Front cover: Devil's Bridge, Ardino

Front cover, background: Sultan Abdlhamit II's berat to appoint Ilarion,

a Bulgarian cleric, bishop of Nevrokop, now Gotse Delchev, in 1894
Opposite page: Key to Tombul Mosque, Shumen

Dimana Trankova
Anthony Georgieff
Professor Hristo Matanov

A GUIDE TO OTTOMAN BULGARIA

by Dimana Trankova, Anthony Georgieff, Professor Hristo Matanov

Dimana Trankova, 2011 (text)

Anthony Georgieff, 2011 (text and photography)
Professor Hristo Matanov, 2011 (text)
The above persons hereby assert their moral right to be identified
as the authors of this work
Translated from the Bulgarian by Vassil Yovchev and Anthony Georgieff
Subedited by Jane Keating
Graphic Design: Gergana Shkodrova, Dimitar Dimitrov
Vagabond Media Ltd, 2011, 2012
First edition published November 2011
This revised and expanded second edition published February 2012
Printed by Dimitar Blagoev Printing House
All Rights Reserved. Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying or otherwise), without the prior written consent of the publisher.
. ,
,
, ,
(, ,
) .

ISBN 978-954-92306-7-3

A GUIDE TO

OTTOMAN
BULGARIA

CONTENTS
PREFACE

DUPNITSA

124

MAP OF OTTOMAN HERITAGE IN BULGARIA

15

VARNA

126

OTTOMAN ARCHITECTURE

16

IHTIMAN

130

SHABLA

20

DEVIL'S BRIDGE, ARDINO

134

YAMBOL

22

RAZGRAD

138

SOFIA'S MOSQUES

26

OSMAN BABA TEKKE, TEKETO

144

DEMIR BABA TEKKE, SBORYANOVO

32

STARA ZAGORA

148

FORTS & MOATS

38

KADIN BRIDGE, NEVESTINO

152

ABANDONED MOSQUES

46

OTTOMAN CEMETERIES

154

VIDIN

50

AK YAZILI BABA TEKKE, OBROCHISHTE

156

SUVOROVO

56

OTTOMAN WATER FOUNTAINS

160

KARDZHALI

58

KYUSTENDIL

164

OTTOMAN BATHS

60

GHAZI BABA TEKKE, RYAHOVTSITE

168

NOVI HAN

66

PODKOVA

170

Back cover

OTTOMAN BRIDGES

69

PROVADIA

172

First row: A scaled model of Tombul Mosque klliye, Shumen; Ceiling decoration from
former mevlevihane, Plovdiv; Clock tower, Karnobat; Ibrahim Pasha Mosque, Razgrad;
Interior of Kardzhali mosque; Bridge near Borino, the Rhodope

KARLOVO

84

CLOCK TOWERS

176

HASKOVO

88

KADEMLI BABA TEKKE, NOVA ZAGORA

184

UZUNDZHOVO

90

BALCHIK

186

AGUSHEV KONAKS

94

TARGOVISHTE

192

PLOVDIV

96

SAMOKOV

194

Illustrations on p14
Clockwise, first row: Former zaviye, Ihtiman; ifte Hamam, Plovdiv; Valchanov Bridge
on the River Rezovska, Bulgarian-Turkish border; The binding of Ismael (Isaac), Osman
Baba Tekke, Village of Teketo in the Rhodope; Haskovo Eski Mosque
Second row: Mustafa Pasha Bridge, Svilengrad; Eski Mosque, Vratsa; Balchik mosque;
Belogradchik fort; Knt Kapu, Ruse
Third row: Parts of Sultan Mahmud II's water fountain, Varna; Banyaba Mosque, Sofia;
Prayers in the Wooden Mosque, Podkova; Inscription from the Kardzhali mosque; Water
fountain, Kavarna
Fourth row: Clock tower, Blagoevgrad; Muslim ladies from the village of Lyulyakovo in
Stara Planina; Agushev Konaks, Mogilitsa; Tombul Mosque, Shumen; Relief from Demir
Baba Tekke, Sboryanovo
Fifth row: Ak Yazl Baba Tekke, Obrochishte; Mecidi Tabia fort, Silistra; Inside the
Omurtag mosque; Vidin fortress; Bridge in Dolen, the Rhodope

Second row: Inscription from the Sultan Mahmud II water fountain, Varna; Mosque,
Provadia; A Muslim lady, Lomtsi; Assumption of Our Lady Church, a former mosque,
Uzundzhovo; Water fountain in Demir Baba Tekke; Sabri Hussein Baba Tekke, Tutrakan
Third row: Mecidi Tabia fort, Silistra; St Sedmochislenitsi Church, former Imaret Mosque,
Sofia; Ak Yazl Baba Tekke, Obrochishte; Sahat Mosque, Targovishte; Bridge near Madan;
Balchik old Muslim cemetery
Fourth row: Mehmed Fatih Mosque, Kyustendil; An attendant in the Wooden Mosque,
Podkova; Mehmed Bey Mosque, Gotse Delchev; Seid Pasha Mosque, Ruse; Water
fountain, Nesebar; Abandoned zaviye, Ihtiman
Fifth row: Cemetery, non-existent village of Tamrash, the Rhodope; Residential archi
tecture, Karlovo; Osman Baba Tekke, Teketo; Lighthouse, Cape Shabla; Kadin Bridge,
Nevestino; Demir Baba Tekke, Ruino
Sixth row: Eski Mosque decorations, Stara Zagora; Mustafa Pasha Bridge, Svilengrad;
Stamboul Kap, Vidin; Bayrakli Mosque, Samokov; Agushev Konaks, Mogilitsa

BALI EFENDI, SOFIA

106

'ROMAN' WALL, SOFIA

198

SHUMEN

110

RUSE

200

MUSTAFA PASHA BRIDGE, SVILENGRAD

118

EPILOGUE

205

SILISTRA

120

GLOSSARY

209

PREFACE

East of Malko Tarnovo, in the easternmost reaches of Bulgaria, a

bridge spans the Rezovska River. Once it had three high, beautifully
crafted stone arches, but now only one remains that on the
Turkish bank. The thick Strandzha forest surrounding it is quiet,
inhabited only by deer, wild boar and hornets. You can only find
the dirt road leading to the bridge with a local guide, preferably
driving a 4WD.
The story of how that bridge was built and demolished is a telling
example of the difficulties you will encounter when trying to work
out what part of Bulgaria's cultural heritage is Ottoman by concept,
execution, influence or funding.
No written account for the early building history of the bridge
exists but legends abound.
Until the 1800s that stretch of the Rezovska was uncrossable.
The people of nearby Malko Tarnovo had to make a long detour
to reach Kk, or Little, Samokov, now the modern Turkish town
of Demirky.
About that time a man decided to build a bridge over the river.
Valchan Voyvoda was a Bulgarian haydutin, or brigand, who had
won fame as a daring robber of Ottoman convoys carrying taxes
to Stamboul.
Valchan Voyvoda hired a local Bulgarian master builder.
Somebody the myths are quiet about just who securedthe
approval of the local Ottoman authorities. They were more than
happy to see an important infrastructure project materialise
without their having to spend a penny of the state's money.
Work started, and no one knew that one of the builders hewing
stones on the site was Valchan Voyvoda himself.

