The Role of the Vlachs in the Bogomils’ Expansion in the Balkans

Year 2021, Issue: 7, 11 - 32, 31.12.2021

Octavian Ciobanu

Abstract

Paper approaches an old idea about the contribution of Vlachs to the spread of Bogomilism in Balkans. Vlachs and Slavs had the greatest contribution to the spread of Bogomilism. The paper presents only data in connection with the Vlachs. After Slavs’ invasion and Christianization, the majority of Vlachs had passed to Slavic churches and later to the Paulician heresy, mainly known as Bogomilism in the Balkans. The Bogomil period of the Vlachs was approximately between the 11th century and the 16th century in Western Balkans. When the Paulicianism arrived in the Balkans, the heresy started to spread mainly along the main Roman Empire routes, areas dwelled until today by Vlachs (Aromanians) and Slavs. There are data that converted Vlachs spread the Bogomilism in Serbian, Montenegrinian, Bosnian, Dalmatian and Croatian lands. The main material heritages of the Bogomil Vlachs are the necropolises with decorations in Western Balkans. The Bogomils arrived even in Romanian lands, but their influence was only in apocryphal literature.

Keywords

Bogomilism, Vlachs, Balkans, spreading.

References

• Balota, Anton. ”Bogomilismul şi cultura maselor populare din Bulgaria şi Ţările române,” Romanoslavica 10, Bucharest, (1964):14-69.
• Balota, Anton.”Bogomilismul şi cultura maselorpopulare din Bulgaria şi Ţările române,” Romanoslavica 10, Bucharest, (1964): 63
• Batričević, Ðuro. Vlasi u Crnoj Gori (Novi Sad, 2004), 42.
• Beslagic, Sefik. Stecci Katalosko Topografski Pregled (Sarajevo, 1971), 431.
• Bozic, Ivan. ”Svijet ratnickih druzina i stokarskih katuna”, in Crna Gora u doba oblasnih gospodara, ed. Milinko Djurovic, Vol.2, (Titograd, 1970), 34
• Cantacuzino, Gh. I. ”Consideraţii privind necropola dinjurul bisericii vechii curţi domneşti din Câmpulung, ” SCI VA,” 49, 2, (1998): 186-187.
• Capidan, Theodor. ”Meglenoromânii, vol. II.: Literatura populară la meglenoromâni” Cultura Națională - Academia Română. Studii și Cercetări, București, VII, (1928), 54.
• Capidan, Theodor. ”Sărăcăciani,” Dacoromania, 4, (1924), 923-959.
• Choniates, Niketas. O city of Byzantium, Annals, trans. Harry J. Magoulias ( Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1984), 259.
• Choniates, Niketas. O city of Byzantium, Annals, trans. Harry J. Magoulias (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1984), 283.
• Choniates, Niketas. O city of Byzantium, Annals, trans. Harry J. Magoulias (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1984), 267.
• Chryssogelos, Konstantinos. ”The Byzantine heritage in Greek Cinema: the lone case of Doxobus,” in: Byzantium in Dialogue with the Mediterranean: History and Heritage, (Brill, 2019), 272.
• Ciobanu, Octavian. "Cultural appropriation of the Vlachs' heritage in Balkans.” Proceedings of the International Conference "Cultural Heritage and Identities" (University of Bucharest, November 15-17, 2019)
• Ciobanu, Octavian. "Misterul crucilor inelate, "www.rumaniamilitary.ro, 2019", accessed April 2020.
• Ciobanu, Octavian. ”The emergence of Vlach necropolises with petroglyphs in Western Balkans”, The Journal of Ethnology and Culturology, Chişinău,Volume XXIV (2018): 6.
• Comnena, Ana. The Alexiad, trans. E.A. Dawes (London, 1928), 253.
• Crkvencic, Ivan. ”The Posavina border region of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina: development up to 1918”, Drus. Istraz, Zagreb, God. 13 (2004), BR. 1-2: 299.
• Curta, Florin. Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (Brill, 2019), 532.
• Curta, Florin. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250 (Cambridge University Press, 2006), 688.
• Czamanska, Ilona. ”Vlachs and Slavs in the Middle Ages and Modern Era,” Res Historica 41 (2016): 20.
• Dragomir, Silviu. Vlahii Nord-Balcanici in Evul Mediu (Editura Academiei, 1959), 26.
• Dragomir, Silviu. Vlahii Nord-Balcanici in Evul Mediu (Editura Academiei, 1959), 174.
• Đurović, Ratko. Binoza, (Grafički zavod Hrvatske, 1969), 97.
• Evans, Arthur. Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot During the Insurrection (Longmans, Green, 1877), 94-95.
• Fine, John. The early medieval Blakans (University of Michigan Press,1983), 179.
• Finlay, George. A History of Greece (Cambridge University Press, 2014), 65.
• Fortis, Alberto. Viaggio in Dalmazia (Vol 1, Presso Alvise Milocco, 1774), 65.
• Fortis, Alberto. Viaggio in Dalmazia (Vol 1, Presso Alvise Milocco, 1774). 98.
• Géographie Mathématique, Physique et Politique de Toutes les Parties du Monde, vol. 4. États de l’Autriche et de la Prusse, et des Appendices sur la Pologne et les Indemnité d’Allemagne, (Paris, 1803), 108.
• Guldescu, Stanko. The Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom: 1526-1792 (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 1970), 67-70.
• Hammond, N.G.L. ”Travels in Epirus and South Albania before World War II,” Anc.World 8, 1-2 (1983): 36,44.
