Ada Kaleh
Ada Kaleh (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈada kaˈle]; from Turkish: Adakale, meaning "Island Fortress"; Hungarian: Újorsova or Ada Kaleh; Serbian and Bulgarian: Адакале, romanised: Adakale) was a small island on the Danube, located in Romania, that was submerged during the construction of the Iron Gates hydroelectric plant in 1970. The island was about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) downstream from Orșova and was less than two kilometers long and approximately half a kilometer wide (1.75 x 0.4–0.5 km). Ada Kaleh was inhabited by Turkish Muslims from all parts of the Ottoman Empire,[1] and there were also family ties to the Turkish Muslim populations of Vidin and Ruse, Bulgaria due to exogamic marriages.[2]
The isle of Ada Kaleh is probably the most evocative victim of the
Turkish population
History
Adakale Turks (Turkish: Adakale Türkleri). The settlement of Turks began in 1699 when the Ottoman Empire took the island.[3][4][5] In an Ottoman archive document, a brief history of the island and its inhabitants is described as follows: “After the 1770s, no boats crossed the Danube, presumably, and the Sipahi officers, who were under the command of an Ottoman pasha in Adakale, brought their families to Adakale. The people here are all descendants of these military families… This is why the native language of the people is Turkish.”
In 1830, when the Serbian Principality was established in the territory of the Sanjak of Smederevo of the Ottoman Empire, the crowded Turks in Serbia community living in the Principality of Serbia was settled in 6 settlements that would be considered Ottoman lands. Adakale became one of these six Turkish quarters, each of which was considered a township.
The islanders had family ties to the
During the Second Balkan War in 1913, the island was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Army, and after World War I in 1919 it was occupied by the Kingdom of Romania. Some Turkish families left the island and went to Istanbul as Muhacir.[9] These occupations were not accepted by the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Trianon.
After the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the island officially became a part of the Kingdom of Romania. From 1923 to 1938, due to Anti-Turkish sentiment, a lot of Turkish Families from Ada Kaleh and Dobruja went to Turkey.[10] In 1945, some Turks from Ada Kaleh went to Turkey, because they didn't want to live in Socialist Republic of Romania. In 1951, some Turkish Families from Ada Kaleh were forced to settle in the Bărăgan Plain. In 1967, the entire remaining Turkish island population emigrated before the island was flooded. The majority went to Turkey, others settled in Dobruja in Romania.[11] In the period of communism in the 1950s and 1960s, some Romanian, German, and Hungarian women from Orșova married Turkish men from Ada Kaleh.[12]
Folk music
Alscher who was in the island in the early 1900 gave information about the folk songs of islanders:
Girls sing folk songs. They are trying to sing in higher tones by vibrating their crystallized voices […]. The fishermen are singing recitative tunes and finishing them with a sharp ending […]. Afterwards, evening comes and Adakale rises through the phosphorescence of the water
Turkish folk songs, fairy tales, and lullabies from Adakale were recorded by the Hungarian Turkologist Ignac Kunos; the island was his first stop for his research. He compiled a hundred and fifty Adakale folk songs, including Ötme bülbül ötme yaz bahar oldu (Don't sing nightingale, summer has turned into spring), a Turkish folk song from Budin, but he did not record their melodies.[13] For this reason, attempts are being made nowadays to recreate Adakale folk songs musically.[14] Def, darbuka, and tanbur were used and songs were sang either by a group or individualy. According to Eugenia Popescu-Judetz traditional Bektashi music was also popular in Adakale. Kemal Altınkaya, who was deeply interested in Balkan Turkish music also collected 600 folk songs and dance tunes, including from the island. Romanian Ioan R. Nicola and his team were also interested in Adakale's folklore and published the research Folclorul Turc Din Insula Ada-Kaleh in 1971, where they gave melodies of epic songs, war songs, love songs, wedding songs etc.[14]
Dialect
Adakale Turksh belongs to the Rumelian subgroup (also known as Balkan subgroup) of the Turkish language.[15] Before 1970, Adakale used to be the northernmost part where Western Rumelian was spoken. Just like other Western Rumelian dialects spoken in North, o and u were used instead of ö and ü.[16]
Adakale Turkish | Istanbul Turkish (official) | English |
---|---|---|
boyle | böyle | like this, such as |
araysın | arıyorsun | you are looking for |
dort | dört | four |
yuru | yürü | go[16] |
History
The
In 1804, during the First Serbian Uprising, Serbian rebels, led by Milenko Stojković, caught and executed the Dahije (renegade Janissary junta in the Sanjak of Smederevo) that had fled Belgrade and taken refuge on the island, thereby ending Dahije tyranny.