The bridge was completed, a marvellous structure 15 metres

long, six metres high and two metres wide, enough for both people
and carts to cross. The locals gathered to celebrate the blessing of
the bridge, Bulgarians and Ottomans together. When the ceremony
was over and all the food and drink had disappeared, one of the
builders stood on the river bank. He let out a shout and then jumped
over the river. "Maallah, maallah!," the Ottomans cried in delight
at this demonstration of skill and bravery. The man evaporated into
the forest, and no one realised that this was "blood-thirsty" Valchan
Voyvoda.
The bridge soon became a busy point on the road through the
Strandzha, and elderly folk still remember how their grandfathers
and great-grandfathers crossed it on horseback and even on camels.
The bridge was so important, that shortly before the 1912-1913
Balkan Wars the Ottoman government commissioned an Italian
architect to build a new, bigger version a few yards downstream.
The story of how the bridge was demolished is as bizarre and
fascinating as the story of how it was built in the first place.
The border between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Ottoman
Empire was demarcated along parts of the Rezovska River as late as
1913. The bridge was fully operational until 1944 when the Soviets
invaded Bulgaria and assisted the local Communists in establishing
a Stalinist state. The border with Turkey was sealed off. Bulgaria of
the Warsaw Pact quickly came to view NATO's Turkey as an archenemy. The bridge was no longer used. In those days Bulgaria was
East and Turkey was West.
Little verifiable information exists about how exactly the Valchanov
Bridge was destroyed. According to one urban legend, the Germans,

Bulgaria's Second World War allies, mined the bridge to prevent

a possible Turkish intrusion. One stormy night lightning struck the
bridge and set off the German mines on the Bulgarian side only.
According to another, Bulgarian Communists blew up the bridge
to prevent foreign "saboteurs" from infiltrating the territory of the
People's Republic. The most plausible one is the least complicated.
Local apparatchiks and the military stationed in the Strandzha, at that
time a ferociously militarised "border zone," blew up the Bulgarian
portion of the bridge to cut off an obvious escape route for refugees.
The bridge was making crossing the river too easy.
The half-destroyed Valchanov Bridge on the Rezovska River today
is a sorry sight. The bridge that was built by Bulgarian builders in
Ottoman times, sponsored by a Bulgarian brigand using stolen
Ottoman money, epitomises fairly well the state of attitudes towards
the common heritage of Bulgaria and Turkey: disused on one side
and actively destroyed on the other.
For many and varied reasons, popular sentiment in modernday Bulgaria overwhelmingly downplays this country's Ottoman
cultural heritage. State education usually confines to just a
few pages the five centuries of Ottoman domination, and then
focuses on uprisings and revolts and their extremely bloody
subjugation. The Orthodox Church preoccupies itself with Islam's
thrust to "exterminate" Christendom, as well as with the "forcible"
Islamisation of Bulgarians. Little if anything is mentioned about
architecture, the arts and sciences and social development under
the Ottomans, nor is there be any balanced explanation of the
Ottoman influence in many areas of life in present-day Bulgaria,
from cuisine to legislation, and from religion to family matters.

Under Communism, the Republic of Turkey, an important

member of NATO, was viewed with outright hostility. The policy of
the Communist regime to "Bulgarianise" the country's large ethnic
Turkish minority (in some regions a majority) was accompanied
by a huge propaganda effort. School textbooks, novels, poems,
songs, films and plays were commissioned and paid for by the
state to represent Bulgaria's Turks as a Fifth Column against both
Bulgarianness and Socialism. By extension, the Ottoman Empire
was represented as a blood-thirsty monster who had constantly
stifled the elite of the Bulgarian nation in those rare times that it was
not massacring and torturing it. Bulgaria's 500 years of Ottoman
domination was nothing but a series of beheadings, impalings and
rivers of blood.
One of the results of this propaganda was the increasing neglect
and sometimes active destruction of Ottoman monuments, from
mosques and bath houses to bridges and secular buildings. Another
was the curious de-Turkification of the Ottoman legacy. Two striking
examples come to mind. Travel in the Rhodope mountains and
you will hear the region's beautiful bridges referred to as "Roman,"
despite the historical fact that they were constructed centuries
after the Romans had disappeared. Likewise, Plovdiv's famous ifte
Banya's "official" name now is "Ancient Bath House," to avoid any
indication that it was once Turkish.
This kind of Bulgarianisation is long-lasting and omnipresent.
It ranges from the fine examples of Balkan architecture known in
Bulgaria as "Bulgarian National Revival" to everyday food, drink and
dining on mezes.
Propaganda worked exceptionally well under Communism and

Valchanov Bridge still (dis)connects Bulgaria and Turkey

10

11

its legacy is still very much present in the Bulgaria of NATO and the
European Union.
The Ottoman Empire has become the populists' favourite excuse
for everything that has gone wrong in Bulgaria from the poor work
ethic and the inefficient bureaucracy to the lack of proper roads
and the habit of eating sunflower seeds. Mention the Ottomans to
an average Bulgarian and what you will get 98 percent of the time
is a long, one-sided verbal outpouring about the "barbarity" of the
Turks as opposed to the virtues of the indigenous Bulgarians and,
of course, the "liberating" role of Russia. There will be no mention
of the Ottoman cultural heritage at all, and few will even know that
one of Sofia's most beautiful churches was originally constructed
as a mosque.
Against this background it is difficult to imagine that religious
tolerance and multiculturalism actually existed in the Bulgarian
lands long before they came into being in Western Europe.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the Ottoman conquest of
the 14th-15th centuries, Bulgaria and the Balkans never saw the
religious wars of the sort that plagued Western Europe. A variety
of religions, faiths and beliefs flourished throughout the Balkan
lands. Importantly, the Balkans offered sanctuary to many peoples
persecuted in their own lands on the basis of religion or ethnicity,
the Jews of Spain and Portugal being the example that most readily
comes to mind. The High Porte in Stamboul might levy heavy taxes
and crush uprisings and revolts with a scimitar of steel, but its
millet system ensured that every taxpayer Bulgar, Greek, Serb,
Armenian or Jew could enjoy freedom of worship as long as they
fulfilled their obligations to the sultan.
For centuries Bulgaria and the Balkans have been at the major
fault-line between Christian Europe and the Muslim East, but in a
uniquely Balkan manner Christianity (Eastern Orthodox and Roman)
and Islam have blended with local beliefs and superstitions, creating
a fascinating spiritual melting pot. At the huge Balkan crossroads
of religions and cultures there are still remnants of long-forgotten
religious practices and cults, disused temples, synagogues and
cemeteries, and Islamic sites that live side by side with functioning
religious entities.
Interestingly, the spiritual continuity and religious amalgamation
through the centuries have been so strong that some sites claimed
by one group had originally been built by another and are now
being used for worship by a third.
Notwithstanding the negative attitudes and perceptions about
what happened in the 14th-19th centuries, Bulgaria in 2011 is a very

