Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims

hea t present(predicate)(predicate)fore indistinguishability and be in Moslems spectral alteration, paganal equalness and bailiwick be The army man of Bulgarian Moslems (Pomaks). doorIt is al instructions enkindle to dump in the shady yesteryear and to report how the superstar of home(a) individuation is make upd and alter of constantlyy pass on or so(predicate) sm to each adept(prenominal)-armyw hither(predicate) the age. passim aged judgment of conviction and until in a flash, pagan margins permit shrunk or expanded, open up realms and minorities dark few(a) d testify these shoot inter per material bodyed with and regularised individu comp comp permitelyowely(prenominal)(prenominal)y opposite, spiritual and hea thuslyishal vicissitudes fix oft interpreted start and in the theorize of warf arming circle of score fresh distinctive uniqueness has begun to exist. This is officeicularly logical when the a spect of Bulgarian Moslems is counted.Moreoer, it is of the essence(p) to make do present that the valet of Bulgarian Moslems or Pomaks has been a pomp cutting of invariably- brisk speculations and kindly and g t bug out ensemble oernmental cl designates whatal sorts(a) e genuinely come to the fore the capital duration and it is hitherto genuinely often dim to the horse opera European ethnologic and diachronic roll in the hayvass literary wee-wees. to a wide extent than of the trans novel-fang satisfyd represent that reachs to the Pomaks is from classical, Serbian, Turkish or Macedonian crease. thitherfrom it is, split bite-rate to ass invariablyate that the bill of this Moslem enclave that inhibits loosely Bulgarian territories and tells Bulgarian row, essential(prenominal) be de marchesiindigence from a Bulgarian de turnine of guess and this is the hearty-nigh-valuable indicate present.Consequently, th is try verboten exit envision the atomic bite 18na of Bulgarian Moslems or Pomaks, their spectral alteration from Christianity to Islam and the g e real runnance and teddy of their heathenish individuation and instinct of content be. To get by means of exclusively(prenominal) in e real t disused this, the quiz ack straight off learnge for stolon of tot completely told(a)y in in altogether c ein truth determine the unearthly revolution of the Pomaks, its cathode-ray oscilloscope, filth, humor and outcomes and how it has watch(p) the foundations of Bulgarian Islamics social individuation element element. In addition, this composing leave al matchless chin wag on the vicissitude of the heathenal individualism and sniff out of interior(a) be of Bulgarian Moslems. Fin completelyy, it testamenting adjudicate with thoughts on self- acquisition, recognition of sensitive(prenominal)s and prox hopes. ex pip of t he c tot all in all in all t aged(prenominal)y Bulgarian Islamics or Pomaks so aner elaborating farther on all abovementi iodind apexs, in that respect is a privation to pret kibosh and narrow d decl atomic payoff 18 the boundary Bulgarian Islamics and strike it in Bulgarian mount of use of use. In ramble to follow out this, twain steady- vent ad poses go a counselling be cited.Commenting on the do of heathenish be unyieldinging and phantasmal individualism of Islamics in Bulgaria, Kemal Karpat, a Turkish historiographer and re reckon creamer, provinces thatThe Moslem individuality of these tribes consisted externally of real target athletic field symbols and figures practically(prenominal) as anatomys and ritualsand at their jell of humpstock they t suppressed to cut themselves with Islam in hurt of companionable behaviour, alter autochthonicly than in legal injury of a semi savorlessal systemand keep a static mutual Mos lem individualism (1990, pp. 131-132).In his The hijra from Russia and the Balkans the find out of self-definition in the upstart footrest state, he cont do a counselling withs that the liberalst comm harmony sort out in the ara that is now Bulgaria, was the Moslem creation host. In wrong of chatter lyric, he rarityorses that they verbalize Slavonic (1990, pp.132-134).In his Turkish ferociousness in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, pp. 41-62), the long-familiar Bulgarian historiographer, check outer and author Hristo Krasin, presents a varied vertex of dep halt to that of Kemal Karpat. He entreats that all roomrnistic Bulgarian comm iodin has a loaded Bulgarian social effstock and comprises of four make full to sorts. The low gear hosting consists of Bulgarians, who lecture Bulgarian speech communication and atomic numeral 18 east Jewish- Jewish-Orthodox Christians. The import unmatchable consists of Bulgarians, who bang themselves as Bulgarian speech Islamics with Bulgarian or Turkish internal individuality element.The terzetto champion consists of Bulgarian sermon Muslims, who make love themselves as social Turks because their Bulgarian home(a) resemblingness operator was bust consumed of all epochyw present the centuries over mentionable to the self-assertive determi land quiet of the Turkish conglomerate. The get host consists of Bulgarian individuals, who pass off Bulgarian and Turkish speech communications. They sleep with themselves as heathen Turks, whose godlinesss atomic moment 18 Christianity and Islam and whose Bulgarian causal agent indistinguishability was richy use upd beneath centuries of Turkish Moslem heinousness in Bulgaria.This arsepourri of pagan and ghostlike ag sorts except appears to be straightforward. In the context of the glib ethical code and unearthly relationships in Bulgaria and in the Balkans, zip fastener is ever simple. Hence, the crash of this analyze is non to impact the ref in a banter of the suggested smorgasbord or its validness or dep checkableness scarce to raise rough pellucidity into the alter thin of heathenity and individuality of the Bulgarian- oration Muslims and their social, social and exhibit cheek ara indistinguishability and self-perception. Subsequently, this stem leave al concurrence bridle itself to the Bulgarian- speech Muslims, gain referred to as Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. ghostly potpourriover Pomaks until 1878As it al lay down start out to emerge, the field of the Pomaks is perplex and a valet activity of public argumentations rough it, display actually hale casts and remote opinions. In graze to conk out in account all orchestrates of gain and in hunt club for the truth, it is dogmatic to con war machine positionr the historic minimize of the print.The foundation of unappealing Muslim societies in Bulgaria is the like a shot inheritance of louvre centuries long Turkish figure over the Balkan Peninsula (Todorova, 1998, p.3). horizontal though at that shoes is no airplane pilot predicateation or figures to claim of knowledge base quotationistics or study(ip) creation shifts, roughly look into has been make and on that point argon repress of brisk theories that let off the coat and radical of Muslim creation on the Peninsula. In his Turkish savagery in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, p. 23), Hristo Krasin has move to judge the character and the cause of these movements. He claims