The ethnonymTurk (Greek:Τούρκοι/Tourkoi,Serbo-Croatian:Turci/Турци,Macedonian:Турчин,Bulgarian:Турчин,Albanian:Turqit) has been commonly used by the non-MuslimBalkan peoples to denote allMuslim people in the region, regardless of their ethno-linguistic background. Most of the Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, however, were indeed ethnicTurks.[1] In theOttoman Empire, the faith ofIslam was the official state religion, with Muslims holding higher rights than non-Muslims.[2] Non-Muslim (dhimmi) ethno-religious[3] legal groups were identified by differentmillets ("nations").[2]
Turk was also notably used to denote all groups in the region who had beenIslamized during the Ottoman rule, especially MuslimAlbanians and Slavic Muslims (mostlyBosniaks).[2] For the Balkan Christians, converting toIslam was synonymous withTurkification, succumbing to "Ottoman rule and embracing the Ottoman way of life," hence "to become a Turk".[2] InSouth Slavic languages, there are also derivative terms, which are seen as more offensive towards Bosniaks, such aspoturiti,poturčiti andpoturica (all essentially meaning "Turk" or "toturkify").[4][2]
Slavic Muslims follow theHanafi school ofSunni Islam, the most dominant school in the Ottoman Empire.[5]Also Orthodox Christian Roma from theBalkans call theMuslim Roma asXoraxane, the meaning of this word inBalkan Romani language is simpleMuslim/Turk.[6]
According to the religious ideology ofChristoslavism, coined byMichael Sells, religion played a key role in maintaining alliances and ethnic identification during tumultuousethnic conflicts inSoutheastern Europe for centuries, from theHigh Middle Ages onward. Sells postulates that there existed a "belief thatSlavs areChristian by nature and that anyconversion fromChristianity is a betrayal of the Slavic race"[7] as seen inCroatianRoman Catholic andSerbianEastern Orthodox ethnic and nationalist movements. Slavic Muslims were, therefore, not regarded part of their ethnic kinship since by conversion to Islam, "they have becomeTurks".[8]
InGreece and in theGreek language, the same belief was held aboutGreek Muslims that they had essentially "become Turks", andtourkalvanoi ("Turco-Albanians") became a common term for MuslimAlbanians who had been a significant minority in the country.[9] All of those terms are now considered pejorativeethnic slurs in their respective languages as well as by those groups that they refer to.
After the end of theFirst World War and thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire, all Ottoman Muslims were made part of the modern citizenry or theTurkish nation.
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