and continued existing until the XIV-th c. The published materials by analogies fall withing the chronological boundaries of the early Bulgarian Middle Ages and specifically in the mid-X-th - late XI-th centuries.
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The village of Gintsi is located in Western Bulgaria, at the foothills of the Western Balkan Range and at about 50 km of Sofia. Once a road connecting Moesia and the river Danube with Sardica and Macedonia used to pass through the village. There were also fortifications around it, as evidenced by the toponym "Kaleto", relevant to two elevations at both sides of the route to Petrohan pass. According to a record dated from 1490, the village had an entirely Christian population, as did the entire area in the vicinity of Sofia. A Turkish register shows that the church in the village, that can be dated from the Middle Ages, continued to exist. According to its plan, the St. Nicholas of Myra belongs to the most widespread type of churches in Bulgarian lands in the Middle Ages and the National Revival, the single-naved basilica. The church has a semi-circular central apse inside and out, a naos and a narthex (added later). The entrance is one from the west, through the narthex into the naos. It has a barrel vault and has a gable roof with wooden casing and tiles, completely in the style of West Bulgarian single-naved churches in the period from the end of the 12-th to the 19-th century. The building technique is traditional for West Bulgarian lands. The material used was hewn and river stone, joint with white mortar. The church was decorated with murals. There were three distinctive period of decoration, with almost nothing remaining from the first murals. The murals are in three artistic layers.
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This paper analyses the critically well-known thesis of Prof. Peter Moutafchiev about the raises and falls in Bulgaria's development. We know that, counting the studies of the Russian scholar Alexander Hilferding, Prof. Moutafchiev came to the conclusion that Bulgaria's development was erratic and did not have periods of "peace" - everything featured rapid progress and equally rapid decline and crises. The Bulgarian scholar cited Serbia as an example of slower for more regular progrss. The author attempts to question the general validity of this opinion. First of all, it was dedicated by the historical period in which Prof. Moutafchiev lived and worked. Then Bulgarian history itself was transmitted under the influence of the notion that it consisted of a series of successes and failures. Serbia could hardly be a comparison factor as the main sources about its development are the vitas of its rulers written by their sons and close relatives. Third, there are hardly societies and countries on a European or world scale that have not been subject to the "historical sine" of which Moutafchiev speaks. The author of the article appeals for abandoning the romantic approach in reconstructing the Bulgarian past, which demands rapid events with a fatal outcome. Instead, he offers a narration based on Fernand Braudel's idea of continuity and longue duree.
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The study focuses on the problem of 'master-slave' relations in Modern Times. Analysing the ideology of slave ownership in the United States, the author puts forward the arguments about the continuity of the 'master' attitude in the conditions of the liberal democratic West.
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