Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T16:07:00.436Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crypto-Christianity in the Balkan Area under the Ottomans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Stavro Skendi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Little study has been devoted to the phenomenon of Crypto-Christianity. While some attention has been paid to the Crypto-Christians of Asia Minor, who were numerous, lived in groups, and endured a long time, the Crypto-Christians of the Balkans have been largely neglected, with the exception of an occasional work referring to only a single nationality, particularly the Greeks.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 1967 , pp. 227 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Crypto-Christianity among the Rumanians has not been included in this paper because the Danubian Principalities were not under the direct rule of the Ottomans but were tributaries. There is more, and preciser, information about the Crypto-Christians in Asia Minor, although no general critical study on the subject has been published.

2 See Iofan, D, “Nauchnoe issledovanie istorii tuzemnykh evreev Bukhary i Turkestana ‘chely’ i chasti gornykh tadzhikov,” Novyi vostok (Moscow), No. 1, 1922, pp. 480–81Google Scholar; Babakhonov, I. M., “K voprosu o proiskhozhdenii gruppy evreev-musul'man v Bukhare Sovetskaia etnografiia (Moscow), No. 3, 1951, pp. 162–63.Google Scholar

3 Possibly the phenomenon was also observed earlier, at the time of the Saracen occupation of the island of Crete (825-961). See Robert, Pashley, Travels in Crete (London, 1837), I, 104 Google Scholar; Arnold, T. W., The Preaching of Islam : A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith (3d ed.; London, 1935), p. 201.Google Scholar

4 See the patriarchal communications (pittakia) of the years 1339 and 1340 in Franz Miklosich and Josef, Miiller, Acta et diplomata graeca medii aevi sacra et profana (Vienna, 1860), I, 183–84Google Scholar and 197-98; also Andrioti, Nikolaou P., Kryptokhristianike Philologia (Thessaloniki, 1953), pp. 8–9 Google Scholar, and Vakalopoulou, Apost. E., Historia tou neou hellenismou (Thessaloniki, 1961), I, 134–35.Google Scholar

5 George, Finlay, A History of Greece from the Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time, B.C. 146 to AD. 1864 (Oxford, 1867), V, 118–19Google Scholar.

6 Arnold, p. 147, n. 2.

7 Parikoz is the Greek paroikos, corresponding approximately to a serf.

8 See Halil Inalcik, “The Main Problems Concerning the History of Cyprus,” Cultura Turcica (Ankara), I (1964), 48.

9 Michell, R. L. N., “A Muslim-Christian Sect in Cyprus,” The Nineteenth Century (London), LXIII (Jan.-June 1908), 753.Google Scholar

10 J., Hackett, A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus (London, 1901), pp. 182–83, and note 1, p . 183.Google Scholar

11 Inalcik, pp. 48-49.

12 Palmieri, A, “Chypre (Eglise de),” in Vacant, E. and Mangenot, E., Dictionnaire de Thiologie Catholique (Paris, 1910), Vol. II, col. 2468.Google Scholar

13 See Inalcik, p. 50.

14 Hackett, p. 535; Georg, Jacob, “Die Bektaschijje in ihrem Verhaltnis zu verwandten Erscheinungen in Abhandlungen der Philosophisch-Philologischen Klasse der Koniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften , XXIV (Munich, 1906), 30 Google Scholar; Ohnefalsch-Richter, Magda H., Griechische Sitten und Gebrauche auf Cypern (Berlin, 1913), p. 81.Google Scholar

15 Michell, p. 754; Miliori, Nikou E., Hoi Kryptokhristianoi (Athens, 1962), p. 69.Google Scholar

16 See Miliori, pp. 69-70; Simou, Menardou, “Peri ton onomaton ton Kyprion,” Athena , XVI (1904), 271 Google Scholar; R. M., Dawkins,” The Crypto-Christians of Turkey,” Byzantion , VIII (1933), 256 Google Scholar; Michell, o. 761.

17 See Michell, p. 754; Hackett, p. 535; Dawkins, p. 255.

18 Michell, pp. 752-53; Palmieri, col. 2468.

19 Dawkins, pp. 255-56.

20 See Andrioti, p. 12; Miliori, p. 70.

21 Concerning conditions in Crete, see G. Foscarini's report (1516) to the Venetian Senate and that of the Venetian consul in Cairo to the Proveditor of Crete (1622), in Pashley, I, 30, 318-19; and Arnold, pp. 201-3.

