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Grigor Boykov

University of Vienna, Institut für osteuropäische Geschichte, Faculty Member

Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", CRSA - Center for Regional Studies and Analyses, Research Fellow (R2)

Koç University, History, Post-Doc

Austrian Academy of Sciences, INZ – Instiut für Neuzeit und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Faculty Member

Austrian Academy of Sciences, IHB - Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Faculty Member

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Grigor Boykov, Ph.D. in Ottoman history (2013, Bilkent University), is an assistant professor at the University of Vienna (Institute for East European History). Previously he taught at the University of Sofia, Central European University, and was a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His research attempts to merge well-established approaches in history writing with the constantly evolving tools and methods in Digital Humanities, such as spatial and network analysis.
Supervisors: Halil İnalcık

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Books by Grigor Boykov

Ottoman Plovdiv: Space, Architecture and Population (14th-17th Centuries)

Social Networking in South-Eastern Europe 15th–19th Century, ed. by Maria Baramova, Grigor Boykov, Ivan Parvev (Zürich: LIT, 2021)

https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-90866-7

Вакъфите в България (Waqfs in Bulgaria, ed. by G. Boykov, M. Kiprovska, V. Yanchev, Sofia: 2020)

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

София: Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 2020

https://unipress.bg/vakafite-v-balgariya

Махиел Кийл. България под османска власт. Събрани съчинения. Съст. и науч. редакция Мария Баръмова, Григор Бойков, Мария Кипровска (2017)

by Grigor Boykov, Mariya Kiprovska, and Maria Baramova

https://www.tendrilbooks.com/bg/store/bulgaria-pod-osmanska-vlast.html

Cities in Southeastern Thrace: Continuity and Transformation (Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2017)

by Grigor Boykov and Ivaylo Lozanov

Bordering Early Modern Europe (Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015)

by Grigor Boykov and Maria Baramova

https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_945.ahtml

Бойков, Гр. и Д. Борисов (съст.) Стенимахос– Станимака–Асеновград: Принос към изучаването на приемствеността и развитието на социално-икономическата и духовна история на града и региона (Асеновград: Диков, 2014)

by Grigor Boykov and Damyan Borisov

Съдържание Камен Станев, Бележки за поселищната система между северната периферия на Родопите и ... more Съдържание
Камен Станев, Бележки за поселищната система между северната периферия на Родопите и р. Марица в края на XII – XIV в. .....7
Димо Чешмеджиев, Гробът на патриарх Евтимий в Бачковския манастир ......42
Иван Дуков, Няколко специфични погребални практики от средновековната епоха в Асеновград и региона в светлината на теренни археологически проучвания 2005 – 2013 г. ......62
Григор Бойков, Неосъществените градове в района на Асеновград през османския период: Поповица/Ислямлъ и Конуш Хисаръ .......75
Христо Христозов, Демографско и урбанистично развитие на Асеновград през XV – XVII в. (Истанимака, Анбелианош и Бей кьой) ......105
Дамян Борисов, Войнуците в Истанимака (Асеновград) през XVI в. .....157
Видин Сукарев, Османски документи от фондовете на Регионален исторически музей – Пловдив за Станимака и региона ......195
Мина Христемова, Две лица на властта в Асеновград през XIX в. – местно самоуправление и Михалаки Гюмюшгердан ......206
Никола Филипов, Конвенцията за размяна на малцинствата и отражението ѝ в Станимака ......221
Владимир Балчев, Асеновградският край в старите географски карти от 1450 г. до края на XIX в. .......235
Росен Малчев, Историко-географската област Източен Рупчос в контекста на културното пространство на Бачковския манастир ......249
Константин Рангочев, Сакралната топонимия в Източен Рупчос I .....267
Светла Москова, Малки открития за късното средновековно изкуство в Асеновград .....279

Документално приложение
Документ № 1. Откъс от типика на Бачковския манастир ....300
Документ № 2. Фрагмент от т. нар. „История на кръстоносците” ......300
Документ № 3. Фрагмент от „История на похода на император Фридрих І”.....301
Документ № 4. Откъси от „Превземането на Константинопол” .....301
Документ № 5. Откъс от „Житие на Стефан Лазаревич”.......302
Документ № 6. Фрагмент от проверовъчен (йоклама) регистър ......304
Документ № 7. Фрагмент от подробен (муфассал) регистър ......306
Документ № 8. Фрагмент от съкратен (иджмал) регистър .......310
Документ № 9. Фрагмент от подробен (муфассал) регистър .......312
Документ № 10. Фрагмент от войнушки регистър .....318
Документ № 11. Фрагмент от подробен регистър на джелепкешани .....320
Документ № 12. Фрагмент от подробен (муфассал) регистър .....322
Документ № 13. Откъс от пътеписа на Евлия Челеби ......328
Документ № 14. Заповед за строеж на църква в Станимака .......329
Документ № 15. Заповед за построения мост в Станимака .....330
Документ № 16. Заповед за поправка на църква в Станимака ....330
Документ № 17. Откъс от дневника на Пол Люка .....331
Документ № 18. Фрагмент от т. нар. Хилендарска кондика ......332
Използвани съкращения .......333

Tatar Pazardzik, ot osnovavaneto na grada do kraja na XVII vek (Tatar Pazardjik, from the foundation of the town until the end of the 17th century), Sofia: Amicitia, 2008, 354 pp.

Papers by Grigor Boykov

Making of a mid-nineteenth century Ottoman gazetteer and mapping and examining late Ottoman population geography

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, 2022

This article highlights the absence of historical gazetteers for territories once part of the Ott... more This article highlights the absence of historical gazetteers for territories once part of the Ottoman Empire, which hinders modern scholarship. The mid-nineteenth-century population registers (nüfus defterleri) offer a useful foundation for developing a gazetteer of the entire Ottoman Empire, but their use is limited due to the challenging task of geolocating the included populated places. To overcome this issue, two research projects collaborated to map mid-nineteenth-century population data using around 850 Ottoman population registers from the 1840s. The authors utilized historical maps and population registers to geolocate 16,782 populated places, creating the first version of their regional mid-nineteenth-century gazetteer. The article outlines the team's methodology used to build the gazetteer and addresses the notable limitations of the sources. Moreover, it contributes to the study of Ottoman population geography by demonstrating the extensive possibilities of historical GIS methodologies in enriching population density maps by considering environmental variables in the analysis.

Geospatial mapping of a 16th century transport corridor for Southeast Europe

by Grigor Boykov and PJ Gerrits

Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2022

We need maximum slope values for carts and pack animals to model the historical traffic of people... more We need maximum slope values for carts and pack animals to model the historical traffic of people and goods before the advent of steam and internal combustion engines. With this article, we first calculate maximum slope averages for carts and pack animals by using an extensive geo-referenced and vectorized historical transport network for late 19th-century Southeast Europe. Then by utilizing these slopes and making joint use of the least-cost path, accumulated cost surfaces, and network analyses, we model the movement of carts and pack animals for a large segment of an Ottoman military campaign in 1532, which followed the Via Militaris, between Istanbul and Sofia. Lastly, we compare our modelled routes for carts and pack animals for the 16th century with the existing road infrastructure of the late 19th century.

Conquered by Sword, Subdued by Charity? Geospatial and Quantitative Analysis of Land Waqfs in Ottoman Bulgaria

RESEE 59, 2021

The article focuses on the study of the landed estates of the Islamic pious endowments (waqfs) in... more The article focuses on the study of the landed estates of the Islamic pious endowments (waqfs) in Bulgaria by, on the one hand, building a complete database of the settlements under the control of the waqfs, and on the other by attributing a spatial reference to those villages whose precise locations were identified. Taking non-aggregated microdata from the Ottoman tax registers as a point of departure, the study aims at demonstrating a novelty approach towards the spatial analysis of data extracted from the Ottoman primary sources and at proposing a methodology that can be used in other parts of the Balkans. Focusing on a territory, which roughly constitutes 1/5 of the Balkan peninsula, the study regards Bulgaria as a sample that has the potential to shed light on the significance of the waqf institution in administering, revitalizing, repopulating, and maintaining the social order in the Ottoman Balkans. General conclusions about the spatial distributions of the landed possessions, the social stratification of the endowers, and quantitative analysis of the revenues and population under the control of the waqfs, presented in the article signal the necessity for more studies that can widen the territorial perspective and demonstrate the pivotal role of the Islamic endowments in establishing firm control over the newly conquered territories in the Balkans.

O.J. Schmitt, ed., The Ottoman Conquest of the Balkans RESEE 59, 2021

by Oliver Schmitt, Emir O. Filipović, Aleksandar Krstić, Grigor Boykov, and Mariya Kiprovska

Revue des études sud-est européenes, 2021

The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans is one of the great upheavals in the history of Southeast Eur... more The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans is one of the great upheavals in the history of Southeast Europe. Amazingly, it is rarely seen in context. Research is accordingly fragmented. The Bucharest conference of the Association internationale d'études du Sud-Est européen provided the appropriate framework for bundling recent research on this topic. Colleagues from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania accepted the invitation. The contributors are grateful that the Revue des études sud-est européennes enables the publication of the most important contributions of this panel. The essays address several questions: 1) The question of space: how is the process of conquest to be placed in an European context? How did the Ottomans, as the new masters, structure the conquered space and what significance do Islamic religious foundations, which are the backbone of every Islamic dominated society, have? 2) What insight do actor-centered approaches offer? Structuralist research has long neglected agents and agencies. Now individuals reappear in research. In this vein, the regional nobility is examined, both the Muslim regional elites (uç beys) and the Christian (Orthodox and Catholic) nobility. It becomes clear how the conquest radically transformed an old world, but did not destroy all structures of the Balkan Christian societies: contacts existed across the conflict boundaries, even if these should not be confused with peaceful relationships. The conquest also triggered great waves of refugees and created a political diaspora in Catholic Europe. The role of Hungary has often been overlooked by research often focused on Italy and particularly Venice. Here it is analyzed in detail. 3) The final Ottoman conquest was usually preceded by decades of Ottoman raids. This turmoil affected large parts of the Balkans. The consequences of the deliberate destabilization of the Christian Balkan states on trade and the economy have rarely been examined. The analysis of the Balkan caravan trade reveals how much the Ottoman raids affected the hurted regions in their economic development. The wearing down of the regional population is one of the explanations for the ultimate success of the Ottoman conquest. Of course, these three approaches do not exhaust the wealth of questions on the topic. In their bundled form, however, they give the reader an impression of ongoing debates. Hopefully they will also give impetus to further research on an era that has profoundly transformed the Balkans.

