Pomaks
Wikipedia: Pomaks
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Pomaks
Помаци
Pomaklar
Πομάκοι
Total population
1,000,000 est.
Regions with significant populations
Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Languages
Bulgarian
Turkish
Greek
Religion
Islam
Pomaks (Bulgarian: Помаци, Greek: Πομάκοι, Turkish: Pomaklar) are a Bulgarian-speaking Muslim population group native to some parts of Bulgaria, specifically southern Bulgaria, and the adjacent parts of Greece and Turkey. Members of the group today declare a variety of ethnic identities, Bulgarian, Turkish, Pomak[1][2][3] or Muslim.[4] Historically they are usually considered descendants of Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans,[5] although some alternative narratives of their historical identity have been proposed[6] and, according to some authors, their precise origins remain unknown.[7] Pomaks speak dialects of the Bulgarian language as their mother tongue[8][9][10][11] and are fluent in Turkish in Greece and Turkey.[12][13]
Contents
• 1 Population
o 1.1 Bulgaria
o 1.2 Macedonia
o 1.3 Albania
o 1.4 Greece
o 1.5 Turkey
• 2 Alternative origin theories
• 3 Further reading
• 4 References
Population
Bulgaria
The Pomaks in Bulgaria are referred to as Bulgarian Muslims (българи-мюсюлмани bălgari-mjusjulmani), or under the ethnographic names Ahryani, Torbeshi, etc. They mainly inhabit the Rhodope Mountains in Smolyan Province, Kardzhali Province, Pazardzhik Province and Blagoevgrad Province. There are Pomaks in other parts of Bulgaria as well. There are a few Pomak villages in Burgas Province, Lovech Province, Veliko Tarnovo Province and Ruse Province.[14] According to the 2001 census there are 131 531 Muslim Bulgarians in Bulgaria.[15]Since the start of the 20th century the Pomaks in Bulgaria were the subject of state-supported assimilation which included the change of their Turkish-Arabic names to ethnic Bulgarian ones and conversions from Islam to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Bulgarian state redefined the Pomaks as ancestral Bulgarians who therefore needed to be repatriated back to the Bulgarian national domain. These attempts were met with stiff resistance by the Pomaks.[16]
Macedonia
The Macedonian Muslims, or Torbeš, occasionally also referred to as Pomaks, especially in historical context[17][18][19][20] are a minority religious group in Republic of Macedonia, although not all espouse a Macedonian national identity, and are linguistically distinct from the larger Muslim ethnic groups in Macedonia, Albanians and Turks.
Albania
Macedonian Muslims, sometimes referred to as "Pomaks", live also in the Albanian region Golo Brdo. However these people are also referred to as "Torbeš". They speak the Drimkol-Golo Brdo dialect of the Macedonian language. Part of this people still self identify as Bulgarians.[21]
Greece
Today the Pomaks (Greek: Πομάκοι) in Greece inhabit the prefectures of Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros.[14] Until Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923 Pomaks inhabited a part of the region of Moglena[22] and some other parts of Macedonia, Greece. The Pomaks of Thrace were exempted from those exchanges and, together with Muslim Turks and Roma, were granted by the Lausanne Treaty (1923) the right to primary education in Turkish and Greek. Some Pomaks still transmit their dialect (called pomatsko in Greece) to their children and also speak Turkish and Greek, but a large part of them no longer transmit it, having adopted Turkish as a first language.[23]
Turkey
Today the Pomaks are present in Turkey, in both Eastern Thrace and in Anatolia where they are referred to as Pomaklar or Boğmaklar and their language as Pomakça. Since their settlement there many of them have lost their identity and were assimilated to the Turks.[24][citation needed]
Alternative origin theories
A specific DNA mutation which emerged about 2,000 years ago on a rare haplotype is characteristic of the Pomaks. Its frequency increased as a consequence of high genetic drift within this population. This indicates that the Pomaks are an isolated population with limited contacts with their neighbours. The DNA tree line of Pomaks suggests the hypothesis that Pomaks are descendants of ancient Thracian tribes.[25][26]
According some historians some of the Pomaks in the Rhodope Mountains are successors of the Cumans that converted to Islam in the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century after establishing contact with missionaries from North Africa and the Middle East.[27] This theory is further backed by the fact that in the 9th century many Muslims moved from Bulgaria to Hungary and were ordered expelled by Pope Nicholas I in 866, yet enjoyed many freedoms and were even allowed to serve in the military and in border guard units during the 11th and 12th century. Many researchers are of the opinion that these were Cumans or Pechenegs.[28]
Another view, especially popular among the Pomaks themselves,[29] is that they are descendants of Thraco-Slavs or pre-Islamic Arab migrants to the Balkans who were converted to Islam by Arab missionaries. This theory is supported by comments of 9th century Christian missionaries in the area about occasional distribution of religious literature by some Islamic missionaries.[30] There are also reports of Muslims migrating from medieval Bulgaria to Hungary, and there is evidence of Arab raids into the peninsula from the 7th century on.[31]
This section requires expansion.