• Ieşan, Isidor. Secta patarenă în Balcani şi în Dacia Traiană (Bucureşti Institutul de arte grafice C. Sfetea, 1912), 699.
• Ieşan, Isidor. Secta patarenă în Balcani şi în Dacia Traiană (Bucureşti, Institutul de arte grafice C. Sfetea, 1912), 682.
• Ieșan, Isidor. Secta patarenă în Balcani şi în Dacia Traiană (Bucureşti, Institutul de arte grafice C. Sfetea, 1912), 690.
• Ieşan, Isidor. Secta paterenă în Balcani şi în Dacia-traiană (Institutul de arte grafice C. Sfetea, Bucureşti, 1912), 679.
• Kahl, Tede. ”The islamisation of the Meglen Vlachs,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 34, No. 1, (2006), 74.
• Karadzic, Vuk. Srpski rjecnik (Bec, 1852), 68.
• Kaser, Karl. Hirten Kämpfer Stammeshelden (Böhlau Verlag, Wien-Köln-Weimar, 1992), 153.
• Kuripešić, Benedikt. Putopis kroz Bosnu, Srbiju, Bugarsku i Rumeliju 1530, trans. by Đorđe Pejanović (Čigoja štampa, Beograd, 2001), 26-27.
• Kurtovic, Esad.”Vlah Drobnjak Žur Stipanović (1429-1459)”, University of Sarajevo, Godišnjak (2013): 373-383.
• Loos, Milan. Dualist Heresy in the Middle Ages (Springer Science & Business Media, 1974), 299.
• Lovrich, Giovanni. Osservazioni di Giovanni Lovrich sopra diversi pezze del Viaggio in Dalmazia del signor abate Alberto Fortis (Francesco Sansoni, 1786), 69.
• Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia: A Short History (New York University Press, 1994), 79.
• Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia: A Short History (New York University Press, 1994), 72.
• Mihajlovski, Robert. ”Bogomils on Via Egnatia and in the Valley of Pelagonia: the Geography of a Dualist Belief,” Byzantinoslavica: revue internationale des etudes byzantines. 72, (2014), 152-170. Milošević, Ante. ”Stečci i Vlasi. Stečci i vlaške migraciije 14. i 15. stoljeća u Dalmaciji i jugozapadnoj Bosni.”Regionalni zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Split (1991): 8.
• Mirdita, Zef. ”Vlasi, polinomičan narod”, Povijesni priloz. Historical Contributions, 33 (2007): 260.
• Mlovic-Dukic, Milica.”Prilog istoriji Drobniaka u srednjem veku”, Glasnik Zavicajnog muzeja (1999): 153-154.
• Moacanin, Nenad. ”Croatia and Bosnia an eternal movement from integration to dissolution”, in: Zone Di Frattura in Epoca Moderna: Il Baltico, i Balcani e L'Italia Settentrionale. ed. Almut Bues (Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), 101.
• Moacanin, Nenad. ”Croatia and Bosnia: an eternal movement from integration to dissolution”, in Zone Di Frattura in Epoca Moderna: Il Baltico, i Balcani E L'Italia. eds. Almut Bues (Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), 102.
• Mužić, Ivan. "Vlasi i starobalkanska pretkršćanska simbolika jelena na stećcima. Starohrvatska prosvjeta.” Split: Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments III. 36 (2009): 323.
• Mužić, Ivan."Vlasi i starobalkanska pretkršćanska simbolika jelena na stećcima", in Vlasi u starijoj hrvatskoj historiografiji, eds. Ivan Mužić (Split: Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika, 2010), 129.
• Oreskovich, John R. The History of Lika, Croatia: Land of War and Warriors (Lulu.com, 19 sept. 2019), 25.
• Oreskovich, John R. The History of Lika, Croatia: Land of War and Warriors (Lulu.com, 2019), 24.
• Oţa, I.S. ”Morminte bogomile din sudul Banatului (secolele XII-XIII),” Arheologia medievală, II, (1998): 113-118.
• Panova, Maja Angelovska. ”Punishment of heretics: comparisons and contrasts between Western and Eastern Christianity in the Middle ages”, Journal of History, XLVII, No.1 (2012): 153.
• Pavlov, P., Grudkov, V. Zhitia na sv. Patriarch Joakim i Tarnovski, sv. Isai Serski i sv. Patriach Efrem Pechki (Veliko Tarnovo, 1999), 77-78.
• Petropoulos, Elias. ”Les Tombes bogomiles en Greece?” Le Fou, vol. 21/22, (1982), 53-54.
• Poghirc, Cicerone. ”Romanizarea lingvistică şi culturală în Balcani,” in Aromânii, istorie, limbă, destin, ed. Neagu Giuvara, 17. Bucureşti: Editura Humanitas, 2012.
• Potthast, August. Regesta pontificium Romanorum inde ab a. 1198 ad a. 1304 (I Berlin, 1874), 83.
• Roach, Andrew P. "The Competition for Souls: Sava of Serbia and Consumer Choice in Religion in the Thirteenth Century Balkans", Гласник на ИНИ, 50, 1 (2006): 152.
• Runciman, Steven. The Medieval Manichee (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 80.
• Runciman, Steven. The Medieval Manichee: a Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy (Cambridge, 1960), 49-50.
• Runciman, Steven. The Medieval Manichee. A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 81.
• Sandler, Stanley. Ground warfare. An International Encyclopedia (ABC Clio, 2002), 109. Singleton, Fred. A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 1985), 20.
• Starețu, Ștefan. ”Medieval name and ethnicity: Serbs and Vlachs”, Balcanica Posnaniensia, XXII/1, Ius Valachicum I, Poznań – Bucharest (2015): 82.
• Tufescu, Victor. ”O măruntă populatie balcanică, ” Balcania, IV, (1941): 513.
• Wenzel, Marian. ”Bosnian and Herzegovinian Tombstones– Who Made Them and Why?”, Sudost-Forschungen. 21 (1962): 102-143.