Western Rhodope Mountains in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century: a Case Study of the Tahrir Register of 1478
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RELIGIOUS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH- WESTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: A CASE STUDY OF THE TAHRİR REGISTER OF 1478 A Master’s Thesis By AGATA ANNA CHMIEL Department of History İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University Ankara June 2012 For My Grandfather, Tadeusz Czarny RELIGIOUS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH- WESTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: A CASE STUDY OF THE TAHRİR REGISTER OF 1478 Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences of İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University by AGATA ANNA CHMIEL In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Desgree of MASTER OF ARTS in THE DEPRATMENT OF HISTORY İHSAN DOĞRAMACI BILKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA June 2012 I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. --------------------------------- Asst. Prof. Evgeni Radushev Supervisor I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. -------------------------------- Asst. Prof. Oktay Özel Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. -------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öz Examining Committee Member Approval of the Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences ---------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Erdal Erel Director ABSTRACT RELIGIOUS AND DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTH- WESTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: A CASE STUDY OF THE TAHRİR REGISTER OF 1478 Chmiel, Agata M.A., Department of History Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Evgeni Radushev June 2012 The spread of Islam into non-Muslim territories has always followed their conquest by some expanding Islamic polity. Ottoman military expansion into the Balkans was followed by the establishment of a new administrative and Islamic institutional order. Yet not all areas in the Peninsula were affected equally by the expansion of this new Muslim power, let alone impacted in the same manner by the introduction of their religious beliefs. This thesis focuses on the religious developments following the conquest of the kaza of Drama, located in eastern Thrace, in accordance with the Tapu Tahrir Defteri 07, which covers the year of 1478. A case study of 25 villages from various geographic regions of the area, as well as the town of Drama, has been chosen in order to analyze the religious situation found in that year. Through a focus on the geographic, economic and local religious characteristic of the region, an analysis concerning the conversion process to Islam will be provided. The representative value of the villages chosen will provide iii explanations as to the role of colonizers, urban town-dwellers and yürüks. This in turn will present an analysis concerning the preliminary stages of conversion and the various elements that either halted or motivated the process of Islamization. Keywords: Conversion, Islam, Pomaks, Balkans, Rhodope Mountains, Northern Greece, Via Egnatia, Ottoman Empire. iv ÖZET ON BEŞİNCİ YÜZYILIN İKİNCİ YARISINDA RODOPLAR’DA DİNÎ VE DEMOGRAFİK DEĞİŞİM: 1478 TARİHLİ MUFASSAL TAHRİR DEFTERİNE DAYALI BIR ÖRNEK- OLAY İNCELEMESİ Chmiel, Agata Yüksek Lisans, Tarih Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doç. Evgeni Radushev Haziran 2012 İslam’ın Müslüman olmayan coğrafyalara yayılışı, bu coğrafyaların bir İslam devleti tarafından fethini izlediği bir süreçtir. Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Balkanlar’a doğru genişlemesini de o bölgede yeni idarî ve dinî kurumların tesis edildiği bir süreç takip eder. Balkanlar’daki farklı bölgelerin Osmanlı yayılmasından aynı şekilde etkilendiğini söylemek mümkün olmadığı gibi, fetihlerle birlikte gelenlerin dinî inançlarının yarımadadaki her bölgede aynı etkileri yarattığından bahsetmek de mümkün değildir. Bu çalışma, 1478 tarihli mufassal tahrir defterini temel alarak, Doğu Trakya’daki Drama bölgesinde fethi izleyen süreçte yaşanan dinî gelişmeler üzerine odaklanmaktadır. Bölgenin farklı coğrafî alanlarından yirmi beş köy, 1470lerde söz konusu bölgede mevcut dinî durumu değerlendirmek üzere örneklem olarak seçilmiştir. Bölgenin coğrafi, ekonomik ve yerel dinî koşullarına odaklanılarak, İslamlaşma sürecinin bir analizi sunulmaktadır. Seçilen köylerin örneklem değerleri; yerleşimcilerin, şehir ahâlisinin ve göçebelerin bu süreçteki v rolünü açıklamaktadır. Böylece, bölgedeki İslamlaşma’nın ilk aşamaları ile bu süreci aksatan ya da arttıran farklı unsurların rollerinin incelemesi amaçlanmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: İslamlaşma, İslam, Pomaklar, Balkanlar, Rodop Dağları, Kuzey Yunanistan, Via Egnatia, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to give my sincerest thanks to my advisor Prof. Evgeni Radushev whose direction led me to discover not only this element of a facet of Ottoman history that has always fascinated me, but whose extreme patience and continued belief pushed me towards achieving this goal. I will be eternally indebted to not only his help in academia, but also for all the support, aide and friendship he provided me with during my time at Bilkent and the adjustments and challenges that I faced here. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Prof. Oktay Özel, not only for his contribution towards my academic achievements but for the moral and emotional support I received as well. I am sincerely thankful to Prof. Halil İnalcık, the last true Ottoman and the model historian and founder of this exceptional History program I was fortune to partake in. His countless works and studies have become invaluable to my knowledge and study of the Ottoman Empire. I am, in turn, very grateful to every professor I had the fortune to work with and who worked with me at Bilkent University. I will always cherish and appreciate the knowledge that they have all shared with me. The support provided by all members of the department has been a life changing experience that I will continuously remember and treasure. I would also like to thank all of my friends and colleagues at Bilkent who have helped me with the various aspects of living in Turkey, in academia and beyond. Thank you for always being there for me, especially Saadet Büyük, without vii whom my time at Bilkent would not have been as fulfilling and memorable. Thank you for your continued unquestioning and unconditional love and support. Also I would like to thank all of those friends beyond the borders of Turkey, whose love and support spanned decades, continents and oceans. A special thanks to my family in both Europe and Canada, whose belief in my ability to succeed never wavered. I would especially like to thank Maciej Urbaniak, who delved into the unknown world of Ottoman history through his translations and my grandfather who inspired my passion for academia. Lastly, I give my deepest and sincerest gratitude to my parents. Thank you for my life, without you I would not be where I am today. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………... iii ÖZET………………………………………………………………………………... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………..... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………........ ix LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………..…… xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………… 1 1.1 Subject and Sources……………………………………………………... 1 1.2 Methodology…………………………………………………………… 11 1.3 Historiography………………………………………………………..... 27 CHAPTER II: CONQUEST AND THE SPREAD OF ISLAM…………………… 37 2.1 Conquest and the ‘Ottomanization’ of the Space……………………… 40 2.2 Ottoman Colonization in the Region of Via Egnatia..……………….… 50 2.3 Transhumance and the coming of the yürüks………………………….. 58 CHAPTER III: PATTERNS OF RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT........................... 64 3.1 Eastern Section of the kaza of Drama………………………………….. 70 3.2 Central Section of the kaza of Drama………………………………… 101 3.3 Western Section of the kaza of Drama……………………………….. 108 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION…..……………………………………………… 113 BIBLIOGRPAHY………………………………………………………………… 117 ix APPENDICES Appendix A: Map 1. The kazas of Drama and Nevrokop in reference to Modern-day Borders in the Balkans……………………………………… 125 Appendix B: Map 2. Ancient Roman Routes in the Balkans…………….. 126 Appendix C: Map 3. Religious situation in the Balkans in the beginning of the 16th Century…………………………………………………………… 127 Appendix D: Map 4. Case-Study Villages in the kaza of Drama …….….. 128 Appendix E: Map 5. Topographic Map of Case-Study Villages in the kaza of Drama……………………………………………………………………... 129 Appendix F: Map 6. Yürük Transhumance Paths in the Rhodope Mountains………………………………………………………………… 130 Appendix G: Map 7. East, Central and Western Sections of the kaza of Drama……………………………………………………………………... 131 Appendix H: Table 1……………………………………………………… 132 Appendix I: The Town of Drama……………………………………….… 133 Appendix J: Villages from the Eastern Section………………………...… 140 Appendix K: Villages from the Central Section………………………..… 150 Appendix L: Villages from the Western Section…………………….…… 166 x LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1. Division of 25 Villages in the kaza of Drama in 1478 according to their size…………………………………………………………………………………. 68 TABLE 2. Religious Composition of 25 Villages in 1478 in the kaza of Drama…. 69 xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Subject and Sources The continual scholarly and literary focus on Islam in the Balkans has for decades associated itself with the quick and so-called mass conversion to