Документални свидетелства за годината на раждане на Васил Левски (Documentary Evidence about the Year of Birth of Vasil Levski)

Istoriya-History, 2021

Българските историци не разполагат с документални свидетелства, доказващи по категоричен начин, ч... more Българските историци не разполагат с документални свидетелства, доказващи по категоричен начин, че Васил Левски е роден на 6 юли 1837 г. Затова през последните години гражданственост придобиха и други хипотези, отнасящи раждането на Левски към 1846 г. или към 1843 г. В настоящата статия е направен опит, на основата на наличен в Османския архив в Истанбул регистров материал за мъжкото население на Карлово, да се обоснове тезата, че Васил Левски най-вероятно е роден през 1840 г. Ключови думи: Васил Левски; Карлово; нюфус регистри; година на раждане

Вакъфските села и сгради в България през Османския период (Waqf Settlements and Buildings in Bulgaria during the Ottoman Period)

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

Вакъфите в България, ред. В. Янчев, М. Кипровска, Г. Бойков. София: Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 2020

П реди повече от седем десетилетия основоположникът на съвременната османска социално-икономическ... more П реди повече от седем десетилетия основоположникът на съвременната османска социално-икономическа история, турският историк Йомер Лютфи Баркан, обръща специално внимание на ролята на ислямските благотворителни учреждения (вакъфи) при колонизацията на мюсюлманско население, с цел оживяването и възстановяването на икономическия просперитет и администрирането на новозавладените от османците територии на Балканите 1 . Според виждането на Баркан, мнение, споделено и от други авторитетни историци, централната власт в османската държава насърчава създаването на вакъфи в заварената християнска среда на Балканите чрез целенасочено отдаване на земи в пълна собственост (мюлк) на отбрани лица, които впоследствие даряват поземлената си собственост на основани от тях вакъфи 2 . По този начин трайното присъствие на ислямски институции в преимуществено християнска среда е в значителна степен улеснено, а усилията са насочени главно към опустошени или слабонаселени райони, които са оживени благодарение на колонизацията на малоазийско турско население или принудителното заселване на роби и военнопленници от 1 Barkan, Ö. L. Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda bir İskân ve Kolonizasyon Metodu Olarak Vakıflar ve Temlikler. İstilâ Devirlerinin Kolonizatör Türk Dervişleri ve Zâviyeler. -Vakıflar Dergisi, 1942, 2, 279-386. 2 Gökbilgin, M. T. Les institutions sociales et culturelles de la colonisation et leur action spirtuelle dans la péninsule balkanique : les zaviyes (les couvents) et les muallimhane (les écoles primaires). -In: Communication du XV e Congrès international de sociologie, organisé à Istanbul (11-17 septembre 1952) au nom de l'Institut international de sociologie. Ed. H. Z. Ülken. Istanbul: Impr. des Facultés , 1952, 256-260. За процеса на трансформация на пълната поземлена собственост (мюлк) във вакъфска вж. статията на Дамян Борисов "Османският поземлен вакъф -същност и инструментализация" в този сборник и посочената там литература.

Abdal-affiliated Convents and "Sunnitizing" Halveti Dervishes in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Rumeli

Historicizing Sunni Islam in the Ottoman Empire, c. 1450-c. 1750, 2020

As recent research suggests, Ottoman "Sunnitization" entailed much more than a number of state-le... more As recent research suggests, Ottoman "Sunnitization" entailed much more than a number of state-led measures directed against the non-Sunni Muslim communities in the empire. It was an uneven, complex, and long-term process that was driven not solely by religiopolitical concerns centered on the rising Safavid threat during the late ninth/fifteenth and early tenth/sixteenth centuries, but by deeper social, political, cultural, and even regional dynamics both before and after this period. Moreover, recent scholarship has demonstrated that even in the tenth/sixteenth century, when the process of state-enforced Sunni orthodoxy intensified mainly due to the Shi'ite Safavid challenge, it was not only the Ottoman authorities but a mixture of multiple agents with their own religious and political agendas who played a crucial role in and shaped the process of Ottoman Sunnitization.1

Documentary Archaeology in the Study of T-shaped Zaviye/imarets. Reconstructing the imaret of Evrenosoğlu Ahmed Веу in Tatar Pazarcık

Sudost-Forschungen 79, 2020

Multifunctional T-shaped buildings, referred to as zaviye or imaret in contemporary Ottoman sourc... more Multifunctional T-shaped buildings, referred to as zaviye or imaret in contemporary Ottoman sources, played a key role in the Ottoman urbanism implemented in Anatolia and the Balkans during the formative and the early period of the empire’s existence. Historians have argued over the functions of the T-shaped zaviye /imarets and the important social services rendered by the architectural complexes built around them. From a functional viewpoint, the zaviye / imarets, whose floor plan recalls an inverted T, combined a ritual prayer space (that might have served as a dining room) and a dormitory used by distinguished guests and travellers in a single building. Scholars working on urban architectural topics have also often considered these buildings as part of a key mechanism that encouraged urban growth by colonising space. This article focuses on the ˙I maret of Evrenoso˘glu Ahmed Bey in Tatar Pazarcı k as a case study.

Bridging the Gap between Pre-census and Census-era Historical Data: Devising a Geo-sampling Model to Analyse Agricultural Production in the Long Run for Southeast Europe, 1840–1897

by PJ Gerrits and Grigor Boykov

International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 2020

This research introduces a novel geo-spatial sampling model to overcome a major difficulty in his... more This research introduces a novel geo-spatial sampling model to overcome a major difficulty in historical economic geography of Bulgarian lands during a crucial period: immediately before and after the de facto independence of the territory from the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century. At its core it seeks to investigate the research question how the Bulgarian independence affected agricultural production in two regions (centered around the cities of Plovdiv and Ruse) of today's Bulgaria, for which there are conflicting yet empirically unsubstantiated claims concerning the economic impact of the political independence. Using our be-spoke geo-sampling strategy we believe, we have sampled regionally representative commensurable agricultural data from the 1840s Ottoman archival documentation, in accord with agricultural censuses conducted by the nascent nation state of Bulgaria in the 1890s.

Колекцията от османски документи от архива на Зографския манастир (The Collection of Ottoman Documents in the Archive of the Monastery of Zograf)

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

Zografski Sabonik, 2019

Mount Athos was incorporated in the Ottoman domains since the early Ottoman conquests in the Balk... more Mount Athos was incorporated in the Ottoman domains since the early Ottoman conquests in the Balkans in 1383 and after a short reunification with the Byzantine territories (1403–1423) it remained under constant Ottoman rule until 1912. Naturally, being part of the Ottoman social and political order for more than five centuries, the Athonite monasteries are in possession of rich archival collections from that period. The abundant monastic Ottoman documentation is of paramount importance for the elucidation of the history of the Christian monasticism in general and the individual Athonite monasteries in particular. It showcases the ways in which the Athonite monastic community and its convents coped with the new socio-political order and succeeded to withstand the challenges of the altered conditions.
The Holy Monastery of Zograf, part of the monastic community on Mount Athos, is naturally linked to the processes that influenced the entire peninsula throughout the Ottoman period. The monastery keeps a substantial Ottoman archival collection (with approximately 800 documents stretching from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century), which illuminate different aspects of its history under Ottoman rule. It bespeaks of the fact that the Monastery of Zograf, along with the other Athonite monasteries, adapted rather successfully to the new conditions, skillfully and efficiently using the mechanisms of the Ottoman legal practice and economic system in its efforts to legitimize and secure its very existence and economic backing. The vast variety of Ottoman documents kept at Zograf also testify to the active role of its brotherhood in negotiating with the Ottoman authorities in all levels of the bureaucratic structures. The current study briefly presents the specificities of the collection of Ottoman documents kept in the monastic archive and pays special attention to the fifteenth-century material, offering a glimpse of the range of problems it addresses. Illustrative for the whole collection of Ottoman documents in the Monastery of Zograf, the presented documents elucidate matters dealing with the general status of Mount Athos within the Ottoman Empire, the privileges granted to the monastery by the Ottoman sultans, integration of the monastic properties into the Ottoman land regime, taxation of the monastic landed estates, extension of the monastic possessions by way of buying or donating and bequeathing on the part of the congregation, and last but not least – securing proprietorship over disputed lands.

Key words: Mount Athos, Zographou Monastery, monasticism, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman archival documents, privileges, taxation, landholdings, donation, land disputes

Град Карлово и Карловският вакъф (The Town of Karlovo and Karlıoğlu Waqf)

История, 2018

Резюме. Статията разглежда историята и генеалогията на фамилията Кар-лъоглу (Карлъзаде) и значима... more Резюме. Статията разглежда историята и генеалогията на фамилията Кар-лъоглу (Карлъзаде) и значимата роля, която членовете на семейството играят в сложната динамика на османската политическа действителност във втората половина на ХV и ХVІ в. Подробно разглежда основополагащата роля на ва-къфа, основан от Карлъоглу Али бей в края на ХV в., за създаването и разви-тието на град Карлово и значението на благотворителната фондация за утвър-ждаването на града като административен, икономически и културен център на района на Гьопса. Анализът и аргументацията на изложението са базирани на европейски и османски първични наративни и документални източници, голяма част от които неизползвани до момента. Историята на град Карлово е неразривно свързана с дейността на мю-сюлманската благотворителна фондация (вакъф), основана от Карлъоглу Али бей през втората половина на ХV в. 1) Още от времето на издигането на първите обществени постройки и превръщането им в ядро на бъдещото селище чак до Освобождението именно вакъфът на Али бей, владян от него-вите наследници, е един от най-значимите, ако не и най-важният механизъм, който стимулира градското развитие на Карлово. Далновидността на осно-вателя на вакъфа и предприемчивостта на лицата, управлявали фондацията след неговата смърт, спомагат не само за изграждането на институция, която функционира без прекъсване в продължение на близо четири века, но също така се превръщат във фактора, който активно допринася за трансформа-цията на някогашното малко и незначително селище Сушица в несъмнения център на региона на Гьопса. Целта, която тази статия си поставя, е от една страна, да акцентира върху значимата роля на карловския вакъф за разви-тието на града, а от друга – да изясни редица неясни аспекти от биографи-ята на основателя на вакъфа и наследниците му и да трасира последвалото разрастване на селището. Анализът почива предимно върху османски до-кументални източници, част от които са слабо или напълно непознати за съвременната историография.

