"National Geographic", 1912, 1118-1132
1118
THE RACES AND RELIGIONS OF MACEDONIA*
By Luigi Villari
Author of “Russia under the Great Shadow”
Had the population of Macedonia been homogeneous, the Macedonian problem
would have been settled long ago, but the mixture of races has ever been
a marked characteristic of the Balkan Peninsula, and of no part of it more
so than of Macedonia.
It is necessary to begin by explaining what is meant by the term Macedonia.
The country forms neither a racial, a linguistic, nor a political unit.
Geographically it is a unit, being bounded by the Shar Dagh on the North,
the Albanian mountains on the west, the river Bistritza and the Aegean
Sea on the south, and the Rhodope mountains on the east, and at a remote
period of its history it formed a kingdom. The country which we now call
Macedonia consists three vilayets os Salonica, Monastir and Kosovo, and
the Macedonian question refers to the condidtions of those provinces. The
expression, however, is often extended to the Adrianople vilayet as well,
where the conditions are somewhat similar. But, geographically, it is quite
separate from Macedonia.
It must be remembered that the Turk-
* From “The Balkan Question,” edited by Luigi Villari
1119
A café in Macedonia
kish division of the empire into vilayets was not made with any regard
to natural or ethnographic lines of demarcation, but rather with a view
to including as many conflicting elements as possible in the same territory,
so as to simplify the task of government. This confusion of tongues and
creeds makes the problem of Macedonian reform or autonomy more difficult
than it was in the case of Greece, Crete, Bulgaria, or Servia.
But it is not only the Turkish government which is to blame for
this for this mixture of races. Macedonia has for two thousand years been
the “dumping ground” of different people and forms; indeed a perfect ethnographic
museum. The mountainous nature of the interior made it a difficult country
to conquer, and the various invaders were never able completely to absorb
the different peoples whom they found in it.
While the greater part of a district was occupied by the invader,
the aboriginal inhabitants retired into the mountain fastnesses and there
maintained their existence; one race established itself on the seacoast
and another held the interior. At the same time, certain centers – large
towns, seaports, fertile plains – attracted men of all the races
for purposes of business convenience. Thus in some parts of Macedonia we
find one population predominant; in others another, and in others again
two or more races exist side by side.
The division of races in Macedonia is not based wholly on difference
of origin or of anthropological type. We may find characteristically Greek
types, Bulgarian types, or Turkish types, but among those who call themselves
Greeks are many whose type and whose origin is not Greek; and so it is
with the others. In certain districts we find members of three distinct
races speaking their respective language but all very similar in type.
Language is a more reliable means of classification, as
the bulk of the Greeks speak Greek, of the Bulgarians, Bulgarian. But religion
makes another distinction, and the Turkish method of
1120
An old market in Macedonia.
1121
Selling lemonade in Adrianople.
classifying peoples according to their creeds cuts across the division
according to race or language.
We may say that, for the Mohammedans, religion is the line of
division, as all Moslems (except the Albanians) may not inaccurately be
described as Turks; for the Bulgarians it is the national church, as practically
every member of the Bulgarian party is a member of the Exarchist Church,
although, of course, propaganda is the basis of the division, as the church
is primarily a political institution (see page 1111); for the Greeks it
is more a question of party, based on adherence to the Greek idea of civilization,
and the Greek party contains many members of the other races; for the Servians
and Rumanians it is chiefly nationality, for they have no separate
church like the Bulgarians, and many who are Servians or Rumanians by race
do not belong to the Servian or Rumanian parties.
The original inhabitants of Macedonia probably belonged to the
great race which we call Thracians, of whom very little is known, while
the Western part of the peninsula was peopled by Illyrians. Descendants
of the former are said to be the Kutzo-Vlachs, or Rumans, while the latter
are represented by the Albanians.
The Greeks never succeeded in wholly Hellenizing Macedonia, their
settlements being limited to the coast towns.
Then came the Roman conquest. Roads were built, towns were founded
in all parts of the country, and military colonies established. The Thracians
soon adopted the manners and the language
1122
Turkish women at Salonica, Turkey
of the Romans, who were the first civilized people with whom they had come in contact, and Greek influence survived on the coast alone. During the early days of the eastern Roman Empire, with its mixed Greco-Latin civilization, the two languages continued to coexist, as well as some of the local dialects.