Even though the Ottomans lost the areas surrounding the island after the
Between 1878 and 1918, the areas surrounding the island were controlled by
On May 12, 1913, taking advantage of the
Following the end of
We, who had lost half of the past geography, felt a much deeper melancholy for the loss of this small island, much stronger than the loss of the Arabic Lands. The Danube, which could not be kept by the Turks, was still connected to us with this small island. We feel the pain of an injured vessel in our grief.[13]
From 1923 - 1938, Turkish Families from Ada Kaleh and Dobruja went to Turkey, and settled mostly in East Thrace.[23]
The population lived primarily on the cultivation of tobacco and fishery, and later on tourism. In its last years of existence, the island's population ranged between 600 and 1,000 inhabitants. Before the island was covered by the waters of the Iron Gates Dam, part of the population moved in 1967 to Constanța in Romania and the rest to Turkey, invited by Prime Minister Demirel during his visit to the island.[19]
The Ada Kaleh
The island was visited by King Carol II of Romania in 1931, and by Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel of Turkey on September 13, 1967.
The Muslim Turkish inhabitants of the island were described by visitors as kindly, friendly, openhearted, with an exotic behaviour, the men were handsome and the women beautiful, they lived peacefully with their Christian neighbors from Orșova.[24]
Aftermath
During the construction of the dam, some of the structures that were built on the island were relocated to the nearby
In literature
Ada Kaleh plays an important part in the novel of one of the most famous Hungarian authors, Mór Jókai. In the novel The Golden Man (Az Arany Ember), published in 1872, Ada Kaleh is called "No One's Isle" and it becomes an almost mythical symbol of peace, seclusion, and beauty, juxtaposed with the material outside world.
In Between the Woods and the Water, the second volume of Patrick Leigh Fermor's narrative of his journey across Europe, the author describes a delightful visit in 1934 with a group of elderly inhabitants and discusses the history of the island.
Notable people
- Miskin Baba, was considered the patron
- Receb Ağa, the Island was ruled by him and his Family from 1788 - 1816
- Around 1860 the German Carl Heinrich Edmund von Berg visit Ada Kaleh and the House of Mahmut Pasha[6]
- Bego Mustafa, former Corporal from Military of the Ottoman Empire, was a Turk who helped the Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth escape to Vidin at Ottoman Bulgaria in 1849, across the Danube river on a boat. Bego Mustafa's picture was often used for postcards from Ada Kaleh. He was the last Turkish Feudal Lord of Ada Kaleh[6]
- Ali Kadri was the richest Turk on Ada Kaleh, he was an orphan and a former fisherman, later through his cigarette production he became very rich. He was a colorful personality, and was called Sultan of Ada Kaleh. He built a 24-room mansion with a Harem for his four wives, next the Mosque. Around 1945 he fled to Turkey together with his Family, to escape the communist regime in Romania, but his property was confiscated[27][28]
Notes
- ^ Vainovski-Mihai, Irina and Grigore, George (January 2019). "From Dobrudja to Ada-Kaleh: A Bridge between Empires". Romano-Arabica.
- ^ "Ada Kaleh, an Ottoman Atlantis on the Danube". 25 February 2015.
- ^ "Ada Kaleh". The White Review.
- ^ "Ada Kaleh: A Turkish island in the Danube River". Daily Sabah. 22 January 2016.
- ^ Grigore, George (January 2019). "(PDF) From Dobrudja to Ada-Kaleh: A Bridge between Empires | George Grigore". Romano-Arabica. Retrieved 2022-03-21.
- ^ a b c Blasen, Philippe Henri (January 2014). "Mustafa Bego, türkischer Nargileh-Raucher und ungarischer Nationalheld. Nationale Aneignung und internationale Vermarktung der Insel Ada-Kaleh". Spiegelungen.
- ^ Ağanoğlu, H. Yıldırım (January 2008). "Adakale'ni̇n Nüfusu, Demografi̇k Özelli̇kleri̇ Ve Göçler (1878-1913". Köprüler Kurduk Balkanlara Sempozyumu.
- ^ Grigore, George. "George Grigore. "Muslims in Romania", ISIM Newsletter (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World) no. 3, Leiden. 1999: 34".
- ^ "Expulsion and Emigration of the Muslims from the Balkans — EGO". ieg-ego.eu. Retrieved 2022-03-21.