The Borders of the Cities: Revisiting Early Ottoman Urban Morphology in Southeastern Europe

The towns and cities in the Ottoman realm and various aspects of urban life have long attracted s... more The towns and cities in the Ottoman realm and various aspects of urban life have long attracted scholarly attention. A growing number of fine studies examine the demography, the architecture, the spatial order and urban morphology of the cities controlled by the Ottoman dynasty, thus adding valuable detail to our general understanding of urban development in the Empire. Modern historiography traditionally makes a distinction between the cities in the Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman state and those in the "core provinces", i.e. Anatolia and Rumelia (Asia Minor and the Balkans). 1 Even this distinction, however, as general as it may be, has been questioned in recent studies, which argue for a revision of the traditionalist division between the urban centres spread over the vast territory of three continents unified and held by the Ottomans for several centuries. Indicating that the classification was based solely on ethno-cultural grounds, Pierre Pinon, who derives evidence from architectural typologies, housing and the urban fabric, argues that the real division between the cities in the Ottoman Empire must not be seen as a clear-cut split between the Arab and the core provinces, but rather that there existed a loose line that divided the 'Turko-Balkan' and 'Arabo-Ottoman' worlds and their respective cities. 2 The dividing line,

Ottoman Plovdiv: Space, Architecture and Population (14th-17th Centuries)

Social Networking in South-Eastern Europe 15th–19th Century, ed. by Maria Baramova, Grigor Boykov, Ivan Parvev (Zürich: LIT, 2021)

https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-90866-7

Вакъфите в България (Waqfs in Bulgaria, ed. by G. Boykov, M. Kiprovska, V. Yanchev, Sofia: 2020)

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

София: Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 2020

https://unipress.bg/vakafite-v-balgariya

Махиел Кийл. България под османска власт. Събрани съчинения. Съст. и науч. редакция Мария Баръмова, Григор Бойков, Мария Кипровска (2017)

by Grigor Boykov, Mariya Kiprovska, and Maria Baramova

https://www.tendrilbooks.com/bg/store/bulgaria-pod-osmanska-vlast.html

Cities in Southeastern Thrace: Continuity and Transformation (Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2017)

by Grigor Boykov and Ivaylo Lozanov

Bordering Early Modern Europe (Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015)

by Grigor Boykov and Maria Baramova

https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_945.ahtml

Бойков, Гр. и Д. Борисов (съст.) Стенимахос– Станимака–Асеновград: Принос към изучаването на приемствеността и развитието на социално-икономическата и духовна история на града и региона (Асеновград: Диков, 2014)

by Grigor Boykov and Damyan Borisov

Съдържание Камен Станев, Бележки за поселищната система между северната периферия на Родопите и ... more Съдържание
Камен Станев, Бележки за поселищната система между северната периферия на Родопите и р. Марица в края на XII – XIV в. .....7
Димо Чешмеджиев, Гробът на патриарх Евтимий в Бачковския манастир ......42
Иван Дуков, Няколко специфични погребални практики от средновековната епоха в Асеновград и региона в светлината на теренни археологически проучвания 2005 – 2013 г. ......62
Григор Бойков, Неосъществените градове в района на Асеновград през османския период: Поповица/Ислямлъ и Конуш Хисаръ .......75
Христо Христозов, Демографско и урбанистично развитие на Асеновград през XV – XVII в. (Истанимака, Анбелианош и Бей кьой) ......105
Дамян Борисов, Войнуците в Истанимака (Асеновград) през XVI в. .....157
Видин Сукарев, Османски документи от фондовете на Регионален исторически музей – Пловдив за Станимака и региона ......195
Мина Христемова, Две лица на властта в Асеновград през XIX в. – местно самоуправление и Михалаки Гюмюшгердан ......206
Никола Филипов, Конвенцията за размяна на малцинствата и отражението ѝ в Станимака ......221
Владимир Балчев, Асеновградският край в старите географски карти от 1450 г. до края на XIX в. .......235
Росен Малчев, Историко-географската област Източен Рупчос в контекста на културното пространство на Бачковския манастир ......249
Константин Рангочев, Сакралната топонимия в Източен Рупчос I .....267
Светла Москова, Малки открития за късното средновековно изкуство в Асеновград .....279

Документално приложение
Документ № 1. Откъс от типика на Бачковския манастир ....300
Документ № 2. Фрагмент от т. нар. „История на кръстоносците” ......300
Документ № 3. Фрагмент от „История на похода на император Фридрих І”.....301
Документ № 4. Откъси от „Превземането на Константинопол” .....301
Документ № 5. Откъс от „Житие на Стефан Лазаревич”.......302
Документ № 6. Фрагмент от проверовъчен (йоклама) регистър ......304
Документ № 7. Фрагмент от подробен (муфассал) регистър ......306
Документ № 8. Фрагмент от съкратен (иджмал) регистър .......310
Документ № 9. Фрагмент от подробен (муфассал) регистър .......312
Документ № 10. Фрагмент от войнушки регистър .....318
Документ № 11. Фрагмент от подробен регистър на джелепкешани .....320
Документ № 12. Фрагмент от подробен (муфассал) регистър .....322
Документ № 13. Откъс от пътеписа на Евлия Челеби ......328
Документ № 14. Заповед за строеж на църква в Станимака .......329
Документ № 15. Заповед за построения мост в Станимака .....330
Документ № 16. Заповед за поправка на църква в Станимака ....330
Документ № 17. Откъс от дневника на Пол Люка .....331
Документ № 18. Фрагмент от т. нар. Хилендарска кондика ......332
Използвани съкращения .......333

Tatar Pazardzik, ot osnovavaneto na grada do kraja na XVII vek (Tatar Pazardjik, from the foundation of the town until the end of the 17th century), Sofia: Amicitia, 2008, 354 pp.

Making of a mid-nineteenth century Ottoman gazetteer and mapping and examining late Ottoman population geography

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, 2022

This article highlights the absence of historical gazetteers for territories once part of the Ott... more This article highlights the absence of historical gazetteers for territories once part of the Ottoman Empire, which hinders modern scholarship. The mid-nineteenth-century population registers (nüfus defterleri) offer a useful foundation for developing a gazetteer of the entire Ottoman Empire, but their use is limited due to the challenging task of geolocating the included populated places. To overcome this issue, two research projects collaborated to map mid-nineteenth-century population data using around 850 Ottoman population registers from the 1840s. The authors utilized historical maps and population registers to geolocate 16,782 populated places, creating the first version of their regional mid-nineteenth-century gazetteer. The article outlines the team's methodology used to build the gazetteer and addresses the notable limitations of the sources. Moreover, it contributes to the study of Ottoman population geography by demonstrating the extensive possibilities of historical GIS methodologies in enriching population density maps by considering environmental variables in the analysis.

Geospatial mapping of a 16th century transport corridor for Southeast Europe

by Grigor Boykov and PJ Gerrits

Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2022

We need maximum slope values for carts and pack animals to model the historical traffic of people... more We need maximum slope values for carts and pack animals to model the historical traffic of people and goods before the advent of steam and internal combustion engines. With this article, we first calculate maximum slope averages for carts and pack animals by using an extensive geo-referenced and vectorized historical transport network for late 19th-century Southeast Europe. Then by utilizing these slopes and making joint use of the least-cost path, accumulated cost surfaces, and network analyses, we model the movement of carts and pack animals for a large segment of an Ottoman military campaign in 1532, which followed the Via Militaris, between Istanbul and Sofia. Lastly, we compare our modelled routes for carts and pack animals for the 16th century with the existing road infrastructure of the late 19th century.

Conquered by Sword, Subdued by Charity? Geospatial and Quantitative Analysis of Land Waqfs in Ottoman Bulgaria

RESEE 59, 2021

The article focuses on the study of the landed estates of the Islamic pious endowments (waqfs) in... more The article focuses on the study of the landed estates of the Islamic pious endowments (waqfs) in Bulgaria by, on the one hand, building a complete database of the settlements under the control of the waqfs, and on the other by attributing a spatial reference to those villages whose precise locations were identified. Taking non-aggregated microdata from the Ottoman tax registers as a point of departure, the study aims at demonstrating a novelty approach towards the spatial analysis of data extracted from the Ottoman primary sources and at proposing a methodology that can be used in other parts of the Balkans. Focusing on a territory, which roughly constitutes 1/5 of the Balkan peninsula, the study regards Bulgaria as a sample that has the potential to shed light on the significance of the waqf institution in administering, revitalizing, repopulating, and maintaining the social order in the Ottoman Balkans. General conclusions about the spatial distributions of the landed possessions, the social stratification of the endowers, and quantitative analysis of the revenues and population under the control of the waqfs, presented in the article signal the necessity for more studies that can widen the territorial perspective and demonstrate the pivotal role of the Islamic endowments in establishing firm control over the newly conquered territories in the Balkans.

O.J. Schmitt, ed., The Ottoman Conquest of the Balkans RESEE 59, 2021

by Oliver Schmitt, Emir O. Filipović, Aleksandar Krstić, Grigor Boykov, and Mariya Kiprovska

Revue des études sud-est européenes, 2021

The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans is one of the great upheavals in the history of Southeast Eur... more The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans is one of the great upheavals in the history of Southeast Europe. Amazingly, it is rarely seen in context. Research is accordingly fragmented. The Bucharest conference of the Association internationale d'études du Sud-Est européen provided the appropriate framework for bundling recent research on this topic. Colleagues from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania accepted the invitation. The contributors are grateful that the Revue des études sud-est européennes enables the publication of the most important contributions of this panel. The essays address several questions: 1) The question of space: how is the process of conquest to be placed in an European context? How did the Ottomans, as the new masters, structure the conquered space and what significance do Islamic religious foundations, which are the backbone of every Islamic dominated society, have? 2) What insight do actor-centered approaches offer? Structuralist research has long neglected agents and agencies. Now individuals reappear in research. In this vein, the regional nobility is examined, both the Muslim regional elites (uç beys) and the Christian (Orthodox and Catholic) nobility. It becomes clear how the conquest radically transformed an old world, but did not destroy all structures of the Balkan Christian societies: contacts existed across the conflict boundaries, even if these should not be confused with peaceful relationships. The conquest also triggered great waves of refugees and created a political diaspora in Catholic Europe. The role of Hungary has often been overlooked by research often focused on Italy and particularly Venice. Here it is analyzed in detail. 3) The final Ottoman conquest was usually preceded by decades of Ottoman raids. This turmoil affected large parts of the Balkans. The consequences of the deliberate destabilization of the Christian Balkan states on trade and the economy have rarely been examined. The analysis of the Balkan caravan trade reveals how much the Ottoman raids affected the hurted regions in their economic development. The wearing down of the regional population is one of the explanations for the ultimate success of the Ottoman conquest. Of course, these three approaches do not exhaust the wealth of questions on the topic. In their bundled form, however, they give the reader an impression of ongoing debates. Hopefully they will also give impetus to further research on an era that has profoundly transformed the Balkans.

Документални свидетелства за годината на раждане на Васил Левски (Documentary Evidence about the Year of Birth of Vasil Levski)

Istoriya-History, 2021

Българските историци не разполагат с документални свидетелства, доказващи по категоричен начин, ч... more Българските историци не разполагат с документални свидетелства, доказващи по категоричен начин, че Васил Левски е роден на 6 юли 1837 г. Затова през последните години гражданственост придобиха и други хипотези, отнасящи раждането на Левски към 1846 г. или към 1843 г. В настоящата статия е направен опит, на основата на наличен в Османския архив в Истанбул регистров материал за мъжкото население на Карлово, да се обоснове тезата, че Васил Левски най-вероятно е роден през 1840 г. Ключови думи: Васил Левски; Карлово; нюфус регистри; година на раждане

Вакъфските села и сгради в България през Османския период (Waqf Settlements and Buildings in Bulgaria during the Ottoman Period)

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

Вакъфите в България, ред. В. Янчев, М. Кипровска, Г. Бойков. София: Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 2020

П реди повече от седем десетилетия основоположникът на съвременната османска социално-икономическ... more П реди повече от седем десетилетия основоположникът на съвременната османска социално-икономическа история, турският историк Йомер Лютфи Баркан, обръща специално внимание на ролята на ислямските благотворителни учреждения (вакъфи) при колонизацията на мюсюлманско население, с цел оживяването и възстановяването на икономическия просперитет и администрирането на новозавладените от османците територии на Балканите 1 . Според виждането на Баркан, мнение, споделено и от други авторитетни историци, централната власт в османската държава насърчава създаването на вакъфи в заварената християнска среда на Балканите чрез целенасочено отдаване на земи в пълна собственост (мюлк) на отбрани лица, които впоследствие даряват поземлената си собственост на основани от тях вакъфи 2 . По този начин трайното присъствие на ислямски институции в преимуществено християнска среда е в значителна степен улеснено, а усилията са насочени главно към опустошени или слабонаселени райони, които са оживени благодарение на колонизацията на малоазийско турско население или принудителното заселване на роби и военнопленници от 1 Barkan, Ö. L. Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda bir İskân ve Kolonizasyon Metodu Olarak Vakıflar ve Temlikler. İstilâ Devirlerinin Kolonizatör Türk Dervişleri ve Zâviyeler. -Vakıflar Dergisi, 1942, 2, 279-386. 2 Gökbilgin, M. T. Les institutions sociales et culturelles de la colonisation et leur action spirtuelle dans la péninsule balkanique : les zaviyes (les couvents) et les muallimhane (les écoles primaires). -In: Communication du XV e Congrès international de sociologie, organisé à Istanbul (11-17 septembre 1952) au nom de l'Institut international de sociologie. Ed. H. Z. Ülken. Istanbul: Impr. des Facultés , 1952, 256-260. За процеса на трансформация на пълната поземлена собственост (мюлк) във вакъфска вж. статията на Дамян Борисов "Османският поземлен вакъф -същност и инструментализация" в този сборник и посочената там литература.

