BALKAN H1STORIOG~PHY 237

III lit" ('as(' of' lht' Bulgarian national movement, which gained
1I101llt'II1UI1I OllieI' the Crimean War, one can discern influences of a
9. BALKAN HISTORIOGRAPHY RELATED TO THE dilli')'('111 socio-political setting, On the one hand, in their struggle
OTTOMAN E:\lPIRE SI~CE 1945* i1),!;i1iIlSI (;n'('k ('cdesiastical and cultural dominance, the Bulgarians
('V('II ('olll1l('d on the support of the Ottoman reform bureaucracy;
FIKRET ADANIR
011 Iht' other hand, they no longer received protection from Russia,
Ruhr Uni\'ersity, Bodmlll Ih(' 10StT or tite Clilllcan War, but from the liberal West. Consequently
('IIItT),!;il1),!; hour),!;t'ois 01' petit-bourgeois elements within Bulgarian soci-
ely had a hettcr chance of asserting themselves. Again, however, the
I lIaliollal qllestiol1 was not resolved by a political compromise artic-
IIlalillg' Ihe intcrnal dynamics of the civil society, but as a result of
Because the historical sciences in the Balkans have developed along all ('xleJ'llal I~l('t()r, the victory of the Tsarist armies.
lines determined by the needs of the nation-states emerging there Nation-statl' It>rlnation in Ottoman Europe was hardly a corollary
since the nineteenth century, an understanding of nation-state for- of hourg'l'ois aspirations for social and political emancipation. Inde-
mation is essential to understanding how historical tradition has pendencc attained in the wake of an Ottoman military defeat heaved
evolved in this part of Europe, The liberation struggles in Ottoman the most militant factions of the elites to the forefront, creating
Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria originated in rural conflicts in which lIation-states bcf()re the civilian bases of corresponding national soci-
semi-military elements such as haiduks, mart%s, or armatoli were promi- eties had de\'Cloped. .:\'ew rulers had to embark upon daring pro-
nent-a circumstance that may account for the "chetnik mentality" jects of nation-building from above, and historical scholarship found
widespread in the Balkans ever since. I E\'en in the Greek case, where itself in a predominantly ideological role. 3 Creating historical tradi-
a relatively developed "national bourgeoisie" stood behind the insur- tions--and the interpretation the Ottoman period received in that
rectionary movement, it was hardly their aim to establish a small context-not only legitimized the new regimes internally, but also
Greek state at the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. On the con- justified them externally vis-a.-vis a European world that cherished
trary, the urban commercial groups hoped, together with the Phanariote its own notions of nationhood and was eager to dispatch its princes,
aristocracy, to transform Ottoman rule into a Greek-controlled, multi- generals, bankers or missionaries into the region. The romantic con-
ethnic, oriental empire, Intellectuals such as Adamantios Korais or cept of the uniqueness of nation, the novel idea of nationhood based
Rhigas Velestinlis, too, seem to have thought in "imperialist" cate- on language, the employment of history in support of irredentist pro-
gories, envisioning a Greek "republic" which would include the jects and similar modern concepts thus entered the Balkans. As a
Balkans, the Archipelago, and Asia lVIinor.::! result, the Balkan states from their inception were bent on reattain-
ing their medieval or ancient grandeur, and even present-day conflicts
* A revised version of this text appear:ed in Toplurn ve Bilirn, no. 83 (Winter are vindicated, internally and internationally, with reference to impe-
1999/2000), pp. 221-240, under the title "Ikinci Diinya Sava~i sonraSl Balkan tarih rial inspirations from the past. 4
yazmmda Osmanh Imparatorlugu".
I Gale Stokes, "The Absence of :.'\ationalism in Serbian Politics before 1840:'
Canadian Review qf Studies in Nationalism. 4 (1976): 77-90; Lawrence P. Meriage, "The
First Serbian Uprising (1804-1813): National Reyi\'al or a Search for Regional
Security," Ibid., 4 (1977): 187-205; Hans-Michael '\liedlig, "Patriarchalische Mentalitat (J 789-1821) Geneya and Paris, 1962), 183-209; Apostolos Daskalakes. To politeuma
als Hindernis fUr die staatliche und gesellschaftliche .\Iodernisierung in Serbien im tou Riga Beltstinli. ProtOI/ slllltagma ellinws dimokratias kai eleutheras diabiose os ton Balkanikoll
19. Jahrhundert," Siidost-Forschungen 50 (1991): 163-90; Dimitrije Djordjevic, "The laon (Athens, 1976: and the contributions in Richard Clogg, ed., Balkan Sociery in
Role of the Military in the Balkans in the Nineteenth Century," Der Berliner Kongress the Age qf Greek II/depel/dence Totowa, l'{J, 1981).
von 1878. Die Politik der Grossmiichte ulld die Probleme da Jlodemisierung ill Siidosteuropa ill 3 Paschalis .\1. Kitromilides, "'Imagined Communities' and the Origins of the
der Zlaiten Hiilfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, ed. Ralph .\lehille and Hans~lirgen Schroder National Question in the Balkans," European History Oyarter!>, 19 (1989:: 149-9,1.
(Wiesbaden, 1982), 317-47. i Stefan TroebsL "F1uchtpunkt San Stefano-Nationalism us in Bulgarien," Die
2 See Notis Botzaris, Visions balkam'ques dans fa preparation de la revolution grecqlle
Neue GesellsrhafllFranlfllrter Hdie 37 (1990): 405·-14; Wol(~ang Hlipken, "Geschichte
238 FIKRET ADANIR BAI.KAN HISTORIOGRAPHY 239

The nineteenth-century European image of Ouoman rulc, there- ewry ('01'1\('1' of' the Peninsula could be conveniently attributed to
fore, has direct relevance for the emcrging Balkan historiographics. ()ttolllilll 0(T1'I)CItioll . .Jin~(':ek's "History of the Bulgarians" (1875),
Philhellenic sentiments of the post-Napolconic cra fostcred in thc "written ill till' hest tradition of nineteenth-century European histo-
West a deep interest for thc fortuncs of subject populations in south- l'iogTaphy:' illtl'Odll('cd notions of thc "Turkish yoke" into the Balkan
eastern Europe. Evcn the positivist school, long creditcd fl.))" its impar- S(,(-II<"II alld it Ii-II to Nicolac Iorga to state (ironically in the year of