- ^ Dr. Önder Duman (2008-04-10). "Atatürk Döneminde Romanya'dan Türk Göçleri (1923–1938)" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-03-21.
- ^ Ellensohn, Christian (December 2014). "Die Erfahrung des Orients : Tourismus auf der gefluteten Donauinsel "Ada-Kaleh" (1919-1968, Teil II)". Regard Sur l'Est.
- ^ "Ada Kaleh".
- ^ a b Güray, Cenk; Güvener, Duygu. "The songs of the lost land: Re-envisioning the Turkish folk songs from Adakale through previous compilations and research studies". The Balkans - Language, History, Culture. 8 (1).
- ^ a b Güray, Cenk; Güvener, Duygu; Yıldız, Şule. "Adakale'nin Saklı Türkülerinin Markov Zinciri Tabanlı Stokastik Yöntem ile Yeniden Yapılandırılması" [Reconstruction of Adakale's Hidden Folk Songs with Markov Chain Based Stochastic Method]. Etnomüzikoloji Dergisi.
- ^ Çinko, Kemal. "ÜREM BEY İLE BİR PADİŞAH KIZI MASALININ MAX LUTHI'NİN EVRENSEL MASAL İLKELERİNE GÖRE ÇÖZÜMLENMESİ". Folklor Akademi.
- ^ a b İğci, Alpay (2018). "Batı Rumeli Ağızlarının Sınıflandırılması İçin Görüşler" [Opinions for the Classification of Western Rumelian Dialects]. Journal of Turkish World Studies (in Turkish).
- ^ "Balkan Türkleri - trakyanet".
- ^ "Adakale Island in River Danube". Archived from the original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
- ^ a b Hürriyet Avrupa (European version of Hürriyet newspaper), 19–20 January 2013, p. 12
- ^ Jungmayer, Mihály: Ada-Kaleh. in: Zsebatlasz naptárral és statisztikai adatokkal. Szerk.: Kogutowitz, Károly Dr. és Hermann, Győző Dr. Magyar Földrajzi Intézet, Budapest, 1913.
- ^ a b "Expulsion and Emigration of the Muslims from the Balkans".
- ^ "Treaty of Lausanne - World War I Document Archive". wwi.lib.byu.edu.
- ^ Duman, Önder (2008). "Atatürk Döneminde Romanya'dan Türk Göçleri (1923-1938)" [Turkish Migration from Romania in the Atatürk Era (1923-1938)] (PDF). Bilig (in Turkish). 45: 23–44.
- ^ "Ada-Kaleh: the Balkan Island Where People Once Lived with no State or Masters | libcom.org". libcom.org.
- ^ Mateescu, Mirela Sorina. "Ada Kaleh, istoria unui paradis îngropat de ape și de vremuri" [Ada Kaleh: The History of a Paradise Submerged by Water and the Flow of Time]. www.historia.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 12 September 2021.
- ^ "Povestea prințului samanaid Mișkin Baba, mort pe Ada Kaleh". 23 May 2015.
- ^ "Ali Kadri "Sultanul" din Ada Kaleh". 2 September 2014.
- ^ Ellensohn, Christian (December 2014). "Die Erfahrung des Orients: Tourismus auf der gefluteten Donauinsel "Ada-Kaleh" (1878-1918, Teil I)". Regard Sur l'Est.
References
- (in German) Philippe Henri Blasen: Mustafa Bego, türkischer Nargileh-Raucher und ungarischer Nationalheld. Nationale Aneignung und internationale Vermarktung der Insel Ada-Kaleh. In: Spiegelungen, 2/2014
- Ранко Јаковљевић. "Ada Kale" (in Serbian). Rastko.
- (in Romanian) Așa a fost pe Ada Kaleh (This is how it was on Ada Kaleh), Jurnalul Național, 7 November 2005
- (in Romanian) Supraviețuitorii de pe insula scufundată de Ceaușescu (Survivors of the Island Submerged by Ceaușescu), Evenimentul Zilei 21 October 2006
- (in Romanian) Ada Kaleh
- The Old Island of Ada Kaleh Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
- The Rebuilding of Ada Kaleh on Șimian Island Archived 2007-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Ada Kaleh, an Ottoman Atlantis on the Danube
- Ada-Kaleh: the Balkan Island Where People Once Lived with no State or Masters, Petar Georgiev Mandzhukov's memoir Harbingers of Storm (Sofia: FAB, 2013)
- Ada Kaleh: the lost island of the Danube - photogallery