12

different place from what it was in 1878, 1912 or 1944. It is now a

member of important organisations of the Western community
such as NATO and the EU and it willingly embraces the Western
values of freedom and liberalism that its Communists had denied it.
This should give it all the more confidence to be at peace with itself
including its Ottoman past, to focus on the positive rather than
on the negative, to feel safe and secure from real and imaginary
threats, including threats to its national identity. 500 years of
Ottoman domination, seen in this light, should not necessarily
mean antipathy towards Islam, not least because in the course of
500 years Bulgarian and Turk lived side by side and their greatgreat-grandchildren are now neighbours. Bulgaria stands in the
unique position in Europe to bridge the gap between the two
because it has had the knowledge, tradition and experience. To
put it in another way, it should capitalise on instead of negate its
Ottoman heritage in all its aspects.
Owing to the many years of linguistic and cultural isolation,
most of the Ottoman heritage of Bulgaria remains almost
completely unknown to the outside world and to the Bulgarians
themselves.
It is impossible in a book of this size to even attempt an outline of
the multiplicity of the Ottoman experience in what is now Bulgaria,
nor is it the intention of the authors. Instead of going into every
complicated detail of the Ottoman legacy in this part of Europe,
the aim of this book is completely different. It presents in a brief,
concise and visually spectacular form a selection of Bulgaria's most
interesting Ottoman monuments. Its main purpose is to enable
both Bulgarian and foreign visitors to be aware of what they see
while travelling in various parts of the country. It is designed to
appeal to the academic community as well as to the general public,
both young and old. Notwithstanding its popular stance, this book
adheres strictly to established historical facts to avoid ambiguity
and misinterpretation.
While researching and writing this book we partook of many
scientific and literary sources. These include, but are not limited to,
Ottoman traveller Evliya elebi's Seyahatname, or Books of Travels,
Sofia, 1972, translated into Bulgarian and edited by Strashimir
Dimitrov; Travels in Bulgaria by Czech historian Konstantin Jireek,
Sofia, 1974; Town-Planning and Architecture in the Bulgarian Lands
in the 15-18th Centuries by Margarita Harbova, Sofia, 1991, in
Bulgarian. We also used extensively the works of Dutch historian
Professor Machiel Kiel, published in Bulgarian in 2005 as People and
Settlements in Bulgaria During the Ottoman Period, and his articles in

the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. III, London, Leiden, Paris, 1993, in

English.
Other works that inspired us included the letters of Lady Mary
Montagu, translated into Bulgarian and edited by Maria Kiselin
cheva as The Balkans Through the Eyes of Two English Female
Travellers From the 18th Century, Sofia, 1979; German and Austrian
Travelogues About the Balkans in the 15-17th Centuries, Sofia, 1979,
selected and translated by Mihail Yonov; Corpus of Ottoman-Turkish
Epigraphic Monuments in Northeastern Bulgaria From the 15-20th
Centuries by Nikolay Panayotov, Vol. I, Sofia, 2002; Dame Rebecca
West classical book on the Western Balkans Black Lamb and Grey
Falcon, London, 1941; The Old Water-Fountains of Varna by Ivan
Michev, Varna, 2009.
Special thanks to Ventsislav Chakov from the history museum of
Balchik for the information he collected in situ about the Ottoman
heritage of the city, to archaeologist Dimitar Yankov for whom
Eski Mosque in Stara Zagora has become the cause clbre of his
life, and to Mrs Konstantinova from the Revival Period Museum in
Varna for supplying us with precious bits of information about the
mosque in Suvorovo.
As soon as we started researching, photographing, writing and
translating this book we were faced with a number of uneasy choices.
First and foremost comes the geographical and topographical
descriptions, as well as the toponyms used in the past, as well as
now.
This book deals exclusively with monuments that are within
the territory of the modern Republic of Bulgaria as it stood at the
end of the Second World War. Therefore, there is no mention of
monuments that still exist in Bulgaria's neighbouring countries,
including Turkey, Greece, Serbia and the former Yugoslav republic

of Macedonia, which were once Bulgarian or were populated by

ethnic Bulgarians. This means no mention of Odrin, Ohrid and
Kostur, now Edirne in Turkey, Ohrid in Macedonia and Kastoria in
Greece respectively.
Then came the issue of place names. Toponyms in the Balkans,
and in some cases the names of the modern countries themselves,
reflect the traumatic history of the region. Wouldn't it be an
injustice to call the modern-day Bulgarian city of Plovdiv "Filibe",
as the Turks did? Was it not an equal outrage for the Ottomans to
"rename" it Filibe from the beautiful Byzantine Philippopolis? After
significant deliberation we settled for a more liberal approach,
where geography shakes hands with history. The system adopted
in this book is designed to pay respect both to historical truth and
to current boundaries, in an attempt to do justice to all (a daunting
task in the Balkans!). Therefore, Plovdiv will appear either as Plovdiv,
when we talk of the modern city, or as Filibe, when we mention
the Ottoman period, or as Philippopolis when we refer to the
Byzantines. The most obvious example of this flexible toponymy
is of course Istanbul or Tsarigrad, Stamboul, Konstantiniye and
Constantinople, depending on what country it happened to be in
at the time.
Last but not least, we worked with a very clear idea from the
very beginning, that this is not a book about history, but about the
future. While it does focus on the historical legacies and heritage,
it is primarily meant for the generations to come: to encourage
better insight into Bulgaria's own identity, to boost understanding
between the people of Bulgaria and Turkey, to show the irrelevance
of extremist nationalism in the modern world, and to assert that the
misrepresentation and misinterpretation of history belong to the
past, not to the future.

13

OTTOMAN
ARCHITECTURE
Styles, influences amalgamate
into distinctive fashioN

"They build beautiful towns and villages. I know of no country,

not even Italy or Spain, where each house in a group will be placed
with such invariable taste and such pleasing results for those who
look at it and out of it alike. The architectural formula of a Turkish
house, with its reticent defensive lower story and its projecting
upper story, full of windows, is simple and sensible; and I know
nothing neater than its interior," wrote Dame Rebecca West (18921983) in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, 1941.
This book, which today is widely recognised as one of the literary
classics of the 20th Century, focuses on Yugoslavia, and the vista
that inspired this passage is of Mostar. It could just as easily refer
to the townscapes of Edessa, Bansko or any of the towns and
villages in the former Ottoman Empire which have preserved the
old architecture, or at least parts of it. These places include Sarajevo
in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ohrid in the former Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia. Kostur and Skecha, now respectively Kastoria
and Xanthi in Greece, Kovachevitsa and Bozhentsi, Old Plovdiv and
Arbanasi in Bulgaria, Amasya and Safranbolu in the Anatolian part
of modern day Turkey are other fine examples.
This type of residential architecture is often considered to have
evolved locally: the fruit of the efforts, creative ideas and skills of
local architects, usually Christians. Indeed, many of the splendid
houses with porches and projecting upper floors were built by
Christians for Christians, but perhaps even more were built for
Muslims by Muslims.
This architectural style appeared and developed within the
Ottoman Empire, and spread throughout its territory from the
Western Balkans to Asia Minor. It became a building tradition that

