Ottoman Documents from the Holdings of “Prof. Alexander Fol” Historical Museum, Malko Tarnovo Town. Assoc. Prof. Hristian Atanassov PhD, Compiler, Introduction and Annotation, “Za Bukvite – O Pismeneh” Academic Publishing House, ISBN 978-619-185-332-8, Sofia, 2018, 100 p. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Balkan Libraries Union, 2017
With the Ottoman archival records it hosts, Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, is the third biggest Ottoman archive center of the world following Istanbul and Cairo. St Cyril and Methodius National Library, which is located here, are extremely important institutions for Turkish history. The national library has more than one million Ottoman archival records. It is possible to come across an archival record concerning a wide geography where Ottoman State reigned. A small part of the archival records in the library consists of the records descended from the Ottoman Empire while retreating from Bulgaria. A great majority of the archival records are made up of the records sold to Bulgaria in 1931 as scrap paper due to a great deal of neglect. This study informs about the Ottoman archival records sold to a paper factory near Sofia as scrap paper by Istanbul Financial Office in May 1931 and then placed in Bulgarian St Cyril Methodius National Library. In this context, this archive was f...
Bulgarian Historiography on Ottoman Written Culture in Bulgaria / ORLİN SABEV
WRITTEN CULTURE is probably one of the signs of any civilization that on the one hand leaves the deepest imprint on national consciousness, but on the other hand, oddly enough, deserves much less historiographical interest. Though there could be impressive studies on the history of written culture of a given society or region, 1 the names of historians, who work in the field of political, economic and social developments, are obviously more popular among even literati than those who have written valuable books on cultural issues. From time to time, however, the latter have the chance to leave the background and come to the forefront, especially when political, economic and social issues are insufficient to serve ideological aims. Yet, perhaps art and culture constitutes more fruitful ground for any national or political ideology than other issues. In this respect, when the Bulgarian historiography is taken into consideration one should keep in mind that it was more or less influenced by nationalism and by communist ideology during 1947-1989. 2 Yet, the high level of academic research and methodology, along with both the nationalist and for half a century, the communist ideologies formed the framework within which the Bulgarian historiography on Ottoman rule in the Central Balkan lands and Muslim written culture, in particular, could be reviewed. In addition, when examining its trend, one can identify roughly three major periods of development. These include the period between the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878 and the beginning of the communist regime in the late 1940s, the communist or old (from our perspective) regime that lasted until late 1989, and its aftermath, when the ideological * Prof., Institute of Balkan Studies, Sofia.
With the Ottoman archival records it hosts, Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, is the third biggest Ottoman archive center of the world following İstanbul and Cairo. St Cyril and Methodius National Library, which is located here, are extremely important institutions for Turkish history. The national library has more than one million Ottoman archival records. It is possible to come across an archival record concerning a wide geography where Ottoman State reigned. A small part of the archival records in the library consists of the records descended from the Ottoman Empire while retreating from Bulgaria. A great majority of the archival records are made up of the records sold to Bulgaria in 1931 as scrap paper due to a great deal of neglect. This study informs about the Ottoman archival records sold to a paper factory near Sofia as scrap paper by İstanbul Financial Office in May 1931 and then placed in Bulgarian St Cyril Methodius National Library. In this context, this archive was firstly displayed in general St. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Bulgaria; and the department of the National Library Rare Works, which serves within the body of the National Library. After that, the migration story of the Archive of Finance stretching from İstanbul to Sofia, which constitutes a large part of the archival records found in the Rare Works Department, and came here because of big chains of negligence. These developments experienced in this process are discussed in this study.
