Selected Muslim Historic Monuments and Sites in Bulgaria (original) (raw)

From Communism to Democracy: Muslim Identities in Bulgaria

Paper presented at a Symposium, "Islam: From Eastern Europe to Central Asia," at the University of Illinois-Urbana, June 22, 2002.

Nationalists everywhere consider the existence of multiple ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities within the same state undesirable. To them, cultural diversity is a threat to the stability and integrity of the nation-state. Therefore, they seek ways to culturally homogenize the nation so that the state and nation come to coincide with one another.

ISLAM AND SECULARISM IN BULGARIA

Islam and Human Rights in the European Union / Islam et droits de l’homme dans l’Union européenne, 2022

Today, the transnationalization of Muslim identities marks certain processes of convergence observed against the backdrop of the otherwise predominant diversity in Southeastern Europe. This does not mean that religious communities are “monolithic” or altogether bound up to a “fixed” identity. Identities remain multiple but their religious component among Muslims gains an increased public significance. Developments in Bulgaria and the Balkans, as well as some major debates around the application of the sharīʻa, such as the hijab controversies, signal that such homogenizing forces are at work. For Muslims in the post-1989 period, the transnationalization of religious experience, the ease of travel, internet, Facebook and Twitter have fostered a different type of a higher level of belonging to the global Muslim community – the umma. More mainstream, observant Muslims are increasingly abandoning local syncretic practices and seek to share the universal, core beliefs and rituals with their coreligionists in Turkey, the Middle East, and Western Europe. These dynamic processes challenge, transform and reshape the implicit pattern of secularism in Bulgaria and elsewhere.

SACRED PLACES AND MIRACLES (ON THE LEGENDARY HERITAGE OF HETERODOX ISLAM IN NORTHEASTERN BULGARIA

Sacred places and miracles. (On the legendary heritage of heterodox Islam in Northeastern Bulgaria). In: BETWEEN THE WORLDS: MAGIC, MIRACLES AND MYSTICISM, Sofia, IEFSEM-BAS. 276-289., 2020

This article presents some legendary narratives recorded during field studies around the utraquistic (dual, binary ritual), Muslim and Christian, sacred places in the region of Shumen and Targovishte (Northeastern Bulgaria). The analysis looks at their common motifs, characters, and functions. An attempt has been made to discover some relics of the verbal heritage of heterodox Muslims in the Bulgarian lands and its existence in time. A connection has been established with a network of objects of heterodox Islam on Bulgarian territory, whose traces in the local memory are to be found only through toponymy and anthroponymy. On the other hand, the utraquistic sanctuaries in Bulgaria are regarded here as places of shared memory between Christians and Muslims. From an ethnological point of view, this text problematises the issues of religious tolerance in the relations between the two religious groups in the local communities.

Muslims in Rural and Municipal Councils in Bulgaria at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Century

K. Popek, Muslims in Rural and Municipal Councils in Bulgaria at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Century, „Slavonic Review” (Prague) 2023, no. 1, pp. 13–27. | The modern Bulgarian state, created in 1878, was not ethnically and religiously homogeneous. In 1881, 26 % of the country’s population were Muslims (527,000) and in 1910 they comprised 14 % (602,000). Despite that, Muslims did not hold any posts in Bulgaria’s central administration, nor did they generally occupy them at the level of districts (okrag) and counties (okoliya). However, the situation was different in commune (obshtina) governments. Muslims were formally represented in the councils of cities and villages in the northeastern parts of the country and the Rhodope Mountains (the areas where they were concentrated) and had the opportunity to play an important role in making decisions on key issues related to local finance, infrastructure and education together with Bulgarians. In some cases, they managed to efficiently participate in the functioning of local governments, while in others they played only a symbolic role. The case of Muslim rural and municipal councilors at the turn of the 19th and 20th century can be analyzed as an interesting example of the durability of the centuries-old tradition of komshuluk. The paper is based on the original studies of the materials found in the State Archive in Varna, as well as on the press from this period.