16

was favoured and used across the empire, regardless of the religion
of the builders or of the people who commissioned the houses.
Of course, local characteristics appeared which make it easy
to tell whether a certain building is a konak from Sarajevo, or a
merchant's house from Tryavna or Skecha, but as a whole the
concept, the silhouette, the materials used stone, wood, bricks
and adobe the interior design and even the furniture, which
includes low-profile sofas and wooden built-in cupboards, are the
same everywhere.
The residential architecture typical of the Ottoman Empire
probably did develop from local building ideas, but the splendid
houses, which in the 18th and the 19th centuries were built in
the wealthy town quarters throughout the empire, could have
appeared only within the borders of a large state. Over the course
of 700 years the empire comprised a relatively stable territory
whose heartland was Asia Minor, the Near East and the Balkans.
Inside these borders fashion trends could flow freely, carried
by people on the move, including Ottoman administrators,
merchants of all possible religions and itinerant master builders.
The Ottoman Empire's architectural heritage includes also public
and religious buildings: mosques and trbes; kervansarays, bazaars
and baths, drinking fountains and a particularly characteristic style
of bridge.
Ottoman architecture originated in the old capitals of Bursa
and Edirne, springing from the heritage of the earlier building
traditions of Byzantium, the Seljuk Empire, the Mamluks and Iran.
The picturesque manner of construction of the earliest Ottoman
buildings made of stone and bricks, for example, was borrowed

from the Byzantines, who, in turn, had developed the Opus Mixtum
building technique of the Romans. The obsession with domes,
typical of the refined architecture of the classical period (14531703), was inspired by the dome of the 6th Century church of Hagia
Sophia in Constantinople. Construction in the Lale Devri era of the
18th Century would not have been the same without the strong
influence of European Baroque.
Ottoman architecture is not a simple mechanical blend. Foreign
construction influences were used as a foundation on which a
specific and recognisable architecture developed. One of these
peculiarities is the widespread use of the dome in the construction
of public buildings ranging from hamams to bedestens.
Ottoman towns, too, possessed their own specific style of layout,
a trend noted by travellers from as early as the 15th and the 16th

centuries. Towns and villages were not confined within walls, but
developed spontaneously, depending on the peculiarities of the
terrain and the location of elements such as rivers and important
roads. The neighbourhoods of low, one- and two-storey houses
with gardens were segregated according to religion, and each was
built around the respective place of worship the local mosque,
church or synagogue.
The centre of the town or village was usually at the intersection
of the most important roads and was dominated by the Friday
mosque, with its tall minaret, and the market two essential
elements required for a place to be recognised as a town. Nearby
stood other buildings without which town life was impossible, a
hamam, a bazaar, an inn, a drinking fountain and, from the 18th
Century on, a clock tower.

17

Previous page: Safranbolu, Turkey

1. Kastoria, Greece
2. Zlatograd, Bulgaria
3. Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Prizren, Kosovo
Opposite page: Old Plovdiv. The marvellous
mansions in the style, known as Bulgarian Revival
Period architecture, are a product of common
architectural development in the Ottoman Empire

18

SHABLA
Lighthouse with crescent

Extreme geographical points seem to possess a peculiar

attraction Cape Shabla, on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast,
is no exception. Bulgaria's easternmost point meets the sea with a
reef and a rusty iron quay on which cormorants sit.
The feeling of a place that stands at the edge of the land is
emphasised by a 32-metre-high tower painted in cheerful red
and white stripes. This is Shabla's lighthouse, the oldest surviving
one of its kind in Bulgaria. It was built in 1856-1857, though by the
second half of the 18th Century a lighthouse certainly existed on
this dangerous cape surrounded by shallows and underwater cliffs.
Even from a distance a telling detail on top
of the tower can be discerned a crescent and
a star. The upper ray of the star is elongated,
gold-plated and pointing skywards.
A white oval with a red ornament embossed
on one of the walls explains the crescent.
The red ornament is the tura of Sultan
Abdlmecid I (1839-1861), the man on whose
orders the lighthouse at Shabla was built.
The sultan decided to erect lighthouses on
this part of the Black Sea coast in the 1850s.
The Crimean War of 1853-1856 was underway
and it was a time when new technologies were
rapidly making their way into everyday life.
The sultan wanted to keep abreast of the times
Sultan Abdlmecid I's tura
and encourage navigation in the Black Sea.

20

The task was entrusted to the French Compagnie des Phares

de lEmpire Ottoman. This company was to build and maintain
lighthouses in return for a 25-year concession on lighthouse fees.
Shabla's lighthouse was the first to be built. By 1866 the French
company had also built lighthouses on the capes of Kaliakra,
Varna and Galata. The modern lighthouses in these locations,
however, now bear no semblance to the originals.
On 31 March 1901 the northern Black Sea coast was struck by an
earthquake of 7.2 on the Richter scale. The lighthouses suffered
such severe damage that it was easier to rebuild them, except for
the one at Shabla.
It was damaged, but it was propped up using
iron supports, and repaired in 1934-1935, while
the area was part of Romania. The walls were
strengthened, a spiral staircase was added
inside the tower, and the old lantern was
replaced by the latest-generation Swedish
optics. The cheerful stripes on the light-house
date from this period.
Since then, the only major changes made
to the lighthouse have been to its optics
system, which was renewed in 1957 and
again in 1987. The tura and the crescent have
remained to remind us of the man who chose
to modernise his empire in an ever-changing
world.

21

DEMIR BABA TEKKE

religions blend
at muslim cleric's tomb

Left: Demir Babas grave.

The saints tombstone is nearly
4 metres long and is covered
with gifts from grateful visitors
Opposite page: A vase drawing
from the walls of the trbe.
Demir Baba tekke was declared
a cultural monument in 1970

32

If you are looking for a place in Bulgaria that combines nature,

architecture and spirituality, Demir Baba's tekke will be among
your top choices. The saint's stone trbe lies at the foot of the
cliffs of Kamenen Rid. Dense woods rustle around Demir Baba's
trbe an object so exquisite that from afar it looks like a toy that
you could hold in your hand.
Demir Baba's tekke is one of the 140 cultural heritage sites
in the Sboryanovo Archaeological Reserve, near Isperih. The
trbe stands out from all of them including the Thracian
tomb with Caryatids, a UNESCO heritage site for one reason:
it is the only monument in the reserve that has been used for the
same purpose since it was built in the 16th Century.
Demir Baba, or the "Iron Father," who is buried here, is the most
honoured saint of a small and little known group of Muslims in
Bulgaria the Alevis.
Some 70,000 Alevis live in Bulgaria now in compact groups in
villages in the Dobrudzha region, the Ludogorie and the eastern
Rhodope. They are followers of an unorthodox and rather liberal
version of Shiite Islam. Drinking alcohol is not forbidden and
women do not cover their faces. They held common rituals
away from the eyes of the uninitiated. Alevis consider Imam Ali
the true heir of Mohammed and believe in the 12 Imams, his
infallible heirs.
Alevism is esoteric and full of symbols incomprehensible to
those unfamiliar with it. What is known is that the figure seven,
the number "12" and the rose are sacred. That is why the tombs
of Alevi saints are heptagon-shaped and the turbans depicted
on men's tombstones have seven wraps.

Orthodox Islam forbids the veneration of tombs. For Alevis,

however, the tombs of saints are sacred places where people
come to pray for health, for a child or to seek help from above.
Alevis believe that all religions are equal and contain truth. This
explains the many borrowings in their rituals for example, the
lighting of a candle at a saint's trbe.

