THE PLACE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF OTTOMAN JUDICIAL RECORDS IN THE NOVELS OF LUAN STAROVA AS REPRESENTATIVE OF MACEDONINAN LITERATURE

Abstract

Since the ancient times the humankind has established various civilizations and every nation has created its own history. Under the auspices of the geographical region the empires were influenced by different social and cultural structures. The Ottoman Empire had a deep impact on the politics, economy, religion, culture and society as well as on the protection of the roots of the Balkans. Therefore its splendor, reign, government understanding and traces have been topics of research in many studies. Regardless of their religious and ethnic identities Balkan nations, in their essence, carry several identities and cultures. After the retreat of the Ottoman Empire from this land Balkans faced a turbulent period. New states were established and people that remained in this region started searching for their identities and cultural roots. One of the persons that felt and faced this processes his entire life is the topic of our study Luan Starova. Starova was born in Albania but due to various political reasons his family was often forced to migrate. Living in the Republic of Macedonia Starova has become one of the significant writers whose works have placed their mark on Macedonian literature. The head of Starova family, who had his share of forced migrations, is the father who is also the protagonist of Starova’s novels. In order to discover the roots of the family Luan Starova’s father starts to explore the Ottoman judicial records in Bitola as the only reliable source. In most of his works Luan Starova writes about his father’s quest for their past roots through the exploration labyrinths and his efforts to establish an identity. The significance of the Ottoman judicial records is emphasized in this point. As a result of this research we conducted, starting our journey from the works of Luan Starova, we saw the importance of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, the way it looked after its people regardless of their race and religion through the records kept and the way it became a beacon of light in the dark historical period. Moreover, despite the smear policy of the Ottoman Empire and the Turks contained in the novels in the past and present, we can still state that the most glorious and prosperous period of the people living in this land is the one under the Ottoman Empire.