Gajal

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The Gajal or Gadzhal (

Soon their theory became very popular and was accepted by a number of historians, such as Gavril Zanetov, one of the supporters of the Turkic theory of the origin of the Bulgarians. Zanetov perceived both the Gajals and the Gagauz as descendants of non-Slavic Bulgars. His source was also the Shkorpil brothers - but with one difference - he added that the Alevi population of Balbunar, Silistra and Varna were also Bulgarians who have converted to Islam, because "they give sacrifice for St. Elijah (actually Ali, local Christians believed that Ali was related to the Christian Elijah, which is not true), drink and don't hide their faces". Lyubomir Miletich was another historian who also supported the Škorpil brothers' theory in his book "The Old Bulgarian Population in Northeastern Bulgaria" published in 1902. Miletich, who had visited the Ludogorie region wrote in his book that: "they (Turks of Deliorman) are old inhabitants, they did not come from Asia Minor, as the Turks from Tuzluk (region covering most of Targovishte) did, and that from time immemorial their ancestors knew each other as locals." His other claims were that the Deliorman Turks have a different language and dialect.

In 1906 Stefan Bobchev visited the region to collect information about the Deliorman Turks and about Bulgars' origin. He was accompanied by Matei Stoyanov, Tsonyu Boyadzhiev and Mehmed Sülüş during his trip. He was in these Turkish villages, all in the Ludogorie region: Duştubak (Yasenovets), Abdal Yunus (Yonkovo), Duraç(?), Mumcular (Sveshtari), Köse Abdi (Raynino), Eniceköy(?), Caferler (Sevar), Şeremetköy (Veselets) and Ahmetler(?). Contrary to the claims of the Shkorpil brothers, Miletich and Zenetov, Bobchev did not find people who called themselves Gajal in Deliorman. According to him, the term is clear only to educated Bulgarians who have learned this word from books, but even they do not claim that the local Turks call themselves "Gajal". However, through conversations with the Turkish population of Ludogorie, he learned that this term was used

Valentin Moshkov, on the other hand, claims that the Deliorman Turks - he admits that Turks of Deliorman call themselves "Turk" and not Gajal because they don't know this word - are descendants of Pechenegs. Zehra Kaderli, a Turkish woman from Ludogorie also says that although she worked in Ludogorie and collected ethnographic material from local Turks, she never came across Turks who call themselves Gajal. She herself is from the Ludogorie and says that the term is unknown to her family. She is an associate professor at Hacettepe University and has many research on Deliorman Turkish culture.[4]

See also

• Ludogorie

Notes and references

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