THE BULGARIANS ARE SLAVICIZED FINNS
The first barbarians to settle permanently in the Balkan Peninsula coming
from the northeast were the Bulgars, a Finnish people whose home was the
middle Volga districts; they now occupied the southern banks of the Danube.
The Slavs are said to have begun to pour into this region as early as the
third century, but they were not established until after the Bulgarian
invasion.
Their position in the east of Europe bears certain analogies
to that of the Teutons in the west. They soon amalgamated with the Bulgars
and gave them their language; the result of that union is the modern Bulgarian
people, who may be described as slavicized Finns.
No trace of the original Bulgars remain, although some of the
Macedonian have Finnish features, and the Bulgarians of today speak a purely
Slavonic language. The Slavs and Bulgarians drove other races of the interior
before them, and Slavonic displaced all the others, save the Latin spoken
by isolated settlements of Vlachs who retired into the mountains, and the
dialect of the Illyrians, who were confined in the west region known as
Albania.
Thus, as early as the ninth century we have in Macedonia most
of the elements which now make up the population of this country – Greeks
on the coast and in the large towns; Slavs in the interior, Illyrians or
Albanians in the west, and isolated settlements of Latinized Thracians
or Vlachs in the mountains; the Slavs themselves soon divide into two groups
– the Slavicized Bulgars and the Serbs.
These various elements were partly under the dominion of the
Eastern Empire, which was not, however, strong enough to Hellenize them,
and partly
1123
A Muslim village
In the villages the people are all of one faith and their costumes
are in accord.
under that of Slavonic princes. In time they might have amalgamated,
although, owing to the peculiar conditions of the Balkan Peninsula, the
process was bound to be slow. But the Turkish conquest supervened, and
crystallized the different races, so that each preserved its nationality
and its individuality. The Turks were never numerous enough to absorb the
subject peoples, but they were strong enough to prevent any one of them
from becoming predominant.
Unlike other conquerors, they did not attempt to impose their
language or customs on the conquered, but they did try to convert them
to Islam by maintaining those who refused to be converted in a position
of inferiority. A number of Greeks, Slavs, Albanians. And Vlachs did become
Moslems, but those who did not, and were prepared to face persecution and
occasional outbursts of savage fanaticism, were able to preserve their
nationality. Thus these conflicting elements survived until the present
day.
This rivalry between Christian races has made the task of ruling
Macedonia a fairly easy one. The Turks availed themselves of those differences
to the full; but the constant oppression and persecution has ended by making
all the Christians discontented, and the anarchy of the maladministration
and civil war has reached such a pitch that some change of regime is felt
by all to be an absolute necessity.
THE MOHAMMEDANS OF MACEDONIA
Macedonia was the first country in Europe to be subjected to Ottoman
rule, and long before the capture of Constantinople the Turks subjugated
it and studded it with numerous Turkish colonies.
All travelers who know Turkey bear witness to the many good qualities
of the individual Mohammedan, especially of the genuine Osmanli Turk –
he is sober, patient, religious, cleanly in his habits, dignified in bearing.
But there is also no doubt as to his utter inability to make
a good ruler, es-
1124
One family of Christians, Macedonia
pecialy when he has to rule over Christians; the Turkish peasant, when
living among Christians, whom he is taught to despise, who are unarmed
while he is armed, who can obtain no justice for any violence committed
by him against them, naturally becomes arrogant and cruel. In a mainly
agricultural community quarrels as to the ownership of land are bound to
arise, and in these cases it is always the Turk who obtains the advantage
(see pages 1132 and 11344).
The Mohammedans suffer from the utter chaos and corruption of
the Turkish government, and while in theory they are privileged class,
their privileges are given them in the form of license to pillage, and
on occasion to murder, their Christian neighbors.
The Turks are essentially nomads, and, at all events in Europe,
they are little more than an army of occupation holding the country by
a military tenure. The idea of abandoning Rumelia (by Rumelia the Turks
mean European Turkey generally) is regarded by them as a possibility to
be contemplated, although, naturally enough, they do not wish to see it
realized. If the country were to be placed under a Christian government
the majority of them would probably return to Asia Minor in a short time.
Before the independence of Bulgaria and Servia both these countries
contained a numerous Turkish population, which has slowly but steadily
decreased since they were separated from Turkey. Another characteristic
is their tendency to congregate in the towns.