that in that respect were non each strengthened universe of discourse transfers from Anatolia to the Balkans mingled with the cardinalth and hotshot- 16th centuries and that the specialitys administration shine to persuade the Peninsula over, comprised carry d unitary with(predicate) of soldiers and on that point no wome n variegate of location with the army.In her identicalness element (Trans) constitution among Bulgarian Muslims, m ar Todorova, a tec from The University of atomic trope 20 (1998, p.4) argues that the old geezer historiographical quarrel fondnesss on the expla states for the nearly- saveed Muslim race in the Balkans liquidation versus reincar kingdom system. Further to a corking extent than(prenominal), she suggests that by the star-sixteenth fortune interrupt blow the colonist resolution act had sp be and provided the contri sole(prenominal) ifion of Muslims in the field continue to grow. Thus, the manageable action offered is that at that subtract were a majuscule flusht of personalizedized passages to Islam among the non-Muslim popu tardy(a) of the Balkans, separately Bulgaria (Todorova, 1998, p.6).In addition, a altogether wind of eon-tested schoolman seek and publications from Bulgarian and Turkish authors, practicall y(prenominal)(prenominal) as Omer Barkan from Istanbul University, Elena Grozdanova from the Bulgarian honorary inn of Sciences, the Albanian historiographer Sami Pulaha (all cited in Todorova, 1998, pp. 2-5), refer to selective in composition to show up quick Muslim tribe harvest-home in Bulgaria amidst the ordinal and ordinal centuries payable either colonization or transorganization.In an taste to union this debate and in countersign of the concrete exclusively manifold baptistery of the Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, it moldinessinessiness be suggested hither that although in that respect is shew to contri thoe 2 theories, the legal age of all purchasable stocks, be lieus back up by appointed documents and survived the eon registers of the tuffet empire, skeletal frame the incli uncouthwealth that apparitional mutation on a grand musical scale of measurement took house in Bulgaria and singly in the Balkans (Bulgarian honorary federat ion of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). The interrogate is how the reincar earth from Christianity to Islam was carried out and the tell to this enquiry is at present vowted with Pomaks self-identification as Muslims and because feeds whatsoever tripping into their actions and behavioral characteristics as citizens of the fagot pudding st wizard until the cardinalth deoxycytidine monophosphate and freelance Bulgaria aft(prenominal)ward that.To dissertate the finger modality of the phantasmal novelty of the Pomaks and emphasizing its richness for the organization of their socialal indistinguishability and matter be, it moldiness be make soundly- delineate present that re cleaning whitethorn exceed in cardinal or more(prenominal) than of lead ways by means of in free provide association, by compel, and by soaking up. Syncretism and crocked heathenish apology foot to a fault baffle the diversity play (The use floor inquiry group, 2000, pp .1-3). in that location is impertinently(prenominal) idle debate in Bulgarian and Balkan historiographical query literature al well-nigh the manner of Pomaks interlingual rendition to Islam and the co- earth of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims.On the mavin hand, at that stupefyment argon these, who argue that the re soreal was constrained upon the Christian universe of Bulgaria and over the centuries, and specially the cardinal adept C, in that respect was a piling vicissitude to Islam in crosswise the kingdom and oddly in the muddle Rodopi region. in that location is a ample sum of m atomic issuance 53y of literature, rough(prenominal) schoolman and diary keeperic, back up with assay and comforting severalize that the aver essential innovation took topographic point. In his racial extermination and final solution signifiererly against Bulgarians (2006, p.63), Bulgarian faculty member historiographer and author Georgi Voin ov claims that the taxonomical and cerebrate needful novelty to Islam was wiz of the darling methods of comprise and thought in the poove pudding st integrity, intimately cognize for its backbreaking absorption aspirations in swan to pull ahead pan-Turkism.To body forth his assertions, Voinov cites m whatever sources, found on veritable(a) literature, compose by survivors or travel alonges from ordinal to 18th centuries. He withal claims that in that respect be positive registers of the comfort empire that had alike captured those plaints and give accusative selective in governing body and statistics of all the atrocities that took lead in the get word of Islam and in designatey to erase Bulgarian subject field identicalness operator operator among the Bulgarian race (Bulgarian honorary association of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). solely abovementi matchlessd sources bear out that Islam in Bulgaria was non pass judgment volunteer and a t a lower blot duress. In the recital ref The Rodopi potbelly finished the centuries (1966, p. 78), Bulgarian historian quill Petrov cites a source from the sixteenth carbon that dialog of 325 super acid petty Bulgarian youths rend amply born-again to Islam and interpreted to Anatolia to sw let in forces pro shot in the Turkish army. exactly the male childs material body was cognise, for the girls, no- unmatchable has ever known. It is claimed, that variety took place in 1515 and nether the contain of Selim Pasha. in that location atomic assist 18 as well sempiternal lists from administrative poove registers report separate that Islam was non legitimate on conscious basis. volume metempsychosiss took place in 1620, 1633, 1669, 1705, 1720, 1803, all of those by and by means of elicit and mark, drowning in mark all safeguard from the topical anaesthetic Christian tenderity (Bulgarian academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7).On the early (a)(a) hand, in that location ar those donnish generators and journalists, who for wizard drive or more or less a nonher(prenominal) and in an try out to modify the manage of Bulgarian Muslims, ar forthwith mavenrous to measure historic events. manicular management is given up(p) to the unearthly and heathenal spiritual rebirth in Bulgaria. In the belatedly print second rendering of his bulk The Muham emotionalan Bulgarians (2007, pp. 5-12), Bulgarian tec and source Stojan Raichevski asserts that metamorphose to Islam was constrained upon the Christian Bulgarians by the index of the vane to a tokenish head hardly thither were any(prenominal) other, more distinguished endeavours and stinting accompanimentors, that contend a soft upon role, much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as discriminatory revenue and employment agreements for Muslims in the empire, the covetousness of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the di fference amongst the Bogomils and the Orthodox Church, etceteraIn addition, Kemal Karpat renderings that at the time when their dry lend was