Greek Muslims

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Greek Muslims


caption = "Young Greeks at the Mosque" (Jean Léon Gérôme, oil on canvas, 1865); this oil painting portrays Greek Muslims at prayer in a mosque).
population = "Unknown"
regions = Turkey· Cyprus· Syria· Lebanon· Greece
languages = Greek (Pontic, Cretan, Cypriot)· Turkish
religions = Islam
related = other Greeks· Turks

Greek Muslims, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims, are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin, and are found primarily in Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece, although migrations to Lebanon and Syria have been reported [Barbour, S., "Language and Nationalism in Europe", Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-823671-9] . The vast majority of the autochthonous Muslim minority in Greece (including the Greek-speaking Muslims), most of whom are fluent in Turkish, espouse a Turkish national identity. Historically, Greek Orthodoxy has been associated with being "Rum" (روم) and Islam with being "Turk" (Τούρκος), despite ethnic or linguistic references.

Most Greek-speaking Muslims in Greece left for Turkey during the 1920s population exchanges under the Treaty of Lausanne (sometimes in return for Turkish-speaking Christians), with the exception of the Muslims in Thrace, who are officially recognized as a minority. The largest community of Greek-speaking Muslims in today's Greece is among Dodecanese Muslims who were spared from the population exchange due to Italian rule over the islands.

In Turkey

In Turkey, where most Greek-speaking Muslims liveFact|date=March 2008, there are various groups of Greek-speaking Muslims, some autochthonous, some from parts of present-day Greece and Cyprus who migrated to Turkey under the population exchanges or immigration.

Pontic Greek Muslims

Muslims of Pontic Greek origins, speakers of the Pontic language (named Ρωμαίικα "Roméika", not Ποντιακά "Pontiaká" as it is in Greece), which is spoken by some people in Tonya, Maçka, Sürmene, Çaykara, and Dernekpazarı districts of Trabzon. Due to mass migration from the region, high linguistic assimilation to Turkish, and the fact that the language has no official status, the total number of the speakers may be guessed; roughly 50,000 - 75,000 peopleFact|date=March 2008. Ömer Asan estimated the number of people of Pontian Greek descent in Turkey at about 300,000 in 1996. According to Heath W. Lowry's [ Professor. Department of Near Eastern Studies. Princeton University] great work about Ottoman tax books [ [http://www.e-bogazici.com/pinfo.asp?pid=224 Trabzon Şehrinin İslamlaşması ve Türkleşmesi 1461–1583] ISBN 975-518-116-4] ("Tahrir Defteri") with Halil İnalcık it is claimed that most Turks of Trabzon city are of Greek origin. The community is usually considered deeply religious Sunni Muslims of Hanafi madh'hab. Sufi orders such as Qadiri and Naqshbandi have a great impact. It is sometimes claimed in Greece that some of the Greek Muslims of Pontus are in fact crypto-Christians. [For example, see http://www.megarevma.net/SecretChristians.htm.] According to the CIA factbook, these people are about one million in numbers and they call their dialect 'Rum'. The Pontic issue is currently the second most important problem in Turkey, after the Kurdish one, and there is an ongoing campaign to eradigate this dialect from the younger generations.

Cretan Muslims

Cretan Turks ("Τουρκοκρητικοί") or Cretan Muslims ("Girit Müslümanları") cover Muslims who arrived in Turkey after or slightly before the start of the Greek rule in Crete in 1908 and especially in the framework of the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations and have settled on the coastline stretching from the Çanakkale to İskenderun. Today, only elderly women may be found to be fluent in Cretan Greek and only estimates can be made regarding their number. They often name the language as Cretan ("Kritika" ("Κρητικά") or "Giritçe") instead of Greek. The Cretan Turks are Sunni (Hanafi) with a highly influential Bektashi minority that helped shape the folk Islam and religious tolerance of the entire community. Significant numbers of Cretan Muslims also settled in Libya especially in the east side cities like soosa and benghazi, where they are distinguishable by their Greek surnames. Many of the older members of tis community still speak Cretan Greek in their homes.

