Recent from talks
Vallahades
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Vallahades
The Vallahades (Greek: Βαλαχάδες) or Valaades (Greek: Βαλαάδες) are a Greek-speaking Muslim population who lived along the river Haliacmon in southwest Greek Macedonia, in and around Anaselitsa (modern Neapoli) and Grevena. They numbered about 17,000 in the early 20th century. They are a frequently referred-to community of late-Ottoman Empire converts to Islam, because, like the Cretan Muslims, and unlike most other communities of Greek Muslims, the Vallahades retained many aspects of their Greek culture and continued to speak Greek for both private and public purposes. Most other Greek converts to Islam from Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus generally adopted the Ottoman Turkish language and culture and thereby assimilated into mainstream Ottoman society.
The name Vallahades comes from the Ottoman Turkish Islamic expression vallâhi 'by God'. They were also known as Φούτσιδες, Foútsides; from φούτσι μ', foútsi m, which is a corruption of the Greek αδελφούτσι μου, adelfoútsi mou 'my brother'. They were pejoratively called Μεσημέρηδες, Mesimérides, because their imams, who were not proficient in Turkish, announced noon prayer by calling out in Greek Μεσημέρι, Mesiméri 'noon'. Though some Western travelers speculated that Vallahades is connected to the ethnonym Vlach, this is improbable, as the Vallahades were always Greek-speaking with no detectable Vlach influences. In Turkish they are known as Patriyotlar 'patriots'; sometimes Rumyöz 'Greek' is used.
The Vallahades were descendants of Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox Christians from southwestern Greek Macedonia, with their conversion to Islam likely occurring in stages between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Vallahades themselves attributed their conversion to the activities of two Greek Janissary sergeants (Ottoman Turkish: çavuş) in the late 17th century who were originally recruited from the same part of southwestern Macedonia and then sent back to the area by the sultan to proselytize among the Greek Christians living there.
However, historians believe it more likely that the Vallahades adopted Islam during periods of Ottoman pressures on landowners in western Macedonia following a succession of historical events that influenced Ottoman government policy towards Greek community leaders in the area. These events ranged from the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, and especially the repercussions of the Orlov Revolt in the Peloponnese, during the period when Albanians exerted significant influence in Macedonia, referred to by some Greek sources as[unbalanced opinion?] 'Albanokratia',[further explanation needed] and the policies[specify] of Ali Pasha of Ioannina, who governed areas of western Greek Macedonia and Thessaly as well as most of Epirus in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The first who is thought to describe Vallahades was François Pouqueville, who visited the area in early 19th c. He doesn't mention them as "Vallahades" and he confuses them with Turks from Vardar. However, those "Turks" are identified as Vallahades from the names of their villages mentioned by Pouqueville. A credible mid 19th c. source is the Greek B. Nikolaides who visited the area and interviewed local Vallahades and recorded oral traditions about their origins, customs etc. His work was published in French in 1859. They are also described by the Greek author and traveller B.D. Zotos Molossos in 1887.
The culture of the Vallahades did not differ much from that of the local Christian Orthodox Greek Macedonians, with whom they shared the same Greek Macedonian dialect, surnames, and even knowledge of common relatives. De Jong has shown how the frequent Vallahades self-reference to their identity as Turks was simply used as a synonym for Muslims. However, De Jong questioned whether they were of pure Greek origin, suggesting that they were probably of mixed Greek, Vlach, Slav, and Albanian origin but had come to speak Greek as their first language because that was the main language used by most people of Christian Orthodox origin in southwestern Macedonia and was also the language later promoted for official use by Ali Pasha.
However, most historians are in agreement with Hasluck, Vakalopoulos, and other modern historians that the Vallahades were indeed of mainly Greek origin. As evidence these scholars cite the fact that as well as the absence of significant Slavic, Vlach, or Albanian elements in the Greek dialect the Vallahades spoke and the surnames they bore, the Christian traditions they preserved reflected Greek rather than Slavic, Albanian, or Vlach characteristics, while the names for geographical features like mountains and streams in the locality of the Vallahades' villages were also overwhelmingly in the Greek rather than Slavic, Vlach, or Albanian languages.
Scholars who accept the evidence for the Greek ethnic origin of the Vallahades also point out that Ottoman-era Muslims converts of even part Albanian origin will very quickly have been absorbed into the wider Albanian Muslim community, the most significant in western Macedonia and neighboring Epirus being the Cham Albanians, while the descendants of Muslim converts of Bulgarian speech and origin had other groups with which they naturally identified, such as the Pomaks, Torbesh, and Poturs.