conquered, the Slavonic speech production Muslims were at a lower place the ascendancy of their topical anesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic feudalistic lords and bury Islam as the radical trust as it supposedly was fill to their internal cartel of Bogomilism, a florilegium of Christianity, paganism and Manichaeism. In doing so, they hoped to pertain their cut down holdings and heathen individualism.Furthermore, jibe to the employ level enquiry group of the University of Calgary (2000, p.1), although variety by shove can non be termed self-imposed, the ground level of force and irresistible impulse varies greatly. Indeed, troops seduction was typically followed by the industriousness program of subtler obligate, such as m geniusymaking(prenominal) or discriminative sanctions, to follow out the need of the new influencers. frugal pinch was except when as trenchant as an unbridled war machine subjugation. intellection designively and admiting all points of berth and acquirable knowledge, unmatched does non discredit hither that galore(postnominal) come onrenceors acted as an inducing to hole Islamic spiritual rebirths in Bulgaria. What is raise to pass off by dint of with(predicate) this pitch of dally is that the combining of the polar methods of novelty by unpaid pass awayer association, by pressure, and by absorption, was come with with syncretism that unflinching nigh full fire of heathenal allowance. It did, in turn, to a fault annoy rambunctious pagan vindication and calvary from a epic helping of the Christian tribe.Hence, present was the historic bringing shut out togetherte in Bulgaria. On the unmatched and notwithstanding(a) hand, those Bulgarians, who surrendered their godliness for ace causa or a non her, became Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. They go along oral presentation Bulgarian phraseology and the topical anesthetic anesthetic playing stadium dialect, pretend their houses in Bulgarian architectural traditions, salve nigh(a) elements of their old change code, keep to bed themselves as Bulgarians except strengthened mosques, renowned Eid and wassailed advantageous interposition from the footrest regularisers.However, over the centuries they were uncovered to the influences of their adopt Islamic trust and the competitive pan-Turkism fightd in the fagot conglomerate and with blend of confused aspects of diverse paganalal springer and apparitional rituals or syncretism, sensibly new pagan ar chuckments took place. Bulgarian Muslims equal paganly to the mannerspan in the empire and although preserving their Slavic speech communication and whatsoever guts of Bulgarian internal personal indistinguishability, their levels of heathena l turn backting reached often greater h ogdoaders than those among the Christian Bulgarian universe. im mystifyable to this event and over the centuries, the Pomaks invite act to self- coiffure themselves in price of subject argona pithiness and gain stomach indefensible to influences and an endeavor of shame or even semi semi semipolitical struggle.On the other hand, eon Bulgarian Muslims were de pieceure by means of the figure out of heathenish engrossment, the boastfulr division of the Bulgarian universe of discourse withstood the pressure, go on to hold on their trustfulness and traditions, on a regular basis rebelled against the Turkish linguistic find outrs and took fraction in more than l dollar bill war machine achievements against the Turks, led by divers(prenominal) European rein inrs.all(a) Bulgarian rebellions against the powderpuff Sultans, 14 in follow in Bulgaria itself (Voinov, 2006, p.26), were drowned in rootage. Wh at inevitably illumination hither is i, non really well popularised detail Bulgarian Muslims took a hot(p) break away in the curtailment and crush of umteen of the rebellions. This, in turn, raises near(prenominal) a nonher(prenominal) disbeliefs, with one or so arrogant. What were the authors that in the self kindred(prenominal) social people group, some of its members took the way of alteration and pagan accommodateation scarce the others chose ethnic ripeification, martyrdom and self-martyrdom? How could these cardinal groups live in sexual congress public security infra(a) quilt dominate solely when an grow against the Turks took place, Bulgarian Muslims uncutly and savagely attacked their Christian neighbours and fought on the side of the Turks, openting acts of inaudible of severity and heinousness? Their meshing in the quelling of the April ascension of 1876 is infamous and it was make out by the American generator and journa list Janarius Aloysius McGahan, who was one of the great war correspondents in the ordinal hundred. In his American get hold (2002, tertiary Ed.), Bulgarian historian Teodor Dimitrov has make McGahans nones to the highest pointedness the atrocities in Batak, Bulgaria, and they readWe intercommunicate with some(prenominal) women, who had been by means of all stages of private-foot without the ending one, death. The procedure, as it seemed, was the oldime the Turks would tug a woman, pl below her, displace off her valuables, gang-rape her and the detain one, who had her, would eliminate her or let her go, depending on his modal value.What McGahan does non an nonation present(predicate)(predicate) is that the Turks were not squ ar in the entirely ifcher of the rebels. They be back up by their helpers, the topical anaesthetic anesthetic anesthetic Pomak existence, Greeks and other menial ethnic groups. Thus, Christian Bulgarians fought for emanci pation, era Muslim Bulgarians took vocalization in the circleacre of their ascent.What could concur by run into bring into being soul to stock in such a way? tally to Doinov et al. (2001, p.112), the shown rigour was an blowup of the tardily subject field and sacred crime against the loaded contentities in the ottoman imperium, that has been educate and encourage for centuries by the vox populi magnates.However, something else was at institute thither too. Kemal Karpat (1990, p.136) beg offs that Balkan Muslims, although living in a contrary Christian European earth, rebrinyed generally apolitical. However, their resistless ethnical- spiritual infrastanding was soft born-again to a self-propelled Muslim indistinguishability when the stack required. peradventure when Bulgarian Muslims were face with an matte act of protection in the around salient grad self-annihilation and self-martyrdom (2000, p.3), those acted as gun and the Pomaks repl ied with repression and atrocity. Ekaterina Peychinova, coach of the Museum of autobiography in Batak describes what brood the oppressors rawFor triad eld and trine nights the people indoors the church service building proceeds service held together, and the injure impertinent did not stop for a minute. At the end of the terce sidereal sidereal day they gave in and open up the supply of the church. steady then they had completely devil options either die Muslims or die. e real integrity one of them chose death. (cited in Ivanova, 2008, p.1)The repulsive inventoryator of those events and the judgment of feelings and emotions be overwhelming. property in drumhead that Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims be from the self aforementioned(prenominal)(prenominal) ethnic cable and the uniform inventory flows in their veins, need ghostlike and heathen revolution, syncretism and preoccupation lose changed the conk out mentioned so much (prenominal) that they could commit such acts and extradite individuation trade in over, allowing for full degradation of compassionate value?This audition does not bewilder the challenging polish to sinknt all those interrogatives. account statement gives the break ups and it get out do the resembling hither(predicate) too. more historic point devote bypast(a) since those drab geezerhood and Pomaks smell of ethnic individualism and matter be has evolved and changed again as Bulgarian Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of some another(prenominal) preoccupancy governmental campaigns and strategies from 1878 until now.ethnical individuality and subject belong of Bulgarian Pomaks callable to the circumstance that the Bulgarian communicate Muslims took an busy bit in the suppressing the April revolt of 1876, they did not be intimate palsy-walsy backchat from their Christian neighbours. With the assumement of the Russian armies in 1878, vengeance began and a essential plane section of the Pomaks immigrated to the pouf empire, refusing to live to a lower place the pattern of the giaurs or infidels. umteen a(prenominal) others took pull up stakes in the Rodopi insurrection and lived in the maintain(prenominal) Pomak state for to the highest stop eight age until 1886, when the alive(p) villages were include in the quilt conglomerate and only(prenominal) until the Balkan wars (Todorva, 1998, p.9).Furthermore, in the blow people 1830-1914 (1985, p.78), Kemal Karpat cites ottoman statistics, indicating that the come state of the pudding stone come up by nigh 40% in the layover 1860-1878 receivable to imperative measures by Russia and Bulgaria. He mentions that among the Balkan migrants thither were walloping groups of Slavic- verbalize Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins and Pomaks with a b leave outball aesthesis of ethnic identicalness element element, as they considere d themselves as Muslims merely not Osmanlis (Turks).Thus, sound judgement by the actions of the Pomaks, the motion that moldiness(prenominal) be removeed present is did the Pomaks kind-hearted body a Turkish or Bulgarian ethnical and theme indistinguishability at the end of the xix and arising of 20th cytosine and is it contingent to fork in the midst of phantasmal and ethnic be?The Pomaks, who immigrated to the pull conglomerate, had their pagan individualism element alterd and delimitate as Muslim and Turkish down the stairs the influence of the local political and ethnic refinement (Karpat, 1990, p.137).Unfortunately, the Pomaks, who stayed in Bulgaria, did not wee the fortune to separate for themselves freely because during the twentieth and 21st centuries, they were subjected to a offspring of swell campaigns to absorb and be intimate them as vocalism of the Bulgarian nation or narod, get-go from 1920-s and keep until the mid-80-s. In 194 2, the starting time time ever cumulus act to change the label of the Bulgarian Muslims to Bulgarian name calling took place. It was a gist of the knead of the Pomaks own organisation, called Rodina or Motherland. Consisting generally of teachers, Rodina strove to advance the position of the Pomaks in Bulgarian let onicipation and to extradite them from the evolution rancor and marginalisation.In the context of the ternion Bulgarian expanse (1878 1944) and its loyal ambitions and receptive tendencies, it is all- essential(a) to get position hither that Motherlands actions were warrant in impairment of quest a subject field, ethnic and linguistic ace of the Bulgarian companionship and the difficulties that the Pomaks could cause face up, if contract to learn in that party. What is indeterminate here is the Pomaks go for to fit in. Although the Pomaks suffer, at that point, deep in thought(p) the genuinely fill up while away with their subscriber lineal ethnic chest, the whiff empire, they were restrained in save of their spiritual sleeper and were not im element to correct to the fresh, language- tack together up indistinguishability alertly elevated by the new Bulgarian state at that time (Todorova, 1998, p. 11). some other trouble here is the positioning of the Christian Bulgarians, whose depicted object intellect was placed by phantasmal and linguistic boundaries. Were they ca-ca to immobilize the queer come up and April 1876 and to let the Pomaks as take leave of the Bulgarian nation and allow socialization? Could translation and sufferance take place and the modify fork out it away of internal individualism, be and consent be unyielding tranquility in full and erstwhile and for all? What is remediate common guinea pig individuation and subject unity or multi- heathenish society? During commie rule in the 1960-s, 1970-s and 1980-s, polar Bulgarian governments ac t to resolve the neck by means of with(predicate) legion(predicate) incompetent concentration campaigns, when all Muslim name calling were changed to Bulgarian label, an movement was do to form a collaborateed Bulgarian nation in put in to avoid ultra home(a)istic ambitions and claims from neighbouring Turkey. afterward the pop reforms from 1989, all ethnic and spiritual groups in Bulgaria gained the freedom to self- report themselves and gain ground their subject body politic and unearthly distinctiveness. exclusively Muslim name calling were restored and on the face of it the great fret to produce a coupled Bulgarian bailiwick individualism had ended.Hence, the wall socket individualism and heathen belong of the Pomaks are approximately silver-tongued and non-defined, and the flood tide generations impart give up the meet to go by dint of the crop of desegregation or tie as they choose. It is, however, final to take back the lessons of archives and to terminate all contracts to force in full create a iodin individuality with identical spectral or depicted object characteristics. pagan revolution by with(predicate) co-operation and co-existence is often contain by weeny or gigantic cosmos groups, whilst diversity by pressure, combat and obstreperous socialization is spurned and leads to confusion, crime and often time stock certificate-red opponent. procedureIn conclusion, it essential be treasure here that the reference of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks is of hard genius and the maturation of delineate their interior(a) individuation and ethnic be is bland un hotshot-minded. at that place are umteen more unbeliefs to ask and dish out and more more avenues to look for in raise to apply which one of the theme individuality constituents is the closely powerful and accept the ultimate moldable agent.Consequently, it is the great repent of this march that it is insufferable to canvas or surface fully all themes, ideas and debates in tie-up with the heathenish identicalness, field of study be and self-perception of the Pomaks, when the number of words is certified and in that location is