Epirote Muslims

Muslims from the region of Epirus, known collectively as "Yanyalılar" ("Yanyalı" in singular, meaning "person from Ioannina") in Turkish and Τουρκογιαννιώτες "Turkoyanyótes" in Greek (Τουρκογιαννιώτης "Turkoyanyótis" in singular, meaning "Turk" from Ioannina"), who had arrived in Turkey in two waves of migration in 1912 and after 1923. Although majority of the Epirote Muslim population was of Albanian origin, Greek Muslim communities existed in the towns of Souli [ [http://www.paramythia.gr/enpage2.html Municipality of Paramythia, Thesprotia] . "Paramythia.gr"] , Margariti (both majority-Muslim) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=y1NsAAAAIAAJ&dq=greeks+margariti Historical Abstracts: Bibliography of the World's Historical Literature] . Published 1955] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=7c0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA678&dq=margariti+mohammedan Handbook for Travellers in Greece] by Amy Frances Yule and John Murray. Published 1884. J. Murray; p. 678] , Ioannina, Preveza, Louros, Paramythia, and Konitsa. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=cmIcAAAAMAAJ&q=greek-mohammedans&dq=greek-mohammedans&lr=&pgis=1 Das Staatsarchiv] by Institut für auswärtige Politik (Germany), Berlin (Germany) Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Germany Auswärtiges Amt Today. Published 1904. Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.h.; p.31] Hoca Es'ad Efendi, a Greek-speaking Muslim from Ioannina who lived in the eighteenth century, was the first translator of Aristotle into Turkish. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=RjGidYC9pUYC&pg=PA56&dq=greek-speaking-muslim&lr=&sig=ACfU3U3W5feidLaUDXiTTSqpw3NwMHUgRQ Dimitris Tziovas, Greece and the Balkans: Identities, Perceptions and Cultural Encounters since the Enlightenment] by Dēmētrēs Tziovas. Published 2003. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.; p.56] The community now is fully integrated into Turkish culture.

Macedonian Muslims

Muslims living in Haliacmon valley of Central Macedonia were Greek-speaking. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=zOkEAAAAMAAJ&q=Vallahades&dq=Vallahades&pgis=1 Jubilee Congress of the Folk-lore Society] by Folklore Society (Great Britain). Published 1930; p.140] They were known collectively as "Vallahades". They arrived in Turkey after 1923 and became gradually assimilated into Turkish Muslim mainstream. According to Todor Simovski's assessment (1972), in 1912 in Aegean Macedonia there were 13,753 Muslim Greeks. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=8_zeaeTOz6YC&pg=PA85&dq=muslim-greeks+macedonia&lr=&sig=ACfU3U1V_kpw_mBVBLVBR64xuBjBHHTpgA Who are the Macedonians?] by Hugh Poulton. Published 2000, Indiana University Press; p. 85]

Morean Muslims

Cypriote Muslims

In 1878 the Muslim inhabitants of Cyprus (constituting about 1/3 of the island's population, which then numbered 40,000 inhabitants) were classified as being either Turkish or "neo-Muslim." The latter were of Greek origin, Islamised but speaking Greek, and similar in character to the local Christians. Many of the Cypriote Greek Muslims continued to practise Christianity secretlyFact|date=September 2008. Unlike Turkish Muslims, they were less likely to display Muslim fanaticism. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=AfAIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA148&dq=greek-muslims+cyprus The Contemporary Review] by A.Strahan. Published 1878; p. 148] The last of such groups was reported to arrive at Antalya in 1936. These communities are thought to have abandoned Greek in the course of integration. [Peter Alford Andrews, "Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey", Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-89500-297-6]