More important is the decline of their numbers. The Turkish race
shows a steady tendency to decrease, and it is said by some competent authorities
that syphilitic disease are largely responsible for this. In Macedonia,
however, their numbers are kept up by artificial means. In the first place,
the civil and military establishments maintain a quantity of officials
and soldiers in the country; but the most numerous contingent is furnished
by the mohajirs, or emigrant from the emancipated provinces. From Thessaly,
Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Crete there has been a constant stream of Mohammedans,
to the dominions still under the rule of the Padishah, and the majority
of them have been given lands in Macedonia, partly because there were more
estates available and partly because it is now a frontier province once
more. During the
1125
Christian peasants at a Pasha’s court, in the interior of Turkey
Recent rising the Ottoman authorities placed these mohajirs on the lands whose Christian owners had been murdered or had fled. This added a new disturbing element to the situation, as the emigrants are particularly against their Christian neighbors.
THE CHRISTIANS OF MACEDONIA
With regard to the actual number of the Turks of the three vilayets
of Macedonia, it is impossible to get reliable statistics. According to
the most reliable calculations, the Mohammedan population does not amount
to more than 700,000, of whom, perhaps one-third are Osmanli Turks. The
Christians are about 1,300,000 to 1,500,000, so that it is clear that the
country cannot be regarded as a Mohammedan land, much less as a Turkish
land.
The Christians of Macedonia are not united by language, by racial
ties, nor by political aspirations. It is this which has hitherto impeded
the emancipation of the country. There are in Macedonia four Christian
communities – Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, and Rumans, or Kutzo-Vlachs; each
of those nationalities is connected by ties of language and political aspirations
with one or other of the free Balkan states.
The Christians of Macedonia all belong to the Eastern or Orthodox
Church, with the exception of some Catholic Albanians in the north and
a few converts of the various foreign missions. But ecclesiastically they
are divided into two main churches, the Greek or Ecumenical Patriarchate
and the Bulgarian Exarchate (see page 1112). To the former belong all Greeks,
Serbs, Vlachs, Orthodox Albanians, and a portion of the Bulgarians; to
the latter the majority of the Bulgarians. This division is one of the
chief causes of hatred between Greek and Bulgar.
THE GREEKS OF MACEDONIA
After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the Greeks, although
subject to periodical persecutions and massacres,
1126
Scene in Macedonian village; all women of a town dress alike
and frequent pillaging by their masters, were granted certain privileges,
and eventually obtained a position of considerable influence in the Turkish
Empire. By the term Greeks were meant not the Hellenes only, but all the
ex-subject of the East Roman Empire who adhered to the Orthodox Church.
They were constituted into a millet or a community, consisting of a lay
and an ecclesiastical council, which dealt with the internal affairs of
the people, and many important offices were habitually conferred on Greeks.
The Greeks came to be the brain of Turkey and the representatives
of civilization in the Levant. The Greek language was the language of culture,
even among non-Hellenic Christians, and the Greek Church a powerful agency
for the promotion of Greek ideas. In the 18th century Greek influence declined,
and the insurrectionary movements in what is now the Kingdom of Greece
made the Turks look upon the Hellenes with suspicion and hatred. When Greece
became free, the inhabitants of that country considered that the work of
emancipation was but half competed, and aspired to the annexation of much
larger portion of Turkish territory. Some even dreamt of the revival of
the Greek empire, with the capital at Constantinople, but the majority
limited their aspiration to Thessaly, Macedonia, and some of the islands.
In most of the towns of Macedonia the Greek element is the most
conspicuous, and in some the wealthiest; trade and banking are to a great
extent in their hands – although the Rumans and the Jews are keen competitors
– and the shops and the inns all bear Greek inscriptions. In the cafes
and public places one hears much Greek spoken, and most of the people with
whom the traveler comes into contact are Greeks or Greeks speaking; but
in point of actual numbers they are far inferior to the Slavs, and in places
like Kastoria, where the town is thoroughly Greek, the surrounding country
is inhabited by an almost wholly Bulgarian population. But the Greek pa-
1127
Christian peasants at a butcher-shop; Salonica
Meat is sold already cooked as well as raw. Note the distaff on the
left hold by a Bulgarian woman, who is busily spinning as she walks to
market (see page 1130).
triots do not count only the real Greeks as members of their party.