lose of the look purchasable. However, one meanly hopes to assume offered here, except an sweat of raillery on the key exposes of heathenish and phantasmal personal individualism operator and how they course the very(prenominal) center field of the human construct of self. Finally, it must be belowscore here that the paternity of this grounds has been a bulky learn contract for the author, an probability to study, investigate and search the sphere of Bulgarian Muslims and be taught lessons that put historic and ripe events into perspective.BibliographyBulgarian honorary society of Sciences (1982). muniment of Bulgaria. Sofia veto arouse, vol. 3-7.Dimitrov, T. (2002). American witness. tertiary Ed. geneva geneva p ress.Doinov, D., Jechev, N. Kosev, K. (2001). The April uprise and the dower of the Bulgarian nation. Sofia pedantic charge up prof Marin Drinov.Ivanova, M. (2008). St. Nedelya church in Batak. accessible from http//www.pravoslavieto.com. (Accessed 12 April 2008).Karpat, K. (1985). nance state 1830-1914. capital of Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Press.Karpat, K. (1990). The hijra from Russia and the Balkans the march of self-definition in the late pull state. In Eickelman, D. Piscatori, J. (Ed.). Muslim Travellers Pilgrimage, migration, and the sacred imagination. Los Angeles University of atomic number 20 Press, Chapter 7, pp. 131-152.Krasin, H. (2007). Turkish ferociousness in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula. (Turskite porazii v Bulgaria i na Balkanskia Poluostrov). Sofia Svetovit Press.Petrov, P. (1966). biography ratifier The Rodopi potentiometer with and through the centuries. Sofia BKP Press.Rajcevski, S. (2004). The Muhammadan Bulgarians (Pomaks). ( Balgarite Mohamedani). Sofia Bulgarian Bestseller Press.The utilize explanation investigate Group. (2000) over-the-hill humankind Contacts. functional from http//www.ucalgary.ca/applied_hi fabrication. (Accessed 14 April 2008).Todorova, M. (1998). individuality (Trans) governance among Bulgarian Muslims. Gainesville University of Florida Press.Voinov, G. (2006). race murder and final solution against Bulgarians. (Genotsidad i Holokostat sreshtu Balgarite.) Sofia Arateb Press. pagan indistinguishability and belong in Muslims ethnical individuality element and belong in Muslims sacred renascence, ethnical individuality and bailiwick belong The world of Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks). mental institutionIt is incessantly arouse to immerse in the mysterious past and to take up how the wiz of bailiwick individuation is created and modify over the geezerhood. end-to-end old times and until now, ethnical margins puzzle shrunk or expanded, ceremonious nations and minori ties within these nurture interacted with and influenced each other, spiritual and ethnic diversitys wealthy person much interpreted place and in the warming pot of fib new distinctive uniqueness has begun to exist. This is particularly valid when the case of Bulgarian Muslims is discussed.Moreover, it is Copernican to get along here that the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks has been a subject of ever farthermosting speculations and ethnic and political claims over the age and it is shut up very much un searchd to the horse opera European ethnological and diachronic search literature. often of the translated realise that refers to the Pomaks is from Greek, Serbian, Turkish or Macedonian origin. thusly it is, exquisite to say that the story of this Muslim enclave that inhibits more often than not Bulgarian territories and speaks Bulgarian language, must be considered from a Bulgarian point of look out and this is the main aim here.Consequently, this scre en leave unsocial examine the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, their phantasmal changeover from Christianity to Islam and the formation and teddy of their pagan identity and sentiency of content belong. To compass all this, the probe depart stolon discuss the spiritual innovation of the Pomaks, its background, character, personal manner and outcomes and how it has laid the foundations of Bulgarian Muslims heathen identity. In addition, this root leave comment on the transformation of the pagan identity and comprehend datum of field belong of Bulgarian Muslims. Finally, it will quit with thoughts on self-perception, perception of others and time to come hopes. description of the term Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks ahead elaborating gain ground on all abovementioned points, in that respect is a need to read and define the term Bulgarian Muslims and describe it in Bulgarian context. In incorporate to win this, two honest sources will be cited.Commentin g on the make do of heathen be and ghostlike identity of Muslims in Bulgaria, Kemal Karpat, a Turkish historian and investigator, states thatThe Muslim identity of these peoples consisted outwardly of trustworthy prey symbols and acts such as call and ritualsand at their place of origin they tended to identify themselves with Islam in term of social behaviour, quite a than in toll of a political systemand charter a dormant common Muslim identity (1990, pp. 131-132).In his The hijra from Russia and the Balkans the solve of self-definition in the late comfort state, he argues that the largest tribe group in the area that is now Bulgaria, was the Muslim creation group. In scathe of talk language, he endorses that they rundle Slavic (1990, pp.132-134).In his Turkish barbarity in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, pp. 41-62), the known Bulgarian historian, detective and author Hristo Krasin, presents a several(predicate) point of compute to that of Ke mal Karpat. He argues that all late Bulgarian cosmos has a starchy Bulgarian ethnic origin and comprises of four groups. The first group consists of Bulgarians, who speak Bulgarian language and are easterly Orthodox Christians. The second one consists of Bulgarians, who complete themselves as Bulgarian oration Muslims with Bulgarian or Turkish theme identity.The tercet one consists of Bulgarian speaking Muslims, who do it themselves as ethnic Turks because their Bulgarian theme identity was part erased over the centuries callable to the rapacious concentration politic of the Turkish Empire. The last group consists of Bulgarian individuals, who speak Bulgarian and Turkish languages. They discern themselves as ethnic Turks, whose godlinesss are Christianity and Islam and whose Bulgarian out identity was fully erased to a lower place centuries of Turkish Islamic barbarity in Bulgaria.This compartmentalisation of ethnic and sacred groups only appears to be straightfo rward. In the context of the slick ethic and sacred relationships in Bulgaria and in the Balkans, slide fastener is ever simple. Hence, the purpose of this shew is not to lease the lector in a news of the suggested categorisation or its asperity or dependability and to image some lucidness into the multiform turn off of ethnicity and identity of the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims and their ethnic, ethnic and subject area identity and self-perception. Subsequently, this paper will envelop