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Rumelia (Ottoman Turkish:روم ايلى,romanized: Rum İli,lit. 'Land of theRomans';[a]Turkish:Rumeli;Greek:Ρωμυλία) was the name of ahistorical region inSoutheastern Europe that was administered by theOttoman Empire, roughly corresponding to theBalkans. In its wider sense, it was used to refer to all Ottoman possessions andvassals inEurope. These would later be geopolitically classified as "the Balkans", althoughHungary andMoldova are sometimes excluded.[1][2] During the period of its existence, Rumelia was more often known in English asTurkey in Europe.
Rûm in this context means 'Roman' andėli means 'land', and thusRumelia (Ottoman Turkish:روم ايلى,Rūm-ėli;Turkish:Rumeli) means 'Land of the Romans' inOttoman Turkish. It refers to the lands conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, which formerly belonged to theByzantine Empire, known by its contemporaries as theRoman Empire. Although the termByzantine Empire is used by modern historians, the empire's citizens and emperors called themselves Romans, meaning Greek-speaking Eastern Romans, and embraced a Christian identity. Various languages in the Balkans have long used the descriptor "Roman" to refer to the lands of the former Eastern Roman Empire. The term survives in several languages in the region:Albanian:Rumelia;Bulgarian:Румелия,Rumeliya;Greek:Ρωμυλία,Romylía, or Ρούμελη,Roúmeli;Macedonian; andSerbo-Croatian:Румелија,Rumelija; as wellRomanian:Rumelia. The old Latin documents inGenoa use the termRomania, the common name for the Byzantine Empire during theMiddle Ages.[3]
Originally, theSeljuks used the name "Land of theRûm" (Romans) to defineAnatolia, which the armies of theSeljuk Empire gradually conquered from the Byzantine Empire after theBattle of Manzikert in 1071. The Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate was called theSultanate of Rum by its contemporaries, meaning the "Sultanate of the Roman Empire" or "Roman Sultanate", which mostly covered central Anatolia until theBattle of Köse Dağ in 1243. Anatolia was referred to as Land of the Christians, hence Rum. Afterwards, it was replaced by theAnatolian beyliks, among which the Ottoman Beylik rose to prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries and eventually became theOttoman Empire.
However, following theexpansion of the Ottoman Empire intoAnatolia and theBalkans in the second half of the 14th century and after theconquest of Constantinople (nowIstanbul) in 1453 byMehmed II, the termRumeli came to apply exclusively to the Balkan region of the Ottoman Empire. The region remained primarily populated byChristians; though gradually, theAlbanians,Bosniaks andPomaks, as well as manyGreeks,Serbs,Bulgarians andVlachs, converted toIslam.
Manygrand viziers,viziers,pashas andbeylerbeyis were originally from Rumelia.
Rumelia included the provinces ofThrace,Macedonia andMoesia, which are nowBulgaria andTurkish Thrace, bounded to the north by the riversSava andDanube, west by theAdriatic coast and south by theMorea. In the beginning the main town was the city ofPlovdiv, thenSofia.[4] The name "Rumelia" was ultimately applied to a province composed of central Albania and northwestern Macedonia, withBitola being the main town.
Following theadministrative reorganization made by the Ottoman government between 1870 and 1875, the nameRumelia ceased to correspond to any political division.Eastern Rumelia was constituted as an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire by theTreaty of Berlin (1878),[4] but on September 6, 1885, after a bloodless revolution, it wasunited withBulgaria.[5] TheKosovo Vilayet was created in 1877.[6]
InTurkey, the wordTrakya (Thrace) has now mostly replacedRumeli (Rumelia) to refer to the part of Turkey that is in Europe (the provinces ofEdirne,Kırklareli,Tekirdağ, the northern part ofÇanakkale Province and the western part ofIstanbul Province). However, "Rumelia" remains in use in historical contexts and is still used in the context of the culture of the current Turkish populations of the Balkans and the descendants of Turkish immigrants from the Balkans. The region in Turkey is also referred to asEastern Thrace, or Turkish Thrace. InGreece, the termΡούμελη (Rumeli) has been used since Ottoman times to refer toCentral Greece, especially when it is juxtaposed with thePeloponnese or Morea. The wordRumeli is also used in some cases, mostly in Istanbul, to refer exclusively to the part of Istanbul Province that is west of theBosphorus strait.
After 1918, with the massive reduction of Hungary's territory and influence, many Western observers held Hungary to be one of the nations of the Balkans. But Hungary never regarded itself as part of that region, especially since the term 'Balkans' carried negative connotations.
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