tiality and critical invcstigation of historical qucstions, indulgcd in thc YOllng- Turk Revolution of 1908) that despite rcmarkable efforts
swceping gencralizations that confirmcd curoccntric theoretical con- to rdill'lII stall- and society, the Ottomans were, in part because of the
structs and prcjudices against "extcrnal principlcs" such as "Islam" rig-idity or Islalll, doomed to f~lil. Iorg-a thought that although the Turkish
or "Asia." For instance, Rankc "nevcr lost sight of thc Ottoman hody politic still showed signs of life (der tiirkische Staatskiirper lebt noch),
Empirc," which to him reprcscnted "thc classical Oricntal opposite." the 'l'mkish soul was long dead (Aher die tiirkische Seele ist ... erloschen). 9
Even in a work as unrelatcd to the Ottomans as his History f!f the
Germanic and Roman Peoples (1824) and in his Serbian Revolution (1829),
Ranke himself admitted that he intcnded to make a material con- II
tribution to the Serbian cause. s Likewise, an observer as sympathetic
as Joseph von Hammer could not desist, when judging the Ottomans, The record or post-\Vorld 'Var II Balkan historiography of the
from assuming the stance of a morally and intellectually superior ()ttoman period also should be viewed against this background. The
European upon reaching the period of the first 'Vestemizing influences conUllllnist parties that wcre installed in power in most countries of
in his multi-volume history. Hc could not help but exclaim: "Both the region assigned to history the task of educating the people in
the author and the reader of Ottoman history can finally breathe "proletarian internationalism" and "socialist patriotism." The parti-
more freely ... In warm contact with European politics and culture, sanship of the historian, categorically disparaged elsewhere, was sud-
at least the edges of the rigid ice crust of the Turk is thawing, and denly in high esteem, but the orthodox Marxist stand did not last
a gentler breeze of humane mildness and civilization is blowing."6 long. As early as 1948-49 the breach between Tito and Stalin sig-
In the 1830s Fallmerayer's "Slavic theory" led to a preoccupation naled divergent approaches to national history within the party.
with the earliest historical periods in order to establish "national unique- Similar modifications in official policy took place in other Balkan
ness" and generate from past grandeur fresh hopes for the future countrics after 1956. In Bulgaria, the turn of the tide came in 1960
of the respective nations. 7 The contemporary misery experienced in when Todor Zivkov, as the first secretary of the party, asked histo-
rians to contribute to the creation of socialism, stressing that "we can
be rightly proud of the heroic past of the Bulgarian people, of their
centuries old culture, of their centuries old struggle against the oppres-
und Gewalt: Geschichtsbewusstsein im jugosla\\ischen Konflikt," Intemationale Schul- sors, for self-preservation and development, for national liberation." 10
buclifOrschung 15 (1993): 55-73.
:; See Ernst Schulin, Die weltgeschichtliche Eifassullg des Orients bei Hegel und Ranke
(Gottingen, 1958), 157, and Fritz Valjavec, "Ranke und der Sudosten," Ausgewiihlte
Aujsiitze, ed. Karl August Fischer and Mathias Bernath '~hmich, 1963), 82-103, und Griechenland," in Der Philhellenismus und die Modemisierung in Griechenland und
here p. 83. Deutsch/and (Thessaloniki, 1986), 9-28; idem, "Von den Einflussen der F reiheits-
G "Endlich kann der Schreiber and Leser osmanischer Geschichte freyer aufath- be\\"egllngen auf die Anfange der deutschen Siidosteuropaforschung," in Siidosteuropa
men ... Die starre Eisrinde des Turkenthumes thallet wenigstens von aussen auf, in der Wahmehmung der deutschen Qjftntlichkeit vom Wiener Kongress (1815) bis ZUlli Pariser
in dem warmen Verkehre europaischer Politik and Cultur, es weht ein sanfterer Frieden (1856), ed. J. ~Iatesic and K. Heitmann (~Iunich, 1991), 65-80.
Hauch menschlicher Milde und feiner Gesittung," Geschiclite des Osmanischen Reiches, 8 ~Iaria Todorova, "Bulgarian Historical Writing on the Ottoman Empire,"

vol. 7 (Pest, 1831), 1-2. Nel(' Perspectives 011 Turke), 12 (1995): 97-118, here pp. 108-09. Constantin Jirecek
7 William St. Clair, 7hat Greece Might Still Be Free: the Philhellenes in the War qf wrote, of course, also a "History of the Serbs": Geschichte der Serben, vols. I and 2
Independence (London, 1972); David Howarth, the Greek .4dl'enture: Lord B)'Ton and Other (Gotha, 1911-1918).
Eccentrics in the War qf Independence (London, 1976,. See also Emanuel Turczynski, "In- ~, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, vol. I (Gotha, 1908), Preface.
novationsimpulse des Philhellenismlls fur die Geschichts\\issenschaft in Deutschland 10 T odor Zivkov, b:.braT/i su Cinenija l' osem lorna, \"01. 4 (Sofia, 1971), 231, as quoted
 •
24·0 FIKRET ADANIR BALKAN HISTORIOGRAPJ!lY 241