itself to the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, further referred to as Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. ghostlike mutation Pomaks until 1878As it already origin to emerge, the case of the Pomaks is enlarged and a number of debates nigh it, display very tender positions and irrelevant opinions. In straddle to calculate all points of project and in search for the truth, it is imperative to consider the diachronic background of the issue.The existence of shut Muslim societies in Bulgaria is the direct inheritance of tail fin centuries long Turkish rule over the Balkan Peninsula (Todorova, 1998, p.3). take down though thither is no un supposed info or figures to inform of community characteristics or major world shifts, some question has been do and on that point are number of live theories that explain the size and radical of Muslim universe on the Peninsula. In his Turkish atrocity in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, p. 23), Hristo Krasin has seek to assess the character and the effectuate of these movements. He claims that on that point were not any world-shattering creation transfers from Anatolia to the Balkans in the midst of the ordinal and sixteenth centuries and that the war machine formation circularize to take the Peninsula over, comprised only of soldiers and on that point no women travelling with the army.In her indistinguishability (Trans) validation among Bulgarian Muslims, mare Todorova, a enquiryer from The Univers ity of calcium (1998, p.4) argues that the primary(prenominal) historiographical competition centres on the explanations for the good Muslim community in the Balkans village versus changeover possibility. Furthermore, she suggests that by the sixteenth nose candy the settler village touch had halt and barely the parcel of Muslims in the region go along to grow. Thus, the hypothesis offered is that on that point were a great number of personal transmutations to Islam among the non-Muslim universe of the Balkans, one by one Bulgaria (Todorova, 1998, p.6).In addition, a whole range of time-tested and true schoolman look and publications from Bulgarian and Turkish authors, such as Omer Barkan from Istanbul University, Elena Grozdanova from the Bulgarian honorary society of Sciences, the Albanian historian Sami Pulaha (all cited in Todorova, 1998, pp. 2-5), refer to data to bear witness fast Muslim nation growth in Bulgaria amongst the fifteenth and ordinal centu ries out-of-pocket either colonisation or change.In an go about to join this debate and in intervention of the concrete save interlocking case of the Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, it must be suggested here that although in that location is present to curb twain theories, the absolute majority of all useable sources, in any case back up by decreed documents and survived the time registers of the pansy empire, figure the idea that phantasmal renascence on a considerable scale took place in Bulgaria and individually in the Balkans (Bulgarian academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). The question is how the alteration from Christianity to Islam was carried out and the consequence to this question is instantaneously attached with Pomaks self-identification as Muslims and thus gives some light into their actions and behavioral characteristics as citizens of the pouffe Empire until the nineteenth hundred and free-lance Bulgaria after that.To discuss the mode of the unearthly transformation of the Pomaks and underline its brilliance for the formation of their pagan identity and internal belong, it must be do adopt here that variation may occur in one or more of trinity ways through spontaneous association, by pressure, and by acculturation. Syncretism and heavy pagan subway can withal complicate the alteration make (The utilise biography investigate group, 2000, pp.1-3).thither is some other barbarian debate in Bulgarian and Balkan historiographical research literature round(predicate) the mode of Pomaks conversion to Islam and the co-existence of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims.On the one hand, on that point are these, who argue that the conversion was compel upon the Christian population of Bulgaria and over the centuries, and specially the seventeen century, in that respect was a chaw conversion to Islam in across the country and specially in the push-down store Rodopi region. thither is a gigan tic sum upity of literature, two schoolman and journalistic, back up with reliable and veritable manifest that the alleged obligatory conversion took place. In his racial extermination and final solution against Bulgarians (2006, p.63), Bulgarian academic historian and writer Georgi Voinov claims that the magisterial and pore controlling conversion to Islam was one of the preferred methods of control and judgment in the footstool Empire, well known for its strong culture aspirations in nightspot to promote pan-Turkism.To birth his assertions, Voinov cites legion(predicate) sources, based on genuine literature, compose by survivors or witnesses from fourteenth to 18th centuries. He withal claims that thither are authoritative registers of the puff Empire that had in addition captured those events and give aim information and statistics of all the atrocities that took place in the name of Islam and in cabaret to erase Bulgarian depicted object identity among the Bulgarian population (Bulgarian honorary society of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). either abovementioned sources body forth that Islam in Bulgaria was not real involuntary unless under duress. In the invoice ref The Rodopi chain reactor through the centuries (1966, p. 78), Bulgarian historian lance Petrov cites a source from the sixteenth century that duologue of 325 kilobyte new(a) Bulgarian youths forcefully converted to Islam and taken to Anatolia to swallow forces service in the Turkish army. altogether the boys number was known, for the girls, no-one has ever known. It is claimed, that conversion took place in 1515 and under the domination of Selim Pasha. in that respect are overly ageless lists from administrative drag registers coverage evidence that Islam was not recognized on voluntary basis. muss conversions took place in 1620, 1633, 1669, 1705, 1720, 1803, all of those through bang and sword, drowning in blood any exemption from the local Christia n population (Bulgarian honorary society of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7).On the other hand, thither are those academic writers and journalists, who for one reason or another(prenominal) and in an campaign to politicise the issue of Bulgarian Muslims, are directly assay to measure diachronic events. additional circumspection is given to the spectral and ethnic conversion in Bulgaria. In the lately print second mutant of his restrain The Mohammedan Bulgarians (2007, pp. 5-12), Bulgarian researcher and writer Stojan Raichevski asserts that change to Islam was forced upon the Christian Bulgarians by the power of the sword to a token(prenominal) mark except there were legion(predicate) other, more pregnant reasons and stinting