22 See Pashley, I, 104; Herzberg, Gustav F., Geschichte Griechenlands seit dem Absterben des antiken Lebens bis zur Gegenwart (Gotha, 1878), III, 131–32Google Scholar; Richard, Pococke, A Description of the East and Some Other Countries (London, 1765), II Google Scholar, Part 1, 268; and Arnold, p. 204.

23 The principle of economy is in contrast to that of strictness and accounts for much that seems incongruous in the acts of the Orthodox Church. According to Ware, it means, practically speaking, “any departure from the strict rules of the Church, whether in the direction of greater rigor or (as is more usual) of greater leniency.” For a clear explanation see Timothy Ware, Eustratios Argenti : A Study of the Greek Church under Turkish Rule (Oxford, 1964), pp. 83-84.

24 Andrioti, pp. 9-10; “Krete,” in Megalē Hellēnikē Egkyklopaideia (Athens, 1931), XV, 182; Finlay, V, 120.

25 See Miliori, pp. 64-65.

26 Herzberg, III, 28.

27 See Andrioti, p. 11; Herzberg, III, 132. In Andrioti's booklet there are some interesting excerpts of Crypto-Christian literature dealing with the Cretans.

28 Dawkins, p. 251.

29 Pashley, I, 105, 107; Herzberg, III, 132; “Kourmoules,” in Megale Helletiike Egkyklopaideia, XV, 77.

30 Today Kourmoulēs is sometimes used in Greece to mean Crypto-Christian.

31 Pashley, I, 105-7.

32 Dawkins, p. 252.

33 Andrioti, p. 10.

34 Some writers use the term Pomak for all Islamized Bulgarians.

35 See Jireček, Constantin, Geschichte der Bulgaren (Prague. 1876), pp. 356, 457Google Scholar; H., Wilhelmy, Hochbulgarien, I (Kiel, 1935), 113–14.Google Scholar

36 Marinov, P. A., Smolen i okoliiata v svoeto blizko i dalechno minalo (Smolen, 1937-39). I–3.Google Scholar

37 See Cvetkova, B, “O religiozno-natsional'noi diskriminatsii v Bolgarii vo vremia turetskogo vladychestva,” Sovetskoe vostokovedenie , No. 2, 1957, pp. 86–87.Google Scholar

38 Halil, Inalcik, “Timariotes Chretiens en Albanie au XV° siècle, d'après un registre de timars ottoman,” Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs , IV (1952), 120, 126, 130-31.Google Scholar

39 “Izveštaj barskoga nadpiskupa Marina Bizzia o svojem putovanju god. 1610 po Arbanskoj i Staroj Srbiji,” Starine, Jugoslavenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, XX (1888), 105-6.

40 Jovan Radonić, Rimska Kurija i juŽnoslovenske zemlje od XVI do XIX veka (Belgrade, 1950), pp. 102-3 (Srpska Akademija Nauka, “Posebna Izdanja,” Vol. CLV).

41 Arnold, pp. 180-82.

42 Zinkeisen, Johann W., Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches in Europa (Gotha, 1855), III, 377.Google Scholar

43 See Hyacinthe Hecquard, Histoire et description de la Haute Albanie ou Ghegarie (Paris, 1858), pp. 472-75.

44 Arnold, pp. 188-89.

45 Fulvio Cardignano, UAlbania attraverso I'opera e gli scritti di un grande missionario italiano, il P. Domenico Pasi, SJ. (1847-1914) (Rome, 1933-34), *> 89.

46 Starine, XXV (1892), 173-75. V

47 Zinkeisen, V, 185-86; Milan Šufflay, Srbi i Arbanasi (Belgrade, 1925), pp. 67-68.

48 Cordignano, I, 90; Arnold, p. 196.

49 Hecquard, p. 483.

50 See Georg Stadtmüller, “Das albanische Nationalkonzil vom Jahre 1703,” in Orientalia Christiana Periodica, XXII (1956), 68-69, 73-74 : Hecquard, p. 483; Johann C. von Hahn, Albanesische Studien (Vienna, 1853) I, 37, n. 79.