Abdal-affiliated Convents and "Sunnitizing" Halveti Dervishes in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Rumeli

Historicizing Sunni Islam in the Ottoman Empire, c. 1450-c. 1750, 2020

As recent research suggests, Ottoman "Sunnitization" entailed much more than a number of state-le... more As recent research suggests, Ottoman "Sunnitization" entailed much more than a number of state-led measures directed against the non-Sunni Muslim communities in the empire. It was an uneven, complex, and long-term process that was driven not solely by religiopolitical concerns centered on the rising Safavid threat during the late ninth/fifteenth and early tenth/sixteenth centuries, but by deeper social, political, cultural, and even regional dynamics both before and after this period. Moreover, recent scholarship has demonstrated that even in the tenth/sixteenth century, when the process of state-enforced Sunni orthodoxy intensified mainly due to the Shi'ite Safavid challenge, it was not only the Ottoman authorities but a mixture of multiple agents with their own religious and political agendas who played a crucial role in and shaped the process of Ottoman Sunnitization.1

Documentary Archaeology in the Study of T-shaped Zaviye/imarets. Reconstructing the imaret of Evrenosoğlu Ahmed Веу in Tatar Pazarcık

Sudost-Forschungen 79, 2020

Multifunctional T-shaped buildings, referred to as zaviye or imaret in contemporary Ottoman sourc... more Multifunctional T-shaped buildings, referred to as zaviye or imaret in contemporary Ottoman sources, played a key role in the Ottoman urbanism implemented in Anatolia and the Balkans during the formative and the early period of the empire’s existence. Historians have argued over the functions of the T-shaped zaviye /imarets and the important social services rendered by the architectural complexes built around them. From a functional viewpoint, the zaviye / imarets, whose floor plan recalls an inverted T, combined a ritual prayer space (that might have served as a dining room) and a dormitory used by distinguished guests and travellers in a single building. Scholars working on urban architectural topics have also often considered these buildings as part of a key mechanism that encouraged urban growth by colonising space. This article focuses on the ˙I maret of Evrenoso˘glu Ahmed Bey in Tatar Pazarcı k as a case study.

Bridging the Gap between Pre-census and Census-era Historical Data: Devising a Geo-sampling Model to Analyse Agricultural Production in the Long Run for Southeast Europe, 1840–1897

by PJ Gerrits and Grigor Boykov

International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 2020

This research introduces a novel geo-spatial sampling model to overcome a major difficulty in his... more This research introduces a novel geo-spatial sampling model to overcome a major difficulty in historical economic geography of Bulgarian lands during a crucial period: immediately before and after the de facto independence of the territory from the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century. At its core it seeks to investigate the research question how the Bulgarian independence affected agricultural production in two regions (centered around the cities of Plovdiv and Ruse) of today's Bulgaria, for which there are conflicting yet empirically unsubstantiated claims concerning the economic impact of the political independence. Using our be-spoke geo-sampling strategy we believe, we have sampled regionally representative commensurable agricultural data from the 1840s Ottoman archival documentation, in accord with agricultural censuses conducted by the nascent nation state of Bulgaria in the 1890s.

Колекцията от османски документи от архива на Зографския манастир (The Collection of Ottoman Documents in the Archive of the Monastery of Zograf)

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

Zografski Sabonik, 2019

Mount Athos was incorporated in the Ottoman domains since the early Ottoman conquests in the Balk... more Mount Athos was incorporated in the Ottoman domains since the early Ottoman conquests in the Balkans in 1383 and after a short reunification with the Byzantine territories (1403–1423) it remained under constant Ottoman rule until 1912. Naturally, being part of the Ottoman social and political order for more than five centuries, the Athonite monasteries are in possession of rich archival collections from that period. The abundant monastic Ottoman documentation is of paramount importance for the elucidation of the history of the Christian monasticism in general and the individual Athonite monasteries in particular. It showcases the ways in which the Athonite monastic community and its convents coped with the new socio-political order and succeeded to withstand the challenges of the altered conditions.
The Holy Monastery of Zograf, part of the monastic community on Mount Athos, is naturally linked to the processes that influenced the entire peninsula throughout the Ottoman period. The monastery keeps a substantial Ottoman archival collection (with approximately 800 documents stretching from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century), which illuminate different aspects of its history under Ottoman rule. It bespeaks of the fact that the Monastery of Zograf, along with the other Athonite monasteries, adapted rather successfully to the new conditions, skillfully and efficiently using the mechanisms of the Ottoman legal practice and economic system in its efforts to legitimize and secure its very existence and economic backing. The vast variety of Ottoman documents kept at Zograf also testify to the active role of its brotherhood in negotiating with the Ottoman authorities in all levels of the bureaucratic structures. The current study briefly presents the specificities of the collection of Ottoman documents kept in the monastic archive and pays special attention to the fifteenth-century material, offering a glimpse of the range of problems it addresses. Illustrative for the whole collection of Ottoman documents in the Monastery of Zograf, the presented documents elucidate matters dealing with the general status of Mount Athos within the Ottoman Empire, the privileges granted to the monastery by the Ottoman sultans, integration of the monastic properties into the Ottoman land regime, taxation of the monastic landed estates, extension of the monastic possessions by way of buying or donating and bequeathing on the part of the congregation, and last but not least – securing proprietorship over disputed lands.

Key words: Mount Athos, Zographou Monastery, monasticism, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman archival documents, privileges, taxation, landholdings, donation, land disputes

Град Карлово и Карловският вакъф (The Town of Karlovo and Karlıoğlu Waqf)

История, 2018

Резюме. Статията разглежда историята и генеалогията на фамилията Кар-лъоглу (Карлъзаде) и значима... more Резюме. Статията разглежда историята и генеалогията на фамилията Кар-лъоглу (Карлъзаде) и значимата роля, която членовете на семейството играят в сложната динамика на османската политическа действителност във втората половина на ХV и ХVІ в. Подробно разглежда основополагащата роля на ва-къфа, основан от Карлъоглу Али бей в края на ХV в., за създаването и разви-тието на град Карлово и значението на благотворителната фондация за утвър-ждаването на града като административен, икономически и културен център на района на Гьопса. Анализът и аргументацията на изложението са базирани на европейски и османски първични наративни и документални източници, голяма част от които неизползвани до момента. Историята на град Карлово е неразривно свързана с дейността на мю-сюлманската благотворителна фондация (вакъф), основана от Карлъоглу Али бей през втората половина на ХV в. 1) Още от времето на издигането на първите обществени постройки и превръщането им в ядро на бъдещото селище чак до Освобождението именно вакъфът на Али бей, владян от него-вите наследници, е един от най-значимите, ако не и най-важният механизъм, който стимулира градското развитие на Карлово. Далновидността на осно-вателя на вакъфа и предприемчивостта на лицата, управлявали фондацията след неговата смърт, спомагат не само за изграждането на институция, която функционира без прекъсване в продължение на близо четири века, но също така се превръщат във фактора, който активно допринася за трансформа-цията на някогашното малко и незначително селище Сушица в несъмнения център на региона на Гьопса. Целта, която тази статия си поставя, е от една страна, да акцентира върху значимата роля на карловския вакъф за разви-тието на града, а от друга – да изясни редица неясни аспекти от биографи-ята на основателя на вакъфа и наследниците му и да трасира последвалото разрастване на селището. Анализът почива предимно върху османски до-кументални източници, част от които са слабо или напълно непознати за съвременната историография.

The Borders of the Cities: Revisiting Early Ottoman Urban Morphology in Southeastern Europe

The towns and cities in the Ottoman realm and various aspects of urban life have long attracted s... more The towns and cities in the Ottoman realm and various aspects of urban life have long attracted scholarly attention. A growing number of fine studies examine the demography, the architecture, the spatial order and urban morphology of the cities controlled by the Ottoman dynasty, thus adding valuable detail to our general understanding of urban development in the Empire. Modern historiography traditionally makes a distinction between the cities in the Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman state and those in the "core provinces", i.e. Anatolia and Rumelia (Asia Minor and the Balkans). 1 Even this distinction, however, as general as it may be, has been questioned in recent studies, which argue for a revision of the traditionalist division between the urban centres spread over the vast territory of three continents unified and held by the Ottomans for several centuries. Indicating that the classification was based solely on ethno-cultural grounds, Pierre Pinon, who derives evidence from architectural typologies, housing and the urban fabric, argues that the real division between the cities in the Ottoman Empire must not be seen as a clear-cut split between the Arab and the core provinces, but rather that there existed a loose line that divided the 'Turko-Balkan' and 'Arabo-Ottoman' worlds and their respective cities. 2 The dividing line,

“The T-shaped Zaviye/İmarets of Edirne: A Key Mechanism for Ottoman Urban Morphological Transformation.”

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, 2016

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

The Human Cost of Warfare: Population Loss During the Ottoman Conquest and the Demographic History of Bulgaria in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Era

Politics of Religion: Spatial Modification and Transformation of Religious Infrastructures of the Southeastern European Cities in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Topographie – Recht – Religion, 2016

Дупница и Дупнишката котловина през османската епоха (ХV-ХVІІІ в.) [Dupnitsa and the Plain of Dupnitsa in the Ottoman period (15th-18th c.)] in Alexander Grebenarov et al. (eds.), History of Dupnitsa and the Region of Dupnitsa (Sofia: Institute for Historical Research, 2015), 73-104.

