Rūm millet (millet-i Rûm), or "''Roman nation''", was the name of the
Eastern Orthodox Christian
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
community in the
Ottoman Empire. Despite being subordinated within the Ottoman political system, the community maintained a certain internal autonomy.
Establishment and development
After the
fall of Constantinople to the
Ottoman Empire in 1453, all Orthodox Christians were treated as a
lower class of people. The Rum millet was instituted by
Sultan Mehmet II
Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...
who set himself to reorganise the state as the conscious heir of the
East Roman Empire. The Orthodox congregation was included in a specific ethno-religious community under ''Graeco-Byzantine'' domination. Its name was derived from the former Eastern Roman (a.k.a. ''Byzantine'') subjects of the Ottoman Empire, but all Orthodox
Greeks,
Bulgarians
Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe.
Etymology
Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...
,
Albanians
The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. ...
,
Aromanians
The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and c ...
,
Megleno-Romanians and
Serbs, as well as
Georgians and
Middle Eastern Christians
Christianity, which originated in the Middle East during the 1st century AD, is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of the ...
, were considered part of the same
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets also ...
in spite of their differences in ethnicity and language. Belonging to this Orthodox commonwealth became more important to the common people than their ethnic origins. This community became a basic form of social organization and source of identity for all the ethnic groups inside it and most people began to identify themselves simply as "Christians". However, under Ottoman rule ethnonyms never disappeared, which indicates that some form of ethnic identification was preserved. This is evident from a Sultan's
Firman from 1680 which lists the ethnic groups in the Balkan lands of the Empire as follows: Greeks (Rum), Albanians (Arnaut), Serbs (Sirf), "Vlachs" (Eflak, referring to the Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians) and the Bulgarians (Bulgar). Christian Armenians who belonged to the
Armenian Apostolic Church
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, icon_width = 100px
, icon_alt =
, image = Էջմիածնի_Մայր_Տաճար.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, a ...
were not included as they were given a separate millet.
Christians were guaranteed some limited freedoms, but they were not considered equal to
Muslims, and their religious practices would have to defer to those of Muslims, in addition to various other legal limitations. The
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was recognized as the highest religious and political leader, or
ethnarch
Ethnarch (pronounced , also ethnarches, el, ) is a term that refers generally to political leadership over a common ethnic group or homogeneous kingdom. The word is derived from the Greek words ('' ethnos'', "tribe/nation") and (''archon'', "l ...
, of all Orthodox subjects. The
Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and the
Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid
The Archbishopric of Ohrid, also known as the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid
*T. Kamusella in The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe, Springer, 2008, p. 276
*Aisling Lyon, Decentralisation and the Management of Ethni ...
, which were autonomous Eastern Orthodox Churches under the tutelage of the Ecumenical Patriarch, were taken over by the Greek
Phanariotes during the 18th century. The
Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, from 1774, allowed Russia to intervene on the side of Ottoman Eastern Orthodox subjects, and most of
the Porte's political tools of pressure became ineffective. At that time the Rum millet had a great deal of power—it set its own laws and collected and distributed its own taxes. The
rise of nationalism in Europe under the influence of the
French Revolution had extended to the Ottoman Empire and the Rum millet became increasingly independent with the establishment of its own schools, churches, hospitals and other facilities. These activities effectively moved the Christian population outside the framework of the Ottoman political system.
During Ottoman rule, those in the millet were provided with certain protections and privileges, and were treated with preference over Catholic Christians. In some areas such as Crete, both Muslims and Orthodox Christians were permitted to attempt to convert the local Catholic population. This bias towards the Orthodox worked to secure the loyalty of those within the millet''.'' It worked to make newly conquered citizens focus less on internal divisions and more on the conflict between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. Further encouragement of Orthodox artisans who made ecclesiastical silverware, robes, and chalices made Constantinople, although under Ottoman rule, a still-vibrant hub of Orthodoxy.
Rise of nationalism and decline
In the early 19th century, the Greek Orthodox intellectuals tried to reconceptualize the Rum millet. They argued for a new, ethnic "Romaic" national identity and new Byzantine state, but their visions of a future state included all Balkan Orthodox Christians. This
Megali Idea implied the goal of reviving the Eastern Roman Empire by establishing a new Greek state. It spread among the urban population of Aromanian, Slavic and Albanian origin and it started to view itself increasingly as Greek. On the other hand, the Ottoman
Tanzimat reforms in the middle of the 19th century were aimed to encourage
Ottomanism
Ottomanism or ''Osmanlılık'' (, tr, Osmanlıcılık) was a concept which developed prior to the 1876–1878 First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire. Its proponents believed that it could create the social cohesion needed to keep millets ...
among the secessionist subject nations and stop the nationalist movements within the Empire, but failed to succeed. With the
rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire, the Rum millet began to degrade with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic nationality. The national awakening of each ethnic group inside it was complex and most of the groups interacted with each other. The
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate ( bg, Българска екзархия, Balgarska ekzarhiya; tr, Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and th ...
recognized by the Ottomans in 1870 was only a link in a series of events following the unilateral declaration of an autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece in 1833 and of Romania in 1865.