They claim the Vlachs, the Orthodox Albanians, and the Bulgarians who do
not adhere to the Bulgarians church as Greeks, and call them “Vlachophone”,
“Albanophone”, and “Bulgarophone” Greeks, in a word, they consider that
all Macedonians who have not joined the “Schismatic” Bulgarian Church,
except the Servians in the extreme north, are adherents of the Greek party
and of the “Grand idea”. So that, apart from all thought of conquest, they
wish to prove that the great part of Macedonia is a Greek land.
As for the actual numbers of the Greeks, the statistics vary
considerably – from 50, 000 to 700,000 in fact; but it is only the coastline
and the southwestern districts that can be regarded as purely or even prevalently
Hellenic. Their numbers probably amount to about 300,000.
THE BULGARIANS OF MACEDONIA ARE TRUTHFUL AND PRACTICAL
The Bulgarians are a curious people in many ways, and different from
all the other Balkan races. They are very hard working, very energetic,
and of great staying power. They are not brilliant, certainly less clever
than either the Greeks or the Vlachs, and not gifted with a keen commercial
instinct. But as farmers and peasants they are admirable, and they are
found all over the Balkan Peninsula, from Bucharest to Athens, and from
Constantinople to Belgrade, employed in all kinds of work (see pages 1106
and 1117).
They are not yet highly civilized , but they have shown that under
favorable conditions they are capable of astonishing progress. They are
silent, unexpansive, some people might say sullen.; but they have one great
merit, rare, unfortunately among the people of South-eastern Europe – they
are truthful.
The appreciate the value of education most highly, but they are thoroughly
practical, they do not talk about their glorious ancestors like the Greeks
or the Serbs; they think of the present and the future. If they have not
great historic traditions, they are endowed with solid
1128
Cheese booths on grand bazaar; Salonica
equalities, which will make them play a large part in the destinies of the Peninsula.*
THE SERBS
It is not always easy to distinguish the Serbs from the Bulgarians in Macedonia, as the two races are often intermingled in the same districts, and their languages, though different in Servia and Bulgaria, become less so in Macedonia (see page 1131).
THE RUMANS OR VLACHS
The Kutzo-Vlachs ot Rumans of Macedonia, present an interesting ethnographic
and linguistic problem. They are usually admitted to be the descendants
of the aboriginal Thracians, who amalgamated with the Latin colonists and
adopted their language and civilization, and maintained their national
characteristics by retiring to the mountain fastnesses of Macedonia. Latin
influence also survived in the region north of the Danube, where large
military colonies were formed. There is a strong resemblance between the
language of the Macedonians Vlachs and that of the inhabitants of Roumania,
although there is no political, and not much racial, kinship between the
two, and they are separated from each other by a wide belt of purely Slavonic
country.
The Vlachs of Macedonia are very much scattered, their chief settlements
being on the Pindus Range and in the neighborhood of Monastir, Metsovo,
Koritza, Krushevo, Vodena, etc. they descend in winter as far as the Gulf
of Corinth, Avlona, and Durazzo, where the word Vlach has come to almost
synonymous with shepherd.
They are an extremely intelligent, fine-looking people, of considerable
business ability. Their towns and villages, which are usually found on
the summit of hills, are more solidly built than those of any other Balkan
race. Krushevo, which suffered so heavily during a recent rising, was a
notable instance.
*The Slavonic population of Macedonia is estimated at about 1,200,000,
of whom the Bulgarians form much the largest proportion.
1129
Turkish troops; Salonica
But in spite of their love of well-built stone-houses, the Vlachs have
strongly ingrained nomadic habits, and in summer-time their towns are for
the most part abandoned by all the able-bodied males, who wander about
the country as itinerant merchants or kiradjis (dealers in and hirers of
horses). Many of them are men of substance, and have business connections
with all the important centers of the Balkans and Austria-Hungary.
As regards numbers, statistics vary, as usual, very considerably. According
to some authorities, they are not more than 50,00; whereas Rumanian patriots
affirm them to be at least half a million; probably they amount to about
100,000.
But, politically their importance is very small. They have usually
kept on good terms with the Turks, who, until the last rising, treated
them less badly than their other Christian subjects. They attend to their
trade and take little part in political movements. For a long time they
were undistinguishable from the Greeks, whose language they spoke as well
as their own, and the Greek party still count them as Greeks in their statistics
of Macedonia.
