Dobrujan Arabs

Dobrujan Arabs () are Arab people who assimilated into the Tatar-Turkish population in Dobruja. They were brought from Syria to Dobruja in the 19th century.

History

There were Arabs brought from Syria to Dobruja by the Ottomans in the 19th century. At first the Ottomans brought them to Istanbul, where they worked in carpet factories. When the factories closed, they were jobless, and due to Ottoman policy (according to the law, it was not possible to stay in Istanbul without working) they were brought to Dobruja by the Ottomans in 1843. The population was 255 people. In Dobruja they worked as farmers. According to Ottoman sources, these people were housed in some towns in Dobruja, with generous state support.

The Arabs were highly valued for their skill in practicing agriculture in drought conditions. The territory on which they settled is crossed today by the Romanian-Bulgarian border. Of the five settlements, the most important was Dokuz Ağaç ("Nine trees"), today Măgura, a village in Cerchezu Commune, Constanța County, Romania. They were the only Arab settlements in Europe. The Ottoman census of 1856 reports 145 Arabs (0.9%) in Dobrogea,Dobruja, 1856
/ref> but their number increased significantly after this date. In 1861, French geographer Guillaume Lejean mentioned the fact that during his trip through the Balkan Peninsula in 1854, one of these settlements, Arap-Köy, was already abandoned, while the rest of the settlements enjoyed some prosperity. In 1878, Dobrogea was divided between Romania and Bulgaria, and the new border crossed the area inhabited by Arabs. After this date, the Arab settlements began to decline, and part of the population emigrated to the Ottoman Empire.

A few decades later, in 1913, the Swiss anthropologist Eugène Pittard mentions that these colonies have dissolved and manages to find only a remnant of 14 unassimilated Arabs in the area, all men. Following anthropological analyses, Pittard concluded that some of them had Negroid racial influences and relates this situation to the fact that the Arab population around the Red Sea often shows Negroid racial influences, as a consequence of the African slave trade practiced there in the past and their assimilation by the majority Arab population. Pittard concludes that it is very possible that some of the Dobrujan Arabs have ancestors originating from this area.

In World War I, during planning of an attack on the Suez Canal, Ottoman military records noted that "there were two other volunteer groups made up of Turks, Syrian Arabs, Albanians and others from Romania".

List of villages

Citations

Sources

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{{Arab diaspora
Arab ethnic groups
Syrian diaspora in Europe
Ethnic groups in Romania
Ethnic groups in Bulgaria
Muslim communities in Europe
African diaspora in Europe