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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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Eastern Roumelia received its fundamental law drafted by a specially European commission. It is quite a detailed document providing for all aspects of life of the Roumeli citizens. The Organic Statute of Eastern Roumelia defined the new political formation in the Balkans as a state of modern (for that time) bourgeois-liberal type. It had all the features of and independant state: its own government, a representative authority elected by the people and a national army. The sovereignty of the sultan was included in the Statute, but thanks to the efforts of Eastern Roumeli political figures, it soon became nominal, without any serious power in the region. Unlike the neighboring countries (the Ottoman Empire, the Principality of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Romania) there was no legalized and preferred religion in Eastern Roumelia. All religious issues were placed in the hands of the religious communities and the state did not involve itself with them. The only condition was that they should not violate any of the laws valid to the region.
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Stefan S. Dobchev was a noted Bulgarian public figure, scholar and statesman. Even in his early years he established contacts with the Russian Slavic societies. At the end of the 19-th century and the beginning of the 20-th century, when the blocks in the future world war were formed, he became an active participant in the movement for unity of Slav peoples. The idea was that they should not be placed in a confronting position in the world military conflict that that was forming. Stefan Bobchev was one of the active organizers of the Slavic associations of the intelligentsia and other such estates. Stefan Bobchev stood out as an active organizer and political figure in the field of the struggle for Slavic unity. Until the end of his life, he remained a firm believer in the unity of Slav peoples.
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The numerous and once monolithic Bulgarian national enclave, which had lived for many years in the Northern Pryazovia steppes, suffered numerous calamities. The first settlers arrived in the Pryazovia in the summer and fall of 1861 and the settlement was finally completed only in 1863. The social and economic development of the Bulgarian colonies was under the influence of the system of assimilation policy of the Russian Empire in respect to national minourities. In spite of the conditions, some Bulgarian port settlements quickly turned into commercial and industrial centres. The Bulgarian settlers upheld their Bulgarian national identity against the pressure of the assimilation policy mainly by preserving their native language, everyday life, customs, rites, feasts and folklore. In the first years of settlement the Bulgarians, particularly those in the Crimean Peninsula (Tauris) focused on and managed to achieve the opening of schools, at first only in several large settlements and later in all Bulgarian villages. In Preslav there was even a Central Bulgarian School subordinate to the Ministry of State Properties. Russia's assimilatory imperial policy also influenced the cultural development of the Bulgarian settlers. Official lay and church authorities were hostile to the language and some elements of the traditional life of Bulgarians under the pretext that they were heathen. Bees and other youth gatherings of definitely Bulgarian outlook were presecuted. Theatical and other amateur performances n Bulgarian were banned. At the same time, as loyal subjects, Bulgarians were active participants in World War I, in both recruitment and requisition. The Civil War did not pass by the Bulgarian settlements either. In some parts they formed armed bands and became part of the Free Territory organized along anarchist lines. At the establishment of Soviet power, the Ukrainian government was headed on three occasions by the Bulgarian Krustyu Rakovski. When Tauris became Soviet, the mayors, clerks and popular guards who enjoyed confidence in the Bulgarian settlements were s wept away. About then or more thousnad Bulgarians perished in the turbulent period of 1917-1922. The intelligentsia, which usually came from broad-minded affluent families, war a particular victim. The road to inveigle the authorities to grant some cultural (and partly administrative) "autonomisation" of the Tauris Bulgarians was opened with the establishment of a Bulgarian Bureau with the Central Commitee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine and the publication of the 'Surp i Chuk' (Hammer and Sickle) newspaper in Bulgarian. The resistant against collectivization and the subsequent artificially induced famine in 1932-1933 cost the live of 20 000 Tauris Bulgarians. This also continued during the unprecedented Great Purge until Stalin's death in 1953 to which many Ukrainian Bulgarians fell victim.
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The life and work of the Turkish journalist and publicist M. N. Deliorman, packed as they are with plenty of valuable information about the history of the Turkish community and the political history of Bulgaria, deserve to be reached. After presenting the most important points in the biography of M. N. Deliorman, this paper discusses in great detail his reports from Bulgaria, which he sent as a correspondent in the course of nearly two months directly after the coup on September 9, 1944.
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The Macedonian charity, cultural and educational fraternities in Bulgaria were established by the refugees from Macedonia who came to this country after Kresna-Razlog Uprising in 1878, the Illinden (St. Elijah's Day) Uprising in 1903, the Second Balkan War in 1913 and World War I. They originated on a purely fraternity basis with the aim of charity work, mutual support and preservation of family roots. The number of fraternities established by the refugees grew with their number in Bulgaria, running parallel to and enrichment of the forms of organization: clubs emerged, ephorie (boards of trustees), cooperatives, cultural and educational scocieties, orphanages, including banks such as the Macedonian Cooperative Bank and the Macedonian Popular Bank, and the Macedonian Research Institute among others. At the beginning of May 1934 there were about 540 Macedonian refugee structures established all acros Bulgaria with 50634 regularly reported members. The activity of the Macedonian fraternities was officially terminated with Decree № 130 of 1951 of the Presidium of the National Assembly. A special circular letter of the Ministry of Justice was issued whereby the company cases of the refugee organization were transferred to the regional and district courts where single-member panels presided. The decree of the Presidium transferred the entire property of the Macedonian charity fraternities and other Macedonian organisations to the newly-established Gotse Delchev Society in Sofia.
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The paper of the two authors essentially provides the academic, cultural and political audience with the opportunity to have contact with an authentic document which was preserved for over 40 years. It is a tale of what was heard, seen and particularly experienced in the 1970's in the relations between the two political colossi in Bulgaria at that time. The account of the meetings with Todor Pavlov and the facsimiles of the published documents provoke the way of thinking of contemporary times and the conclusions that can be made.
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Civilizational accumulations, the deformations of various nature and the need to rationalize them give rise to contradictory opinions about identical processes and events. Several Balkan authors are presented, as well as their views and methods and models they use. The Croatian DubravkaUgrešić and her painful nostalgia for the disintegrated Yugoslavia in 'The culture of Lies'; Turkish historian Fikret Adanir with his work on the Macedonian Question 'Die makedonische Frage. Ihre Enstehung und Endwicklung bis 1909', in which the leitmotif of the study is the principle of the Ottoman 'milliyet' system; as well as the book of Greek author Anastasia Karakasidou 'Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood: Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870-1990', first published in the United States. It speaks of the Bulgarians in Aegean Macedonia, as well as the fate of the Macedonian citizen Vladimir Paunovski and his report revealing the ideology of Yugoslavism and Titovism, which generated Macedonism and the Macedonian language. The paper also reveals the connection between their views and their attitude towards the doctrinal framework of Benedict Anderson's fundamental for modern anthropology work, 'Imagined Communities'.
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