There lives a Gypsy community in Bulgaria, called ‘Turkish Gypsies’ by the surrounding population. This name has existed ever since the times of the Ottoman Empire when it was used to mean ‘Muslims’ and it used to reflect the mixing and interchangeability of religion and ethnicity. Turkish Gypsies have a differentiated selfconsciousness varying between Gypsy and Turkish identity. At times they would define themselves as Xoraxane Roma (e.g. ‘Turkish Gypsies’); at other times as the Gypsy group to which they belong; and very often they would define themselves as ‘Turks’; not rarely would they use the name ‘Millet’ (e.g. ‘a people’ as an ethnically neutral category or as a separate community). Their language is different too; a part of them use Romanes (Gypsy language); others are Turkish-speaking; the third use Romanes with a lot of Turkish borrowings and influences. Very often both languages are used but the Gypsy language was the more actively used one in the past.

Basing on Christian and Muslim hagiography, this thesis deals with interactions between dervishes and Christians in the Bulgarian lands during the Ottoman conquest and in the first centuries of the Ottoman rule. Considerable attention is paid to religious principles and beliefs that were at the core of the dervish-Christian interactions. Moreover, the more recent Muslim narrative and folk legends collected by modern ethnographers are engaged to trace the dynamics of the relations between dervishes and Christians and to analyze the holy dervishes’ impact on the culture of the Bulgarian population, especially that in Ludogorie (Deliorman). We suppose that the results of the discord among dervishes caused by changes in the Ottomans’ religious policy in the first half of the XVIth century partly due to their confrontation with the Safavids could be reflected in Christian hagiography. Due to lack of popularity of the main topic of the thesis in the Russian historiography, special attention is paid to achievements of the contemporary Bulgarian historiography, its conclusions are verified by the research. На основе христианской и мусульманской житийной литературы в работе рассматривается взаимодействие дервишей и христиан в болгарских землях во время османского завоевания и в первые века османского владычества. Значительное внимание уделено религиозным принципам и воззрениям, лежавшим в основе этого взаимодействия. Также с помощью более позднего мусульманского нарратива и народных легенд, собранных этнографами в наши дни, прослеживается динамика развития отношений между дервишами и христианами, а также рассматривается влияние святых дервишей на культуру болгарского населения, в особенности жителей Лудогория (Делиорман). Высказывается предположение, что в христианских житиях могли отразиться результаты размежевания среди дервишей, вызванного изменениями в религиозной политике Османов в первой половине XVI в., в т.ч. в свете их противостояния с Сефевидами. В силу непопулярности темы работы в отечественной историографии, особое внимание уделяется достижениям современной болгарской историографии, положения которой верифицируются результатами исследования.

This article is a review of the book “Turkology in Exile: Mefküre Mollova. A Biographical Study”, authored by Zeynep Zafer and Murie Muratova. Mefküre Mollova (1927–2009) was the first Turkish woman and university professor in Bulgaria, who gained international fame with her research in the field of Turkology. She devoted herself to unexplored issues of Turkish dialectology, related to the Turkish dialects in Bulgaria and other linguistic questions. Mefküre Mollova was among the founders of the Turkish Philology at the University of Sofia. She had worked for only about 7 years (1953–1961), when she and her husband were dismissed from their academic positions. Although unemployed and persecuted in communist Bulgaria, Mefküre Mollova continued to publish her work both in the country and abroad. She published her research in four languages – French, Turkish, Bulgarian, and Russian, but mostly in French. Mefküre Mollova was also the first Turkish poet to publish poems in Turkish periodi...

The article offers an insight into the history of the Muslim communities in the Russian capital city of St. Petersburg in the 18th –20th cent. The author identifies the problems, which gradually arose in course of implementation of the state national policy in various periods of the Russian history. Equally she outlines the problems, which may be an obstacle in the interfaith dialogue.

