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August 08, 2007, 8:15 PM BG, 5:15 PM GMT

History and Religion

Published on February 23, 2005 at 7:22 PM BG

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Books on Bulgarian towns in the National Revival period 18-19c

Sofia University ”Kliment of Ochrida” Publishers put out on the market recently two tomes- “Bulgarian towns in the Revival period” and “ Flames from the ashes”.

The first one is a historical, sociological and political study by University Library experts, supervised by Prof. Marko Semov and Dr Ivanka Yankova. In the second the two academics scrutinize the facts supplied by the study, which covers 25 settlements and is based on original archives and local history and lore heritage. The study tracks the demographic development, ethnic composition, economic, political, educational and cultural processes, taking place in urban settlements over five centuries of Ottoman oppression, which began in the very late 14th c., and especially so during the National revival period in the 18-19 c. This happens to be the ever first study of this kind in Bulgaria. Mincho Semov comments that, unlike the colonizing powers, which, though plundering the wealth of exotic lands, were responsible for setting up settlements, road infrastructure, cultivating a local intellectual stratum and creating a work force, the Ottoman conquerors, pushed Bulgaria, a well-advanced country at the time, ages back into the dark past. 59 towns had actually been destroyed, including Sofia, Plovdiv, Tarnovo, Vidin ,Shumen. The population had sought refuge up in the mountains and Turks had populated numerous settlements.

“That used to be a comprehensive policy, mass-scale Muslim colonization of Bulgarian settlements went on down to 1862”, says Prof. Semov. “ We should bear in mind, however, that at the time of the conquest of Bulgaria the Ottoman state was a rather young one. The Ottomans were at the time no less than 300 years behind progress in Europe, Bulgaria included. The first Constitutional Statute on Public education in Turkey dates back to only 1869, some 750 years after the University of Bologna was set up in Italy. The modernization that was in place in Europe came to the Ottoman Empire appallingly late in all spheres. Roads, book-printing, theatre, you name it,” says Prof. Semov.

In the mid-18th c. the Bulgarians returned to the urban centres where they took to building houses, churches and schools, which have been and are today a monument to their great skills and artistic perception. A short while after settling down in the towns the Bulgarians began to create” their own territory of freedom” within the Ottoman Empire itself. A Bulgarian monk by the name of Paisii, produced a longhand tome in 1762, entitled” Slav-Bulgarian history”, reviving glorious facts of Bulgaria’s history and urging for the resuscitation of national awareness. In 1772 the Sultan Moustafa Khan, a man of vision, issued an edict sanctioning autonomy for the craft guilds and setting down parity between Bulgarians and Turks in the guilds.

“ At that point in time the Bulgarians headed the guilds and set up some 30-40 guilds in every town”, Mincho Semov goes on to say.” The latter were mostly Bulgarian, there were mixed ones, there were strictly Turkish ones and equality was the rule of the day. It was there that the Bulgarians conquered, though rather limited and relative, a territory of freedom. Later on this happened in schools too, and the culture society clubs, whose trusties observed their own democratic statute. Thus, step-by-step, the Bulgarians won freedom in the economy, external relations; we had our colonies, we even used to operate a trading office in Calcutta, India. Every town had a hard-core elite of 100-150 Bulgarians. Those were erudites, capableand spirited people, setting their hearts on winning freedom for Bulgaria and pulling Bulgaria back to modern times. The April uprising broke out in 1876 and though brutally crushed it brought to the notice of the world the single-mindedness of the Bulgarians to win independence from the Ottoman Empire and precipitated the Russo-Turkish war of 1877/78,which brought the liberation of Bulgaria. It is my assumption that the Reunification of Bulgaria in 1885 amounted to a political national-liberation revolution. As a result of the reunification there emerged a new territory of freedom both in the intellectual and material spheres, achieved by the Bulgarians themselves in the 19th c. That freedom made it possible for Bulgarians to conquer a foothold in Europe, to restore their cultural identity and catch up without undue delay with the accomplishment of modern Europe”, said in conclusion Prof. Mincho Semov.

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