In 19GB the party commissioned historians to write a multi-volume Rc's('arch WitS concentrated on social groups that supposedly had
IIiJtory (!/ /Ju/'t.:aria, which was expected to fc)ster "socialist patriotism "collahorated" with the enemy, particularly on the popula,tion in the
and proletarian internationalism." "Socialist patriotism" Wit", of course, category "Vlach."11 All Balkan historiographies focused on their sta-
a euphemism Icu' outright nationalism, and "proletarian internation- IllS wilhin, and runctions fi)r, the Ottoman system, producing a large
alism" was understood gCJlcrally as a call to stress the special rela- alllount or literature in all historical and related fields. I') How could
tionship to Russia or the Soviet Union. I I l\larxist methodoloh'Y, which a Marxist historiography incorporate into the national identity these
induded the periodization of universal history according to modes mol'(' or less privileged groups positioned between the ruling class
of production, necessitated some new approaches to the Ottoman and the taxahle peasantry (the so-called mutif'reqya)? Autochthonous
period of national histOlY. For example, it seemed especially impor- Christian soldiers dd<'~nding Ottoman frontiers or persecuting Christian
tant to establish the main characteristics of the Ottoman feudal hrigands in the countl)'side,IIi Christian peasants guarding mountain
system, to ascertain which social IcuTes had been "progressive" under passt~s (derlJfluki), extracting tar, producing gunpowder or breeding
Ottoman rule, and to determine under exactly what conditions the
passage from fl~udalism to capitalism had occurred. Proper answers
to these questions had a bearing upon the stand of the party of the
agral'lll' OclIlOS(,\," ('·/ldi.\~/!iak hlo17'Jkog Druflva BOJne i Hl'rregol'ine 4 (1952): 5-146, here
proletariat in relation to both imperialism and "reactionary" bour- pp. (i7 (iB.
geois elements within the emerging socialist society. 11 ~ke Nil'oarii Beldiccanu, "Les Roumaines a la bataille d'Ankara," SiidoJ/-
J.i/l:I'dulIlgt'll I,' (19:"):i): ,H,150.
Yugoslav Marxist historians played the leading role in reinter-
I~, TIll' Olllpllt of literature on populations of the sociohistorical category of Vlach
preting the Ottoman past. One of the first questions they tackled and of related pastoral groups such as the Yiiriik, Karakacan, Tsintsar, Saracatsan,
was why so little resistance was put up against the Ottoman inva- etc, reaches remarkable dimensions. This may han~ to do also with the fact that
groups with Vlachian background continue to occupy a conspicuous part in the
sion after the fourteenth century. Whereas the Greek historiography
ethno-political structure of the present-day populations. A selection of titles would
after \Vorld War II tended to blame the lay and ecclesiastical elites include ~lilenko Filipovic, Simpozijulll 0 JredTgevjekozl/lolll kalul/u, odrzan 2-1 i 25 novell/-
for having undermined the capacity for popular resistance, Marxian bra 1961 g. (Saraje\'o, 1963); Branislav Djurdjev, "Teritorijalizacija katunske orga-
nizacije do kraja X\' veka," in Naucno druflvo SR Boslle i Hercegovine, Poseblla izdallie,
analysis of feudal relations, especially in Bosnia, revealed some sig- vol. 2, Otijelj. bl. -jilolofkilz lIauka, vol. 1 (Sarajevo, 1963), 143-70; Idem, "Znacaj
nificant new details. 12 Viewing the Ottoman conquest in a class con- podataka 0 viasima u popisu Krajista Isa-bega Ishakovica 1455. godine," Godiflljak
text, it pointed out that primarily the autochthonous feudal lords Druflva Istomara BoslIe i Hercegovine 15 (1966): 63-78;JO\'an F. Trifunoski, "Die heutigen
aromunischen 'Katunen' in Mazedonien," Sonderausgaben der rvisJenJchajlliclze71 GeJellschafl
had come under attack, while the peasantry was promised freedom SR BoslIifll-Her:c.egOl·ina 2 (1963): 200-202; idem, "Die Aromunen in ~razedonien:'
from servitude, and such agitation had been particularly successful Balcallica 2 (1971): 337--47; Dominik Mandic, "Postanak vlaha. NO\'a povjesna
among pastoral groups. As a result, around the middle of the six- istraiivanja," in idem, Rasprave i prilozi iz Jlare IzroalJke povijesti (Rome, 1963,515-67;
Georges B. Kavadias, PasteurJ-nomadeJ medilerraneenJ. LeJ SaracatJanJ de Crece (Paris,
teenth century Croatian noblemen had to petition King Ferdinand 1965); Nicoani Beldiceanu, "Sur les Valaques des Balkans slaves a l'epoque ottomane
to emancipate the peasantry, as thousands had already deserted their (1450-1550)," Revue d'EtudeJ blamiqueJ 34 (1964): 83-132; idem and I. Beldiceanu-
Stein herr, "Quatre actes de Mehmed II concernant les Valaques des Balkans slaves,"
farmsteds to fiee to Turkish territory.13 SUdoJt-Forsc!zullgen 24 (1965): 103-18; Dragoslav Antonijevic, "Les rites magiques re-
latifs a la transhumance chez les Sop," Balcanica 2 (1971): 357-72; Mirko ~rarkovic,
"0 iivotu i obicajima stoeara na Vlasieu," Balcanica 8 (1977): 671-80: Demetrius
Dvoichenko-~rarkov, "The Vlachs: The Latin Speaking Population of Eastern
in Wolfgang-Uwe Friedrich, "Die bulgarische Geschichtswissenschaft im Spannungs- Europe," /h'zalltion 54 (1984): 508-26; Aleksandar ;\latkovski, "About the \\'allachian
verhaltnis zwischen ideologischem Anspruch und historischer Realirat. Die Geschichts- Livestock Breeding Organization in the Balkans with Special Attention to Katun, ,.
schreibung der Befreiungsbewegung und der Anfange des Nationalstaates," Jalzrbiidzer Review/ Glasnik XXXI (ii) 3 (2) (1987): 199-221; Metodije Sokoloski, "Za jurucite i
iiir Gesclziclzte Osteuropas 29 (1981): 412-35, here p. -!-14. juruekata organizacija vo Makedonija od XV-XVIII wk," btorija 9, no. I (1973:
II Ibid., 416. pp. 85-99; Z. Pimpireva, Karakafanite v Bulgarija. Ot nOll/adstvo kum uJednaloJt (Sofia.
12 For the "betrayal" thesis see Basilike Papoulia, "Die Osmanenzeit in der griechi- 1995).
schen Geschichtsforschung seit der Cnabhangigkeit." in Die Staaten Siidosteuropas und 16 Milan Vasic, "Die Martolosen im Osmanischen Reich," <eitJclzrijljiir BalkaniJtiJ:
die OJmanen, ed. H.G. Majer ~Iunich, 1989), 113-26, here p. 117. 2 (1964): 172-89; idem, AlartoloJi a jugoJlovenJkim zemljama pod turskom lI/adaz:inoll/ Saraje\·o.
13 See Nedim Filipovic, "Pogled na osmanski feudalizam (s posebnim obzirom na 1967).
242 I,'IKIU:'!' AI>ANllt 11:\1 ,',AN '''S'!'( II{IO(lI{"'PHY 243