33

The story of the Alevis' arrival in the Balkans contains many

blank spots, hypotheses and legends. According to the most
popular version, Alevis used to live on the border between
the Shiite Iran and the Sunni Ottoman Empire. The two
states were in conflict, so the Sultans Bayezid II (1481-1512),
Selim I (1512-1520) and Sleyman I (1520-1566) forced Alevis to
move to depopulated areas in the Balkans.
At times the Ottoman state persecuted Alevis. Alevi saints and
sages, however, had a special status. Officially they belonged
to the monastic order of the Bektashis, who somewhat
confusingly were Sunnis. Thus, saints such as Demir Baba,
Osman Baba and Ak Yazl Baba were honoured by Sunnis, their
deeds being described in legendary biographies and their tekkes
visited by pilgrims.
Demir Baba was no exception. The legend says that he was a
contemporary of Sleyman I. His birth had been predicted by the
saint Ak Yazl Baba, whose tekke lies in the village of Obrochishte,
near Varna.
Demir Baba was still young when he showed signs of the great
saint he would become. Prior to founding a tekke he travelled
around the world and distinguished himself as a brave warrior
and a skilled horseman. Demir Baba killed two dragons that
were terrorising the lands of the Tatars and the Muscovites, and
helped the sultan seize control of Budapest.
He then returned to his native village, founded a tekke, gathered
disciples and started to preach and help people. One of the
eloquent testimonies to Demir Baba's powers is still in his tekke.
This is the karst spring called Baparmak. According to legend,
during an unprecedented drought people prayed to the saint for
help. He put his hand into the rock and water spurted out.
Baparmak has not been piped yet because the local people
still believe it is sacred. A ritual is still observed requiring
those entering the tekke to take three sips from it and wash
their faces.
Demir Baba's trbe and the old house at the entrance of the
complex are the only surviving structures of the large religious
complex that used to surround the tomb. Belief in the saint's
powers, however, is still strong and attracts Alevis, Sunnis and
Christians. The largest number of visitors gather on 6 May,
the holiday celebrated as Hdrellez by Muslims and St George's
Day by Christians.
The tekke is full of pointers to the mix of religious traditions
and even superstitions. The saint's grave is covered with dozens

Previous page: The trbe is 11 metres high. According to locals, until the 1920s there
was an iron cross and a crescent on its top. A local official had the cross removed, as
he considered its presence on a Muslim sanctuary an insult to Christianity
1. The decorations inside the trbe were restored in the 1990s
2. This star has seven points the number the Alevis consider sacred
3. What is this building? There is a theory that the relief was carved by a local Alevi
pilgrim who had visited Jerusalem or the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf
4. Witchs Eyes
5. The 12-pointed rosette is probably an Alevi symbol for the 12 Imams

35

of towels, shirts and socks, left there as gifts for prayers that
were answered. The trees in the surrounding area and even the
window bars of the trbe are decorated with colourful shreds of
cloth, tied there by people who believed this would bring them
health.
The stones in one of the walls of the complex are decorated
with mysterious carvings. Seven-pointed stars can be seen
on some of them. Hexagrams, which are known in mystical
teachings as the Seal of Solomon, are depicted on others.
Still others bear domed buildings, one of which is certainly a
mosque with a minaret. One of the stones in the wall attracts small
groups of visitors who, with eyes shut and arms outstretched, try
to find it and poke their fingers into two holes known the Witch's
Eyes.
Demir Baba tekke had been a sacred site long before the
arrival of the Alevis. Archaeological excavations have not been
able to find proof to corroborate local legends of a Christian
monastery dedicated to St George beneath the tekke. However,
archaeologists have discovered that a Thracian sanctuary existed
there between the 4th Century BC and the 2nd Century AD. The
trbe was built literally on top of its remains and some of the
stones of the pagan sanctuary have been incorporated into the
walls of the Alevi shrine.
The most eloquent example is the huge stone block along one
of the trbe walls. Two thousand years ago the Thracians offered
sacrifices on it. Those who believe in Demir Baba's powers,
however, lie on it in the hope that it will bring them health.

36

Top: Pilgrims tie rags and patches of clothing to the trees near the tekke in the belief
that they will be released of malaise
Above: On the stone on which Thracians once offered sacrifices, visitors lie down
to gain health and strength

SHUMEN
Tulip period blossoms in city
with prettiest Ottoman building
The Tombul Mosque in Shumen needs restoration the way a
painting by an old Dutch master needs cleaning to enable its beauty
to shine through. Visitors cannot but feel sorry or disappointed
when they arrive in the city to see Bulgaria's most beautiful mosque
and find that this is impossible. The harmonious composition of
domes, to which the Tombul Mosque owes most of its charm, is
hidden behind restoration scaffolding.
Inside the mosque scaffolding hides both the walls and the dome,
but by looking up, one can just make out the exquisite Baroque
decorations that restorers are slowly bringing back to life.
The Tombul Mosque was built in 1744/1745. Its central dome is
25 metres high and its tall minaret is 40. This mosque is the largest
Ottoman building in Bulgaria and the only example in the country
of a structure with the coquettish, decorative, Baroque-influenced
architecture of the Tulip period of 1718-1730. This was a time of
tentative attempts at modernisation in the Ottoman Empire, which
did not last long, and was not particularly successful except for the
emergence of a specific artistic and architectural style.
The construction of the Tombul Mosque in this period and at this
place can be considered a small miracle. The large and expensive
building was most probably designed by architects from the
capital, but appeared in a regional city at a time when Ottoman
art in this part of the empire was generally becoming more modest
and more provincial.
The explanation for the appearance of the Tombul Mosque lies in
the personality of the man who commissioned it. erif Halil Pasha
was born in umla, as the Ottomans called Shumen, but rose to the
position of vizier in Constantinople. The Tombul Mosque and the

110

splendid charity complex around it were Halil Pasha's gift to his

fellow citizens.
The mosque is a part of a kliye, a larger compound of religious
and educational buildings. The eight spouts of an exquisite water
fountain used to babble in an inner court, where the rooms on the
first floor were used to accommodate the young people being
educated at the madrasah, founded and supported by erif Halil
Pasha. Surviving documents show that the teaching staff included
an expert in calligraphy, and over the years some of the most
skilled calligraphers in this part of the empire were educated here.
The second floor of the building housed a rich library, said to have
contained more than 5,000 volumes in Arabic and Persian, on
subjects going beyond the bounds of theology, including treatises
on geography, mathematics and medicine.
A Muslim elementary school stood on the other side of the
mosque.
Like many other exceptional buildings, the Tombul Mosque has
become the subject of legends. Many stories are told about it,
ranging from the popular one about the architect killed by his client
so that he would never again be able to build anything rivalling the
beauty he had created to several newer stories.
The bedesten was built in 1529 by a small colony of Dubrovnik merchants in umla and
is one of the oldest Ottoman buildings in Bulgaria. After 1878, the building was used
as a munitions depot. During Communism it was a restaurant and a hard-currency
shop and after the fall of the regime became a nightclub. Today the building is
privately owned. The disco sign can still be seen on the faade. In the second half of the
18thCentury a hamam was built against one of the short walls of the bedesten. Today
Sontur Banya is in ruins

111

One of these still considered to absolutely true, is that some of

the pillars and many of the stones used in the construction of the
mosque were plundered from the ruins of the medieval Bulgarian
capitals of Pliska and Preslav, several kilometres from Shumen.
However, restorers have discovered that these claims are greatly
exaggerated. The stones built into the walls of the Tombul Mosque
had been carved especially for it and with such precision that the
joints have not shifted position over the years.
The legend that policemen fired bullets at the inside of the dome
was probably invented at the height of the forcible Bulgarianisation
campaign in the 1980s. The marks of bullet were said to be visible
among the decorations on the ceiling, but restorers have found
that the "holes" are, in fact, tacks fastening the plaster to the ceiling.
The coats of paint that used to cover them gradually wore away,
revealing the "shooting" marks.