Crimea

In the Middle Ages the Greek population of Crimea traditionally adhered to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, even despite undergoing linguistic assimilation by the local Crimean Tatars. In 1777–1778, when Catherine the Great of Russia conquered the peninsula from the Ottoman Empire, the local Orthodox population was forcibly deported and settled north of the Azov Sea. In order to avoid deportation, some Greeks chose to convert to Islam. Crimean Tatar-speaking Muslims of the village of Kermenchik (renamed to Vysokoe in 1945) kept their Greek identity and were practising Christianity in secret for a whileFact|date=September 2008. In the nineteenth century the lower half of Kermenchik was populated with Christian Greeks from Turkey, whereas the upper remained Muslim. By the time of the Stalinist deportation of 1944, the Muslims of Kermenchik had already been identified as Crimean Tatars, and were forcibly expelled to Central Asia together with the rest of Crimea's ethnic minorities. [ [http://www.krimoved.ru/region1.html The Russian World: Kermenchik - Crimea's Lonely Spot?] by I.Kovalenko]

Lebanon and Syria

There are about 7,000 Greeks living in Tripoli, Lebanon and about 3,000 in Al Hamidiyah, Syria. [http://webs.uvigo.es/ssl/actas2002/05/08.%20Roula%20Tsokalidou.pdf Greek-Speaking Enclaves of Lebanon and Syria] by Roula Tsokalidou. Proceedings "II Simposio Internacional Bilingüismo". Retrieved 4 December, 2006] The majority of them are Muslims of Cretan origin. Records suggest that the community left Crete between 1866 and 1897, on the outbreak of the last Cretan uprising against the Ottoman empire, which ended the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Sultan Abdul Hamid II provided Cretan Muslim families who fled the island with refuge on the Levantine coast. The new settlement was named Hamidiye after the sultan.

Many Greek Muslims of Lebanon somewhat managed to preserve their identity and language. Unlike neighbouring communities, they are monogamous and consider divorce a disgrace. Until the Lebanese Civil War, their community was close-knit and entirely endogamous. However many of them left Lebanon during the 15 years of the war.

Greek Muslims constitute 60% of Al Hamidiyah's population. The community is very much concerned with maintaining its culture. The knowledge of the spoken Greek language is remarkably good and their contact with their historical homeland has been possible by means of satellite television and relatives. They are also known to be monogamous.

By 1988, many Greek Muslims from both Lebanon and Syria had reported being subject to discrimination by the Greek embassy because of their religious affiliation. The community members would be regarded with indifference and even hostility, and would be denied visas and opportunities to improve their Greek through trips to Greece.

Population

According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Greek is spoken by approximately, 600,000 people in Turkey [http://www.bartleby.com/65/gr/Greeklan.html] , out of whom an estimated 5,000 are members of the remnants of Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul [According to figures presented by Prof. Vyron Kotzamanis to a conference of unions and federations representing the ethnic Greeks of Istanbul. [http://www.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2006/06-07-02.apeen.html#03 "Ethnic Greeks of Istanbul convene"] , "Athens News Agency", 2 July 2006.] . Some Greek sources give the following numbers: Pontic Greek Muslims over 300,000, Cretan Muslims 200,000 - 300,000, Cypriot Muslims (in Turkey) 150,000, Vallahades 50,000. [ [http://www.e-telescope.gr/gr/cat02/art02_060626.htm "Εθνική συνείδηση και μειονότητες στην Τουρκία"] (National consciousness and minorities in Turkey), by Yorgos Stamikos, 26th June 2006.]

See also

* Greek language
* Hamshenis
* Bulgarian Muslims
* Macedonian Muslims
* Pomaks
* Bosniaks

References

External links

* [http://www.greekmuslims.com www.GreekMuslims.com]
* [http://www.karalahana.com Karalahana.com]
* [http://lahana.org/index.php?topic=74.0 Trebizond Greek: A language without a tongue]
* [http://www.ocena.info Radio Ocena]