Bulgarian Historiography on Ottoman Written Culture in Bulgaria

Number: 15 May 1, 2010
  • Orlin Sabev
EN

Bulgarian Historiography on Ottoman Written Culture in Bulgaria

Abstract

This article provides a general review and analysis of the Bulgarian scholarship in the field of Ottoman cultural history, and Ottoman written culture in particular. The author outlines three major periods in the development of Bulgarian historiography: 1) the period between the 1877-78 Ottoman-Russian war and the beginning of the communist regime in the late 1940s when the nationalistic approach to history prevailed; 2) the communist regime between late 1940s and late 1980s, when the nationalistic approach was intermingled with the ideological one; 3) from early 1990s up to the present, when ideological chains were broken and the nationalistic approach abandoned. The author emphasizes that the Bulgarian scholars tend, on the one hand, to consider the local Ottoman and Muslim culture more or less a specific Balkan (peripheral) version of the high imperial culture developed in the leading Ottoman centers with a lot of sub-variants on local level; and, on the other hand, to restrict the scope of research to a given particular topic (provincial Ottoman libraries and their survived collections, for instance), neglecting their relation to and correlation with other Ottoman cultural and social institutions such as the Ottoman theological schools (medrese) and their curriculum. Both approaches could lead to overestimation of the local specifics and a misunderstanding of the relation between the so-called high culture and low culture. The author draws the conclusion that previous and current Bulgarian scholarship in the field of Ottoman written culture in Bulgaria has contributed to a better understanding of Ottoman and Muslim cultures in Bulgaria.

Keywords

References

  1. Ardenski, Vladimir, “Roliata na medresetata v pomohamedanchvaneto [The Role of Medreses in Islamization],” Rodopi, 1971, n. 11, p. 10-14; n. 12, p. 24-27; 1972, n. 1, p. 24-26.
  2. Bakardjieva, Teodora, “Rusenskoto islahhane: chast ot obrazovatelnata reforma v Osmanskata imperia [The Russe Islahhane: a Part of the Educational Reform in the Ottoman Empire],” Studia balcanica, v. 23, 2001, p. 325-338.
  3. Bibina, Yordanka, Istoria na turskata literatura, T. 1. Ot zarajdaneto i do Tanzimata [History of Turkish Literature, v. 1. From Its Beginning to the Tanzimat], Sofia: BAN, 2000, p. 252.
  4. Dimitrov, Strashimir, “Ottoman Studies in Bulgaria after the Second World War,” Études balkaniques, 2000, n. 1, p. 29-58.
  5. Daruish, Adnan, Opis na arabskite rakopisi v Narodnata biblioteka “Kiril i Metodiy,” Sofia. �. 2 (Filologicheski nauki) [Inventory of Manuscripts in Arabic at SS Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia. v. 2 (Philological Sciences)], Damascus, 1974.
  6. Dobreva, Margarita, “Kam istoriata na miusiulmanskite uchilishta v Dobrudja (1869– 1877) [On the History of Muslim schools in Dobrudja (1869-1877)],” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Islamic Civilisation in the Balkans, Sofia, April 21-23, 2000, Rama M. Z. Keilani and S. Todorova (ed.), Istanbul: IRCICA, 2002, p. 163–188.
  7. Dobreva, Margarita, “Reformite v uchebnata programa na miusiulmanskite nachalni uchilishta (mektebi) ot 50-te i 70-te godini na XIX vek spored izvori za Severna Balgaria [Reforms in and Curriculum of the Muslim Primary Schools (Mekteb) in the 1850s and 1870s According to Sources from North Bulgaria],” Istoriata i knigite kato priatelstvo. Sbornik v pamet na Mitko Lachev, Nadia Danova, Svetlana Ivanova, and Hristo Temelski (ed.), Sofia: Gutenberg, 2007, p. 379- 410.
  8. Dobreva, Margarita Osmanski obshtoobrazovatelni institutsii v Dunavskia vilaet [Ottoman Public Educational Institutions in the Danube Province], Ph.D. dis- sertation, Sofia: Institute of Balkan Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2008 (unpublished).

Details

Primary Language

Turkish

Subjects

-

Journal Section

-

Authors

Orlin Sabev This is me

Publication Date

May 1, 2010

Submission Date

May 1, 2010

Acceptance Date

-

Published in Issue

Year 2010 Number: 15

APA
Sabev, O. (2010). -. Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi, 15, 245-262. https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY
AMA
1.Sabev O. -. TALID. 2010;(15):245-262. https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY
Chicago
Sabev, Orlin. 2010. “-”. Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi, nos. 15: 245-62. https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY.
EndNote
Sabev O (May 1, 2010) -. Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 15 245–262.
IEEE
[1]O. Sabev, “-”, TALID, no. 15, pp. 245–262, May 2010, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY
ISNAD
Sabev, Orlin. “-”. Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi. 15 (May 1, 2010): 245-262. https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY.
JAMA
1.Sabev O. -. TALID. 2010;:245–262.
MLA
Sabev, Orlin. “-”. Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi, no. 15, May 2010, pp. 245-62, https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY.
Vancouver
1.Orlin Sabev. -. TALID [Internet]. 2010 May 1;(15):245-62. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA22LY98KY