Неосъществените градове в района на Асеновград през османския период: Поповица/Ислямлъ и Конуш Хисаръ (Unaccomplished Towns in the Region of Asenovgrad in the Ottoman Period: Popvitsa/Islamli and Konush Hisari)

Креативната енергия на османското общество оставя след себе си стотици нови селища по Балканите, ... more Креативната енергия на османското общество оставя след себе си стотици нови селища по Балканите, част от които с течение на времето се развиват и превръщат в значими градски центрове. Тук едва ли е необходимо изброяването на всички нововъзникнали градове през османската епоха и изтъкването на тяхната съществена роля за развитието на градския живот в региона. Вероятно би било достатъчно да се отбележи, че създаденият в средата на петнадесети век град Сараево (осм. Сарай Босна) израства до едно от най-проспериращите и колоритни градски средища на Балканите и към днешна дата е най-значимият център и неоспорима столица на съвременната държава Босна и Херцеговина. В български контекст също така цяла плеада от големи съвременни градове и по-малки градчета дължат съществуването си на съзидателната мощ, обхванала на практика почти всички слоеве и етнически групи в държавата, управлявана от династията на Осман. Без претенции за изчерпателност, изброяването на част от нововъзникналите градове на територията на днешна България като Пазарджик, Плевен, Разград, Добрич, Омуртаг, Търговище, Нови пазар, Севлиево, Хасково, Кърджали, Харманли, Свиленград, Ихтиман, Карлово, Нова Загора, Казанлък, Чирпан, Трявна, Батак, Пещера и т.н. едва ли оставя и сянка от съмнение за значимостта и ролята на новосъздадените градове за полагането на основите на устойчива селищна мрежа, която като цяло може да бъде наблюдавана и до днес. Една част от споменатите градове възникват и се развиват в голяма степен спонтанно, но преобладаващата част дължат успешното си развитие на целенасочените усилия на финансово стабилни лица или групи, които изразходват значителни средства в изграждането на необходимата градска инфраструктура, върху чиито основи в последствие се разгръща градската тъкан.

"Karlizade Ali Bey: An Ottoman Dignitary's Pious Endowment and the Emergence of the Town of Karlova in Central Bulgaria." Journal of Turkish Studies 39 (2013), 247-267

“Architecture as a Symbol of Power: Some Thoughts on the Ottoman Architectural Heritage of Plovdiv (Filibe).” in Maria Baramova, Plamen Mitev, Ivan Parvev, Vania Racheva (eds.), Power and Influence in Southeastern Europe, 16th-19th c. (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2013), 67-85.

"Anatolian Emir in Rumelia: Isfendiyaroglu Ismail Bey’s Architectural Patronage and Governorship of Filibe (1460s–1470s)," Bulgarian Historical Review 1-2 (2013): 137-147

This article studies the deeds of one of the most prominent figures in the fifteenth century Otto... more This article studies the deeds of one of the most prominent figures in the fifteenth century Ottoman society, İsfendiyaroğlu İsmail Bey and focuses primarily on the period in which he governed the city of Filibe (Plovdiv). Deriving evidence from a wide range of Ottoman archival sources the study examines in detail İsmail Bey's architectural patronage in the city, which establishes him as one of the greatest benefactors in Ottoman Filibe. Endowing a number of esteemed edifices he spent a great deal of efforts in promoting the development of the city and truly elevated Filibe to an important provincial center of the Ottoman realm. The public buildings commissioned by İsmail Bey turned into one of the key elements that shaped the urban tissue of Ottoman era Filibe.

Mastering the Conquered Space: Resurrection of Urban Life in Ottoman Upper Thrace (14th – 17th c.)

PhD Dissertation, 2013

This dissertation examines several cases of urban development in the Ottoman Balkans aiming to de... more This dissertation examines several cases of urban development in the Ottoman Balkans aiming to demonstrate the existence of an established Ottoman model for urban modification and creation of new towns. Focusing on the morphology of four towns rebuilt or established from scratch the dissertation finds a normative pattern in the methods applied by the Ottomans in reclaiming urban space in the conquered territories. The Ottoman central power and the semi-autonomous border raider commanders in the Balkans applied a program for changing of the inherited spatial in order in the Byzantino-Slavic cities in the Balkans through a conscious attempt for shifting of the existing urban core away of the fortified parts. The concept for changing of the spatial order through architectural patronage has followed a long evolutionary path and certainly predates the Ottoman state. The T-shaped multifunctional imaret/zaviyes used in the Ottoman urban program as colonizers of urban space constitute the important novelty that came into being in Ottoman Bithynia and was subsequently transferred to the Balkans.

Keywords: Ottoman Balkans, urbanism, urban morphology, architectural patronage, historical demography, Filibe (Plovdiv), Tatar Pazarcık (Pazardzik), Karlova, Konuş

Demographic Features of Ottoman Upper Thrace: A Case Study on Filibe, Tatar Pazarcık, and İstanimaka (1472-1614), MA Thesis, Bilkent University 2004

The thesis examines the demographic processes of three Ottoman cities in the period late fifteent... more The thesis examines the demographic processes of three Ottoman cities in the period late fifteenth – early seventeenth centuries. Seen through the data provided by the Ottoman tax and population censuses (tahrir defterleri) the research illustrates three different types of urban development and demographic trends in the Ottoman Upper Thrace. The first type, representative of which was the city of Filibe, points pre-Ottoman settlements, which as a consequence of the policy of the central Ottoman administration, have been recreated and repopulated with Turkish colonists from Asia Minor. The central authority played a crucial role in the demographic processes there. The second type, Tatar Pazarcık, is an example of newly founded Ottoman city in the development of which the state also took active part. The third type, İstamimaka, represents settlement from the medieval Balkan period, which stayed out of the strategic interest of the Ottoman government, having minor state interference in the natural demographic processes.

Ottoman Plovdiv_geodataset

Zenodo, 2023

Ottoman Plovdiv Geodataset is a digital addition to the monograph Ottoman Plovdiv: Space, Archite... more Ottoman Plovdiv Geodataset is a digital addition to the monograph Ottoman Plovdiv: Space, Architecture, and Population (14th–17th centuries) by Grigor Boykov, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, ISBN. Analyses and conclusions presented in the book are based on this dataset.

The geodataset is created and curated by Dr. Grigor Boykov, Institute for East European History, University of Vienna. For contacts: [email protected]

Sources:

A variety of primary sources contributed to the creation of the dataset. Except for 30-Meter SRTM DEM, several historical plans of the city were harvested for features: Plan of Plovdiv and its surroundings by A. Jägerschmid, 1828 (National Library "Ivan Vazov," Plovdiv. Kp II 60); City plan of Plovdiv by Lejean, 1867. (Guillaume Lejean, "Voyage en Bulgarie," Le Tour du monde, nouveau journal des voyages 26 (1873): 113–70); City plan of Plovdiv by Heinrich Kiepert, 1876. (Crop from Heinrich Kiepert, Karte des Sandjak Filibe (Philippopolis) aufgenommen nach Anordnung des dortigen Provinzial-Gouverneurs Mehemmed-Nusret-Pascha.); City plan of Plovdiv by Ferdinand v. Hochstetter, 1869. (Ferdinand von Hochstetter, "Reise durch Rumelien im Sommer 1869. 5. Philippopel," Mitteilungen der K. und K. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien 14 (1871): 65–80); City plan of Plovdiv by G. Ilinskij, 1878. (National Library "Ivan Vazov," Plovdiv. РЦ ІV 62); City plan of Plovdiv by Joseph Schnitter, 1891. Various Ottoman archival and narrative sources also contributed to creating the dataset. For detailed information about the source base of the dataset, please refer to the relevant section in Boykov's monograph.

The geodataset consists of 33 layers. A brief information on each of the layers is provided below. For further information, please refer to the book.

Boykov_Gazetteer_Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa

Zenodo, 2023

The gazetteer contains 21,524 macro toponyms, manually map mined from the Generalkarte von Mittel... more The gazetteer contains 21,524 macro toponyms, manually map mined from the Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa (1:200,000), a result of the 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary.

The gazetteer is formatted as a CSV spreadsheet with seven columns. For each toponym, it provides the following information:

longitude
latitude
Name
Indicates the toponym as it appears on the map

Description
Indicates the settlement's modern name using the original spelling and alphabet of its respective country.

AltName
Indicates settlements indicated on the map with more than one name

Type
Indicates the category of the toponym assigned by Boykov: arsenal; barracks; bath; bridge; chapel; church; customs office; factory; fishery; fishing weir; fortress; han; hospital; institute; karaul; lighthouse; lithography; mandra; melting house; metochion; military depot; military station; military supply spot; mill; mine; mine_quicksilver; mine_ salt; monastery; ore deposits; paddy field; palace; pasture; port; quarantine; residence; road tunnel; ruins; ruins. fortress; saltworks; school; settlement; settlement_chiftlik; settlement_huts; sheepfold; stud; summer pasture; tabiya; teke; tower; train station; villa; water spring; watermill; winery; winter pasture

Country
Indicates the modern state in which the toponym falls: Bulgaria (BG); Greece (GRE); Kosovo (KOS); N. Macedonia (MK); Romania (RO); Serbia (SER); Turkey (TR)

Boykov_Gazetteer_Russian-3verst_map

Zenodo, 2023

The gazetteer contains 6,446 macro toponyms manually map mined for the Russian military topograph... more The gazetteer contains 6,446 macro toponyms manually map mined for the Russian military topographic map at scale of 3 verst (1:126,000).

The gazetteer is available in the format of a CSV spreadsheet with 6 columns. It provides the following information for all of the toponyms:

longitude
latitude
Name
Indicates the toponym as it appears on the map

Description
Indicates the modern name of the settlement in the original spelling and alphabet of the belongingcountry

AltName
Indicates settlements indicated on the map with more than one name

Type
Indicates the category of the toponym assigned by Boykov: bath; bridge; chapel; fortress; fulling-mill; han; monastery; mosque; ore deposits; ruins; settlement; settlement_chiftlik; settlement_huts; sheepfold; spring; stud; teke; tower; villa; watermill; winery; winter pasture.

The gazetteer is a work in progress and your feedback is highly appreciated. Please do not hesitate to contact at [email protected] and [email protected]

Kabadayi_Boykov_Sefer_Gerrits_Ottoman_NFS_Gazetteer_23112022_16296_populated_places_version_1.” Zenodo, November 23, 2022.

Zenodo, 2022

This gazetteer is a joint product of two research projects, UrbanOccupationsOETR (European Resear... more This gazetteer is a joint product of two research projects, UrbanOccupationsOETR (European Research Council - Starting Grant, Industrialisation and Urban Growth from the mid-nineteenth century Ottoman Empire to Contemporary Turkey in a Comparative Perspective, 1850-2000, https://urbanoccupations.ku.edu.tr, Grant agreement ID: 679097) and POPGEO_BG (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, Population Geography of Bulgaria, 1500- 1920: A Historical Spatial Analysis, https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr, Grant agreement ID: 867474) both funded by the European Commission.
The gazetteer is available in the format of a spreadsheet with 15 columns. It provides the following information for all of the 16.296 enlisted populated places:

longitude
latitude
register_date_in_Hicri (calendar)
doc_type (mufassal or icmal population registers)
NFS.d. register_number (as in the archival fond)
project (acronym)
toponym_modern (current toponym in various languages depending on the location of the populated place today). For 797 populated places, toponym_modern is entered as ‘vanished.’ These populated places are all geolocated with coordinates by using georeferenced historical maps. However, no current settlements could be identified in their locations.
toponym Ottoman in NFS.d. (typed as accurately as possible in Arabic script copying from the Ottoman population registers)
toponym transcribed (original handwritten Ottoman to Latin script, as a principle, following the Redhouse lexicon) from NFS.d.
kaza (the Ottoman administrative unit on the sub-district level as stated) in NFS.d.
kaza_1848_1264 and liva_1848_1264 correspondences of enlisted kaza information in NFS.d. registers according to the official Ottoman yearbook dating to 1848 (1264 in Hicri):
Salname-i Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye. 2nd edition. Istanbul: Darü’t-Tıbaatü’l-Amire, 1264.
(Unique) populated place id (number)
As well as two additional administrative levels, divan and nahiye for the limited number of populated places.

