Ottoman North Macedonia Severna Makedonija (Geographical) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1395–1913 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||
 Map of Vilayets in thegeographical region of Macedonia 1907. | |||||||||
| Common languages | Serbian,Macedonian,Turkish,Bulgarian,Greek | ||||||||
| Government | Sanjaks withinVilayets of theOttoman Empire | ||||||||
| Vizier,Sanjak-bey, andVali | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1395 | |||||||||
| 1913 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | North Macedonia. | ||||||||
North Macedonia was part of theOttoman Empire for over 500 years, from the late 14th century until theTreaty of Bucharest in 1913.[1] Before its conquest, this area was divided between various Serbian feudal principalities. Later, it became part of the Ottoman province orEyalet ofRumelia. The nameRumelia (Turkish:Rumeli) means "Land of the Romans" inTurkish, referring to the lands conquered by theOttoman Turks from theByzantine Empire.[1]
In theBattle of Maritsa of 1371, the King ofLordship of PrilepVukašin Mrnjavčević and his brotherJovan Uglješa led 70,000 men against theOttomans. Despite having smaller numbers, the Ottomans managed to kill Vukašin and his brother and win theBattle of Maritsa.[2]
After the battle, most of Serbia broke into smaller principalities. One of those principalities is known as theKingdom of Prilep, led by Vukašin's sonMarko.[3] Like most regional rulers in the Macedonian region, Marko acceptedvassalage underSultan Murad I to preserve his position.
TheBattle of Kosovo of 1389 sealed the fate of the region of Macedonia for the next 500 years. While both armies lost leaders and large numbers of soldiers, the Ottomans could easily assemble another army just as large while the locals could not.
Marko died alongsideKonstantin Dragaš at theBattle of Rovine in 1395 and the territory of his realm became theSanjak of Ohrid.[4][5]
All of Vardar Macedonia was under Ottoman control by the early of the 15th century, with Skopje falling under Turkish rule on January 19, 1392.[6][7]Aside from conflict withSkanderbeg's forces, in which areas of western part of the region of Macedonia became a battleground ofOttoman–Albanian war for more than 20 years (1444–1467), the Ottoman Empire ultimately succeeded in taking the region, incorporating it into Rumelia Eyalet.[8]
From its foundation, the province of Rumelia encompassed the entirety of the Ottoman Empire's European possessions. The first capital of Rumelia was probablyEdirne (Adrianople), which was also, until theFall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans' capital city. In the 18th century, Monastir (present dayBitola) emerged as an alternate residence of the governor, and in 1836, it officially became the capital of theeyalet. At about the same time, theTanzimat reforms, aimed at modernizing the Empire, split off the neweyalets ofÜsküb,Yanya andSelanik and reduced the Rumelia Eyalet to a few provinces around Monastir. The rumpeyalet survived until 1867, when, as part of the transition to the more uniformvilayet system, it became part of theSalonica Vilayet.[9][10]
The reduced Rumelia Eyalet, centred at Manastir, encompassed also thesanjaks of Iskenderiyye (Scutari), Ohri (Ohrid) and Kesrye (Kastoria). In 1855, according to the French traveller A. Viquesnel, it comprised thesanjaks of Iskenderiyye, with 7kazas or sub-provinces, Ohri with 8kazas, Kesrye with 8kazas and thepasha-sanjak of Manastir with 11kazas.[11]
After administrative reform in 1860s, the Ottoman Empire was divided intovilayets which were subdivided intosanjaks.
The northern part of the Macedonian region was included in theKosovo Vilayet. Sanjaks located in this vilayet that contained territory now within the Republic of North Macedonia were:
The southwestern part of the region was located in theMonastir vilayet. Sanjaks located in this vilayet that contained territory now within the Republic of North Macedonia were:
The southeastern part of the region was located in theSalonika vilayet. Sanjaks located in this vilayet that contained territory now within the Republic of North Macedonia were:
Ottoman censuses did not count ethnic groups, but rather millets, and increasingly from the 1870s onwards, ethnoconfessional groups. Thus, "Muslims" in the 1881/82 Census covered all adherents of Islam, regardless if they were ethnic Turks, Slavs, Albanians, Romani, etc. "Greeks" referred to all Greeks and to any Vlachs, Albanians and Slavs, who considered themselves to be Greek (or Serbian). "Bulgarians"comprised onlythose (Christian) Slavs, who considered themselves Bulgarians.
