Browsing by Subject "Pomaks"

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Open Access
The Pomaks: conversion to islam in the Western Rhodope mountains in the 15th century
(2019-06) Avcı, Dilara
In this thesis, the religious conversion process among the local population in the Western Rhodope, an area under the rule of the Ottoman Empire,is examined. The importance and location of the Rhodope during the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans is evaluated and compared with the conquests of Bosnia and Albania and the initiation of the Islamization process, where the conversion to Islam took place differently in each of these 3 regions. Although the Ottoman Empire did not directly conqueror exert effort for Islamization in the Western Rhodopian region, the Pomaks residing in the region in the 15th century began to become Muslims, where such transition is clearly evidenced in the tahrir defters used in this thesisdated 1445, 1464/65 and 1478/9. Through these three defters, it is possible to have an insight into the processof Islamization in the Pomak settlement units, thus invalidating the theories on forced Islamization.
Open Access
Religious and demographic development in the South-Western Rhodope Mountains in the second half of the fifteenth century : a case study of the Tahrir register of 1478
(2012) Chmiel, Agata Anna
The spread of Islam into non-Muslim territories has always followed their conquest by some expanding Islamic polity. Ottoman military expansion into the Balkans was followed by the establishment of a new administrative and Islamic institutional order. Yet not all areas in the Peninsula were affected equally by the expansion of this new Muslim power, let alone impacted in the same manner by the introduction of their religious beliefs. This thesis focuses on the religious developments following the conquest of the kaza of Drama, located in eastern Thrace, in accordance with the Tapu Tahrir Defteri 07, which covers the year of 1478. A case study of 25 villages from various geographic regions of the area, as well as the town of Drama, has been chosen in order to analyze the religious situation found in that year. Through a focus on the geographic, economic and local religious characteristic of the region, an analysis concerning the conversion process to Islam will be provided. The representative value of the villages chosen will provide explanations as to the role of colonizers, urban town-dwellers and yürüks. This in turn will present an analysis concerning the preliminary stages of conversion and the various elements that either halted or motivated the process of Islamization.
Open Access
The spread of Islam in the Ottoman Balkans: Revisiting Bulliet's method on religious conversion
(Oriental Institute (ASCR), 2010) Radushev, E.
The first chronologically comprehensive and conceptually sound view of conversion to Islam was that offered by R. W. Bulliet. His Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period, published in 1979, is of great importance to the study of the conversion process and its ethno-religious and social consequences. Qualifying R. W. Bulliet's method as "an original, bold and provocative work worthy of attention," it should be mentioned that his study has been criticized on many grounds. Some historians conceive it, above all, as "food for thought," its conclusions being reliable primarily with respect to medieval Iran only, due to the great limitations of the source base. I would maintain, however, that given the sufficient amounts of available empirical data, R. W. Bulliet's research technique is reliable and meaningful. In my paper I have attempted to show through the results of my research that his quantitative model and timetable of conversion to Islam are valid in relation to the investigation of the dynamics of ethno-religious processes in the Ottoman Balkans. The similar results revealed in both this researcher's theoretically drawn model and the curve of conversion that I obtained when using a sufficient quantity of numerical data from the Balkans, prove that Bulliet's method is applicable in investigating the diffusion of Islam in its broadest chronological and territorial scope.