h()rs(~s I()I' the Ottonlan :ll'IlIy,17 local Christian lords or ('wn priests and. hy 1I0t allowillg p,'opl'rly rig'hts on land, it "maintained both
holding' timar,l' and thus participatillg' in the f,,'udal r(,lIt III sllch a pic- ('conoillic alld sodal dl'\'I'loPlIlI'lIt, as late as the 17th century, at the
tun~ dearly contradicted the illlag'c of a population Sllm~rillg' Ulld('l' stag(' or ('ady !"lId"lisllI,., ill the whole territory under Turkish
the "Turkish yok('." 1'lIit-." 'I
It was quickly detcrmined that the Christian g'roups were 1I0t r(,:llIy There \\';lS also IIlI' rl';tlil Y (II' popular resistance. In Bulgaria, from
privih~g'('d. Theil' tax illllllllllities wcre ill rcality a kind of I"~udal­ the start a (:hrisli;1I1 pllplll;llioll always ready to rebel was posited,
rent-converted-illto-statc-service that nevcr entailed a reduction in and h('J'oislIl ill ('(lllIhal a,~aillsl the invading enemy became a leit-
the amount of the 1(~lI(tal rent itself: I!I That the Ottoman peasant ry motif ill historical lil('l'allll'C','!'! E\'l'1I the crusade of 1444, which ended
enjoyed, at least during' the sixteenth century, better conditions of ncar Val'lla with tht' ddi'al or Ihe Christian army, was styled as "la
lifc than the peasantry in neig'hhoring European countries was attrih- ha/ail/I' 1IIt'lIIl1mhll' tit's /lm/,It.I ... ·.'t I kspite such idealizations, research in
uted to an underdeveloped--versus developed -fcudal system. Because anti-fi.'lulal resistancc did olkr new insights in social history.24 An
Ottoman rule meant a somewhat archaic level of agrarian relations, intCl'estillg o;';lIIlpl(' is 111(' sludy hy Nedim Filipovic on "Prince Musa
it produced a relatively low level of peasant exploitation. According' and Sheikh lkdn'ddin" or thl' l'arly fifteenth century, which addresses
to some programmatic articles of the early 1950s, the military fcu- the cOlltradictiolls hl't\\'('t'll thl' "'i.'udal class" and the "plebians" on
dalism of the Ottomans symbolized by the term lima,. had actually a broad~'r cOlln'ptual basis, illcluding also the dimension of religious
hindered the development of productive forces in the Balkan coun- (l\lllslim as well as Christiall) heterodoxy?; A special focus in this
tries.:.w In time, this interpretation became widespread. For example, context has always l)('clI thc phl'nomenon of heiducry: were heiducs-
in regard to Hungary it was asserted that the Ottoman system "nipped haidlle--or kkphts ill the southern parts of the Peninsula-ordinary
in the bud the beginnings of large-scale agricultural production," "social balldits" \Hohsha\\,m), or forerunners of national guerilla,
anticipating', as it wc\"t', thl' partisans of World \Var II? During the
early post-war period \"Omalltic interpretations portrayed heiducs as
similar to latter-day militias,~ti but with time a more differentiating
I; Branislav Djurdjev, "0 vojnucima (sa osvrtom na razvoj turskog feudalizma i
na pitanje bosanskog agaluka)," Glasnik Zemaijskog mu;::eja u Sarajevu 2 (1947): 75-137;
idem, Turska vlast u Grnqj Gori u XVI i XVII veku. Prilog jednog nereferzot pita,yu iz nafe
islorije (Sarajevo, 1953); Bistra Cvetkova, "K voprosu 0 polozenii dervendzijskogo ~I Gyula KiJdy-::\"agy. "The Elkct of the Timar System on Agricultural Production
naselenija v bolgarskich zemljach v period tureckogo gospodstva," Ulerzye zapiski in Hungary," Sludia Turcim \Budapest. 1971), pp. 241-48, here p. 248. For a char-
Inslituta slavjanovedenija 20 (1960): 196-220; eadem with N. Popov, "Novi dokumen- acterization of the 11I1Iar system as a "barbarian-despotical form of feudalism," see
talni danni za solarstvoto po Juznoto biilgarsko cemomorie ot XV v," /zvestija na Zsigmond Pat Pach. Die ullgarisdlf Agrarentwieklung im 16_-17_ Jahrhundert. Abbiegung vom
A!uzeite ot JugOiztoc11a Biilgarija, vol. 5 (Plovdiv, 1982), 89-131; Aleksandar Stojanovski, wesieuropiiisc!lfll ElIf7.l'iddullgsgallg \Budapest 1964), 15. For an analysis of the Ottoman
Deroendl:,istvoto va Makedonija (Skopje, 1974); idem, Rf!ja so specijalni sadoLZenija 1J(} Makedonija system in relation to Bulgaria see \'era ~lutalcieva, Agramile otnoferzija v Osmanskata
(vqjnuci, sokolari, Olizari i solari) (Skopje, 1990). improja prez .\T-Xn c_ \Sofia, 1962).
18 Bistra Cvetkova, "Novye dannye 0 christianach-spachijach na Balkanskom polu- ~:? Bistra C"etkO\·a. GfT'oicllala sliprolim na Biilgarite protw TursJ.ite nafestvenici (Sofia,
ostrove v period tureckogo gospodstva," Vizantijski vremerznik 13 (1958): 184-97. 1960: Gii rkmla i .l'ii prolimla lIa bIilgarskija narod sreStu osmanskoto igo. Jubileerz sbornik po
19 Vera P. Mutaicieva, "Kategoriite feodalno zavisimo naselenie v naSite zemi slucaj 100 g. 01 OS"obo~denie/o, (Sofia, 1981); Svilen Stanimirov, Politiceskata dejnost na
pod turska vlast prez XV-XVI v.," hvestija na Instituta za istorija pri Biilgarskata akade- Bii/ganlf kalo/iei pre::, 30-lei 70-le godilli lIa XVII vek, KUm istorijala na biilgarskata antios-
mija na naukite 9 .1960): 57-93, here p. 70. This view is supported also by Elena manska sfprolim (Sofia, 1988'_
Grozdanova, "Bevolkerungskategorien mit Sonderpflichten und Sonderstatus - nach ~~ Bistra C\·etkO\-a. La balaille memorable des peuples. I.e sud-esl europeen et la conquete
um'eroffentlichten osmanisch-tiirkischen Dokumenten der Orient-Abteilung der ot/amalit, fill XIP -premiere moilie du XJ -, s, (Sofia, 1971). See also Cvetana Georgieva,
l'\ationalbibliothek," in Osmanistische Studien zur Wirtschtifts- und Sozialgesehichte, ed. H.G_ "Antiosmanskata siiproti\'a na Bu1garite prez XV-XVII v_," ISlorifeski pregled 36, no. 3
~Iajer, (Wiesbaden, 1986), 46-67, here p. 51. (1980: 3-19.
~) Branislav Djurdjev, "Prilog pitanju razvitka i karaktera tursko-osmanskog feu- 2f Bistra C\'etkO\-a, "Za njakoi formi na suprotiva sreStli turskija feodalen stroj

dalizma-timarsko-spahijskog uredjenja," Godif,yak Istoriskog Druftva Bosne i Hercegovi11e prez XVIII \'.," in Paisij Clzilendarski i negovata epocha (1762-1962) (Sofia, 1962),
I 1949): 101-167: idem, "0 uticaju turske vladavine na razvitak nasih naroda," ibid_ 213-51: eadem, "~IoU\-ements antifeodaux dans les terres bulgares sous domination
2 1950): 19-82. See also Wayne S. Vucinich, "The Yugoslav Lands in the Ottoman ottomane du X\,It au XVIII" s.," Etudes histon'qlles 2 (Sofia, 1965): 149-68.
Period: Postwar ~larxist Interpretations of Indigenous and Ottoman Institutions," 25 ::\"edim FilipO\ic, Pri11e '\fusa i ,S-rih Bedreddin (Sarajevo, 1971).