Данни от османските документи за годината на раждане на Васил Левски

публична рекция в Българския културен институт „Дом Витгенщайн“, 2023

The Making of a mid-nineteenth-century Ottoman gazetteer – A collaborative effort of two research projects: UrbanOccupationsOETR and POPGEO_BG

on-line seminar delivered at W'OTSAp XXI. W'OTSAp or "What is up in Ottoman and Turkish Studies?, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb7NWZeSYv8

Historical Geographic Information System of South Eastern Europe (H-GIS SEE) - Ottoman Period Group

lecture at the Digital Classicist London seminar, King’s College, 2017

Cities in Late Medieval and Early Modern Ottoman Balkans: In Search for a Normative Pattern

keynote lecture delivered at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Letters, Department of History, 2016

Промените, процесите и хората: историческа демография на България (ХV-ХVІІ в.)

публична лекция в рамките на програма Advanced Academia на Център за академични изследвания София (CAS Sofia) , 2015

Building a Capital City in the Balkans: Spatial Transformation and Urban Morphology of Ottoman Edirne (Adrianople) in the 14th and 15th Centuries

presented as part of the Advanced Academia Project of the Center for Advanced Studies, Sofia, 2014

Studying the ancestral powerbase of the Minnetoğlu family in Konuş, Bulgaria: historical and archaeological approach

Tukologentag, 2023

Reconstructing Ottoman Geographies: A Digital Gazetteer of the Balkans

3rd DARIAH-HR International Conference, 2023

Making of a mid-nineteenth century Ottoman Gazetteer and Mapping Regional Population Densities

The Fifth Meeting of the European Network for the Comparative History of Population Geography and Occupational Structure (1500-1900), 2023

Spatial Exploration of Vakıf Lands in the Early Modern Eastern Balkans: Methodological Considerations and Limitations

The Digital Frontiers of Land, Law, and Endowments in the Eastern Mediterranean, University of Birmingham, 2023

Spatial Distribution of Zograf Monastery’s Landed Estates: An Analysis of the Endowment Deed (Waqfiya) of 1569

Workshop Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty 17-18 June 2021, Mainz, 2021

Marking-up the Zograf Ottoman Archive: How to Convert Ottoman Document into XML Script and Why Should we Do This

by Grigor Boykov and Hristo Hristozov

Zograf Monastery and the Athonite Monastic Network during the Ottoman Era, International Workshop, 23 February 2019 Sofia, 2019

The Zograf Digital Archive at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”: History, Achievements, and Perspectives

by Grigor Boykov and Damyan Borisov

Zograf Monastery and the Athonite Monastic Network during the Ottoman Era, International Workshop, 23 February 2019 Sofia, 2019

Researching inscriptions and archives in the DH Lab to the University of Sofia: challenges, methods and perspectives

DH_BUDAPEST_2018, Hungary, 2018

My part of the presentation done with Dimitar Iliev and Dobromir Dobrev

West Turns East: Mobility of Taxpayers in Early Modern Ottoman Bulgaria

The 14th International Congress of Ottoman Social and Economic History (ICOSEH), Sofia, Bulgaria, 2017

Historical demography of the Ottoman Balkans was probably one of the most fiercely debated and co... more Historical demography of the Ottoman Balkans was probably one of the most fiercely debated and controversial topics in the related scholarship during the second half of the twentieth century. The seemingly irreconcilable views of scholars from different backgrounds originate in the definitive nature of the results which their research had to provide. Because of relying on scholarly or even scientific methods in making population estimates, the outcome offered by the historians dealing with the demographic history of the early Ottoman Balkans stands almost unchallengeable. Furthermore, it is difficult to perceive with full confidence the demographic data and its interpretations offered by most pioneering works as an outcome of unbiased and purely academic analysis. On the contrary, it seems quite plausible that a profound political message was encoded in many of the scholarly publications examining the demographic processes in the Ottoman Balkans.
This paper seeks to present reliable data on the general population figures of fifteenth-, sixteenth- and to seventeenth-century Ottoman Bulgaria. Based on the statistical analyses of data derived from more than 250 Ottoman tax registers (tahrirs, cizye, avarız, etc.), it will hopefully demonstrate the degree of achievable accuracy in population estimates in the period and can possibly offer the necessary quantitative basis for further demographic studies of the entire Ottoman Balkans. After presenting the backbone of Bulgaria’s demographics in the Early Modern Period the paper will focus on the importance of internal migration in the process. It will argue that a constant flow of Christian migrants from densely populated western parts to the scarily inhabited eastern ones throughout the sixteenth a constant flow of Christian migrants from changed the population balance in the area. Moreover, in the course of the cold seventeenth century this migratory process was intensified to such extent that while some parts of the country (especially the highlands in the west) shrunk other regions had a sensitive population growth. Finally, the paper will argue that only large scale studies that have large territorial and long temporal reach have the potential to examine the demographic processes in their complexity.

Демографската история на България и българите през ХІХ в. Значение и надеждност на османските административни документи от периода за устойчиви демографски реконструкции

Кръгла маса "Българите в Османската империя ХІХ в.: понятия, структури, личности", 2016

Architecture of Fifteenth-Century Ottoman Frontier Society

Frontiers of Fifteenth-Century Art, International Conference organized by the Department of History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London, 2015

Video: https://birkbeck.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=85ac4fe1-7ddf-4339-8912-d6... more Video: https://birkbeck.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=85ac4fe1-7ddf-4339-8912-d65ebd3b6fee

The Balkan Peninsula in the fifteenth century was a large zone of contact/fracture between the then worlds of Christendom (Greek Orthodox or Catholic) and Islam, brought by the emerging Ottoman Empire. With all due skepticism to such a large generalization one can fairly safely assert that throughout the fifteenth century the greater part of the region constituted a large, but very fluid frontier zone that was shaped by or at least was under the strong influence of the frontier lords in Ottoman service. The Ottoman frontier nobility was not only largely responsible for the military success and territorial expansion of the Ottoman state in the fifteenth century, but also its members proved to be successful in managing and administering the territories under their control and showed a great interest in architectural patronage.

This paper aims at offering general assessment of the architectural program of the frontier lords in the Balkans and to define and accentuate on the type of buildings that focused a great deal of their patronage. This was a multifunctional building type with a floor plan of a reversed “T” (it served simultaneously as mosque, guesthouse and soup-kitchen), which originated in the frontier milieu of fourteenth-century Ottoman Bithynia. Discussing the functionality of the T-type buildings and examining their spread in the Balkans the paper argues that they not only constituted a key mechanism for expending urban tissue in a relatively orderly manner, but also the buildings embodied a claim for legitimacy over the territories, which the fifteenth-century Ottoman frontier nobility controlled and ruled semi-autonomously.

Ottoman Agents of Urban Morphological Transformation: the T-type Zaviye/imarets of Edirne

21st Symposium of the Comité International des Études Pre-Ottomanes et Ottomanes (CIEPO), Budapest, Hungary, 2014

The paper aims at examining the process of formation and development of the urban tissue of early... more The paper aims at examining the process of formation and development of the urban tissue of early Ottoman Edirne from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-fifteenth century. It seeks to understand the process of morphological adaptation of the Ottoman spatial order, which replaced the inherited Byzantine one, by examining its components and by tracing the development of Ottoman Edirne’s physical structures. Moreover, the study will argue that Ottoman-era normative patterns, detectible in the spatial modification of other Bithynian and Balkan cities, are also clearly perceivable in Edirne.
Based on the analysis of standing architectural monuments, Ottoman archival sources (evkaf muhasebe records and tahrir registers), and early historic maps, the study will focus on the formation of Ottoman-time urban grain. It will argue that the T-type zaviye/imarets played a key role as “colonizers” of urban space and clearly defined the main axes of development, thus to a great extend determining the subsequent formation of street pattern in Edirne.
The scholarship to date examined in detail the rich architectural heritage of early Ottoman Edirne mostly from artistic and architectural perspective, but paid little attention to the changes of city’s physical form. The very few academic publications, which study the spatial transformation of the city in the Ottoman era, failed to comprehend the key role of the T-type zaviye/imarets in the process of structural change and did not elucidate the existence of a normative pattern, which dominated the transformation of the Ottoman cities in Anatolia and the Balkans.

Кефалет регистрите - слабо познати османски извори за демографската история на Тракия през ХVІІІ в.

Тракия през Средновековието и османската епоха: характер и динамика на поселищния живот (XII-XVIII век), СУ "Св. Климент Охридски", 2014

Несбъднатият град: създаването, развитието и съдбата на Конуш през османския период

Стенимахос-Станимака-Асеновград. Принос към изучаването на приемствеността и развитието на социално-икономическата и духовната история на града и региона, 2014

The Borders of the Cities: Revisiting Ottoman Urban Morphology in Southeastern Europe

Bordering Early Modern Europe, 2013

Unveiling T-shaped Imaret/Zaviyes in the Ottoman Realm: what makes (documentary) archaeology important?

Revisiting the T-shaped zāviye/‘imāret: Buildings and Institutions in Early Ottoman Architecture. An interdisciplinary workshop at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 2013

Organically integrated in city’s topography the complexes of the T-shaped imaret/zaviyes extended... more Organically integrated in city’s topography the complexes of the T-shaped imaret/zaviyes extended the Ottoman presence to previously unoccupied areas and sought to transform the existing spatial order of the conquered Byzantino-Slavic cities in Anatolia or in the Balkans. Ideally these complexes were meant to shift the focus of economic life in the city, thus establishing a new urban core. At a later stage, depending on the city’s magnitude one or up to a dozen of T-shaped buildings, placed at the important road arteries, surrounded the newly formed Muslim core. Extending the Ottoman architectural presence to outlaying uninhabited areas the T-shaped imaret/zaviyes became the key mechanism for encouraging urban growth in the desired direction. While the patronage of Ulu Camis, which manifested the triumph of Islam over Christian lands remained reserved for the Ottoman rulers, the construction of T-shaped imaret/zaviyes was by no means only a sultanic prerogative. On the contrary, the tradition of the early sultans in establishing bridgeheads in a predominantly Christian environment through the erection of T-shaped multifunctional buildings was adopted by the people who constituted the driving force of the Ottoman advance in the Balkans, the border raider commanders, and implemented in the zones under their influence.
Students of Ottoman architectural history have underlined the important role played by the T-shaped imaret/zaviyes in spatial hierarchy of the cities in Anatolia and the Balkans. However, the scholarship to date that naturally focused primarily, if not exclusively, on the standing examples of these buildings falls short in providing a fully satisfactory explanation of the importance of the imaret/zaviyes. This shortcoming derives from the fact that a large number of T-shaped buildings that once constituted a key element of the Ottoman urban fabric are no longer extant. This paper aims at collecting and examining evidence for such buildings in Anatolia and the Balkans that is based on results from archeological excavations and from what is called by an increasing number of scholars “documentary archeology”. Providing a dozen of examples the paper argues that the overall picture of any study of Ottoman urban morphology can only be complete if the large number of nonextant T-shaped imaret/zaviyes in Anatolia and especially in the Balkans are also taken into scholarly consideration.