Hub AI
Vallahades AI simulator
(@Vallahades_simulator)
Vallahades
The Vallahades (Greek: Βαλαχάδες) or Valaades (Greek: Βαλαάδες) are a Greek-speaking Muslim population who lived along the river Haliacmon in southwest Greek Macedonia, in and around Anaselitsa (modern Neapoli) and Grevena. They numbered about 17,000 in the early 20th century. They are a frequently referred-to community of late-Ottoman Empire converts to Islam, because, like the Cretan Muslims, and unlike most other communities of Greek Muslims, the Vallahades retained many aspects of their Greek culture and continued to speak Greek for both private and public purposes. Most other Greek converts to Islam from Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus generally adopted the Ottoman Turkish language and culture and thereby assimilated into mainstream Ottoman society.
The name Vallahades comes from the Ottoman Turkish Islamic expression vallâhi 'by God'. They were also known as Φούτσιδες, Foútsides; from φούτσι μ', foútsi m, which is a corruption of the Greek αδελφούτσι μου, adelfoútsi mou 'my brother'. They were pejoratively called Μεσημέρηδες, Mesimérides, because their imams, who were not proficient in Turkish, announced noon prayer by calling out in Greek Μεσημέρι, Mesiméri 'noon'. Though some Western travelers speculated that Vallahades is connected to the ethnonym Vlach, this is improbable, as the Vallahades were always Greek-speaking with no detectable Vlach influences. In Turkish they are known as Patriyotlar 'patriots'; sometimes Rumyöz 'Greek' is used.
The Vallahades were descendants of Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox Christians from southwestern Greek Macedonia, with their conversion to Islam likely occurring in stages between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Vallahades themselves attributed their conversion to the activities of two Greek Janissary sergeants (Ottoman Turkish: çavuş) in the late 17th century who were originally recruited from the same part of southwestern Macedonia and then sent back to the area by the sultan to proselytize among the Greek Christians living there.
However, historians believe it more likely that the Vallahades adopted Islam during periods of Ottoman pressures on landowners in western Macedonia following a succession of historical events that influenced Ottoman government policy towards Greek community leaders in the area. These events ranged from the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, and especially the repercussions of the Orlov Revolt in the Peloponnese, during the period when Albanians exerted significant influence in Macedonia, referred to by some Greek sources as[unbalanced opinion?] 'Albanokratia',[further explanation needed] and the policies[specify] of Ali Pasha of Ioannina, who governed areas of western Greek Macedonia and Thessaly as well as most of Epirus in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The first who is thought to describe Vallahades was François Pouqueville, who visited the area in early 19th c. He doesn't mention them as "Vallahades" and he confuses them with Turks from Vardar. However, those "Turks" are identified as Vallahades from the names of their villages mentioned by Pouqueville. A credible mid 19th c. source is the Greek B. Nikolaides who visited the area and interviewed local Vallahades and recorded oral traditions about their origins, customs etc. His work was published in French in 1859. They are also described by the Greek author and traveller B.D. Zotos Molossos in 1887.
The culture of the Vallahades did not differ much from that of the local Christian Orthodox Greek Macedonians, with whom they shared the same Greek Macedonian dialect, surnames, and even knowledge of common relatives. De Jong has shown how the frequent Vallahades self-reference to their identity as Turks was simply used as a synonym for Muslims. However, De Jong questioned whether they were of pure Greek origin, suggesting that they were probably of mixed Greek, Vlach, Slav, and Albanian origin but had come to speak Greek as their first language because that was the main language used by most people of Christian Orthodox origin in southwestern Macedonia and was also the language later promoted for official use by Ali Pasha.
However, most historians are in agreement with Hasluck, Vakalopoulos, and other modern historians that the Vallahades were indeed of mainly Greek origin. As evidence these scholars cite the fact that as well as the absence of significant Slavic, Vlach, or Albanian elements in the Greek dialect the Vallahades spoke and the surnames they bore, the Christian traditions they preserved reflected Greek rather than Slavic, Albanian, or Vlach characteristics, while the names for geographical features like mountains and streams in the locality of the Vallahades' villages were also overwhelmingly in the Greek rather than Slavic, Vlach, or Albanian languages.
Scholars who accept the evidence for the Greek ethnic origin of the Vallahades also point out that Ottoman-era Muslims converts of even part Albanian origin will very quickly have been absorbed into the wider Albanian Muslim community, the most significant in western Macedonia and neighboring Epirus being the Cham Albanians, while the descendants of Muslim converts of Bulgarian speech and origin had other groups with which they naturally identified, such as the Pomaks, Torbesh, and Poturs.
Recent media