Journal qf Modern History 27 (1955): 287-305. 2') See, typically. Rad()\'an Samard;i.ic, Hqjducke borbe protiv Turaka a XVI I XVII
244 FIKRET ADANIR IIAI,KAN IIIST( )RIOGR..\PHY 245

approach got the upper hand, especially in the multi-volullll' work individuals or rllml IIliddl,,-dass hackground.:{IJ They believed that
of Aleksandar Matkovski.27 As research on klephts, too, made notahle the general ('('OIlOllliC' IIpswillg or the eighteenth century had created
progress; at least in academic circles, it was admitted that hl'iducs a thin stratllnl or \\'C'II-to-do 1ll(,IThants who realized that the Ottoman
and klephts had continued to be active en'lI aner the foulldalioll or system's allliqll"l('d r('laliolls or production hindered the transition
modern national states.:l1! to capitalislll. II \vas asslIlII('d, t hcrc/()re, that the role of the rural
middle class ill Ih" Firsl S"rhiall Uprising was similar to that played
by thc urhall lIIiddle c1ass('s of wcstern Europe in the re\'olutions of
III thl' ('igh\(,(,lllh ("(·lIll1ry.11
Since thc I ~17()s there also has heen a new tendency to stress the
Whether it was a reaction to social injustice, an action prompted by national char"('I<'I' or Ill<' Serhian Uprising.:' :! Because there were
religious and national motives, or ordinary brigandage, heiducry was practically no hourg'(,ois delllents in Serbia in the early nineteenth
an important military factor in the Balkans and included in all polit- centlll)" thc II(,W argulll<'llt holds, a hourgeois democratic revolution
ical designs against Ottoman rule.:l9 For that reason, among others, could hardly h,,\'(, lakcn place, Thus Vladimir Stojance\-ic, the author
socio-historical characterization of the nineteenth-century uprisings of the sectioll Oil lit(' Firsl L'prising in the multi-volume History if
and revolutions in Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria remains a complex the Serbian Pm/lit' COIHTdes Illcrely that the Uprising functioned as a
issue. The uprising of 1804-12 in Serbia, seen by many as the ini- bourgeois delllocr"lic rl'\'()lution, ultimately leading to the emergence
tiator of national liberation in southeastern Europe, requires perhaps of a liberated country with a free peasantry. Warning against con-
the most careful analysis. Three different interpretations have evolved: fusing causes \\'ith dli.'Cts, hO\\'l'ver, he emphasizes that the creation
(1) that the First Serbian Uprising was a bourgeois democratic rev- of a Serbian slate was the precondition for the emergence of a bour-
olution, (2) that it was a national liberation movement, (3) that it geois society, not [lift' ['(,!:I'a,;;
was merely a peasant uprising in the traditional Ottoman framework Intensive inquiry into the ideology of the Serbian liberation move-
without national goals. From their Marxist standpoint, Yugoslav and ment has ensued. \\'as it a national liberation movement from the
Soviet historians, primarily in the early postwar peI-iod, argued that start, or as some non-~larxist historians in the West argued, was it
the First Uprising was essentially a middle-class movement led by first and foremost a peasant movement in the traditional meaning
of the word? ~lost Serbian nationalist and even Marxist historians
believe that from the outset the insurgents in Serbia had national
veku (Belgrade, 1952); Bistra Cvetkova, Chajdutst.:% v biilgarski/e ::.emi pre;;, 15--18 v.
(Sofia, 1971).
27 Aleksandar Matkovski, Turski izvori ;;,a ajdutst·% i aramistv% ,'0 Makedonija, vols.
1-5 (Skopje, 1961-1980); idem, Otporot vo Makedoflija vo vremeto na /urskoto vladeenje, vols.
1-4 (Skopje, 1983). One of the first critics of the heiduc romanticism was Nikola 30 For example, \'asa CubrilO\ic in the fore\vord he wrote to a ne\,- edition of
Sotirovski, "Za opstestveno-ekonomskiot karakter na ajduckoto d\izenje \"0 istorijata Stojan :\"O\·akO\·it'·s J'askrs dr;'am srpske (Belgrade, 1954), 33. See \'.G. Karase\-.
na nasite narodi," Godifnik na Pravniot fakultet va Skopje 9 (1964): 271-80. "PerTaja bUrZuazno-nacionarnaja re\'oljucija na Balkanach (k voprosy 0 charaktere
28 Bernard Lory, "Problemes du brigandage en Bulgarie 1878-1883," in PUrvi serbskogo \'osstanija 1804-1813 gg.... in }ugosloL'l'Ilske zemge i Rusfja -:a l'reme ?n'ug
Mezdunaroden kongres po biilgaristika. Dokladi. Biilgarskata durzava pre::, l'ekovete, \'01. I (Sofia, srpskog us/allka 1801-1813 (Belgrade. 1983), 401-12.
1982), 510-15; J. Alexandropoulos, Brigandage and Public Order in /ll( .\lorea, 1685-1806 31 See the introduction by LS. Dostian and v.I. Frejdzon to the \'Olume Fonnirovmll~­
(Athens, 1985); J. Kolliopoulos, Brigands with II Cause: Brigandagt' and lnedentism in lIaciollal'n"rr/z lIezm'isil1!)'r/z gomdars/l' lIa Balkanadz. KOllfr XVIII-70-e glj(fl XIX D., ed.
Modem Greece 1821-1912 (Oxford, 1987), For a critical assessment of the literature I.S. Dostian ~IoscO\,-. 1986', 8-30. here p. II. See further Wayne S. Vucinich.
on this problem see Fikret Adamr, "Bemerkungen wm Heiduckenproblem bei Jirecek "Introductory Remarks." in 171f First Serbian Uprisillg 1804-1813, ed. \'-.S. Vucinich
und in der modern.en bulgarischen Historiographie," MiUeilullgl'll des Bulgarischen (New York, 1982\. 7.
Forschungsinstituts in Osterreich 3 (1980): 73-95; idem. "Heiduckentum und osmanische n See ,\.L. :\"arocnickij, "0 charaktere pervogo serbskogo vosstanija 1804-1813
Herrschaft. Sozialgeschichtliche Aspekte der Diskussion urn das friihneuzeitliche godo\-' i ego meste \. istorii re\'oljucii konca XVIII i nacala XIX \'eka." ]ugosloDfTlsk,
Rauberwesen in Siidosteuropa," Slidost-Forschullgo: 1-1 (1982): 43-116. ;;,emy'e I Rusija -:a l'ffll/e Prvog sipskog ustanka 1804-1813 \Belgrade, 1983. 29-48.
29 See Dimitrije Djordjevic and Stephen Fischer-Galati, 17l1! Balkan Rerolutionary 33 Istonja srpskog IIm-oda, kn. 5, t. I: Od Proog ustallka do BerlillskoJ!. J.-"I/gresa 1878
Tradition (New York, 1981), passim. (Belgrade. 1981 . 7-95, here p. 92.
24·() FIKRET AI>ANIR BALKAN HISTORIOGRARHY 247

