Pomaks - History

History

Pomaks are today usually considered descendants of native Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans. They started to become Muslim gradually, from the Ottoman occupation (early 15th century) to the end of the 18th century. Subsequently this people became part of the Muslim community of the millet system, which was closely linked to Islamic rules. At that time people were bound to their millets by their religious affiliations (or their confessional communities), rather than their ethnic origins, according to the millet concept.

It is remarkable that monk Pachomios Roussanos (1508–1553), who visited the mountain area of Xanthi, mentioned that around 1550, only 6 or 9 villages had turned to Islam.. Further more the documents show that not only Islam has been spread in the area at that time, but that the Pomaks have even participated in Ottoman military operation voluntarily as is the case with the village of Shahin (Echinos).

The mass turn to Islam in the Central Rhodope Mountains happened between the 16th and the 17th century. According to the Codes of Bishopy of Philippoupolis and the Czech historian and slavist Konstantin Josef Jireček in the middle of 17th century, the Pomak provosts agreed to become Muslim en masse. They visited the Ottoman local administrator to announce their decision, but he sent them to the Greek bishop of Philippoupolis Gabriel (1636–1672). The bishop couldn't change their mind. According to the verbal tradition of the Greeks of Philippoupolis, a large ceremony of mass circumcision took place in front of the old mosque of the city, near the Government House. After that, the villagers became Muslim, too. According to the verbal tradition of the Bulgrians, Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha (1656–1661) threatened the Pomaks of Chepino Valley that he would execute them if they didn't turn to Islam. In 1656, Ottoman military troops entered the Chepino valley and arrested the provosts of Pomaks, in order to transfer them in the local Ottoman administrator. There, they converted to Islam. Grand Vizier Mehmed Köprülü, after the mass Islamization, destroyed 218 churches and 336 chapels in the areas of Pomaks. A lot of Pomaks preferred to die instead of becoming Muslim.. According to recent investigations the theory of forced conversion to Islam, supported by some scientists, has no solid grounds with all or most evidence being faked or misinterpreted. Muslim communities prospered under the Ottoman Empire, as the Sultan was also the Caliph. Ottoman law did not recognize such notions as ethnicity or citizenship; thus, a Muslim of any ethnic background enjoyed precisely the same rights and privileges.

Meanwhile, the perception of the millet concept was altered during the 19th century and rise of nationalism within the Ottoman Empire begun. After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Pomaks in the Vacha valley rebelled against Eastern Rumelia and established an autonomous state, called Republic of Tamrash. In 1886 the Ottoman government accepted the Bulgarian rule over Eastern Rumelia and that was the end of the free Pomak state. During the Balkan Wars, at August 16, 1913, an Islamic revolt begun in the Eastern Rhodopes and Western Thrace. At September 1, 1913, the "Provisional Government of Western Thrace" (Garbi Trakya Hukumet i Muvakkatesi) was established in Komotini. The Ottoman administration didn't support the rebels and finally under the neutrality of Greek and Ottoman governments, Bulgaria took over the lands in 30 October 1913. The rebels requested support by the Greek state and put Greek major in Alexandroupoli. Bulgaria, after a brief period of control over the area, passed the sovereignty of Western Thrace at the end of World War I. The Provisional Government was revived between 1919-1920 under French protectorate (France had annexed the region from Bulgaria in 1918) before Greece took over in June, 1920.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, the religious millet system disappeared and the members of the Pomak groups today declare a variety of ethnic identities, depending predominantly on the country, they live in.