Table Of ContentBetween Empire and Nation
Stanford Studies on Central and Eastern Europe
Edited by Norman Naimark and Larry Wolff
Between Empire and Nation
Muslim Reform in the Balkans
Milena B. Methodieva
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permis-
sion of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Methodieva, Milena B., author.
Title: Between empire and nation : Muslim reform in the Balkans / Milena B.
Methodieva.
Other titles: Stanford studies on Central and Eastern Europe.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2021. | Series:
Stanford studies on Central and Eastern Europe | Includes bibliographical
references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020021108 (print) | LCCN 2020021109 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781503613379 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503614130 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Muslims—Political activity—Bulgaria—History—
19th century. | Nationalism—Bulgaria—History—19th century. |
Group identity—Bulgaria—History—19th century. | Bulgaria—
Politics and government—1878-1944. | Turkey—History—
Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918.
Classification: LCC DR64.2.M8 M47 2021 (print) | LCC DR64.2.M8 (ebook) |
DDC 949.9/022—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021108
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021109
Cover photograph: The Banya Başı mosque in Sofia, 1917. NBKM – BIA, C II 1225.
Cover design: Jordan Wannemacher
Typeset by Kevin Barrett Kane in 11/13.5 Adobe Garamond Pro
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Dates, Place Names, Currencies, Translations ix
Map of Bulgaria in 1886 x
Introduction 1
1 The Ottoman Imperial Context 11
2 Untangling from Empire 33
3 Doing Away With Empire 72
4 A Quiet Upheaval 101
5 Negotiating Modernity 136
6 Navigating Politics 178
7 Homeland, Nation, and Community 211
Conclusion 234
Abbreviations 239
Notes 241
Bibliography 303
Index 321
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Acknowledgments
I would like to start by thanking my advisor at Princeton University Şükrü
Hanioğlu, as well as Stephen Kotkin, for their guidance, encouragement, and
feedback. I am also particularly grateful to Kate Fleet and the Skilliter Centre
for Ottoman Studies at Newnham College, the University of Cambridge, for
giving me the opportunity be part of a lively intellectual environment while I
was working on this book manuscript. My conversations with Ebru Boyar were
particularly stimulating.
Research was carried out in a number of institutions; I would like to thank
the following archives and libraries and their staff: the (then) Prime Ministry
Ottoman Archive in Istanbul; the Central State Archive and the National Library
SS. Cyril and Methodius, particularly the Manuscripts and Old Printed Books
Department, in Sofia; the State Archive in Vidin; the Ivan Vazov public library in
Plovdiv; the Hakkı Tarık Us library, the Beyazıd library, and Atatürk Kitaplığı in
Istanbul; the Firestone Library at Princeton University; and the Robarts Library
at the University of Toronto. I must also thank the owners of the private archive
of the Şefkat kıraathane for giving me access to the collection.
Along the way I have benefitted from the help and friendship of many men-
tors, colleagues, and friends. Rossitsa Gradeva has been a wonderful mentor
and supporter. Nikolay Antov, Grigor Boykov, Maria Kiprovska, and Orlin Sǔbev
were not only great friends but also helped me in various ways. Zorka Ivanova
brought out treasures of documents for me. Peter Holquist offered encourage-
ment and shared some ideas about his ongoing research on the Russian occupa-
tion of Bulgaria. I am grateful to several colleagues as the University of Toronto.
viii Acknowledgments
Victor Ostapchuk read parts of this manuscript and offered feedback; he has also
been a very supportive colleague. Jens Hanssen provided help and invaluable
feedback on the general direction of this project. Jennifer L. Jenkins and Lynne
Viola helped me in various ways. I would also want to thank the two anonymous
manuscript reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.
Some material in chapter 5 originally appeared in my “Muslim Culture, Re-
form and Patriotism: Staging Namık Kemal in Post-Ottoman Bulgaria (1878–
1908),” in Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, Eds., Entertainment Among the Ottomans
(Leiden: Brill, 2019), 208–24. I thank Brill Publishers for allowing me to use it.
Figure 1 is reproduced with permission of the National Library SS. Cyril and
Methodius; figures 2, 4, and 5 are courtesy of the Hakkı Tarık Us library.
It has been a pleasure to work with Stanford University Press. I would like to
thank Margo Irvin for her interest and guidance, as well as the entire production
team of the press. I am honored that this project was appreciated by the series
editors Norman Naimark and Larry Wolff.
My biggest debt is of a personal nature. My husband, Spyros, and daughter,
Elena, offered endless love and support, particularly through some testing times,
and put up with my long hours of work. My in-laws, Eleni and Aris, were always
there for me. The greatest debt I owe to my mother, Tatiana, who, unfortunately,
did not live to know about the completion of this book, and to my grandmother,
Radka. Without their love and support I would have not even embarked upon
this road. This book is dedicated to them.
Dates, Place Names, Currencies, Translations
At the time the Ottoman bureaucracy used the lunar Hicri and the Rumi cal-
endars; so did Bulgaria’s Muslims in the sources they produced. Bulgaria used
the Julian calendar. For simplicity, all dates in this book have been converted to
the Gregorian calendar.
For places located in Bulgaria, this book uses the Bulgarian version of names
common at the time: for example, Kurtbunar instead of Tervel. For places in the
Ottoman Empire, it uses the Ottoman names: for example, Edirne rather than
Adrianople or Odrin.
The national currency of Bulgaria—lev (sg.), leva (pl.)—was roughly equal to
the French frank during the period under consideration. Contemporary sources
occasionally used the two currencies interchangeably.
All translations are the author’s unless otherwise specified.