51 See Fulvio, Cordignano, Geografia ecclesiastica dell'Albania dagli ultimi decenni del secolo XVI alia metd del secolo XVII (Rome, 1943), p. 248 Google Scholar (“Orientalia Christiana,” 1934). On the influence and jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Antivari, see also Starine, XX (1888), 51, and M. Šufflay, “Die Kirchenzustände im vürtiirkischen Albanien : Die orthodoxe Durchbruchszone im Katholischen Damme,” in L., Thalloczy, ed., Illyrischalbanische Forschungen (Munich and Leipzig, 1916), I, 218.Google Scholar

52 Radonii, pp. 570-71.

53 See ibid., pp. 642, 646-47, 655.

54 See Lubor Niederle, Manuel de I'antiquitd slave (Paris, 1926), II, 168.

55 Stadtmüller, giving the translation of lavamani as “Handwascher,” explains it as an “allusion to the prescribed ritual of the Moslems to wash the hands before prayers“; see his “Die Islamisierung bei den Albanern,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, III (1955), 421 and n. 90. One wonders what made the German scholar choose, instead of the laramana of Cordignano (upon whose works he has drawn extensively in his study), Hecquard“ lavamani, because only in the latter's work has this author come across this term (Hecquard, pp. 481-82). First, the adjective laraman/laramana is a good Albanian word used both in the north and in the south. Second, it would be odd for Albanians to employ for their own people and in their own country an Italian word such as lavamani.

56 As to the etymology of the word laraman, Gustav Meyer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der albanesischen Sprache (Strasbourg, 1891), p. 238, relates it to a number of words which derive from the Albanian root lar. They all mean “motley.“

57 There are several versions of this incident, but the most complete and accurate seem to be those of Georg Rosen, Geschichte der TiXrkei, Part 2 (Leipzig, 1867), pp. 93-98, and Cordignano, II, 136-42.

58 See Roderic H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876 (Princeton, 1963), P.-45.

59 Cordignano, II, 134.

60 Vincenc Prennushi, Kângë popullore gegënishte (Sarajevo, 1911), p. 10 n.

61 Boue\ La Turquie d'Europe (Paris, 1840), III, 407-8.

62 See von Hahn, I, 18; Theodor Ippen, “Die Landschaft Schpat im mittleren Albanien,” Mitteilungen der Kais. Königl. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien, LIX (1916), 459. Sp. Aravantinou in his Khronographia tēs Epeirou (Athens, 1957), II, 160, gives twenty villages, which seems to be wrong.

63 Von Hahn, I, 18.

64 Ippen, p. 456.

65 See Selim Islami and Kristo Frashёri, Historia e Shqipёrisё (Tirana, 1959), I, 382-83.

66 See Stavro Skendi, “Religion in Albania during the Ottoman Rule,” Sudost-Forschungen, XV (1956), 321-22.

67 The manuscript has been published as K. Thesprotou and A. Psalida, Geographia Alvanias kai Hēpeirou (Janina, 1964).

68 Ibid., p. 7.

69 See von Hahn, I, 18; Aravantinou, II, 160; Kosta I. Biri, Aruanites, hoi Dōrieis tou neoterou Hellēnismou (Athens, 1960), p. 345.

70 “Një meshë Shaip në Berat më 1897,” Diturija (Tirana), II (Dec. 1, 1926), 48.

71 Because the question of the Shpataraks acquired international significance, one comes across frequent references to their Crypto-Christianity. These, however, contain certain errors which tend to be repeated; their correction would be useful. In the Megalē Hellēnikē Egkyklopaideia the article on Crypto-Christians (XV, 296) was written by no less a person than the Archbishop of Athens, Chrysostom. Yet he has confused the facts. He wrote first about the “Spathiōtas” in the province of Durrës (Durazzo) and then about the “Spataraks” around Elbasan. But the “Spathiōtai” and the Shpataraks are one and the same, the first name for them being Greek and the second Albanian. Greek scholars, in referring to the Shpataraks, usually draw upon Konst. Kh. Skenderi's book, Historia tes arkhaias kai sygkhronou Moskhopoleos (Athens, 1928), pp. 80-85. Documents in the Vienna Haus- Ho]- und Staatsarchiv demonstrate how unreliable that work is; one should read it with caution.