THE ALBANIANS
The western districts of the vilayet of Monastir and a large part of
that of Kossovo are inhabited by a race wilder and more primitive than
any to be found in Europe – the Albanians (see pages 1090-1103). Very little
is know of this strange and interesting people, save that they speak an
Indo-European tongue, but do not belong to any of the recognized groups
of the Aryan family. It is probable that they are descended from the ancient
Illyrians, who were driven westwards by the advancing waves of Slavs. Their
language, like the people themselves, is wild and lawless, and has practically
no literature. Even the popular songs are very few.
The Turkish government has deliberately kept them in a state of barbarism
and ignorance, and makes use of them to overawe the neighboring peoples.
They are divided by religion into Mohammedans, who form two-thirds
of the whole number – Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics. But religion
sits lightly on their shoulders, and they are by no means fanatical. In
every tribe, save the Mirdits, who are all Catholics,
1130
Christian (Bulgarian) maiden; Macedonia
The Bulgarian women are always busy. This girls spins as she walks.
Street types; Salonica
1131
Types of Servian herders
The progress of Servia has been disappointing. The other newly constituted
States of the peninsula have escaped the misfortune of a native dynasty,
but Servia has been afflicted with two, and the feud between the houses
of Karageorgevich and Obrenovich has distracted the country throughout
the whole period of its revived national existence. The perpetual conflict
between Austrian and Russian influence, the deadly animosities of political
groups, and the unfortunate domestic history of the Obrenovichs have been
other factors of confusion, while the absence of seaboard, the fiscal tyranny
of Austria-Hungary, and thriftless financial management, have hindered
economic and commercial development. The wars of 1876 and 1877 with Turkey,
and of 1885 with Bulgaria, also tended to the exhaustion of the country.
Constitutional changes have been frequent, and three Servian rulers – Karageorge,
prince Michael, and king Alexander – have been assassinated. Amid all these
drawbacks Servia has lagged in the race of civilization with her neighbors,
Romania and Bulgaria.
The most favorable feature in the condition of Servia is the prosperous
condition of the peasentry; almost all are small land-owners, and well
to do, if not rich, and poverty is almost unknown.
and even in many families, there are both Mohammedans and Christians,
and, although constantly fighting among themselves, religion is hardly
ever the cause of the quarrel. They have but little agriculture, no trade
or industries, and indeed few occupations, save fighting. The Turks have
used them in Europe much in the same way as they have used the Kurds in
Asia, giving license to the plunder and practical autonomy in exchange
for fidelity to the Sultan and persecution of the other races. They also
furnish a useful argument against reforms in Macedonia: for when the powers
demand that the Sultan fulfill his promises, a rising of the Albanians
is at once threatened, and often actually takes places.
With all their barbarism the Albanians have many good qualities.
They are brave, hospitable, and, if you succeed in winning their confidence
and attaching them to your person, absolutely reliable. The foreign embassies
and consulates in Turkey preferably employ Albanians as kavasses (orderlies)
on account of their trustworthiness. They are by no means unintelligent,
and have furnished the Turkish empire with some of its ablest
1132
generals and civil servants. But their best qualities only develop when
they are out of their own country. In Albania they are always more or less
savages.
Among the Catholic Albanians of the north, both Austria and Italy
have done something in the way of education; the Franciscans and the Jesuits
have opened schools in various towns, and the Italian government maintains
colleges at Scutari and elsewhere. For the Orthodox Albanians the Greek
Syllogos has established some schools. But for the Mohammedans nothing
has been done, the Turkish government will not allow them to be taught
in the Albanian language, and, indeed refuses to recognize its existence,
although most of them speak no other.
THE JEWS OF MACEDONIA
At Salonica, and in a few other towns of Macedonia, there are
large Jewish settlements. Like nearly all Jews in Turkey, they are descended
from those driven out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and they speak
a Spanish dialect to this day, but they usually know many other languages
as well. At Salonica they form the majority of the population. Their favorite
occupations are, of course, banking and trade, but the poorer Jews are
boatmen, porters, servants, small shop-keepers, and in one or two districts
even peasants.
They are the one subject race whom the Turk has never persecuted,
and they are in consequence loyal subjects of his Imperial Majesty. They
thoroughly know how to make a “good thing” out of the Turkish government,
and in exchange for being left alone, they are its chief financial support.
They are industrious, honest and intelligent. A great many of them are
the subjects or the protégés of the different foreign powers.
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