Evidence of Macedonia in the Ottoman Period
Council for Research into South-Eastern Europe of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts Skopje, Macedonia, 1993
Council for Research into South-Eastern Europe of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts Skopje, Macedonia, 1993
The
establishment of Ottoman Turkish Rule in Macedonia, which took place
at the end of 14th century, had two main consequences of a lasting
nature for Macedonia and its population.
The
first consequence was that in the following five hundred years, up
to the end of the Ottoman Turkish rule in 1912, there occurred as
never hitherto not thereafter an interruption in economic, cultural
and general communications over the entire territory. The name of
that particular territory, Macedonia, was never questioned in the
course of the numerous administrative and territorial changes which
took place in the course of Ottoman Turkish rule. One of the strong
proofs and indications of this was the "Sketch of the Territory of
Macedonia" (rezsm-i memleket- Makedonya) published on page 277 of
the well known work of the equally well known Turkish historian,
geographer and travel-writer of the mid 17th century, Hadzi Kalfa
Mustafa or Katib Celebija (Katib Celebi, Cuhannuma, 277). Here the
territory of the Republic of Macedonia is marked as Macedonia,
separately from neighboring Greece, Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria.
The
Venetian captain Gio Mario Del' Angiolelo, traveling from south
towards Salonica, wrote in his diary for August 10th: " . . . a
large river called the Vardar which flows through Macedonia . . ."
(Istanbul, Basbakanlik Arsivi, Rumeli Mufetisligi Tasnifi, Sadaret
ve Bashkitabet Evraki, 4/398). It should be noted that he did not
say river Axios. Also Vardar does flow through the Republic of
Macedonia, and consequently the territory of the Republic of
Macedonia is a part of Macedonia, according to Angiolelo.
In a
telegram of April 7th, 1903, from the Grand Vizier's Office is
written: "Information concerning the Sultan's command that in all
addresses to and announcements in connection with the Rumeli
vilayets [Skopje, Bitola and Salonica vilayets]: form henceforth the
local names are to be used and under no circumstances the name
Macedonia . . . ". This was a reaction to the persistent emphasis on
the name Macedonia on the part of the Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization and also by the European press and diplomatic
representatives at the time when the decision about the uprising was
taken.
The
second consequence was that the entire population which had been
taken was put in subjugated position of captives, with a serious
threat that in the course of time it would lose its identity. Up to
the close of the 18th century, religious persuasion was the basic
yardstick by which the Ottoman Turkish authorities classified the
population (the rayah, or the dimmi) in the state. Thus, all
official censuses carried out in the course of 15th and 16th
centuries, and to a certain extent in 18th century, described the
population of Macedonia exclusively as non - believing (i.e.
Christian population), the Moslem and the Jewish population.
The
15th century travel-writer Betradon de la Broquier writes: "And
there are many Christians who perforce serve the Turk, such as
Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Albanians . . . Serbians . . .".And
Angiolelo, whom I have already mentioned, says of Mt. Athos that: "
. . .here are to be found many monasteries of Christian monks, of
whom some are Greeks, others Macedonians . . ."
Further evidence of Macedonia in the Ottoman Period, as well as
before and after include:
The
name Macedonia continued to be used as is testified in the letters
of the Archbishop of Ohrid Theofilact (who was Archbishop of Ohrid
after the fall of Samuil's Empire) who stated to the recipients of
the letters that he lived "within the narrow confines of our
Macedonia."
In the
following centuries, when the Macedonians had a variety of alien
overlords, they remained as a separate people. It is, for example,
confirmed in the synodal acts of the Archbishopric of Ohrid that in
the first half of the 13th century, when Macedonia came under the
rule of the Despots of Epirus, the inhabitants of Macedonia
continued to declare themselves as Macedonians (D. Angelov, Prinos
k'm narodnosnite i pozemelni otnosheniya v Makedoniya (Epirski
Despotat) prez prvata chetvrt na XIII v., Izvestiya na Kamarata na
narodna kultura, seriya Humanitarni nauki, II, 3, Sofia, 1947, 11-12
ff.)
Such
was the case too in the first half of the 14th century when the
greater part of Macedonia came under Serbian rule. Even the Serbian
ruler himself in his Law code is entitled "The bountiful and Christ
loving Macedonian Czar " (The Ravenica Transcript). Dustin is also
designated both in the Sofia and the Zagreb transcripts of the Law
code as "Macedonian Czar". By the way, he was born and crowned in
Skopje, Macedonia.
As
stated by the French Byzantine scholar P. Lemerle, "Macedonia in the
7th and 8th centuries was more Slavonic than Greek" (P. Lemerle,
Philippes et la Macedoine orientale a l'epoque chretienne et
byzantine, Paris, 1945, 115-6)
According to G. Ostrogosky, Macedonia was at this time lost to
Byzantium "and found itself in the hands of the Slavs . . ." (G.
Ostrogorsky, Vizantija i Sloveni, Belgrade, 1969, 12)
Even
when the Slavs came to Macedonia, the native inhabitants, the
Macedonians, had continued to exist and, after the extinction of the
Ancient Macedonian state in the 2d century BCE at the hands of the
Romans, as F. Papazoglu writes "maintaining their ethnic
characteristics, their language, their belief and customs" (F.
Papazoglu, Makedonski gradovi u rimsko doba, Skopje, 1957, 4; A.
Shofman, Istoriya Antichnoi Makedonii, I, Kazan, 1960, 1960, 177,
ff.; ibidem, Ocherki po istorii Makedonii i makedonskogo naroda, I,
Kazan, 1960, 32 ff. )
The usage of Macedonian and Macedonia separate from
Greek or Bulgarian and Greece or Bulgaria is more than obvious. Also
these sources are objective, old and clear, and do not offer any
further interpretation; that is how they prove the existence of the
Macedonians as a Nation with this name in this region, separate from
the Greeks and Bulgarians in many ways. The fact that old documents
call these people Macedonians shows that the Macedonians aren't an
artificial creation, but a nation with a homeland and a
name-Macedonia and Macedonians.
No comments:
Post a Comment