Further reading
• Raichevsky, Stoyan (in English). Mohammedan Bulgarians. Pencheva, Maya (translator). Sofia: Natl Museum of Bulgaria. ISBN 978-954-930-841-9.
• Арденски, Владимир (2000) (in Bulgarian). Капки от корена. София: ИК „Ваньо Недков“. ISBN 978-954-8176-55-2.
• Арденски, Владимир (2005) (in Bulgarian). Загаснали огнища. София: ИК „Ваньо Недков“. ISBN 978-954-8176-96-5.
• Груев, Михаил; Кальонски, Алексей (in Bulgarian). Възродителният процес. Мюсюлманските общности и комунистическият режим. София: Институт за изследване на близкото минало; Фондация „Отворено общество“; Сиела. ISBN 978-954-280-291-4.
• Ghodsee, Kristen (21 January 2009). "Identity Shift". Transitions Online. ISSN 1214-1615.
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=305&NrSection=3&NrArticle=20319. • Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "The Human Rights of Muslims in Bulgaria in Law and Politics since 1878", Sofia, November 2003
References
1. ^ INTERVIEW WITH MR. DAMJAN ISKRENOV* AND MR. SHIKIR BUJUKOV* FROM THE VILLAGE OF KOCHAN – POMAKS FROM CHECH, WESTERN RODOP MOUNTAINS (PIRIN PART OF MACEDONIA), R. OF BULGARIA [1]
2. ^ READING ROOM 3: Raw deal for the Pomaks [2]
3. ^ Помаците искат да бъдат признати като етнос [3]
4. ^ Histories and Identities: Nation-state and Minority Discourses. The Case of the Bulgarian Pomaks. Ulf Brunnbauer, University of Graz
5. ^ The Balkans, Minorities and States in Conflict (1993), Minority Rights Publication, by Hugh Poulton, p. 111.
6. ^ KEMAL GÖZLER, Les Villages Pomaks de Lofça aux XVe et XVIe Siècles d’Après les Tahrir Defters Ottomans (Ankara: Imprimerie de la Société Turque d’Historie, 2001)[4]
7. ^ Fred de Jong, "The Muslim Minority in Western Thrace", in Georgina Ashworth (ed.), Muslim Minorities in the Eighties, Sunbury, Quartermaine House Ltd., 1980, p.95
8. ^ Ethnologue, Languages of Greece.Bulgarian.
9. ^ Ethnologue: Languages of the World Fourteenth Edition.Bulgarian.
10. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Pomak People.
11. ^ Social Construction of Identities: Pomaks in Bulgaria, Ali Eminov, JEMIE 6 (2007) 2 © 2007 by European Centre for Minority Issues
12. ^ [5]THE POMAKS, Report - Greek Helsinki Monitor
13. ^ [6]The World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
14. ^ a b Raichevsky, Stoyan. "Geographical Boundaries" (in English). Pencheva, Maya (translator). Sofia: Natl Museum of Bulgaria. ISBN 978-954-930-841-9.
15. ^ "Structure of the population by religion" (in Bulgarian). Census 2001. National Statistical Institute.
http://www.nsi.bg/Census/StrReligion.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-04.