Alliances of Patrons and Clients: Subduing the Unruly Ottoman Subjects in the Süleymanic Age

Social Networking in South-Eastern Europe, 15th–19th Centuries, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2012

The Waqf and the Complex of Şihabeddin Paşa in Filibe

International Symposium on the Ottoman Foundations and Monuments in the Balkans, 2012

The extensive architectural patronage of the acting beylerbeyi of Rumeli hacı Şihabeddin Paşa in ... more The extensive architectural patronage of the acting beylerbeyi of Rumeli hacı Şihabeddin Paşa in the mid-fifteenth century contributed significantly for the reshaping of the urban space of Filibe (Plovdiv), one of the of the most prominent Ottoman cities in the Balkans. His complex, commissioned in the late 1444 consisted of a T-shaped multifunctional ‘imaret, a medrese, a large public bath, a public soup kitchen, an inn for the traders, and the mausoleum of the patron. Built on the banks of the river Maritsa (Ott. Meriç) the complex not only displayed the Ottoman presence at what was at the time an outlaying area of the city, but also rendered a number of essential social services to the locals and the travelers throughout the Ottoman period.
Based on evidence derived from the Ottoman archival material, mostly tapu tahrir registers and accounting records of the pious foundation (evkaf muhasebe), established by the patron, the paper will elaborate on the value of Şihabeddin Paşa’s patronage for the urban development and social history of one of the most esteemed cities of the Ottoman Empire’s European possessions.

Reshaping Urban Space in the Ottoman Balkans: A Study on the Architectural Development of Edirne, Filibe and Üsküb (14th – 15th centuries)

Centres and Peripheries in Ottoman Architecture: Rediscovering a Balkan Heritage Conference, Sarajevo, BiH, 2010

In the course of the first decades of the fourteenth century the founder of the Ottoman dynasty O... more In the course of the first decades of the fourteenth century the founder of the Ottoman dynasty Osman and his son Orhan Gazi took possession of several important Byzantine cities in Northwestern Asia Minor. Examining the shift of urban core to a location outside the walls of the old fortified Byzantine settlement, materialized through a number of public buildings patronized by the Ottoman rulers and their dignitaries, one can clearly distinguish a repetitive pattern in Ottomans’ attempt to redesign the existing urban space in accordance to the perception of the ruling dynasty. Apart of constructing of one to several communal mosques in the central commercial districts the Ottoman Sultans patronized complexes centered around “T-shaped” imaret/zaviyes which marked the outskirts of the city. Being often fenced in a single entity, the complexes in question not only delivered a number of services to the travelers and local community, but also aimed at promulgating the might and magnificence of the Ottoman dynasty.
This paper establishes a link between the changes in urban planning undertaken by the Ottomans in Anatolia and the Balkans, pointing to the existence of a common model, demonstrated by a detailed survey of the extant fourteenth and fifteenth-century buildings in three major cities in the Balkans – Edirne, Filibe and Üsküb. It further elaborates not only on the specific locations of the “T-shaped” buildings, but also speculates on the question of their exact functions. Furthermore, the paper argues that the imaret/zaviyes proved to be one of the most preferred building types patronized by the Balkan March Lords (akıncı uc beyis) who imitated the concept set by the early gazi Sultans when largely rebuilding existing settlements or creating towns on their own in the Balkans.

Architecture as a Symbol of Power: Some Thoughts on the Ottoman Architectural Heritage of Plovdiv (Filibe)

Power and Influence in Southeastern Europe, 16th – 19th centuries, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2010

The Ottoman state, which appeared at the edge between Christian and Muslim worlds, emerged as a s... more The Ottoman state, which appeared at the edge between Christian and Muslim worlds, emerged as a symbiosis between the frontier elite warriors, who have embraced gaza as leading ideology and the wandering dervishes and ahi brotherhoods, which dominated the spiritual life of the Turcoman subjects under the leadership of the house of Osman. The Ottoman rulers had to find a modus vivendi in balancing the tendencies in the different layers of then border society and local non-Muslim population, while trying to strengthen and legitimize the claim for lordship. Ever since the first sizable Byzantine cities fell into the hands of the Ottoman sultans they began commissioning two distinctive types of buildings which were meant to embody the symbols of ideology, power and legitimacy of the new ruling dynasty. On one hand the newly conquered urban space was to be “Ottomanized” by the appearance of a communal mosque, either a converted church or a new building, situated at the focal point of the city, on the other by a complex centered around a T-shaped multifunctional imaret/zaviye outside the walled part of the city. Being a major focus of royal patronage the T-shaped imaret/zaviyes became a key mechanisms used by the Ottomans to encourage and facilitate the growth of urban settlement.
This paper examines the transfer of Ottoman “urban planning tradition” from Asia Minor to the Balkans focusing on the transformation of the Byzantino-Slavic city of Philipopolis (mod. Plovdiv), the metropolis of Upper Thrace, into the primary seat of Ottoman power in the area, which was renamed to Filibe. Based on unpublished archival sources and little known late 19th - early 20th c. photographs of no longer standing Ottoman monuments, the paper will elaborate on the connection between the population growth of the 15th and 16th centuries and the reshaping of urban space driven by the Ottoman ruling elite, which took place simultaneously.

Spaces and Agents of Ottoman Conquest in Southeastern and Central Europe

by Grigor Boykov, Emir O. Filipović, Mariya Kiprovska, Foti Miklos, and Marijana Mišević

International Workshop, 1-2 October 2024, Vienna

Balkan Studies Lecture Series at the ÖAW, March-June 2024

Current research in the fields of Ottoman and Turkish Studies in Vienna II

Ringvorlesung Turkologie Sommersemester, 2024

https://orientalistik.univie.ac.at/fachrichtungen/turkologie/veranstaltungen/ringvorlesung-turkol... more

WHOLLY: A Holistic Approach to a Monastic Landscape. The Human and Economic Geography of Zograf Monastery

by Grigor Boykov, Olar Ovidiu, and Mariya Kiprovska

ORTHPOL workshop, 2023

Monastic repositories, particularly the Athonite ones, have fascinated scholars for centuries. Th... more Monastic repositories, particularly the Athonite ones, have fascinated scholars for centuries. Their efforts generated and continue to bring remarkable results: catalogues, editions of sources, and studies elucidating specific issues, historical periods, and regions. However, linguistic limitations, disciplinary boundaries, methodological constraints, and thematic affinities do not favour an integral approach and endanger a growing compartmentalization of research. Focusing on the collections of Zograf Monastery, we reflect on the methods and strategies for moving beyond chronological and linguistic borders and approaching the monastic landscapes from a holistic perspective. Rather than focusing on the landed assets of the monastery but giving preference instead to examining the human and economic geography of the monastic landscape across space and over time, we choose to view Zograf Monastery’s repositories as a laboratory for thinking about wider synchronic and diachronic possibilities for more integral research and publication strategies.

ÖAW, IHB-Balkan Studies lecture series (Oct 2021-Jan 2022)

Workshop Program: Christian-Muslim Interplay in Late Medieval and Early Modern Balkans: Power Networks and Regional Lordships during the Ottoman Conquest

by Grigor Boykov, Emir O. Filipović, Evangelos Katafylis, Delyan Rusev, Davor Salihović, Marian Coman, and Mariya Kiprovska

The workshop aims at investigating the evolution of the entangled power networks in the Balkans i... more The workshop aims at investigating the evolution of the entangled power networks in the Balkans in both trans-regional and intra-imperial Ottoman perspectives on the eve of, during, and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. It seeks to address, discuss, and hopefully overcome deficiencies of scholarship to date that arise from strict disciplinary limitations, dominant historiographical trends, or tradition in national schools of history in the Balkans. The still dominant polarizing approach, which narrates how the “Ottomans” have conquered and subsequently controlled and administered the region, often depicts the main actors in the process in dichotomous opposition of “invaders” and “invaded ones”, thus discarding almost completely the perplex political and religious complexity of Late Medieval and Early Modern Balkans.
The functioning power networks of the medieval Balkan elites confronted a similar system of hierarchical networks of dependencies, initiated and led by the Ottoman dynasty. Following its own strategic agenda the established power networks in the Balkans either bitterly opposed and resisted the advance of the Ottoman polity or intermingled with the power networks presided by the Ottoman rulers. Ironically, not so rarely the conquerors of a given Balkan region, who in the mind frame of dominant historiographic tradition can be portrayed as the “Ottoman invaders”, appear to have originated from the local nobility thus being foreign to the conquered lands no more than those who resisted the “invasion”. In light of this, it seems little surprising that Balkan elites and their dependent power networks intermixed quite successfully with those networks that originated in Late Medieval Bithynia and carried the Ottoman banner into the Balkans. The complex mixture of mighty families of Anatolian or Balkan elites on Ottoman service, who had at their disposal substantial revenues and significant military contingents shaped entirely the history of the early Ottoman Balkans. Until the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottoman central power gradually managed to replace the power networks of these elite families, they not only held big landed estates as private property, administered large parts of the Balkans, initiated close interaction with neighboring Christian rulers, shaped the Ottoman relationships with foreign powers by channeling the communication, but were also decisively involved in the enthronement of virtually every Ottoman ruler until Suleyman I (1521-1566), which reflected the political bids for power voiced by the noble families in the Ottoman Balkans and their clientelistic networks, manifested by patronage over religiously non-conformist groups’ literary, and architectural traditions.
Evolving around these considerations the workshop seeks to move away from the state- and religion-centered approach to the early Ottoman Balkans and invites for a more thorough examination of the complex web of political and personal relationships that extend beyond the local Balkan or imperial Ottoman boundaries tangled in a complex interplay of different relations between states, empires, elites and individuals with varying interests and agendas. In light of that, it suggests a thematic focus on the following intertwined themes:

Dynamics of power relations in a trans-imperial and regional context
- motives for joining a power network
- alliance building and collaboration within and outside the Ottoman domains
- alienation and factional politics within and outside the Ottoman domains
- political coalitions of Balkan elite families in Christian and Muslim context
- dynastic factionalism and the formation of networks
- power networks in times of dynastic struggles and political instability
- servants, agents and elite slaves as part of the power networks

Notables and their elite households
- royal and non-royal courts within and outside the palace
- extended households, kinship ties and clients
- military-administrative households and their clientelistic networks
- military contingents and manpower
- social groups manning the retinues
- exchange and mobility of soldiery
- trans-imperial and regional household relations

Regional lordships, large domains, and land tenure
- power bases and regional lordships: motives for reuse of seats of power and/or for establishing new ones
- spatial patterns of regional Balkan lordships
- hereditary rule over territories before and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans
- military fiefs, hereditary and tenancy rights
- pious foundations and landed estates

Patronage of the Balkan Christian and Muslim elites
- architectural patronage legitimizing local power and political authority
- literary patronage
- patronage over religious groups
- patronage over spiritual leaders
- patronage over shrines and other places of worship

