Events, symbols, allusions
The text you will read today has no close connection with the current political developments, although a certain thread can be noticed through it that connects the ancient past and its reflexes for the current situation both in the Balkans and in Macedonia. I offer it to the readers not as a historical reading, not as a scientific discovery, but only as information about a part of a less known historical background, as entertainment, as recreation, a break from the complicated and stressful politics unfavorable to our country.
In newspapers, on radio and television, on portals, podcasts and other forms of public information, there is a lot of talk about Bulgarian brothers, Serbian brothers, Greeks and Albanians, Russian and Hungarian brothers, American and Western European brothers. Hardly anyone or no one talks (writes) about Turkish brothers. And it will not be a lie, nor a shameful admission, to openly say that if the Republic of Macedonia (now North) has a long common history with anyone, the present-day Republic of Turkey, successor to the former Ottoman Empire, also known as the Ottoman Empire, would come first.
Despite that historic indisputable evidence, Macedonia and Turkey today do not have any state or local disputes, negotiations, agreements, agreements and similar identity disputes, geographical-territorial claims. The past is the past, the present, reality is everything, what is alive and what works between the two states and the two peoples. No problems, no threats, no ultimatums and diplomatic-state blackmail.
The Turks are a great nation, which for five hundred years governed a small nation on a large geographical territory that still bears the toponym Macedonia. After the Balkan wars and with the Bucharest peace agreement in 1913, it was divided into Greek (Aegean), Bulgarian (Pyrinsk) and Serbian. After 1941, the Serbian part was occupied by Bulgaria, and after 1944, after the end of the Second World War, that territory finally belonged to those to whom it naturally belongs – the Macedonians.
Turkey is not our neighbor, but it is one of the closest countries to Macedonia. If you look at things according to relevant historical sources, if you open the notebooks, if you open the “books” (kitaps) of those born at that time, you will see that all our grandfathers, great-grandfathers were written as subjects of Turkey, born in Turkey, their raja, their oppressed Argat class. If the Turkish authorities demand to be returned or paid for (as some others are demanding) houses, mosques, sarees, bezistens, flea markets, made zadinjas, there you have an international problem, which will not be able to see its end even in a hundred years. Even after the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, until today, the Turkish authorities look with sympathy on the Macedonian people, on their identity, culture, Christian faith and tradition…
How was the Ottoman Empire created and when did its first armed hordes come to the territory of Macedonia?
Legend has it that the boy Osman, who fell asleep in the house of the sheikh, his spiritual father, saw in a dream how the moon came out of the holy man’s chest and entered his own. He dreamed of a huge branched tree coming out of his navel, casting a shadow over the whole world. He saw in those shadows mountains and valleys, waters and streams and people drinking from that water and watering their gardens. When he woke up, he told the dream to the sheikh and asked him to interpret it. This one said to him: “Othman, son, I congratulate you. Allah has given you and your descendants the title of king and power over the world. Here, as a reward, I also give you my daughter as your wife.”
So, Osman is the first Turkish emperor, or rather sultan, and the centuries-old strong Ottoman Empire was named after him. The second is Orhan. The third is Murat, son of Orhan, the main character of this text, who has a connection with Macedonia, with Macedonian distant history. Namely, Murat is the first Turkish leader and military leader who set foot on Balkan soil. In 1371, he crossed the river Maritsa, which is the geographic Balkan-European border, and defeated the Christian forces, composed mainly of drunken Serbian soldiers. This with the drunken Serbs may be a fabrication, but history says that, in fact, the discord of the Balkan Christian peoples greatly contributed to facilitating the penetration of the Ottomans into Europe.
Be that as it may or as it is presented, stories are one thing, documents are another, as historians would say. One of those documents, preserved and not rewritten, is the firman from 1386, with which Sultan Murat I authorizes Evren-bey to govern southern Macedonia. Exactly – with southern Macedonia. With the sublime sultan’s signature, he orders the following: “To his dignity, the protector and founder of the province, pride among the noble conquerors, the commander of the soldiers for faith and for the extermination of the faithless heathens, to Hadji Evren-bey, may happiness be with him throughout his life, for his merits I grant him the city of Jumurjin, the city of Ser, as far as Bitola, as far as Biglishte and Khrupishte, which will henceforth be one Rumelian sandjak, and which he earned with his saber.”