16. ^ DIMITROV, VESSELIN: In Search of a Homogeneous Nation: The Assimilation of Bulgaria’s Turkish Minority, 1984-1985, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK December 23, 2000 [7]
17. ^ Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, published by the Endowment Washington, D.C. 1914, p.28, 155, 288, 317, Лабаури, Дмитрий Олегович. Болгарское национальное движение в Македонии и Фракии в 1894-1908 гг: Идеология, программа, практика политической борьбы, София 2008, с. 184-186, Поп Антов, Христо. Спомени, Скопje 2006, с. 22-23, 28-29, Дедиjeр, Jевто, Нова Србиjа, Београд 1913, с. 229, Петров Гьорче, Материали по изучаванието на Македония, София 1896, с. 475 (Petrov, Giorche. Materials on the Study of Macedonia, Sofia, 1896, p. 475)
18. ^ Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE). Muslims of Macedonia. p. 2, 11
19. ^ Лабаури, Дмитрий Олегович. Болгарское национальное движение в Македонии и Фракии в 1894-1908 гг: Идеология, программа, практика политической борьбы, София 2008, с. 184, Кънчов, Васил. Македония. Етнография и статистика, с. 39-53 (Kanchov, Vasil. Macedonia — ethnography and statistics Sofia, 1900, p. 39-53),Leonhard Schultze Jena. «Makedonien, Landschafts- und Kulturbilder», Jena, G. Fischer, 1927
20. ^ Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entestehung und etwicklung bis 1908., Wiessbaden 1979 (in Bulgarian: Аданър, Фикрет. Македонският въпрос, София2002, с. 20)
21. ^ Urgent anthropology Vol. 3 Problems of Multiethnicity in the Western Balkans. Fieldwork Edited by Antonina Zhelyazkova, ISBN 954-8872-53-6.
22. ^ Capidan, Theodor. Meglenoromânii, istoria şi graiul lor, vol. I, Bucureşti, 1925, p.5, 19, 21-22 (Capidan, Theodor. Megleno-Romanians - their history and dialect, Bucurest 1925, vol 1, p.5, 19, 21-22)
23. ^ Adamou E. & Drettas G. 2008, Slave, Le patrimoine plurilingue de la Grèce - Le nom des langues II, E. Adamou (éd.), BCILL 121, Leuven, Peeters, p. 107-132.
24. ^ M. Apostolov, ibid.
25. ^ HbO-Arab mutation originated in the Pomak population of Greek Thrace, Haematologica, Vol 90, Issue 2, 255-257, 2005 by Ferrata Storti Foundation
26. ^ The origin of Greek Pomaks is based on HbO-Arab mutation history [8]
27. ^ Eminov, Ali (1997). Turkish and other Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria. London: Hurst. p. 25. ISBN 185-0653-19-4.
28. ^ Norris, Harry (1993). Islam in the Balkans. London: Hurst. p. 26-30. ISBN 185-0651-67-1.
29. ^ Eminov, Ali (2007). "Social Construction of Identities: Pomaks in Bulgaria" (PDF). Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (Flensburg, Germany: European Centre for Minority Issues) 6 (2): 17. ISSN 1617-5247. OCLC 52051004.
http://www.ecmi.de/jemie/download/2-2007-Eminov.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-05-17. "...another version of Pomak origins has gained increasing acceptance among some segments of the Pomak population. According to this version “the Pomaks are not Slavs and converted to Islam during the century immediately following the death of Prophet Mohammed” or they are the descendants of Syrian Arabs who were relocated to southeastern Europe and settled in the Rhodopes during the wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate during the eighth century. These scenarios contain some grains of truth...".
30. ^ Петров, Петър; Темелски, Христо (2003). "Църковен живот в Македония до началото на XI век" (in Bulgarian). Църква и църковен живот в Македония. София: Македонски научен институт. pp. 14-15. ISBN 954-8187-59-0. OCLC 66654034.
http://www.promacedonia.org/pp_ht/pp_ht_1.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-17. "Самото покръстване преминало много формално. Малобройната византийска църковна мисия едва обиколила обширната българска държава, а още по-малко могла да обясни на хората на непонятния гръцки език същността на новата религия. Същевременно, както съобщава княз Борис на папа Николай I, в България “дошли от разни места християни, които разправят своеволно много и различни неща, т.е. гърци, арменци и хора от други места”. Някакъв си грък пък самоволно се обявил за презвитер и покръстил мнозина. Един евреин, за когото не могло да се установи дали е християнин или езичник, също така покръстил мнозина. В страната дори проникнала и мохамеданска литература ¬ “нечестиви книги, които сте получили от сарацините”."
31. ^ Norris, Harry (1993). Islam in the Balkans. London: Hurst. p. 10-26. ISBN 185-0651-67-1.
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