112

One of the most recent myths about the mosque is the result of
the mania for seeking hidden messages in buildings, inspired by
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. According to this theory, the stone
decorations in one of the corners of the Tombul Mosque represent
the secret symbol of a mystical society of initiates.
At first glance, the exquisite metropolitan architecture of the
Tombul Mosque seems improbable for an edifice built so far from
Constantinople, but when Halil Pasha started the construction of
the kliye on the northern shore of the River Poroyna, umla was a
far-from-insignificant town.
The origins of Shumen date from around the 12th Century BC,
when a fortified settlement was built on a steep cliff on the Shumen
Plateau. The fortress existed for several centuries, including during
the years of Roman rule, and in the 12th-14th centuries became the
major urban centre of the region. The Ottomans had conquered

it by the end of the 14th Century, but the medieval walls were
demolished later by the army of Wadysaw III of Poland (1434-1444)
during his ill-fated anti-Ottoman campaign in 1444.
The peace that was established in this part of the empire in the
second half of the 15th Century probably encouraged the residents
of the ruined fortress to move to the foot of the plateau. This is
where the city of umla originated and prospered.
The oldest quarters of the city sat as close to the slopes of the
plateau as possible, on the banks of the Poroyna. In the 16th to
18th centuries the city gradually expanded towards the plain.

Previous page: The Tombul Mosque as seen from the clock tower. The mosque is a
cultural monument of national importance and is included in the list of Bulgaria's
100 Tourist Sites
Above: The Tombul Mosque, interior. Restoration has brought to light unsuspected
facets of the building. After removing the paint from the wooden minbar for example
(left), restorers discovered fine wood carvings in the best tradition of the Tulip period

113

The ritual washing

fountain in the court
of the madrasah is
the only one of its
kind that has been
preserved in Bulgaria.
The mosque library
owned one of the
richest collections
in this part of the
Balkans, including
Geography by the
Arab geographer
Muhammad al-Idrisi
(1099-1165/1166). The
book was published
in 1556/1557 in Cairo
and includes 70 maps.
Today it is kept in the
National Library in
Sofia. Idrisi himself
visited this part of the
Balkans during his
travels in Europe

Top: Generations of Shumen residents recall the shoe locker at the Tombul
Mosque as a dull green-painted shelf. When the paint was removed, restorers
discovered that the original piece of furniture had been finely decorated in
the mid-19th Century
Above: The decorations in the mosque date back to two periods the first
layer is from the time of its construction, the second from the renovation in
the mid-19th Century
Left: A superintendent at the mosque has made a model of the Tombul
Mosque and the adjacent buildings of the madrasah, the fountain, the library
and the elementary school. The mosque is the only surviving kliye in Bulgaria

114

115

The 18th Century, however, was the time when umla's appearance
changed dramatically. The Tombul Mosque was just a small part of
the changes. A watchtower was built in 1740 on the opposite bank
of the Poroyna. The entire city was surrounded by a massive wall,
the Ottoman Empire having started to lose territories and the once
peaceful and quiet umla was now too close to the border. Still,
the border location had some advantages as well. A 30,000-strong
garrison was stationed in the town and this military presence
stimulated commerce. Despite being of strategic importance,
umla was never attacked by the Russians in 1774, 1810 or 1829,
when the Tsar's army raided this part of the Ottoman Empire.
When Konstantin Jireek visited Shumen in the 1880s, it still had

116

47 mosques, the walls were visible and the houses with their large
gardens attracted the eye. "Turks and Christians here live well; they
used to live in separate neighbourhoods but have now mixed," the
Czech historian wrote.
Over the next decades, however, Shumen's Ottoman heritage
was reduced to only a few remnants. The clock tower survived,
but the Sahat Mosque, which stood beside it, disappeared. Also
the hamams and the walls vanished. The gloomy bedesten, which,
according to some sources, was built by Dubrovnik merchants in
1529, under Communism became a Corecom dollar shop.
Of the 47 mosques only one survived the Tombul Mosque, the
most beautiful in Bulgaria.

Two drinking
fountains from a
bygone era. The
Kurshun Fountain
(previous page) was
built in 1710, and is
a typical example
of a free-standing
fountain from the
Ottoman period.
The town's clock
tower (left) with its
drinking fountain
appeared in 1740

117

KADIN BRIDGE

guests, however, did not move and the bride approached the
sultan and bowed low before him. Enchanted by her boldness, the
Padishah offered her a gift. The young woman asked that a bridge
be built at this spot and her wish was granted.
A shadow of the past is indeed built into Kadin Bridge the
shadow of an epoch long before the time of Ishak Pasha. When
Jireek examined the bridge he found a stone from an ancient
building had been incorporated into it. The inscription on the

surface was almost completely erased but Jireek still managed to

decipher the word "Pautalian." The stone had been brought from
ancient Pautalia, the once-rich Roman town that existed on the site
of what is today the city of Kyustendil.

Kadin Bridge's biggest arch is 21.6 metres wide

legends, miracles explain

construction works

The building inscription is explicit. The 100-metre-long fivearched stone bridge over the River Struma is the work of Ishak
Pasha, Grand Vizier of Sultan Mehmed II (1451-1481). Ishak Pasha
built the bridge in 1469/1470 to facilitate travel from Constantinople
to Skopje and the Western Balkans. Despite this, local stories about
the construction of the bridge passed down over the ages contain
no reminders of the name of the man who accomplished this noble
deed.
The elegant structure in the village of Nevestino, in the Kyustendil
region, is known by two names. One is Kadin Bridge, the other
Nevestin Bridge. Although the root of the former is a Turkish word
and the latter a Bulgarian, both words mean the same: a married
woman.
The explanation is in a popular legend told about so many
Ottoman bridges in the Balkans. Three local brothers started to
build a bridge over the Struma, but the work did not go smoothly.
Each night an unknown force kept pulling down everything they
had built during the day, and every morning they had to start all
over again.
Finally, the builders realised that what the future bridge
needed was a human sacrifice, so the three agreed to build into
the foundations of the bridge the first person that passed by the
following morning. The elder brothers told their wives about the
agreement but the youngest decided to play fair. He kept silent and
on the next morning his young wife came to the bridge to bring
him food.

152

Neither the builder nor his wife protested against their fate, and
kept to the tradition. He "built" her into the bridge, and she asked
him to leave one of her breasts uncovered so she could breastfeed
their child.
The bridge was soon completed.
Although it appears in other areas as well, this legend has had an
enormous influence on the people of this region. The nearby village
was named Nevestino, and in the 1880s Konstantin Jireek learned
that breastfeeding women from the vicinity would break off small
pieces from a certain stone in the central arch of the bridge, boil
them in milk and drink the liquid in the belief this would boost their
own milk.
Jireek also heard another, much more amazing legend about
the building of the bridge, which claimed that it was self-built.
A heavy iron rod, moving under its own force, broke pieces of
stone from the surrounding mountains. The rocks travelled to the
construction site on their own, and took their places. When the
bridge was complete, the stones that had not yet reached the river
froze in their places. Local people said that the iron rod could still
be seen on one of the hills outside the nearby town of Kyustendil.
Yet another myth about the bridge avoids miracles altogether.
Sultan Murad it is unclear which of the five rulers with this
name is referred to was passing through the surrounding area
on his way to some war. A Bulgarian wedding party stood in his
way. The law required that the wedding guests turn aside from the
road to make way for the Padishah and his people. These wedding

153

CLOCK TOWERS
In search of found time

"There is a clock on the other hill that counts the hours in the
French manner night and day," French traveller Lefvre wrote,
when he heard the sound of bells from the Sahat Tepe clock tower
in Filibe, in 1611. The bell tower was made of wood at the time, but
was still impressive, and over the next centuries several generations
of travellers expressed their admiration for it.

