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The Bulgarians in the Seventeenth Century: Slavic Orthodox Society and Culture Under Ottoman Rule
Through Bulgarian and Ottoman documents, marginalia, travelers' accounts, art, and numerous secondary documents, the seventeenth century-considered by historians, as the nadir of Bulgarian national history-is examined as to the question of the Slavic society's continued existence despite centuries of foreign political, social and spiritual domination by the Ottoman Empire. The first part outlines the consequences for Bulgarian history of the Muslim Ottoman conquest. The second details the nature of the culture and the forms of expression. The third part consists of an overview of documented seventeenth century Bulgarian Orthodox expression.
- GenresBulgaria
314 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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December 6, 2017
a hard row to hoe
If you had a choice of being born as whoever you wanted, wherever or whenever, you would definitely not choose to be born a Christian Bulgarian of the 17th century. Though Ottoman Turkish rule started out in a disciplined manner, with defined roles for rulers and minorities, with many benefits for those who aided the state no matter of what religion,(we should compare it with the position of minorities in Western Europe at the time) by the 17th century it had declined to a point just above chaos. Orthodox Christian peasants living in the Bulgarian lands (there was no nation called "Bulgaria" at the time) lived at the mercy of passing Turkish soldiery, venal judges and officials, unending taxation, and the unsympathetic Greek Orthodox hierarchy which was recognized as the leadership of the Orthodox `millet'.
Hupchick, in this amazingly-detailed study of Bulgaria's lowest point, spends a lot of time describing the different types of land tenure that existed, and the privileged agricultural or livestock-raising classes who paid less taxes. "..The entire purpose of the organization of rural society by the Ottoman authorities was to ensure a stable source of revenues in support of the political and military institutions of the empire..." (p.31) Though socio-economic and political organization still looked good in theory, in practice it had collapsed. As the Ottomans lost territory in the 17th century, they lost tax paying subjects at the same time as inflation grew rapidly. Tax farming started, but didn't solve the problem. Rather, it led to great corruption (as usual in societies with this deleterious system). Imperial land turned into private property and was rented out. Rich people managed to turn large areas into vakifs (religious property) with themselves as administrators. The Janissary system fell out of order; the Janissaries became unruly. Anarchy spread, many peasants fled to towns to escape it. The Turkish population concentrated mainly in towns or in the eastern areas of the Bulgarian lands. Pressure on Slavs to convert to Islam was too heavy there, resulting in the Orthodox, Slavic population being concentrated in the west, in the mountains. "In both villages and towns, civic, social and spiritual life were intimately bound together at the grass-roots level, forming a cultural whole that conferred on the Bulgarians the only measure of self-identity that they could possibly possess under the circumstances of Ottoman rule." (p.53)
What was that self-identity exactly ? Hupchick writes mostly about this. The lower levels of the Orthodox Church and a handful of monasteries helped preserve Bulgarian culture at this nadir of a nation's struggle to survive. Education, literature and art never thrived in 17th century Bulgaria---only 138 known persons figure in Bulgarian Orthodox culture in that time--- but they existed and thanks to the efforts of monks, teachers, writers and artists, Bulgarian culture eventually emerged two hundred years later as the backbone of a nation. The details of the various monasteries, schools, and cultural figures, the hagiographies of local saints, the artistic motifs and styles, may prove too overwhelming for most non-specialists, but for anyone who wants to know about the period and the place, I can't imagine a more definitive work which is very clearly written and well-organized, and has great maps to boot.
If you had a choice of being born as whoever you wanted, wherever or whenever, you would definitely not choose to be born a Christian Bulgarian of the 17th century. Though Ottoman Turkish rule started out in a disciplined manner, with defined roles for rulers and minorities, with many benefits for those who aided the state no matter of what religion,(we should compare it with the position of minorities in Western Europe at the time) by the 17th century it had declined to a point just above chaos. Orthodox Christian peasants living in the Bulgarian lands (there was no nation called "Bulgaria" at the time) lived at the mercy of passing Turkish soldiery, venal judges and officials, unending taxation, and the unsympathetic Greek Orthodox hierarchy which was recognized as the leadership of the Orthodox `millet'.
Hupchick, in this amazingly-detailed study of Bulgaria's lowest point, spends a lot of time describing the different types of land tenure that existed, and the privileged agricultural or livestock-raising classes who paid less taxes. "..The entire purpose of the organization of rural society by the Ottoman authorities was to ensure a stable source of revenues in support of the political and military institutions of the empire..." (p.31) Though socio-economic and political organization still looked good in theory, in practice it had collapsed. As the Ottomans lost territory in the 17th century, they lost tax paying subjects at the same time as inflation grew rapidly. Tax farming started, but didn't solve the problem. Rather, it led to great corruption (as usual in societies with this deleterious system). Imperial land turned into private property and was rented out. Rich people managed to turn large areas into vakifs (religious property) with themselves as administrators. The Janissary system fell out of order; the Janissaries became unruly. Anarchy spread, many peasants fled to towns to escape it. The Turkish population concentrated mainly in towns or in the eastern areas of the Bulgarian lands. Pressure on Slavs to convert to Islam was too heavy there, resulting in the Orthodox, Slavic population being concentrated in the west, in the mountains. "In both villages and towns, civic, social and spiritual life were intimately bound together at the grass-roots level, forming a cultural whole that conferred on the Bulgarians the only measure of self-identity that they could possibly possess under the circumstances of Ottoman rule." (p.53)
What was that self-identity exactly ? Hupchick writes mostly about this. The lower levels of the Orthodox Church and a handful of monasteries helped preserve Bulgarian culture at this nadir of a nation's struggle to survive. Education, literature and art never thrived in 17th century Bulgaria---only 138 known persons figure in Bulgarian Orthodox culture in that time--- but they existed and thanks to the efforts of monks, teachers, writers and artists, Bulgarian culture eventually emerged two hundred years later as the backbone of a nation. The details of the various monasteries, schools, and cultural figures, the hagiographies of local saints, the artistic motifs and styles, may prove too overwhelming for most non-specialists, but for anyone who wants to know about the period and the place, I can't imagine a more definitive work which is very clearly written and well-organized, and has great maps to boot.
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