Survivors. Turkish Owners of Chiftliks in Bulgaria in the mid-1880s
K. Popek, Survivors. Turkish Owners of chiftliks in Bulgaria in the mid-1880s, „Journal of Modern Turkish History” 2023, vol. 19, issue 39, pp. 1021–1044. | Much of the agricultural land in Bulgaria under the Ottoman rule functioned as chiftliks – vast estates belonging to the Turkish owners (beys) that relied on the labor of Christian peasants. The first years after the creation of the Bulgarian state in 1878 brought far-reaching changes in economic situation due to the transfer of land from Muslims to Christians and reforms including the expropriation of chiftliks. However, it was a gradual process – in the mid-1880s, there were still vast landholdings owned by Turks in the Bulgarian countryside which are often not noticed in historiography. The purpose of this research is to present the Muslim owners of chiftliks (beys) who managed to retain their estates in Bulgaria after the agrarian reform of 1880 in light of the minutes of the Land Commission from the Central State Archives in Sofia. The interesting matter here is which chiftliks were liquidated as a result of the reform, which survived, and what factors may have contributed to this. Either they were territorially limited (e.g. pursuant to an individual agreement between the owner and the tenants), or they were waiting for the parcellation (which was postponed due to delays in the work of the Land Commission resulting from the boycott of its Muslim representative in 1881–1882). There were also provisions in the Land Act of 1880 and the amendment of 1885 that made it possible to maintain the chiftlik – this is about the estates that were not based on the permanent work of the tenants, but on the employment of hired mercenaries (e.g. from the nearest town) or on the basis of short contracts with the local population. It will also be discussed how the presented source material can serve as a starting point for polemics with the idealizations of Bulgarian history existing in historiography: Bulgaria as a nation-state, “agrarian revolution”, and the Turkish minority in Bulgaria as a “community without elites”.
BALKANISTIC FORUM Vol. 1, 2020
In this article I will view the life under Bulgarian government in Western Thrace by using the “look from underneath” of part of the local Bulgarians from the villages. I will try to illuminate a period of time and topic which are less investigated by historians and anthropologists, but can fit into researches regarding the village (cultural and social dynamics, anthropology) and the urbanization processes. I will point my work towards a contemporary view of well-known Bulgarian authors whose positions I will mix with archived and with materials that have not been scientifically interpreted as of this moment. Until their refuge to Bulgaria during the summer and early autumn of 1913 the majority of the Bulgarians in Western Thrace live in the rural areas. At the end of that same year when the area becomes a part of Bulgaria again, they go back to it, so that they can live in their native villages. They settle in their own villages or in old Turkish or Greek ones. Many of them are not able to restore their old means of livelihood and look for help from the official institutions regarding land and material support. In the reviewed materials an information about the huge hardships, hunger, separated families, the life without fathers and men, supporting by hard labor (even by women and children), relying on their own familial structures could be found. These mutual memories about the individually lived events are elements of the collective memory of the Bulgarians from the rural areas of Western Thrace about the life in the motherland during the Bulgarian government.
Atanasov, Hr. The collections of the Oriental Department at the National Library of Bulgaria: Current Status and Prospects. – In: III. International Ottoman Traces Symposium, November 23-24, 2023, Proceedings Book, Edirne: Trakya Üniversitesi, s. 11–20., 2023
The article aims to provide an overview in several main directions – on the one hand to briefly introduce the history of the collections, and secondly – to analyse their current state in terms of the level of prepared scientific reference aids, digitization and work on the classification of documents. The main professional activities undertaken by the archivists in the department will also be presented, in the context of highlighting specific measures to overcome certain difficulties. Particular attention will be paid to emerging perspectives. The occasion for this attempt at an overview is the completion (as of August 2023) of the initial processing of the Ottoman documents purchased in 1931 from the Republic of Turkey. Thus, after more than 90 years, some more tentative, or at least initial, conclusions and observations can be drawn. Bu makale, bir yandan koleksiyonların tarihçesini kısaca tanıtarak, diğer yandan hazırlanan bilimsel referans yardımlarının düzeyini, dijitalleştirme ve belgelerin sınıflandırılmasına yönelik çalışmalar açısından mevcut durumlarını analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Ayrıca, bölümdeki arşivcilerin üstlendiği başlıca mesleki faaliyetler, belirli zorlukların üstesinden gelmek için alınan özel önlemler vurgulanacaktır. Özellikle ortaya çıkan yeni perspektiflere dikkat edilecektir. Bu genel değerlendirme, 1931 yılında Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nden satın alınan Osmanlı belgelerinin ilk işlemlerinin üzerine yapılmaktadır (Ağustos 2023 itibariyle). Dolayısıyla, 90 yıldan fazla bir sürenin sonunda, bazı daha geçici veya en azından ilk sonuçlar ve gözlemler çıkarılabilir.