176

The clock tower in Filibe was something that could be seen

neither in Edirne nor in the Asian part of the empire, not even
in Constantinople. Even in the Balkans, clock towers were not
a usual sight. Of those dating from the same period, only the
tower in Skopje, built before 1573, and possibly the one in Bitola,
are older.
It is impossible to say when the clock tower in Plovdiv was built.
It probably happened at the end of the 16th or the beginning of
the 17th Century. The original tower was destroyed in a fire at the
start of the 19th Century and was replaced by the tall building with
stone foundations that still exists today. However, the clockwork
mechanism, made by an Italian craftsman, has been preserved and
still works.
Another clock tower, the one in Provadia, was built in the 17th
Century. The fashion for clock towers, or sahat kulesi, spread
through the Balkans in the 18th Century, and in these years some
20 appeared in towns such as Melnik, Rustchuk, Peshtera, Etropole,
Tatar Pazarck, umla, Karlovo, Hezargrad, or today's Razgrad,
Berkofa, or present-day Berkovitsa, Zlatitsa, Selvi, or modern
Sevlievo, and Dryanovo.
The clock tower in Svishtov is among the most interesting ones
from that period. The original building inscriptions are still on its
walls and show that the clock tower was built in 1765/1766 in the
town market by one Hussein Aa. In 1859/1860 it was renovated by
the wealthy Hadji Abdullah Aa, who immortalised his good deed
in a long poem.
In the 19th Century the construction of clock towers became
even more popular and spread to the Ottoman capital and the

Asian territories of the empire. Clock towers were also built in

Bulgarian towns including Nevrokop, now Gotse Delchev, Gabrovo,
Sliven, Elena, Tryavna, Haskovo, Vratsa and Sofia. According to
some estimates, in 1878 there were some 100 clock towers in the
territory of present-day Bulgaria.
The clock towers built in the years of Ottoman rule have often
been described as a manifestation of local construction genius.
Indeed, they have a particular architectural shape, and there are
reports that many 19th Century towers were made by Bulgarian
master builders, compounding the question which is whose.
There is no information about the earliest clock towers, which
appeared in towns with mixed populations, such as Plovdiv and
Provadia. Clock towers from later periods are recorded both in
towns with an entirely Bulgarian population, such as Tryavna or
Elena, as well as in towns with significant minorities of Greeks, such
as Melnik, or Muslims, such as Dupnitsa.
It is still not clear why the construction of clock towers in the
Ottoman Empire spread from the Balkans. A possible explanation
can be found in the European influence and the advanced
craftsmanship in this part of the empire. Throughout Europe, clock
towers marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modern
times. Before their advent, the rhythm of town life was set by the sun
and the moon people went to work at dawn and returned home
at dusk. This changed forever with the chimes of clock towers. The
sound of the bells divided time into equal lengths, which did not
depend on whether it was day or night. Gradually, people started to
listen to the clock and to fix their working schedules in accordance
with the hours.
It is not by chance that clock towers were located in town centres,
in markets or on a height from which the sound of the bells could
be heard far away.
Clock towers had other functions as well. The tower in Plovdiv, for
example, was also a fire watch and the one in Shumen had a water
fountain built into its wall.
Some clock towers began their existence as defensive works,
such as the Meshchii Tower in Vratsa. It was built in the 15th
to 16th centuries but became a clock tower only at the end of
the 19th Century.
Bells and clockwork mechanisms tell their own stories. In the
1820s, the English diplomat Strangford reported that the bell on the
tower in Razgrad had an inscription in Hungarian saying that it had
been cast in 1731 in Banat. Konstantin Jireek says that the nowdisappeared tower in Kyustendil had a bell which, according to its

178

Cyrillic inscription, had been cast in 1429 for a church dedicated to

St Nikolas. Some reports claim that the clockwork mechanism of the
tower in Samokov, which has been demolished, was manufactured
in 1630 in Dalmatia.
After 1878 things changed. Konstantin Jireek, for example,
reports that the bell for the clock tower in Zlatitsa was cast in 1777
especially for the clockwork mechanism, but was later moved to
the local church.
Some 50 clock towers have survived in Bulgaria to this day. Some
of them are original, others have been restored, and still others have
been entirely rebuilt. There are also some curious cases. The clock
tower in Haskovo was pulled down in 1916 and a modern tower was
built on the same site in 1985. The clockwork mechanism from the
original tower is kept in the local history museum, and is said to be
still in working order.

Previous spread: Clock towers in Dupnitsa, 1782 (left) and Berkovitsa, 1762
Clock towers in Etropole, 1710 (left page) and Razgrad, 18th Century, rebuilt in 1864

179

The oldest clock tower in Bulgaria is on Sahat Tepe, Plovdiv (1). It was built at
the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th centuries and according to
the building inscription (3) was completely rebuilt in 1809; Clock towers in
Dobrich, 18th Century (2), Svishtov, 1765/1766 (4) and Gabrovo, 1835 (5)

181

Clock towers in Sevlievo, 1777 (above) and Botevgrad, 1866

182

The Tower of Meshchii in Vratsa was built

in the 15-16th centuries as a fortification,
and its clockwork was installed at the end
of the 19th Century (1); The clock tower in
Dryanovo was built in 1778, demolished
in 1945, and rebuilt in 1984 (2); Clock
tower in Karnabad, today Karnobat,
middle of the 19th Century (3)

183

EPILOGUE

Empires, regardless of where and when they existed, are not

loved by nation states. For many different reasons every citizen of
a modern nation has a stake in the policies of that state and will feel
to some extent at a disadvantage to have been part of an empire.
Obviously, this is true of the Ottoman Empire as well.
The Ottoman state established itself in the northwestern corner
of Asia Minor at the end of the 13th Century. It took it about a
century and a half a relatively long time to destroy the states
already in existence in the Balkan peninsula and to conquer the
peoples living there. As it consolidated itself around the middle of
the 15th Century, the Ottoman Empire established strongholds on
three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
Many Christian and Muslim peoples found themselves living
in the new superstate. They had enormous material and human
resources. Consequently, the European states of the time were
gripped by "Fear of the Turk," which was, of course, generated by
the military might of the Ottomans and at the same time by a sense
of doubt in their own abilities to prevent it from spreading to more
of the continent.
What became a lasting conflict between the young Muslim
"Great Power" and Christian Europe a conflict in which the
Ottomans had the upper hand for a long time provided a new
impetus to the old Crusader-type enmity between Christianity and
Islam. Even when, by the end of the 17th Century, the Ottoman
Empire had lost its potential to conquer, Christian Europe continued
to nurse the image of the "bloodthirsty Turk": pernicious in his
intentions, always ready to invade Christian territories, inevitably
cruel to his Christian subjects and so on.
Of course, things were not all black and white. In Catholic Europe
it was the Hapsburg Empire that bore the brunt of the Ottoman