factors, that play a key role, such as discriminative taxation and traffic agreements for Muslims in the Empire, the edacity of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the battle amongst the Bogomils and the Orthodox Church, etc.In addition, Kemal Karpat c omments that at the time when their land was conquered, the Slavic speaking Muslims were under the authority of their local feudal lords and legitimate Islam as the new corporate trust as it supposedly was close to their native corporate trust of Bogomilism, a assortment of Christianity, paganism and Manichaeism. In doing so, they hoped to make unnecessary their land holdings and ethnic identity.Furthermore, consort to the apply memorial look for group of the University of Calgary (2000, p.1), although conversion by pressure cannot be termed voluntary, the degree of force and irresistible impulse varies greatly. Indeed, military conquest was typically followed by the application of subtler pressures, such as commercial message or judicial sanctions, to practice the requirement of the new rulers. economical pressure was just as potent as an unchecked military subjugation. thinking objectively and considering all points of take in and available data, one does not in terrogative here that many another(prenominal) factors acted as an incentive to passel Islamic conversions in Bulgaria. What is raise to communicate through this forgather of train is that the faction of the contrary modes of conversion by voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation, was attended with syncretism that intractable some degree of cultural alteration. It did, in turn, excessively burn fierce cultural resistance and martyrdom from a large part of the Christian population.Hence, here was the historical picture in Bulgaria. On the one hand, those Bulgarians, who surrendered their religion for one reason or another, became Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. They move speaking Bulgarian language and the local area dialect, build their houses in Bulgarian architectural traditions, deliver some elements of their old dress code, keep to recognise themselves as Bulgarians provided construct mosques, storeyed Eid and enjoyed preferential interposition fr om the poof rulers.However, over the centuries they were unfastened to the influences of their follow Islamic religion and the rapacious pan-Turkism promoted in the queen Empire and through mingle of mixed aspects of unalike cultural custom and sacred rituals or syncretism, sanely new cultural arrangements took place. Bulgarian Muslims vary culturally to the life in the Empire and although preserving their Slavic language and some superstar of Bulgarian issue identity, their levels of cultural variation reached much greater heights than those among the Christian Bulgarian population. collect to this fact and over the centuries, the Pomaks look at move to self-define themselves in foothold of internal conciseness and bring in draw susceptible to influences and an object of evil or even political struggle.On the other hand, while Bulgarian Muslims were going through the yett against of cultural assimilation, the large part of the Bulgarian population withstoo d the pressure, go on to observe their faith and traditions, regularly rebelled against the Turkish rulers and took part in more than fifty military conquests against the Turks, led by different European rulers. exclusively Bulgarian becomes against the comforter Sultans, fourteen in heart in Bulgaria itself (Voinov, 2006, p.26), were drowned in blood. What necessarily illuminance here is one, not very well popularised fact Bulgarian Muslims took wide awake part in the prohibition and devastating of many of the rebellions. This, in turn, raises many questions, with one most imperative. What were the reasons that in the comparable ethnic population group, some of its members took the way of conversion and cultural readjustment but the others chose cultural resistance, martyrdom and self-martyrdom? How could these two groups live in sex act peace under ottoman rule but when an ascent against the Turks took place, Bulgarian Muslims ferociously and brutally attacked their Christian neighbours and fought on the side of the Turks, committing acts of inaudible of mercilessness and viciousness? Their fraternity in the oppress of the April uprising of 1876 is disreputable and it was describe by the American writer and journalist Janarius Aloysius McGahan, who was one of the superior war correspondents in the nineteenth century. In his American witness (2002, tertiary Ed.), Bulgarian historian Teodor Dimitrov has published McGahans notes approximately the atrocities in Batak, Bulgaria, and they readWe radius with many women, who had been through all stages of gouge without the last one, death. The procedure, as it seemed, was the future(a) the Turks would take a woman, strip down her, set parenthesis her valuables, gang-rape her and the last one, who had her, would kill her or let her go, depending on his sense of humour.What McGahan does not note here is that the Turks were not alone in the slaughterhouse of the rebels. They are back up b y their helpers, the local Pomak population, Greeks and other sharp ethnic groups. Thus, Christian Bulgarians fought for freedom, while Muslim Bulgarians took part in the drubbing of their uprising.What could adopt possibly provoked psyche to provoke in such a way? harmonize to Doinov et al. (2001, p.112), the shown roughness was an blowup of the deep subject and spectral detestation against the oppressed issueities in the poof Empire, that has been educate and boost for centuries by the govern powers.However, something else was at work there too. Kemal Karpat (1990, p.136) explains that Balkan Muslims, although living in a strange Christian European world, remained for the most part apolitical. However, their hands-off cultural- ghostlike soul was easily converted to a fighting(a) Muslim identity when the mass required. maybe when Bulgarian Muslims were faced with an unconditional act of resistance in the most salient form self-annihilation and self-marty rdom (2000, p.3), those acted as atom smasher and the Pomaks replied with repression and brutality. Ekaterina Peychinova, director of the Museum of register in Batak describes what group the oppressors madFor terce days and triad nights the people inside the church held together, and the hit outside(a) did not stop for a minute. At the end of the third day they gave in and undefended the gates of the church. besides then they had only two options either become Muslims or die. any single one of them chose death. (cited in Ivanova, 2008, p.1)The fearsome power of those events and the foresight of feelings and emotions are overwhelming. property in take heed that Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims are from the analogous ethnic origin and the same blood flows in their veins, keep up phantasmal and cultural conversion, syncretism and assimilation put up changed the latter(prenominal) so much that they could commit such acts and make believe identity wear rou nd over, allowing for full degradation of human determine?This essay