ÖAW, IHB-Balkan Studies lecture series (March-June 2021)

ÖAW, IHB-Balkan Studies lecture series (Oct 2020-Jan 2021)

ÖAW, IHB-Balkan Studies lecture series (March-June 2020)

CfP: Christian-Muslim Interplay in Late Medieval and Early Modern Balkans: Power Networks and Regional Lordships during the Ottoman Conquest

The workshop aims at investigating the evolution of the entangled power networks in the Balkans i... more The workshop aims at investigating the evolution of the entangled power networks in the Balkans in both trans-regional and intra-imperial Ottoman perspectives on the eve of, during, and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. It seeks to address, discuss, and hopefully overcome deficiencies of scholarship to date that arise from strict disciplinary limitations, dominant historiographical trends, or tradition in national schools of history in the Balkans. The still dominant polarizing approach, which narrates how the “Ottomans” have conquered and subsequently controlled and administered the region, often depicts the main actors in the process in dichotomous opposition of “invaders” and “invaded ones”, thus discarding almost completely the perplex political and religious complexity of Late Medieval and Early Modern Balkans.
The functioning power networks of the medieval Balkan elites confronted a similar system of hierarchical networks of dependencies, initiated and led by the Ottoman dynasty. Following its own strategic agenda the established power networks in the Balkans either bitterly opposed and resisted the advance of the Ottoman polity or intermingled with the power networks presided by the Ottoman rulers. Ironically, not so rarely the conquerors of a given Balkan region, who in the mind frame of dominant historiographic tradition can be portrayed as the “Ottoman invaders”, appear to have originated from the local nobility thus being foreign to the conquered lands no more than those who resisted the “invasion”. In light of this, it seems little surprising that Balkan elites and their dependent power networks intermixed quite successfully with those networks that originated in Late Medieval Bithynia and carried the Ottoman banner into the Balkans. The complex mixture of mighty families of Anatolian or Balkan elites on Ottoman service, who had at their disposal substantial revenues and significant military contingents shaped entirely the history of the early Ottoman Balkans. Until the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottoman central power gradually managed to replace the power networks of these elite families, they not only held big landed estates as private property, administered large parts of the Balkans, initiated close interaction with neighboring Christian rulers, shaped the Ottoman relationships with foreign powers by channeling the communication, but were also decisively involved in the enthronement of virtually every Ottoman ruler until Suleyman I (1521-1566), which reflected the political bids for power voiced by the noble families in the Ottoman Balkans and their clientelistic networks, manifested by patronage over religiously non-conformist groups’ literary, and architectural traditions.

Съдбата на вакъфските имоти в България в условията на прехода от имперско към национално държавно управление

by Grigor Boykov and Mariya Kiprovska

Конференция "Съдбата на вакъфските имоти в България", Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, 11 октомври 2019 г., 2019

https://vakifbg.wixsite.com/2016fni/konferenciya

Zograf Monastery and the Athonite Monastic Network during the Ottoman Era

by Grigor Boykov, Mariya Kiprovska, and phokion kotzageorgis

International Workshop 23 February 2019 Sofia University, Central Library, room Mediatheca

ЗОГРАФСКАТА БИБЛИОТЕКА И АРХИВ: Изследователски подходи при дигитализацията, описанието и изданието на изворите. Проект Зографски дигитален архив в СУ „Св. Климент Охридски“

by Mariya Kiprovska and Grigor Boykov

14th ICOSEH, Sofia 24-28 July 2017 (Program)

14th ICOSEH, Sofia 2017 (2nd circular/CfP)

by Grigor Boykov, Mariya Kiprovska, and Maria Baramova

Papers are expected to be on aspects of the economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire wit... more Papers are expected to be on aspects of the economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire with a special focus on the Ottoman Balkans. The Executive Committee of IAOSEH and the Organizing Committee invite the submission of pre-organized panels and workshops as well as individual papers. All abstracts should have a focused statement of thesis and indicate clearly the sources employed (if applicable). Individual papers of maximum 20-minutes length will be organized into panels by the Organizing Committee. Abstracts for individual papers should not exceed 500 words. Pre-organized panels should consist of three papers (20 min. each), plus an analysis of them by a discussant (or a designated chair) of ten minutes maximum length. The papers should center on a single theme or question, and the panel proposal should include an abstract (500 words maximum) for the entire panel explaining its theme and rationale and how the individual papers contribute to that theme, in addition to an individual abstract (500 words maximum) for each paper. Also welcome are thematic workshops/roundtables organized by Chair(s) around specific problems or debates in the field. We encourage panels and workshops on any aspects of the Ottoman Balkans and the Mediterranean world. Workshops/roundtables should consist of short (10-minute) presentations by the Panelists/invited participants (four to six speakers), leaving a longer time for discussion of the problem or question. The proposal for a workshop should specify the problem or debate being addressed and its significance, as well as a summary of each panelist's contribution to the discussion.

14th ICOSEH, Sofia 2017 (1st circular/CfP)

by Grigor Boykov, Mariya Kiprovska, Maria Baramova, Linda T Darling, Oktay Özel, Fariba Zarinebaf, and Gergana Georgieva

It is our pleasure to announce that the 14th International Congress of Ottoman Social and Economi... more It is our pleasure to announce that the 14th International Congress of Ottoman Social and Economic History (ICOSEH) will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 24-28 July, 2017. Arrangements for this meeting are being handled by the Faculty of History at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” under the auspices of International Association of Ottoman Social and Economic History (IAOSEH), chaired by Professor Halil İnalcık.

МАНАСТИРСКИТЕ БИБЛИОТЕКИ И АРХИВИ: подходи и методи при проучването им. Библиотеката и архивът на Зографския манастир

by Grigor Boykov, Mariya Kiprovska, and Kozma Popovski

Digital_Ottoman_Platform_workshop_2015_Program-abstracts.pdf

by Amy Singer, Nir Shafir, and Grigor Boykov

СТЕНИМАХОС-СТАНИМАКА-АСЕНОВГРАД: Принос към изучаването на приемствеността и развитието в социално-икономическата и духовната история на града и региона

by Grigor Boykov and Damyan Borisov

Zum Preis von Altpapier: Die Entstehung des Osmanischen Archivs in Sofia

Der Standart. Balkan-Blog, 2024

Kann man die Biografie eines Nationalhelden ändern?

Der Standart. Balkan-Blog, 2021

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000124836639/kann-man-die-biografie-eines-nationalhelden-aendern

Osmanische Dokumente vom Heiligen Berg Athos

Der Standart. Balkan-Blog , 2020

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000116241839/osmanische-dokumente-vom-heiligen-berg-athos

Waqf villages – Ottoman pious foundations, and populating the conquered lands of the Balkans

Podcast MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies, 2023

https://podcasts.ceu.edu/content/waqf-villages-ottoman-pious-foundations-and-populating-conquered... more

Principal dervish convents in Bulgaria built prior to 1600, and vakıf villages

Vakıf settlements and spatial distribution of population in 1530s Ottoman Bulgaria

Vakıf settlements and spatial distribution of revenues in 1530s Ottoman Bulgaria

Spatial distribution of Vakıf land ownership by classes

Distribution of Vakıf villages in Bulgaria by soil type

Distribution of Vakıf settlements in Bulgaria by elevation

Vakıf villages in Bulgaria (land coverage)

Northern Bulgaria districts in 1840s: population density per unit (kaza/nahiye)

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr/, 2019

Ottoman population registers’ point data is aggregated to POPGEO_BG primary unit for spatial anal... more Ottoman population registers’ point data is aggregated to POPGEO_BG primary unit for spatial analysis – sub-district (nahiye) or district (kaza) and aritmethic densities densities are estimated for each unit. The map visualizes distribution of population densities in some units in Northern Bulgaria in the 1840s.

Northern Bulgaria districts in 1840s: population totals per unit (kaza/nahiye)

POPGEO_BG, 2019

Ottoman population registers’ point data is aggregated to POPGEO_BG primary unit for spatial anal... more

Southern Bulgaria districts in 1840s: population density per unit (kaza/nahiye)

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr/results/ , 2019

Ottoman population registers’ point data is aggregated to POPGEO_BG primary unit for spatial anal... more Ottoman population registers’ point data is aggregated to POPGEO_BG primary unit for spatial analysis – sub-district (nahiye) or district (kaza) and aritmethic densities densities are estimated for each unit. The map visualizes distribution of population densities in some units in Southern Bulgaria in the 1840s.

Southern Bulgaria districts in 1840s: population totals per unit (kaza/nahiye)

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr/results/, 2019

Ottoman population registers’ point data is aggregated to POPGEO_BG primary unit for spatial anal... more

Distribution of Muslim and Christian male population in the district of Hezargrad

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr, 2019

The maps visualize per village distribution of Muslim and Christian male population in the distri... more

Distribution of Muslim and Christian male population in Karacadağ, district of Filibe

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr/results/, 2019

The maps visualize per village distribution of Muslim and Christian male population in the sub-di... more

District (kaza) of Rusçuk in 1840s. Population densities per village

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr/results/, 2019

This map visualizes per village population densities of the 1840s district of Rusçuk in N Bulgari... more

District (kaza) of Yeni Zağra in 1840s. Population densities per village

POPGEO_BG - https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr/results/, 2019

The Ottoman population registers contain non-aggregated individual male population data, which in... more The Ottoman population registers contain non-aggregated individual male population data, which include name, physical description, age, family relationship, and often occupation. POPGEO_BG aggregates individual data to settlement level thus creating georeferenced point-based DB. A spatial join of the point data with modern village land polygons (source Bulgaria’s cadaster) allow an analysis of population densities and further aggregation to a sub-district (nahiye) or district (kaza) level. This map visualizes per village population densities of the 1840s district of Yeni Zağra in SE Bulgaria.

District (kaza) of Hezargrad in 1840s

POPGEO_BG https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr, 2019

Visualization of the territorial extend of the district of Hezargrad (Razgrad) and its sub-units ... more

Districts (kaza) of Akça Kazanlık and Çırpan 1840s

POPGEO_BG, 2019

The map is a visualization of the territorial extend of the small districts (kaza) of Akça Kazanl... more

Tatar Pazarcık district (kaza) in 1840s

POPGEO_BG - https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr, 2019

The Ottoman population registers contain point (settlement) data, including point’s administrativ... more The Ottoman population registers contain point (settlement) data, including point’s administrative belonging at the level of district and sub-district. Joining the lands of settlement belonging to the same administrative unit can result in relatively accurate territorial polygons. The map displays the district (kaza) of Tatar pazarcık (Pazardzhik) and its sub-districts (nahiye) of Ova, and Yaka.

Filibe district (kaza) in 1840s

POPGEO_BG - https://popgeo.ku.edu.tr, 2019

The Ottoman population registers contain point (settlement) data, including point’s administrativ... more The Ottoman population registers contain point (settlement) data, including point’s administrative belonging at the level of district and sub-district. Joining the lands of settlement belonging to the same administrative unit can result in relatively accurate territorial polygons. The map displays the district (kaza) of Filibe (Plovdiv) and its sub-districts (nahiye) of Koyun tepesi, Göpsu, Karacadağ, Konuş, and Rupçoz.