“I am appointing you as the chief commander of these countries and of these fighters for the faith. Be a faithful master to them. Just beware of vanity and pride, self-praise, lest they make you say that you have opened and conquered these parts of Rumelia. When expanding the Ottoman power to Europe, keep in mind and do not forget that the land first belongs to God, and then to the Prophet, and that it was given to you through them and through me.” (for clarification: Rumelia included all of geographical Macedonia, the entire Balkans and all the peoples who lived in those areas. The other was Anatolia. The names of the places in the text are given according to today’s Macedonian toponyms, not according to Turkish toponyms. The large villages of Biglishte and Hrupiste are located in the vicinity of Korcha, that is, they are near the present-day tri-border between Macedonia, Albania and Greece, not far from Prespa as a whole).
What is more interesting are the recorded advices that Sultan Murat, together with the firman, gave to his deputy Evren-bey, advices that have not lost their relevance, freshness and moral principles to this day. Here is what advice he wrote to him: “Take this advice and remember it. Know that the places you have received in Rumelia are far from each other. To rule them, to satisfy their needs and to preserve the peace, you will have to gather around you men of sword and pen. Take care not to reach for the wealth of those close to you. Do not interfere in God’s affairs, do not trust anyone and do not open yourself to anyone. You will see many who are fasting and doing various things at night, even though they are worshiping the idol. Do not let the external appearance deceive you. Do not rely on what you know about him from before, because it is known that the body of the son of man is subject to all kinds of changes get to know the one to whom you are entrusting something. See if he remains the same since the time you knew him and measure his words accordingly.
Listen also to this advice: if the governors you appoint to serve you in the interior are hardworking and honest, it will be good for heaven as well. He ordered everyone of other faiths to consider Muslims as their brothers. The subjects should not be held strictly, let them not be harmed and punished without reason. Let the governors always keep in mind that the day will come when the records of the deeds done in the past will fall like snow, that the day will come when judgment will be given.
Let them take care of the poor. Let them provide enough means of living. The poor are dear to Allah, he takes upon himself their poverty, when the day comes he will not discriminate those who have wealth. Respect respectable people, especially scholars, as well as Sheikh Fekiya, Sheikh of Islam for all of Rumelia. He takes care of his imams, who are the successors of the Prophet’s descendants. Show them love and mercy, respect them and protect them.
Open the doors for rewards and gifts to the spahis. Beware of being too broad-handed, but don’t be a sissy. Do not receive from them even the smallest reward because you set them up. Don’t take it lightly, don’t be greedy. He works honestly. Do not brag in front of others about your courage and heroism, but see that your sword is always sharpened and sharp. “Feed your horse well.”
The letter quoted above was written in the year 1386 according to the current calendar, ie 788 according to the Islamic one. Then Evren-bey was appointed as the imperial governor in Macedonia, and before that he was one of the first akinji, irregular infantry soldiers – units that fought for booty. Everything they seized became their property. The decision to place him in that position is considered as an important political strategic move to integrate the leaders of the ruthless and uncontrolled Akinji into the state system.
Murat is the founder of the first janissary squad composed of Christian children who were recruited through the so-called “blood tax”. Turks from Anatolia began to settle in the conquered territories. He is the first to form a diwan (government) led by viziers (prime ministers). He is remembered for his wise and far-reaching important decision to allow Christian subjects to keep their faith and church courts, to build religious buildings, if the peasants regularly paid him the tithe tax. He is recorded in the chronicles as an excellent strategist and tactician, visionary, reformer. And especially as a leader who knew that the wisest are those who surround themselves with wise and capable people, not with flatterers and half-wits.
As it was said at the beginning, Murat is the first Ottoman general who set foot on European soil and conquered the entire Balkans. He surrendered his soul to Allah on a Balkan land, in the famous Kosovo battle in 1389. He stabbed Miloš Obilić, a Serbian legendary hero, whom Albanian historians claim was not a Serb, but an Albanian.
The Ottoman dynasty existed for six centuries, five of which ruled the territory of geographical Macedonia. During that time, 36 sultans changed at the head of the kingdom, some shorter and some longer. The longest-lived was Sultan Suleiman, nicknamed the Magnificent, who reached Vienna, which he unsuccessfully besieged. Their rule ended in 1922. Starting from Murat to the last sultan Mehmed VI, they left so many traces and a number of open historical questions in the Balkans that even today are not completely cleared up.
Macedonia is not excluded, nor completely cured of the diseases of that Ottoman labyrinth through which the Macedonian people moved. Among the large number of Turkisms in the language, the legacy of today’s main political parties bearing the popular name “sultan-parties” and the leaders being equated with the power and power of the Ottoman rulers remained.
