Vlachs (social class) (original) (raw)

Vlachs (Latin: Valachi; Ottoman Turkish: Eflak, pl. Eflakân; Serbo-Croatian: Vlah / Влах, pl. Vlasi / Власи) was a social and fiscal class in several late medieval states of Southeastern Europe, and also a distinctive social and fiscal class within the millet system of the Ottoman Empire, composed largely of Eastern Orthodox Christians who practiced nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoral lifestyle, including populations in various migratory regions, mainly composed of ethnic Vlachs, Serbs and Albanians. From the middle decades of the 17th century the amalgamation of the process of sedentarization of the Orthodox Vlachs and their gradual fusion with Serbian rural population reached a high level and was officially recognized by the Ottoman authorities.