Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Turkish Yoke
After 1362 Ottoman Turks swarmed into the northern Balkans; within 30 years, they pos-
sessed Bulgaria, holding it for five centuries.
Despite rosy modern revisionism depicting
life under the Turks as actually quite a lot of
fun, they regarded non-Muslims as second-
class citizens, enjoying few rights and suffer-
ing harsh punishments for the most insignific-
ant offences. Like most of the Balkans, Bul-
garia was isolated from Christian Western
Europe, and missed out on its cultural and intellectual advances. In all, up to half of Bul-
garia's population was either killed or enslaved (young boys were kidnapped and conver-
ted into the sultan's Janissary guard, while the girls were taken into Turkish harems).
Churches and monasteries were destroyed, closed, or turned into mosques. Sporadic upris-
ings were quashed ferociously, and many Bulgarians fled.
Ottoman aristocrats inhabited the cities, consigning Bulgarians to the mountains and
villages.
Haidouks
(armed rebels) fought the occupiers from the hills. As elsewhere in Ot-
toman lands, the Turks courted mountain -dwelling populations in strategic regions like
the Rodopi Mountains - here, Bulgarian converts to Islam (today's Pomaks) won exemp-
tion from taxes and enjoyed legal rights denied to their Christian neighbours.
Bulgaria's national, cultural and Christian identity survived largely because of monks in
monasteries (like Rila) that the Turks tolerated or couldn't control. They carefully pre-
served rituals, traditions and important manuscripts, keeping Bulgarian culture alive until
it could re-emerge safely.
The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer
(Paul Steph-
enson) offers a scholarly reinterpretation of the il-
lustrious Byzantine emperor and his campaigns in
Bulgaria.
LADISLAS' CRUSADE & THE BATTLE OF VARNA
By the early 15th century, the Ottomans possessed Bulgaria, Serbia and Transylvania, with Hungary in their sights
and Constantinople under siege.
Trying to save Europe, Pope Eugenius IV ordered a crusade. In 1443, King Ladislas of Hungary and Poland
transported his 25,000-man army via Venetian ships. Victories in Serbia, and Sofia's capture forced Ottoman
Sultan Murad II to concede Serbia and agree to a 10-year truce in 1444.
However, the Pope and other crusade sponsors wanted all Europe liberated, forcing Ladislas to break his agree-
ment. With a smaller force, he marched to Varna; while the promised reinforcement fleet never arrived, one furi-