does not take on the aspirant goal to fare all those questions. annals gives the answers and it will do the same here too. many years have gone since those charnel days and Pomaks sense of cultural identity and discipline belong has evolved and changed again as Bulgarian Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of numerous assimilation governmental campaigns and strategies from 1878 until now. ethnic identity and issue belong of Bulgarian Pomaks callable to the fact that the Bulgarian speaking Muslims took an active part in the suppressing the April uprising of 1876, they did not enjoy hail-fellow-well-met give-and-take from their Christian neighbours. With the progress of the Russian armies in 1878, retaliation began and a hearty part of the Pomaks immigrated to the blow empire, refusing to live under the rule of the giaurs or infidels. many others took part in the Rodopi confusion and lived in the supposed Pomak country for about eight years until 1886, when the active villages were include in the fagot Empire but only until the Balkan wars (Todorva, 1998, p.9).Furthermore, in the fagot commonwealth 1830-1914 (1985, p.78), Kemal Karpat cites fairy statistics, indicating that the total population of the Empire pink wine by about 40% in the period 1860-1878 due to positive measures by Russia and Bulgaria. He mentions that among the Balkan migrants there were large groups of Slavic-speaking Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins and Pomaks with a prohibit sense of ethnic identity, as they considered themselves as Muslims but not Osmanlis (Turks).Thus, nail down by the actions of the Pomaks, the question that must be asked here is did the Pomaks have a Turkish or Bulgarian cultural and discipline identity at the end of the nineteen and beginning of twentieth century and is it possible to sort between phantasmal and ethnic be?The Pomaks, who immigrated to the quilt Empire, had their cultural identity politicised and defined as Muslim and Turkish under the influence of the local political and ethnic culture (Karpat, 1990, p.137).Unfortunately, the Pomaks, who stayed in Bulgaria, did not have the fortune to decide for themselves freely because during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they were subjected to a number of penetrating campaigns to stand and recognise them as part of the Bulgarian nation or narod, starting from 1920-s and go on until the mid-80-s. In 1942, the first ever mass onslaught to change the name of the Bulgarian Muslims to Bulgarian name took place. It was a military issue of the work of the Pomaks own organisation, called Rodina or Motherland. Consisting mainly of teachers, Rodina strove to change the position of the Pomaks in Bulgarian society and to save them from the exploitation offense and marginalisation.In the context of the three Bulgarian demesne (1878 1944) and its jingoistic ambition s and assimilative tendencies, it is important to tell apart here that Motherlands actions were confirm in damage of seeking a study, cultural and linguistic unity of the Bulgarian society and the difficulties that the Pomaks could have faced, if tried to fit in that society. What is questionable here is the Pomaks propensity to fit in. Although the Pomaks have, at that point, befuddled the very close touch sensation with their real cultural authority, the footstool Empire, they were hushed in favour of their phantasmal linkup and were not unbidden to adapt to the fresh, language-based identity actively promoted by the modern Bulgarian state at that time (Todorova, 1998, p. 11). some other problem here is the attitude of the Christian Bulgarians, whose depicted object cognizance was set by unearthly and linguistic boundaries. Were they ready to forget the Ottoman rule and April 1876 and to gestate the Pomaks as part of the Bulgarian nation and allow assimilation? Could adaptation and adoption take place and the decomposable issue of depicted object identity, be and unity be resolved peacefully and once and for all? What is kick downstairs common home(a) identity and subject area unity or multi-cultural society? During commie rule in the 1960-s, 1970-s and 1980-s, diverse Bulgarian governments tried to resolve the issue through numerous maladroit assimilation campaigns, when all Muslim names were changed to Bulgarian names, an attempt was make to form a join Bulgarian nation in army to annul superpatriotic ambitions and claims from neighbouring Turkey.after the classless reforms from 1989, all ethnic and spectral groups in Bulgaria gained the freedom to self-identify themselves and promote their field of study and religious distinctiveness. either Muslim names were restored and on the face of it the great effort to create a join Bulgarian national identity had ended.Hence, the national identity and cultural belonging of the P omaks are more or less suave and non-defined, and the advent generations will have the chance to accomplish the butt against of integrating or crosstie as they choose. It is, however, ultimate to accept the lessons of history and to abolish all attempts to forcefully create a single identity with identical religious or national characteristics. ethnic conversion through co-operation and co-existence is much meet by small or big population groups, whilst conversion by pressure, divergence and aggressive assimilation is rejected and leads to confusion, villainy and frequently tough resistance. cobblers lastIn conclusion, it must be value here that the case of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks is of thickening constitution and the issue of delimit their national identity and cultural belonging is still unresolved. thither are many more questions to ask and answer and many more avenues to explore in ball club to establish which one of the national identity constituents is the most influential and possess the ultimate formative power.Consequently, it is the greatest wo of this work that it is impracticable to essay or develop fully all themes, ideas and debates in affiliation with the cultural identity, national belonging and self-perception of the Pomaks, when the number of words is limit and there is lack of the research available. However, one meanly hopes to have offered here, merely an attempt of discussion on the important issues of cultural and religious identity and how they shape the very centre of the human plan of self. Finally, it must be emphasise here that the write of this essay has been a vast learning attend for the author, an opportunity to study, investigate and explore the world of Bulgarian Muslims and be taught lessons that put historical and modern-day events into perspective.BibliographyBulgarian honorary society of Sciences (1982). recital of Bulgaria. Sofia evict Press, vol. 3-7.Dimitrov, T. (2002). American witness. third Ed. geneva geneva press.Doinov, D., Jechev, N. Kosev, K. (2001). The April uprising and the passel of the Bulgarian nation. Sofia pedantic Press prof Marin Drinov.Ivanova, M. (2008). St. Nedelya church in Batak. usable from http//www.pravoslavieto.com. (Accessed 12 April 2008).Karpat, K. (1985). 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