[Cristian Romocea, Church and State: Religious Nationalism and State Identification in Post-Communist Romania; A&C Black, 2011, , p. 129.]
The 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula. The Serbian Orthodox Church also became autocephalous in 1879. The Albanians' fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among neighbouring Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece fueled the rise of Albanian nationalism and the
League of Prizren
The League of Prizren ( sq, Besëlidhja e Prizrenit), officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation ( sq, Lidhja për mbrojtjen e të drejtave te kombit Shqiptar), was an Albanian political organization which was offi ...
was founded. The recognition of the Aromanians as a distinct millet (the
Ullah Millet
The Ullah Millet (or "Vlach Millet") was a separate millet (that is, a recognized ethno-religious and linguistic community) within the Ottoman Empire. It was established by the Ottoman authorities for the Aromanians (also known as "Vlachs") in 19 ...
) in the Ottoman Empire in 1905 was the final straw in this Balkan nationalistic competition. As a result, intense ethnic and national rivalries among the Balkan peoples emerged at the eve of the 20th century in Macedonia. That was followed by a series of conflicts among Greeks (
Grecomans
Grecoman or Graecoman (Greek: Γραικομάνοι, ''Grekománoi'', Bulgarian: Гъркомани, ''Garkomani'', Macedonian: Гркомани, ''Grkomani'', Romanian: ''Grecomani'', Albanian: ''Grekomanë'', Aromanian: ''Gricumanji'') is a p ...
), Serbs (
Serbomans
Serbomans ( Serbo-Croatian and mk, србомани, srbomani; bg, сърбомани, sarbomani; ro, sârbomani) is a Bulgarian pejorative term used by Bulgarian nationalists for inhabitants in the region of Macedonia that claimed Serbian ethn ...
), Bulgarians (
Bulgarophiles
Bulgarophiles ( bg, българофили; Serbian and Macedonian бугарофили or бугараши ; ; ro, Bulgarofilii) is a term used for Slavic people from the regions of Macedonia and Pomoravlje who are ethnic Bulgarians. In Bulga ...
) and Aromanians (''Rumanophiles'') in the region. The
Young Turk Revolution of 1908 restored the Parliament, which had been suspended by the Sultan in 1878. However, the process of supplanting the monarchic institutions was unsuccessful and the European periphery of the Empire continued to splinter under the pressures of local revolts.
Subsequently, with the
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...
(1912–1923) and the
First World War (1914–1918) the Ottoman Empire lost virtually most of its possessions, except these in
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
. During these wars and the following
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) the Orthodox Christians there were subject to persecution and deportation, and the
Assyrians and
Greeks even to a
Genocide. That put de facto end to the community of the Rum millet. The
Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of Lausanne (french: Traité de Lausanne) was a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially settled the confl ...
from 1923, led to the recognition of the new
Republic of Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
and to the end of the
Ottoman Empire itself.
See also
*
Rûm
*
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
*
Rumelia
Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians from the Byzantine rite, was the name of a hist ...
*
Phanariotes
*
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
*
Antiochian Greek Christians
Antiochian Greek Christians (also known as Antiochian Rūm) are a Levantine Arabic-speaking ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group residing in the Levant region. They are either members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch or the Melkite Greek C ...
*
Bulgarian Millet
Bulgarian Millet ( tr, Bulgar Milleti) was an ethno-religious and linguistic community within the Ottoman Empire from the mid-19th to early 20th century. The semi-official term ''Bulgarian millet'', was used by the Sultan for the first time in ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Greek Millet Constitution: .
* - The French translation of the Greek Millet Constitution is i
Volume 2 of 7, pages 21-34
Sources
From Rum Millet to Greek Nation: Enlightenment, Secularization, and National Identity in Ottoman Balkan Society, 1453–1821, Victor Roudometof.Balkan cultural commonality and ethnic diversity. Raymond Detrez (Ghent University, Belgium).
{{Ottoman Greece
History of the Ottoman Empire
Nation
Christianity in the Ottoman Empire
Serbs from the Ottoman Empire
Greeks from the Ottoman Empire
Bulgarians from the Ottoman Empire
Albanians from the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman period in the Balkans
Eastern Orthodox Christians