liheration as their political goal.:11 Indeed, scveral proposals for the ,Ill ()ttolllan li·,lI11ework.:m Starting from the premise that early nine-
creation of a Serhian state all date from the early phase of the t('('nth ("('ntllry Serhia was a peasant society that had not yet expe-
Uprising. In an unsigned "Draft (». the Establishmcnt of a New ri('n(Td significant social diffcrcntiation, they point out that, especially
Siavo-Scrhiall State" suhmitted in 1804 to Princc Adam Czartol)'ski, dllring Ill<' first stage of thc insurrection (1804-1807), the Serbs were
the Russian Foreign Minister, Metropolitan Stc\,an Stratimirovic of nol lIlotivated hy the dcsire to establish their own independent national
Karlovac appealed (e) I' the restoration of thc mcdicval Scrbian statc. "I:. state. Rather, Ihe Serhs wishcd to subject themselves to the protec-
Likewise, the insurgents called upon the Austrian governmcnt to help tion of Ih(' Allstrian, the Frcnch, or the Russian empire. 3Y Their hope
rcstore the old Serhian state under Austrian protcction, and Sa\'a (()J' deliverancc li'om l\1uslim rule was not a novelty in Balkan his-
Tckd~ja's hetter-known memorandum of 1804 besccched Napolcon lory, le)r since the sixtccnth century Balkan Christian leaders had
to help thc Serbs establish a Slavic statc called IllYlia, which, undcr appealed repeatedly to European powers for support against Otto-
the protcction of France, would arrcst Austrian and Russian cxpan- man rule. Their actions cannot be called national liberation move-
sion into thc Balkans.:\(i Thc qucstion of how a pcasant society could ments, however, and thc leaders of the First Serbian Uprising can be
develop a national program is usually answcred by refercncc to a secn as litting into thc same traditional pattern of Christian-lVluslim
ncw intelligcntsia cmcrging as a rcsult of increased contact with conflict. to
Europc. Sincc the lattcr part of the cighteenth century a growing
numbcr of merchants, soldiers, priests and studcnts from Serbian
lands had bccn in contact with the ideas of the Enlightenment, and IV
during thc Frcnch Rcvolution and thc Napoleonic \Vars, French
armies carried the ideas of liberty and equality to the doorsteps The post-war histOliographic treatment of nineteenth-century Bulgarian
of thc Southern Slavs. "Finally, there was the systematic propa- liberation has remained similarly controversial. Orthodox l\Iarxist
ganda directed from Paris with the aim of undermining Ottoman historians before 1960 saw the small peasantry, along with the work-
authority."37 ers and artisans in the towns, as the only revolutionary forces within
A third group of authors rejects not only the romantic notion of Bulgarian society. In opposition to these "progressive" factors stood
the revival of a dormant, indigenous national spiric but also the view, the stratum of the corbadzii, the well-to-do peasants, tax-farmers, and
propounded by Kemal Karpat, among others, that Balkan society had moneylendcrs who were the "reactionaries."41 Adherents of this the-
developed enough internal dynamics to give rise to nationalism in 01)' claimed that since about the seventeenth century the Christian
peasantry had been expropriated systematically. On the lands thus
privatized, large agricultural estates called riftliks were established to
be cultivated by enserfed peasants as well as sharecroppers and
3-1 See, for example, Miroslav Djordje\'ic, PolitiCke istorija Srbije XIX i XX uka. I:
(1804-1813) (Belgrade, 1956), 6-7.
35 I.S. Dostyan. "Plany osnovaniya sla\-yano-serbskogo gosudarstva s pomoshch .~-u
Rossii v nachale XIX v.," Siaz?yane i Rossi)'a (Moscow, 1972. pp. 98-107.
36 Vucinich, First Serbian Uprising, 5. The memorandum of Tekelija is printed in 38 See Kemal H. Karpat, All Inquiry into the Social Foundations qf Nationalism in the
Sa\"a Tekelija, Opisanije Zivota Tekelija, ed. Aleksandar ForiskO\ic (Belgrade, 1966, Ottoman State: From Social Estates to Classes, from Jlillets to Nations (Princeton, 1973).
379-"95. 39 Roger V. Paxton, ";\ationalism and Re\"olution: A Re-Examination of the
3; Leften Sta\Tos Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453 ::\"e\," York, 1958, 211. Origins of the First Serbian Insurrection 1804-1807," East European OJiarter/y 6 1972):
Dimitrije Djordje\ic expresses this view in the following fashion: "Les soldats orig- 337-62.
inaires des regions balkaniques ayant fait du service dans i'annee franc;aise, les com- ~o For a similar view see La\\Tence P. ~Ieriage, "The First Serbian L"prising
merc;ants, les voyageurs, apportaient les \ues de la Re\"olution franc;aise, de li\Tes. (1804--1813): National Re\i\"al or a Search for Regional Security," Canadian Review
des brochures, et des ecrits revolutionnaires ... Tous ces courants et les evenements qf Studies in ]vationalism 4 (1977. 187-205.
tumultueux europeens de la fin du X\,IIIe siecle donnerem lieu a des projets en -II Zak Natan, Biilgarskata l'll ;.ra.'f.dane, (Sofia, 1946), 410-31. On the controversy
\lIe de la liberation et Ie renouveau de I'Etat serbe." Rh.-olutiolls nationales de peuplts over the revolutionary role of the bourgeoisie, cf. also W.-U. Friedrich, "Die bul-
balkaniques 1804-1914 (Belgrade, 1965), 18. garische Geschichtswissenschaft:' -l23-32.
24B FIKRET ADANIR "A!."AN IIIS'I'OIUO(;RAPHY 249

farmhands. In turn, "this brought about an exacerbation of the con- diaspora COll1l1lll1lllu's ill BII(·tlJ'('sl, Islanbul and Odessa. The cam-
tradictions existing between the peasants and the ruling Moslem class. paign /()r a naliolltll dllll'('h, which ended with the establishment in
The struggle was not only of a class but also of a national charac- Istanbul or
a Bulg'tll'itlll EXtll'dlllle in I B70, and the movement for
ter, since Christian peasants of the enslaved nationalities were sub- Bulgarian natiollal s('hools holh ill Bulgaria proper and, after 1878,
jected to land expropriation. "12 Critics could easily point out that at in OUoman Man'dollia alld Thract' would hm-c been unthinkable
most 7 -B percent of the cultivated lands belonged to the fillliks in without the aClivt' illvol\'('IIH'1I1 0" significant segments of the urban
the nineteenth century/I and riftliks had emerged on uncultivated as well as I'mal lo,.htld~i sll'ala. AI any rate, the intellectual cadres of
lands such as the marshy grounds around water mills, sheep ranches, the national 1110\'('n\('111 \\,('J'(' O\'('lwhdmingly of bourgeois background.
etc. H Consequently it would be absurd to maintain that land hunger The new hislol'iographic approach led to a remarkable "rehabili-
played a decisive role in the Bulgarian national liberation movement.·I :1 tation" or
the nalional hourgcoisic in a country under communist
A special focus since the late 1960s on the life of Vasil Levski dictatorship and broughl \\'ilh it a new emphasis on the-since San
reached its climax with the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Stefano-latent <JUt'sl iOIl 0" /l1l~!!.(//i(/ inn/mla. Heated polemics with
birth of the "apostle" of Bulgarian liberation in 1987. As a result, Yugoslav historians 0\'('1' tltt' ('IItnic origin of the ~Iacedonian Slavs47
new light was cast on the revolutionary role of the "bourgeoisie."41i prepared the ground f(n' a slill l110re dubious political project, the
Now it could be established that the supposedly pro-Turkish lorbadl:.i national assimilation of the 1\ luslim Bulgarians through the so-called
groups actually had supported the national movement. The ensuing Renaissance Process (l"i.::.roditdt'll Im)(fs) within the Socialist Republic
debates over the participation of the bourgeoisie in the national strug- of Bulgaria.
gle (as an "active" or "passive force") led to a reevaluation of the
important contributions to the Xational Revival process by Bulgarian
V