72 Bornemisza to Goluchowski, Durazzo, Jan. 25, 1904, No. 2, Haus- Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Politisches Archiv, XIV, 5, Albanien III (henceforth referred to as HHSA); Ledoux to France's Ambassador in Turkey, Monastir, Feb. 4, 1898, No. 6, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Turquie, Politique Intorieure, Albanie, 1898-99, Vol. II (henceforth referred to as AMAE).

73 See letter (Shpat, Oct. 1899) published in Albania (Brussels), IV (1900) 66-68; Krai to Goluchowski, Monastir, May 19, 1900, No. 29, HHSA.

74 Ledoux to Hanotaux, Monastir, March 2, 1898, No. 10, and Degrand to Delcassé, Scutari, July 12, 1898, No. 117, AMAE, Vol. II.

75 See Stavro Skendi, The Albanian National Awakening, 1878-1912 (Princeton, 1967), pp. 296-303.

76 In Nicholas de Nikolay, Quatre premiers livres de navigations et pérégrinages, as quoted in Mary E. Durham, Some Tribal Origins, Laws and Customs of the Balkans (London, 1928), pp. 138-39.

77 See “Izveštaj barskoga nadpiskupa Marina Bizzia,” Starine, XX (1888), 120, 136.

78 K. S. Draganovich, “Müssenubertritte von Katholiken zur Orthodoxie,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica, III (1937), 198-99.

79 Laszlo, Hadrovics, Le peuple serbe et son église sous la domination turque (Paris, 1947). P. 136.Google Scholar

80 A. M. Selishchev, Polog i ego bolgarskoe naselenie (Sofia, 1929), pp. 406-7.

81 A. Jovičević, “Crnogorsko Primorje i Krajina,” in Naselja i Poreklo StanoviUva (Belgrade, 1922), pp. 33-36 (“Srpski Etnografski Sbornik” Srpska Kraljevska Akademija, Vol. XI).

82 “Opis turskih oblasti i u njima naroda, a naročito naroda srpskoga, sastavljen god. 1771 srpskim patriarhom Vasiljem Brkićem,” Spomenik, Srpska Kraljevska Akaderaija, X (1890, 53.

83 See Branislav, Djurdjev, “Bosna Encyclopedia of Islam (London and Leiden, 1960), I, 1264.Google Scholar

84 de Asbóth, J., An Official Tour through Bosnia and Herzegovina (London, 1890), pp. 96–98.Google Scholar

85 Arnold, p. 199.

86 See Tayyib Okiç, M., “Les Kristians (Bogomiles Parfaits) de Bosnie d'après les documents turcs inédits,” Sudost-Forschungen , XIX (1960), 119 and 131.Google Scholar

87 “Relatione data all'Imperatore dal Sign. Athanasio Georgiceo del Viagio fatto in Bosnia l'anno 1626,” Starine, XVII (1885), 128.

88 For other points in common see Jacob, pp. 1-53; Hasluck, F. W., Christianity and Islam under the Sultans (Oxford, 1929), II, 568 Google Scholar; Birge, John K., The Bektashi Order of Dervishes (Hartford, 1937), pp. 22, 30–33.Google Scholar

89 See his “Geographical Distribution of the Bektashi,” The Annual of the British School of Athens, XXI (1914-16), 84-124.

90 Jacob, p. 30. M. F. Grenard, in his study “Une secte religieuse d'Asie Mineure les Kyzyl-Bâchs,” Journal Asiatique, Tenth Series, III (igo4), 511-22, expresses the opinion that the Kizilbash did not belong to the Islamic family but were “a corrupt Christian sect” (pp. 513-14).

91 Grenard, p. 521.

92 See Jacob, p. 30.

93 Dawkins, p. 228. Concerning the Vallakhades, see Margaret Hardie (Mrs. F. W. Hasluck), “Christian Survivals among Certain Moslem Subjects of Greece,” Contemporary Review (London), CXXV (Jan.-June 1924), 225-32.

94 Dawkins, p. 256.

95 See the interesting article by Milenko S. Filipović, “Kršteni Muslimani,” Zbornik Radova Etnografskog Instituta, Srpska Akademija Nauka, II (1951), 120-28.