invaders, while France was ready to use the Ottoman factor in its
European agendas. The inchoate Lutheran world came to view
the "Turk" as a blessing in disguise. European Protestants saw in
the Hapsburg conflict with the Ottomans a means to weaken the
strength of the main bulwark of papal supremacy and to ensure
their own survival.
In general, however, European attitudes to the onslaught of Islam
were predominantly negative. Just as the crusades had generated
lasting negative stereotypes between Roman Catholics and
Orthodox Christians, so too did the centuries-old rivalry between
the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe spawn an enduring
sense of animosity which still, to this day, has an impact on relations
between the Republic of Turkey and its European partners.
The attitude of the peoples who were once subjugated by
the Ottoman Empire towards their common heritage is not
straightforward.
Of all the Christian nations in the Balkans it seems that only
the Romanians probably because they were never under direct
Ottoman rule are not gripped by the "Ottoman-Turkish Complex."
Perhaps this explains why Nicolae Iorga, the noted Romanian
historian and briefly prime minister, stated without any fear of
public censure that the Ottoman Empire had, in fact, re-established
peace and order in the Balkans following the turbulence and
political chaos that followed the fall of Byzantium.
Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Montenegrins, Albanians and Bosnian
Christians tend to view the "Ottoman periods" in their own history
in a negative light. They put the emphasis mainly on the pain
and suffering of the populace, on their own heroic opposition to
the Ottoman conquest and on the failed anti-Ottoman uprisings.
The distinction between the "classical" Ottoman period, which

205

ended towards the turn of the 17th Century, and the latter years of
the empire is rarely made. Few speak objectively about the fact
that generations of Christians lived peacefully under the Ottomans,
bore children, brought up their families and created material
wealth. A total, all-out confrontation between the subjugated
Christians and the Ottoman authorities was never likely to happen.
In the case of Bulgaria these stereotypes are particularly
negative and particularly enduring, and it is not difficult to see
why. The Bulgarians were the first to fall under the Ottomans at
the end of the 14th Century and among the last to gain national
independence at the end of the 19th Century. The Bulgarian
national psyche is deeply imbued with the images of the "yoke"
and "slavery," described vividly by the best names in 19th and 20th
Century Bulgarian literature. Collective memories of the struggle
for national independence are still alive, while those from the first
phases of the Ottoman conquest have faded.
Few Bulgarians would be aware of the fact that the "Father
of Bulgarian Literature," Ivan Vazov, described the years under
Ottoman rule in a very nuanced fashion. On the one hand, he
painted in brutal detail the scenes of suffering following the bloody
quashing of the 1876 April Uprising. On the other hand, however, he
spoke lovingly of the paternal family, of the merry evenings spent
under the vines and behind the thick stone courtyard walls, of the
endless discussions and disputes in the coffee-houses and so on.
This sums up the ambiguity towards their Ottoman heritage in the
eyes of modern Bulgarians.
Professional historians, unlike those just interested in popular
history, are able to offer a more multifaceted picture of the long
Ottoman period in the Bulgarian lands. The original conquest was
inevitably accompanied by bloodshed, destruction, enslavement

206

and persistent psychological trauma. Speaking of the loss of

human life, however, it would do history an injustice not to take
into consideration the fact that Europe at that time was gripped
by the "Black Death." This accounted for the demise of a third of all
Christians living in Europe, so it should be a factor to be considered
when calculating the losses stemming from the onslaught of
the Ottomans.
Following the establishment of Ottoman power in the Bulgarian
lands and the relocation of the theatre of war to the West and the
North West, a long period of peace and stability ensued. Bulgarian
men of letters of that epoch were quick to see the positive sides
of the Ottomans and made no attempt to conceal their approval
of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror (1444-1446, 1451-1481). What
they did fail to note but what later authors analysed in detail
was that one of the building blocks of the Ottoman Empire was the
absorption of the local Christian populations into farming, the tax
system and the various spheres of social life.
As noted Turkish historian Halil nalck rightly noted, Ottoman
structures had a markedly conservative character. The Bulgarians,
as well as the other conquered Christian nations within the empire,
became a part of the Ottoman imperial system and had their share
of the glories of its "classical" years. To put it another way, the
successful military campaigns of the Ottoman Empire in Europe,
North Africa and Asia would have been impossible without the
contribution of the tax-paying Bulgarians and other Christians,
without the output of their iron, gold, lead and silver mines, without
the services of many Christians, including Bulgarians, who enjoyed
a special status in the Ottoman system.
Again, nothing was black and white in the clash between the
Christian and Muslim civilisations. The Bulgarians in particular were

deeply traumatised by the blood tax called Devirme, whereby

thousands of Bulgarian children were Islamised and became either
Janissaries or Ottoman clerks, with some of them reaching the
highest levels of the Ottoman state and military hierarchy.
Generally, the Ottoman system functioned smoothly during the
so-called Pax Ottomana period. The trouble started when Ottoman
military successes came to an end and when it became evident that
the Ottoman Empire had fallen hopelessly behind Europe in terms
of technology.
The later centuries of the empire were characterised by an overall
crisis that had a profound effect on the Bulgarians. The Ottoman
authorities were unable to maintain public order and to provide
security and economic prosperity for their subjects. Lawlessness,
anarchy, arbitrary taxation and outrages committed by the military
had become the rule rather than the exception.
All of this led to a desire to get rid of the sultans. Initially, this
was confined to a limited circle of intellectuals and clergymen,
but in the middle of the 19th Century it evolved into a mass
national liberation movement. The fights, the failed uprisings,
the increasing repressions led to mutual hatred and distrust
that lingered in Bulgaria even after the country gained its
independence in 1878.
The crisis of the Ottoman Empire did not affect the Bulgarians
alone. The Muslim subjects of the empire felt of the state's failure
as well, and some of the most progressive representatives of the
Ottoman authority conceived what were, at times, very radical
initiatives to overthrow the sultan. The Kemalist movement, under
its founder and leader Mustafa Kemal Atatrk (1881-1938) made
a revolutionary breach with the more negative aspects of the
Ottoman heritage.

In a globalised world where political and geographical borders

are increasingly being dismantled, lasting animosity based on
historical actions seems incongruous. What matters to most people,
especially to the younger generation, is the future.
So, is it possible to get rid of the accumulated hostility in order
to achieve normal relations? I would be hopeful, bearing in mind
the experiences of Europe during the past few decades. Europe was
responsible for the two biggest conflicts of the 20th Century. The
animosity between the large nations of Europe seemed impossible
to overcome but, by creating a positive image of "the other," the
nations of Europe succeeded in getting over their terrible historical
experiences and initiated one of the most optimistic projects in
modern history, the united Europe.
This books does not attempt to answer all the questions raised
by the Ottoman heritage in the Bulgarian lands. However, it does
fulfil a very important task: to remind us that the Ottoman heritage
is multilayered, the product of many generations of people, both
Christians and Muslims. I sincerely hope that when the readers turn
the last page of this book they will have been convinced that any
heritage, particularly in a turbulent region such as the Balkans, is
always the product of collective efforts, of a collective genius.

Professor Hristo Matanov

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