4~ Christo Christov, "The Agrarian Problem and the National Liberation Movements
in the Balkans," in Actes du premier congres international des etudes balkaniques et sud-est
The increasingly nationalistic orientation of the Bulgarian educated
europeennes, vol. 4 (Sofia, 1969\, 66. class during the 1970s was state-sponsored. The dosage of national-
43 Strasimir A. Dimitrov, "Ciftliskoto stopanstvo prez 50-70-te godini na XIX ism was regulated by the party, which increased the number of pub-
vek," Islorileski pregled 11, no. 2 (1955: 20.
44 Christo Gandev, ;;:pral;dal/e na kapitalistileski otnosenya v CfIlislwto stopanslIJo na severoza-
lications as the thirteen hundredth anniversary of Bulgarian statehood
padna Bulgarija prez XVIII v. (Sofia, 1962. 31-36. For critical analyses of the Bulgarian (1981) neared. Christo Gandev's book on the Bulgmian Nationality in
literature on this matter, see Fikret Adamr, "Zum Verhaltnis von Agrarstruktur und the Fifteenth Century acquired particular importance in this connec-
nationaler Bewegung in Makedonien 1878-1908," in Der Berliner KongrdJ von 1878.
Die Politik der GrojJmiichte und die Prob/emf der Modemisierung in Siidosteuropa in der zweiten tion. 48 The author asserted that every me<.raca in Bulgaria mentioned
Hiilfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, ed. R. Mehille and H.:J. Schroder (Wiesbaden, 1982), in the Ottoman registers signified a former settlement that had
445-61; idem, "The Macedonian Question: The Socio-Economic Reality and Problems been destroyed by the Ottomans. He calculated that a total of 2,608
of Its Historiographic Interpretation," Ink17lational Journal qf Turkish Studies 3 (1984-1985):
43-64; idem, "Tradition and Rural Change in Southeastern Europe During Ottoman "lost villages" amounted to an annihilated Bulgarian population of
Rule," in the Origins if Backu.·ardness in Eastem Europe, ed. Daniel Chirot (Berkeley- 560,720 persons and that this signified a demographic collapse~ a ver-
Los Angeles, 1989), 131-76. Cf. Also Gilles Veinstein, "On the Qiftlik Debate," in
Landholding and Commercial Agriculture in the Jfiddle East, ed. Qaglar Keyder and Faruk
itable genocide. 49 Gandey's thesis did not find undiyided acceptance
Tabak (Albany, 1991), 35-53.
45 K. Kosev, N. Zecev and D. Dojnoy, Istorya na Aprilslwto viislanie 1876 (Sofia,
1976), 39. 4; See Stefan Troebst, Die bll/garisdzjugoslawische Kontroverse /lin .\Iakedonien 1967-1982,
46 Ivan UndzieY, Vasil Levski. Biografi..ia .Sofia, 1967); Nikolaj Gencev, Levski, revolju- ~lunich, 1983).
cyala i drugijat szjat (Sofia, 1973); Ivan Cndzie\' and Nikola Kondarev, eds., Sljala i 48 Christo Gandev, Biilgarskata narodnost pre;;. XF /'fl. DemogrrifSko I etnogrrifSko izsled-
{isla republika. l:;.brani stranici 01 pismata na Vasil Levski (Sofia, 1987); K. Viizviizova- rane (Sofia, 1972). Translation into German and other western languages in 1987,
Karateodorova, et aI., eds., rasil Ul'ski. Dokummlalen letopis 1837-1873 (Sofia, 1987); the German title being Das blligarisdze Volk im 15. Jahrlzundert. Demograplzische lind ethno-
K. Viiz\uzova-KarateodorO\"a. et al.. eds .. Lenki vuv vremeto. Dokumenlalno memoaren i graphische Charakteristik (Sofia, 1987).
literaturen sbomik, posveten na 150-godisninata ot roUenieto na Vasil Levski (Sofia, 1987). 49 Cf. Bulgm'skala narodnost, 20-56 and passim.
250 FIKRET ADANIR IIAI.I\AN IIIST( lRIOGRAPUY 251

as CritICS challenged the almost mechanical equation of mezraca with Bulgariall ('1111 lin',"'"' (hi III(' basis or such evidence, the Bulgarian
a deserted village,:'o But other important studies on the demographic gnvcrJIIlU'III ('ollid illtC'lIsify ils assimilation policies.
aspects of Bulgarian history seemingly confirmed the political impli-
cations of Gandev's thesis, For example, Nikolaj rrodorov's study on
the Balkan city, which appeared in the same year as Gandev's book, VI
indicated that the dimensions of Turkish nomadic colonization in
the Balkans were modest and attributed the considerable Muslim In rcccni dl'cadl's Balkall scholarship has produced some superb
majorities in the cities to widespread conversion.:") I works on thl' ()IIIIIII.III pt'l'iod, including Vanco Boskov's and Elizabeth
One of the key issues of Bulgarian history, the question of Islam- Zachariadou's silldies on mOllasteries.'It) Zachariadou's later in\'esti-
ization during the Ottoman centuries, now came into new focus. Soon gation into tilt' COli II 1H'I"ci.\I lillks hct\H~en Venice and the Turkish
another, much publicized book asserted that, especially during the principalities of Asia ~Iillor has thro\\'n a new light upon the "Chris-
seventeenth century, the Bulgarian population had been subjected tian-Islalllic cOldi'olltatioll" ill the eastern l\1editerranean.:i7 Olga Ziro-
to systematic compulsory conversion with the aim of Turkifying the jcvic also l'nlarg't'd our kllmdedgc of thc historical geography of the
whole country. 52 Results of additional research appearing in the 1980s Balkans signilicantly,·,1\ and l\'laria Todorova's recent research has
led to further emotionalization of the issue as Cvetana Georgieva, opened fresh prospccts to Balkan demographic history.59 Now Anto-
treating the institution of devjinne, utilized the well-known topos of nina Zeljazkm'a's rn'isionist approach to the problem of Islamization
"baby snatching" to its full potentiaP3 A most prestigious contribu- has cast serious doubts on the authenticity of sources utilized in the
tion to historical demography in this context, however, was the work nationalist Bulgarian historiography. \ "ith respect to the Rhodopes
of Elena Grozdanova published in 1989, as the political campaign region \\·here Islamization reached its peak, for example, she can
of changing Muslim names neared its culmination. In this 725 page provc that "rol1\Trsion to Islam ... was obtained not through direct
study the author concludes that under Ottoman rule Bulgaria dur- coercion and mass campaigns, organized by the sultan, but owing
ing the seventeenth century experienced an extraordinary oppression
that resulted in a 33.7 % decrease· in the overall number of Christian
households, chiefly by conversion to Islam. 54 Grozdanova-along with ',5 Christo Christm·. ed .. Sirallici 01 bli(l!,ankala istorija. Oferk .:a isijamiziranile Biilgari
i naciollalllOviz.rodilelllija l}foct's \Sofia, 1989), 82-116.
Petur Petrov and Cvetana Georgieva-belonged to a group of fifteen ';6 See Sneiana BuzO\·, "Bibliografia radova Dr. Vance B')5kova," Priloz:.i .:a ori-

