Dobrujan Arabs

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Dobrujan Arabs
عرب دبروجة
‘Arab Dubrūja
Dobrujan Tatars, other Arabs, especially Syrian Arabs and Afro-Arabs
Arabic is probably not well-known due to assimilation. The number of people is unknown.
Balkan ethnic groups from 1861, Arabs (Syrians
) are seen in the map

Dobrujan Arabs (

Arab people who assimilated into the Tatar-Turkish population in Dobruja.[1] They were brought from Syria
to Dobruja in the 19th century.

History

Fragment of the ethnic map of the Balkan Peninsula drawn up in 1861 by G. Lejean. The area inhabited by the Dobrogean Arabs is marked by a white space with black dots. (See caption)
The Romanian-Bulgarian border from 1878 with the representation of the Dokuz Ağaç locality

There were Arabs brought from Syria to Dobruja by the Ottomans in the 19th century. At first the Ottomans brought them to Istanbul, where they worked in carpet factories. When the factories closed, they were jobless, and due to Ottoman policy (according to the law, it was not possible to stay in Istanbul without working) they were brought to Dobruja by the Ottomans in 1843.[2] The population was 255 people.[3] In Dobruja they worked as farmers. According to Ottoman sources, these people were housed in some towns in Dobruja, with generous state support.[4]

The Arabs were highly valued for their skill in practicing agriculture in drought conditions.

Balkan Peninsula in 1854, one of these settlements, Arap-Köy, was already abandoned, while the rest of the settlements enjoyed some prosperity. In 1878, Dobrogea was divided between Romania and Bulgaria, and the new border crossed the area inhabited by Arabs. After this date, the Arab settlements began to decline, and part of the population emigrated to the Ottoman Empire.[7]

A few decades later, in 1913, the Swiss

African slave trade practiced there in the past and their assimilation by the majority Arab population. Pittard concludes that it is very possible that some of the Dobrujan Arabs have ancestors originating from this area.[8]

In World War I, during planning of an attack on the Suez Canal, Ottoman military records noted that "there were two other volunteer groups made up of Turks, Syrian Arabs, Albanians and others from Romania".[9]

List of villages

Ottoman Turkish name[10] Current name Arab families in 1843[10]
İlbey Bulgaria Pchelarovo 27
Musa Bey Bulgaria Izvorovo 34
Kara İlyas Bulgaria Tsarevets 2
Dokuz Ağaç Romania Măgura, Cerchezu 31
Poyraz Bulgaria deserted, northwest of Ograzhden 39
Aydın Bey Bulgaria Svetlik, merged with Kapinovo 14
Oğuzlar Bulgaria Uzovo 19
Çalmarça Romania Căciulați, merged with Olteni, Independența 39
Bayram Dede Romania Independența 50

Citations

  1. ^ Grigore 1999.
  2. ^ Mohammed Binzouba 2024, pp. 235–238.
  3. ^ Mohammed Binzouba 2024, pp. 239.
  4. ^ Mohammed Binzouba 2024, pp. 249–254.
  5. ^ M. D. Ionescu, Dobrogea in pragul veacului al XX-lea, Bucharest, 1904
  6. ^ Dobruja, 1856
  7. ^ Lejean 1861.
  8. ^ Pittard 1913.
  9. ^ Mohammed Binzouba 2024, pp. 234.
  10. ^ a b Mohammed Binzouba 2024, p. 242.

Sources

  • Mohammed Binzouba, Majed (2024). "19. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Coğrafyasında Bir İskân Örneği: Dobruca'da Arap Köyleri". Osmanlı Araştırmaları/ The Journal of Ottoman Studies (in Turkish and English).
  • Grigore, George (1999). "George Grigore. "Muslims in Romania", ISIM Newsletter (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World) no. 3, Leiden. 1999: 34".
  • Lejean, Guillaume (1861). Ethnographie de la Turquie d'Europe. Petermanns Geographischen Mitteilungen.
  • Pittard, Eugène (1913). Contribuition à l'étude anthropologique des arabes. Le Globe.
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