Thus, according to theOttoman General Census of 1881/82, the population of the kazas currently falling within the borders of the Republic of North Macedonia is divided into the following ethnoconfessional grou[s:[12]
| Kaza1 | Bulgarians | Muslims | Greeks | Miscellaneous2 | Kaza total | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |||||||
| Köprülü | 32,843 | 64.0 | 18,093 | 35.2 | 420 | 0.8 | 0 | - | 51,356 | 100% | ||||||
| Tikveş | 21,319 | 51.3 | 19,909 | 47.8 | 260 | 0.6 | 32 | 0.1 | 41,520 | 100 | ||||||
| Gevgili | 5,784 | 14.9 | 17,063 | 44.0 | 14,558 | 37.5 | 1,402 | 3.6 | 38,807 | 100 | ||||||
| Toyran | 5,605 | 20.6 | 19,423 | 58.2 | 1,591 | 5.9 | 551 | 2.0 | 27,170 | 100 | ||||||
| Usturumca | 2,974 | 9.0 | 15,760 | 47.7 | 13,726 | 41.6 | 564 | 1.7 | 33,024 | 100 | ||||||
| Selanik Vilayet Subtotal | 68,525 | 35.7 | 90,248 | 47.0 | 30,555 | 15.9 | 2,549 | 1.3 | 191,877 | 100 | ||||||
| Üsküp | 22,497 | 32.1 | 40,256 | 57.3 | 6,655 | 9.5 | 762 | 1.1 | 70,170 | 100 | ||||||
| Karatova | 19,618 | 81.8 | 4,332 | 18.1 | 33 | 0.1 | 0 | - | 23,985 | 100 | ||||||
| Kumanova | 29,478 | 70.5 | 12,268 | 29.3 | 87 | 0.2 | 8 | 0.0 | 41,841 | 100 | ||||||
| Planka | 18,196 | 88.1 | 2,078 | 10.1 | 388 | 1.8 | 0 | - | 20,662 | 100 | ||||||
| İştip | 17,575 | 41.6 | 24,166 | 57.2 | 0 | - | 515 | 1.2 | 42,251 | 100 | ||||||
| Kaçana | 33,120 | 59.7 | 22,239 | 40.1 | 83 | 0.2 | 0 | - | 55,442 | 100 | ||||||
| Radovişte | 7,364 | 41.0 | 10,519 | 58.5 | 0 | - | 97 | 0.5 | 17,980 | 100 | ||||||
| Kalkandelen | 9,830 | 22.4 | 29,212 | 66.3 | 4,990 | 11.3 | 0 | - | 44,032 | 100 | ||||||
| Kosova Vilayet Subtotal | 157,678 | 49.8 | 145,070 | 45.9 | 12,236 | 3.9 | 1,382 | 0.4 | 316,363 | 100 | ||||||
| Monastir | 61,494 | 44.7 | 30,517 | 22.2 | 41,077 | 29.9 | 4,365 | 3.2 | 137,453 | 100 | ||||||
| Ohri | 33,306 | 63.2 | 16,360 | 31.0 | 3,049 | 5.8 | 0 | - | 52,685 | 100 | ||||||
| Pirlepe | 43,763 | 73.8 | 14,270 | 24.0 | 1,248 | 2.1 | 42 | 0.1 | 59,327 | 100 | ||||||
| Kirçova | 20,879 | 60.1 | 13,282 | 38.8 | 64 | 0.2 | 4 | 0.0 | 34,229 | 100 | ||||||
| Monastir Vilayet Subtotal | 159,442 | 56.2 | 74,429 | 26.2 | 45,438 | 16.0 | 4,411 | 1.6 | 283,694 | 100 | ||||||
| NORTH MACEDONIA borders | 385,645 | 48.7 | 309,747 | 39.1 | 88,229 | 11.1 | 8,342 | 1.1 | 791,963 | 100 | ||||||
1 The kaza of Dibra did not participate in the census. 2 The "Miscellaneous" category includes, among other things, Jews—numbering 4,274 in Monastir, 724 in Üsküp, 573 in Usturumca, 515 in İştip, 167 in Toyran, etc.;Greek Catholic (Uniate) Bulgarians—numbering 1,402 in Gevgili, 376 in Toyran. etc.; Protestants—numbering 97 in Radovişte, and so on. | ||||||||||||||||
The Balkan Wars consisted of two wars that occurred in 1912 and 1913. The first began on 8 October 1912 when the nations of theBalkan League, who had large parts of their ethnic populations under Ottoman rule, attacked the Ottoman Empire. It lasted seven months with the Balkan League nations coming up victorious, ending 500 years of Ottoman rule in the Balkans.[13]
During the Ottoman rule of the Balkans, cities experienced many changes with regards to the demographic makeup of their population and the look of their cityscapes. With laws that prohibited Christian buildings from being higher than Islamic ones, the skylines of cities like Üsküp (Skopje) and Manastır (Bitola) were dominated by minarets.[14]
Ottoman travellerEvliya Çelebi visited the city of Manastır in 1661. He wrote that of the seven mosques in the city at the time, six were built in the 16th century. Most of the mosques constructed on the territory of today's Republic of North Macedonia were square in shape with a three-domed portico and a minaret on the building's right side.[15]
ОХРИДСКИ САНЏАК (Liva i Ohri): Овој санџак исто така е еден од најстарите санџаци во Румелискиот беглербеглак. Се смета дека бил создаден по загинувањето на крал Марко (1395),..
Poslije pogibije kralja Marka i Konstantina Dejanovića na Rovinama (1394) pretvorene su njihove oblasti u turske sandžake, Ćustelndilski i Ohridski.
A monk at the Saint Theodor Monastery on Mt. Vodno briefly recorded the date of the town's capture by the Turks: "In the 69th year (1392) the Turks took Skopje on the 6th day of the month (January 19, 1392 according to the new calendar).
...half of it was constructed underground, due to the 17th century edict of the Turkish Sultan that prohibited Christian structures from being higher than mosques.
