Demographic structure and settlement patterns of North-Eastern Bulgaria : a case study on Niğbolu Sandjak (1479-1483)
Author(s)
Advisor
Date
2006Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This thesis examines demographic structure and settlement patterns of Niğbolu Sandjak
in the the last two decades of the fifteenth century. Seen through the data provided by
the Ottoman tax and population censuses (tahrir defterleri), the research shows the
demographic movements of native Christians in the sandjak and new settlers coming
from the Asia Minor. The thesis examines the presence of Turkic people in the region
from 5th century to the end of the 15th century. Based on the two 15th century icmâl
defters of Niğbolu Sandjak, this study focuses on recovery of pre-Ottoman settlemets
and establishment of new Turkish settlements. Also this study criticizes the catastroph
theory of Hristo Gandev who developed one of the leading demographic theories of
Marxist Balkan historiography. The information we get from the icmâl defters does not
consistant with Gandev’s Catastrophy Theory. Following the conquest of the region,
neither a quick Turkification nor a mass-Islamization was happened in the sandjak but the secure and peacefull environment provided the infrastructure of these Islamizationa
and Turkification processes for the sixteenth century.