Horahane Roma
Horahane Roma are a Romani people that have traditionally practiced Islam and Turkish culture. They are featured prominently in societal perception as Sufi dervishes. Due to the history of Romani people adopting the religion of the areas in which they settled, Islam among the Horahane is generally associated with the Ottoman Empire. The Horahane are colloquially referred to as "Muslim Roma" to distinguish them from non-Muslim Roma that practice a similar culture, as well as from Roma that profess Islamic beliefs but have ethnically distinct cultures. Correspondingly, significant cultural minorities of Muslim Roma are found in Turkey (majority live in East Thrace), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Republic of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, (by mid-1990s estimates, Muslim Roma in Northern Thrace constituted about 40% of Roma in Bulgaria.[1]), (a very small group of Muslim Roma exists in the Dobruja region of Romania, comprising 1% of the country's Romani population[2]), Croatia (45% of the country's Romani population[3]), Southern Russia, Greece (a small part of Muslim Roma concentrated in Western Thrace), Serbia and Crimea. Some speak Balkan Romani, but the majority speak only the language from the host country.
Because of the relative ease of migration in modern times, Muslim Roma may be found in other parts of the world as well. The Muslim Roma also used the word Gypsy for themselves because they didn't perceive it as a derogatory term. Muslim Roma culture is based of the culture of the Ottoman Empire[specify]. Under Ottoman Rule, the Christian and Muslim Roma were separated. Muslim Roma were forbidden to marry Christian Roma. Significant differences between the Muslim and Christian Roma emerged through the centuries.[citation needed]
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim Roma have found themselves under double discrimination in regions where Islam was a minority religion, experiencing both Antiziganism and anti-Muslim sentiment.[4]
Muslim Roma throughout Southern Europe are called by Non-Romani and Christian Romani People as Horahane Roma (also spelled as Khorakhane, Xoraxane, Kharokane, Xoraxai, etc.) and are colloquially referred to as Turkish Roma or Turkish Gypsies in the host countries. However, the term "Turkish Roma" cannot be applied to all Muslim Roma given their wide diversity and backgrounds.
Turkish Roma[edit]
The self-designation Turkish Roma or Turkish Gypsy, is used by sedentary Muslim Roma in Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, who adopted Turkish language as their mother tongue, Turkish culture, Turkish food and Turkish music, at the time of the Ottoman Empire. The English term Gypsy is not a slurword for them. In Bulgaria many refer to themselves as Turks only. The nearly extinct Sepečides Romani language, a strongly Turkish loanwords Para-Romani, was once spoken by the Basket maker group of Turkish Roma as a second language at Rumelia. The Turkish Roma believe, to be the descandants of Egyptian Copts and Indian Vaishyas (Merchants) from different places at the Coastal India, who came through the Indo-Roman relations to Egypt (Roman province). From 1531 until 1913, the Turkish speaking Muslim Roma got their own Sanjak in the Ottoman Empire, the so called Çingene Sanjak in Thrace, and ruled by a local Muslim Rom Baro the so called Çingene Bey.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Gerd Nonneman, Tim Niblock, Bogdan Szajkowski (Eds.) (1996) "Muslim Communities in the New Europe", ISBN 0-86372-192-3
- ^ Ana Oprişan, George Grigore, "The Muslim Gypsies in Romania" Archived 2009-03-05 at the Wayback Machine, in International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) Newsletter 8, September 2001, p.32; retrieved June 2, 2007
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-27. Retrieved 2009-02-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ Peter G. Danchin, Elizabeth A. Cole (Eds.) (2002) "Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe", ISBN 0-231-12475-9
Further reading[edit]
- Roma Muslims in the Balkans by Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov
- Dialect of Xoraxané Roma (in Italian)
- Romá by Leonardo Piasere