historians who came out in the same year (1989) with the mani- jelltalnu jilologiju 34 (1981\: 201-211; Elizabeth A. Zachariadou, "Early Ottoman
festo-like Pages .from Bulgarian History: An Outline of Islamicized Bulgarians Documents of the Prodromos ~Ionastery (Serres)," Sildost-FofS(hungen 28 (1969): 1-12;
eadem, "Ottoman Documents from the Archi\'es of DionysiOll :\Iount Athos) 1195-
and the National Renaissance Process. Their thesis was that the culture 1520," Siidost-Forsdlllllgt'll 30 (1971): 1-35 with 14 facs.
of the Islamicized Bulgarians formed an indivisible part of the general 57 Elizabeth A. Zachaliadou, Trade and Cmsade: Venetian Crrle and the Emirates qf

MeT/leshe and .1J·din, 1300-].115 (Venice, 1983); eadem, "Holy War in the Aegean dur-
ing the Fourteenth Century," in Latins and Greeks in Ihe Ec.,-Iml Mediterranean -Wer
1204, ed. Benjamin Arbel. Bernard Hamilton and Da\id Jacoby (London, 1989),
212-225.
50 For a discussion of this issue, see Fikret Adamr, "Mezra(a: zu einem Problem j8 Olga Zirojevic, Carigradski drum od Beograda do Sofije U59-1683) (Belgrade,
der Siedlungs- und Agrargeschichte Stidosteuropas im ausgehenden Mittelalter und 1970); eadem. Carigradsl..-i dmm od Beograda do Budima u XT1 ! XT1I veku (Novi Sad,
in der Frtihen Neuzeit," in Deutschland und Europa in der Neuzeit. Festschrifl for llarf 1976).
Otmar Freiherr von Aretin, vol. 1, ed. Ralph Melville, et al. (Stuttgart, 1988), 193-201. 59 Maria Todorova, "Population Structure, ~Iarriage Pattem~. Family and Household
51 Nikolaj Todorov, Balkanskijat grad, XV-XIX vek (Sofia, 1972), 44-54. English (According to Ottoman Documentary :\Iaterial from North-Ea~tern Bulgaria in the
translation: TIe Balkan Ci9', 1400-1900 (Seattle, 1983). 60s of the 19th Century," Etudes balkaniquesI983/1): 59-~2: eadem, "\Vas there a
52 Petiir Petrov, SUdbononsni ~'ekove za bUlgarskata narodnost (Sofia, 1975). Demographic Crisis in the Ottoman Empire in the Sewmeenth Century?" Etudes
53 Cvetana Georgieva, Ellifarite v Bulgarskile zemi (Sofia, 1988). For an earlier treat- balkaniques (198812): 55-63: eadem, "~Iyth-Making in Europecl~1 Family History: The
ment of the subject from Greek point of view, see Basilika D. Papoulia, Urspnl1lg Zadruga Re\isited," East European Politics and Societies (1990: 30-76; eadem, Balkan
und WeseT/ der "Kllabenlese" illl Osmanischen Reich (Munich, 1963). FamilY Slmclure and the European Pattern: Demographic Dn't/oprk';:' in Ottoman Bulgaria
5~ Elena Grozdanova, Biilgarskata narodnost prez XVII vek (Sofia, 1989), 569-86. (Washington DC, 1993).
252 FIKRET ADANIR

to economic reasons and the personal choice of the individual, the

family or the whole village."f;t) Vasiles Demetriades' monograph on
Thessaloniki and Evangclia Balta's studies in the field of historical
geography and demography testify to the high level of Ottoman stud-
ies in Greece. fil Certainly it cannot be the purpose of this paper to
present an exhaustive list; Rumanian, Albanian, Croatian, Hungarian
and Russian scholarship have not been treated at all.
Despite all the progress accomplished in the last decades, how-
ever, one overriding trait of conventional Balkan historiography of
the Ottoman period pcrsists: Evcrywhcre thc ccnturics of Ottoman
domination arc conccived as a period of intense rcsistance to the
foreign "occupicr," thus totally dcnying the historical reality of a
common experience shared by the various pcoples in a multi-ethnic
empirc.()'2 Thc implications of this kind of nationalism at thc cnd of
thc twenticth ccntury inevitably leave one in a pessimistic mood.

60 Antonina Zeljazkova, "The Problem of the Authenticity of Some Domestic

Sources on the Islamization of the Rhodopes, Deeply Rooted in Bulgarian Histo-

riography," Etudes balkaniques (1990/-l): 105-11, here p. 109. See also eadem, "Neko-
to rye aspekty rasprostranenija islama na Balkanskom poluostrove \- XV-XVIII vv,"
in Osmanskqja imperija. Sbornik statq, ed. S.D. Oreskova (Moscow, 1986), 103-116:
eadem, Razprostranenie na isijama v zapadnobalkanskite zemi pod osmanska dast, XV-XVIII
vek (Sofia, 1990)_
61 Vasiles Demetriades, Topografia tis thessalonikis kata ten epoche lis Tourkokratias
1430-1912 (Thessaloniki, 1983); E\-angelia Balta, L'Eubee alafin du X1"' siecle. Economie
et population. Les registres de I'amlee J.l74 (Athens, 1989); eadem, "Rural and Urban
Population in the Sancak of Euripos in the Early 16th Century," Archeion EuboikOn
Melewn 29 (1990-1991): 55-185 \\ith 33 pp. Fasc.; eadem, Les vakifs de Serres et de sa
region (XV' el XV/, s.) (Athens, 1995 ..
62 In this regard I fully subscribe to Ylaria Todorova's assessment. See "Bulgarian

Historical Writing," 116-18.