The paper focuses on the analysis of the church of Panagia Belgradkapı in Istanbul which was erected in the 19th century near the Belgrade gate of the Constantinopolitan walls. The present structure was most likely constructed on the site of an older church built or restored by the imprisoned Serbs who were settled in Istanbul after the Ottoman conquest of Belgrade in 1521. The citizens of Belgrade were settled on two locations – outside the city in the nowadays Belgrade forest and in the quarter of Belgradkapı next to the Belgrade gate of the city walls. According to the written testimonies, they brought to Constantinople relics of prominent saints (St Paraskeve and Empress Tephano) and the miraculous icon of the Holy Virgin – the palladium of Belgrade. The relics were kept in the church in the neighborhood of Belgradkapı presumably until 1539 when they were sold to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The old church was completely demolished in the first decades of the 19th century and even after the construction of the new temple on this site, the oral tradition still claimed that some of the icons from its iconostasis originated from Belgrade. Unfortunately, the present-day church was heavily damaged in the fire in 1955. In this tragic event, the entire interior of the structure was turned into ash. Before the icons from iconostasis were lost in the fire, Serbian scholars Stojan Novaković and Aleksandar Deroko had the opportunity to study them more closely. Deroko established that icons were most likely executed in 1539 for the templon of the previous church on this site. This was attested by the partially preserved Cyrillic inscription on one of the icons. It is interesting that in 1539 Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah I purchased the relics of St Paraskeve (St Petka) and transferred them to the monastery of Pammakaristos which at the time functioned as the seat of the Patriarchate. It appears that the execution of these icons is somehow related to this event. The history of the previous church near the Belgrade gate is unclear. The decoration of one column capital (destroyed in the fire in 1955) which existed in the courtyard of the present church indicates that the history of the site goes back to the 6th century and the time of Emperor Justinian. Furthermore, this column capital perhaps belongs to the monastery of St Mamas at the Xylokerkos which once stood in the vicinity of the Belgrade gate, previously known as the Porta Xylokerkos. The monastery was founded in the 6th century by Justinian’s Chamberlain Pharasmanes and was enlarged and further endowed by Gordia, a sister of Emperor Maurice. The monastery was last attested in 1399 and it is possible that it still stood on this site at the beginning of the 16th century. Therefore, it seems probable that the present church of Panagia Belgradkapı was erected on the site of the monastery of St Mamas and that citizens of Belgrade who were settled in this part of the city have restored the previous monastic church. This structure presumably still existed in the modified form until the beginning of the 19th century when it was completely demolished and the new church was erected on its site. The new foundation in the form of a three-aisled basilica was built in 1837. Some of the employed builders and artisans such as Nicholas Mirasan (presumably master-builder), Kostas, Kiaz, and Dimitri engraved their signatures on stone slabs with depictions of crosses that are built into facades of the church. Particularly interesting is one slab with the Cyrillic inscription located on the south church façade. This inscription was previously analyzed by Turkish scholar Zafer Karaca who posed that it mentions the name of a certain orthodox saint and the city of Belgrade. However, a more detailed analysis of the inscription shows that it contains the signature of the artisan called Siljan from the village of Vrben in Macedonia who was also employed on the construction of the new church in 1837.

Paper presented at the Roundtable “The Role of the Bulgarian Church for the Rescue of the Jews in Bulgaria during World War II: A Model of Religious Tolerance and Religious Solidarity” (Sofia, September 9, 2009), organized within the framework of the celebrations of the 100-anniversary of the Sofia Synagogue

В статье рассматривается турецкое религиозное влияние на развитие башкирского ислама на рубеже XX-XXI веков в контексте политизации и мобилизации этничности в Башкортостане. Первая часть посвящена исламскому возрождению в Башкирии и его роли в этнополитических процессах. Во второй части анализируется влияние деятельности на башкирский ислам турецких религиозных общин (джамаат). Автор приходит к выводу, что турецкий ислам воспринимается в Башкирии как наиболее близкий башкирскому, традиционный, умеренный и способный возродить прерванную в советские годы суфийскую традицию. Благодаря этому Турция становится основным центром религиозного влияния на башкир, а турецкий ислам начинают адаптировать под башкирскую среду, ослабляя, вытесняя и замещая альтернативными неформальными структурами существующие в Башкирии муфтияты. Автор полагает, что усиление влияния турецкого ислама в республике в будущем может привести к утрате доминирующего положения башкирского этнонационального проекта и замене его на общетюркский с выраженной исламской компонентой. The paper deals with the Turkish religious influence on the development of Bashkir Islam at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries in the context of politicization and mobilization of ethnicity in Bashkortostan. The first part is devoted to Islamic revival in Bashkiria and its role in ethno-political processes. The second part analyzes the influence of Turkish Islam on Bashkir one through the activities of Turkish religious communities (jamaat). The author concludes that Turkish Islam is perceived in Bashkiria as traditional to the Bashkirs, moderate and capable of reviving the Sufi tradition interrupted in the Soviet years. For these reasons, Turkey becomes the main center of religious influence on Bashkirs, and Turkish Islam begins to adapt to the Bashkir environment, weakening and replacing the official Islamic organizations (muftiats) existing in Bashkiria with alternative informal structures. The author believes that the strengthening of the influence of Turkish Islam in the Republic in the future may lead to the loss of the dominant position of the Bashkir ethno-national project and its replacement by the project of Turkic union with a significant Islamic component.