Bulgarian Muslims Research Articles

Phenotypic Variability of LGMD 2C/R5 in a Genetically Homogenous Group of Bulgarian Muslim Roma.

Sarcoglycanopathies are among the most frequent and severe forms of autosomal recessive forms of limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMDs) with childhood onset. Four subtypes are known: LGMDR3, LGMDR4, LGMDR5 and LGMDR6, which are caused, respectively, by mutations in the SGCA, SGCB, SGCG and SGCD genes. We present the clinical variability of LGMD 2C/R5 among a genetically homogeneous group of 57 patients, belonging to 35 pedigrees. Molecular genetic analysis showed that all 57 patients were homozygous for the C283Y variant. The muscles of the pelvic girdle and the trunk were affected early and were more severely affected, followed by the shoulder girdle. Macroglossia, hypertrophy of the calves, scapular winging and lumbar hyperlordosis were common in the ambulatory phase. A great intra and interfamilial variability in the clinical presentation of LGMD 2C/R5 was observed, despite having the same underlying molecular defect. Females demonstrated a relatively milder clinical course compared to males. Mean creatine phosphokinase (CK) CK levels were 20 times above normal values. Muscle computer tomography (CT) CT or MRIs showed earlier and more severe involvement of the flexor proximal limb muscles in comparison to extensor muscles.

Identification and Characterization of Novel Founder Mutations in NDRG1: Refining the Genetic Landscape of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 4D in Bulgaria.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy type 4D (CMT4D) is a rare genetic disorder of the peripheral nervous system caused by biallelic mutations in the N-Myc Downstream Regulated 1 gene (NDRG1). Patients present with an early onset demyelinating peripheral neuropathy causing severe distal muscle weakness and sensory loss, leading to loss of ambulation and progressive sensorineural hearing loss. The disorder was initially described in the Roma community due to a common founder mutation, and only a handful of disease-causing variants have been described in this gene so far. Here, we present genetic and clinical findings from a large Bulgarian cohort of demyelinating CMT patients harboring recurrent and novel variants in the NDRG1 gene. Notably, two splice-site variants are exclusive to Bulgarian Muslims and reside in ancestral haplotypes, suggesting a founder effect. Functional characterization of these novel variants implicates a loss-of-function mechanism due to shorter gene products. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the genetic and clinical heterogeneity of CMT4D and highlight novel founder mutations in the ethnic minority of Bulgarian Muslims.

Uncertain Identities: Bulgarian Muslims between Historical Trauma and Resilience

Uncertain Identities: Bulgarian Muslims between Historical Trauma and Resilience

Polityka przymusowej asymilacji bułgarskich muzułmanów w drugiej połowie XX wieku w aspekcie jej konsekwencji ekonomiczno-społecznych

The Socio-Economic Consequences of the Forced Assimilation of Bulgarian Muslims in the Second Half of the 20th Century In research on the forced assimilation in communist Bulgaria, the attention is most frequently paid to the effects of this process in the context of violating fundamental human and civil rights. However, researchers often overlook the socio-economic consequences of the actions taken at that time. The forced assimilation of Bulgarian Muslims, who chose to leave Bulgaria, resulted in a huge economic loss. The unexpected staff shortage has caused problems for the Bulgarian economy on a massive scale. The change in the organization of work has created tensions in the inter-ethnic relations. The aim of this article is to answer the question – did the economic and social consequences of the so-called Revival Process in Bulgaria led to the collapse of Todor Zhivkov’s regime in the late 1980s?

New Dictionary of One Archaic Bulgarian Dialect. [Rev.] Slavka Keremedchieva, Lilyana Vasileva. The Dictionary of one archaic Rhodope dialect ― the Ropka dialect. Sofia: Publishing house on BAN “Prof. Marin Drinov”, 2022. 284 p. ISBN 978-619-245-250-6

The review is devoted to the analysis of the new lexicographic work of the Bulgarian dialectologists of the Prof. L. Andreichin Institute of the Bulgarian Language. BAN, ―a dictionary of one archaic dialect of the Ropka region in the Western Rhodope Mountains. The book is a logical continuation of S. Keremedchieva’s 1993 monograph, which describes the grammar of this dialect. The dictionary significantly complements the understanding of it, which makes it the first comprehensive study of the Rhodope dialect at several linguistic levels: phonological, morphological and lexical. Due to its basic linguistic features, this dialect became a link between the Thracian and central Rhodope dialects, whose speakers, due to a number of geopolitical reasons and events, found themselves outside the borders of modern Bulgaria, in Greece and Turkey. The local Bulgarian population was mostly Islamized in the XVII century, and after the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1879–1882 and 1912, part of the families of Bulgarian Muslims from the villages of Pavelsko, Orekhovo and Studenets were resettled to Asia Minor, Turkey. According to one of the etymological versions of the origin of the name of the village Pavelsko, the fact of the existence here in the past of adherents of the Pavlikian heresy, whose center was the village of Pavelsko, is likely. This hypothesis is supported by numerous linguistic links between the Ropkа dialect and the Pavlikian dialect in Bulgaria. The Ropka dialect has accumulated features of a certain stage in the development of the Bulgarian language, preserving a number of its archaic features, including vocabulary and morphology. Despite the modern intensive changes taking place in everyday life, culture and language, the inhabitants of the Ropka region have preserved their ancestral memory and customs, songs and legends, melodious Rhodope dialect with its ancient features and inimitable architectonics. Rich authentic dialect material is a serious lexical database and a source for scientific research in various fields, including ethnolinguistics.

THE RELATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF YUSUF YAKUBOV WHO İS THE LAST PERIOD BULGARIAN SCHOLAR

Osmanlı’dan ayrıldıktan sonraki zor dönemde Bulgaristan Müslümanlarının dini hayatları üzerinde önemli tesir ve hizmetleri bulunan şahsiyetlerden biri Hâfız Yusuf Yakubov (Şinasi)’dir. 1898 yılında Şumnu’ya bağlı Işıkköy (Osenovets)’de doğan Hâfız Yusuf, Medresetü’n-Nüvvâb’ın başarılı öğrencilerinden ve önde gelen hocalarından biri olmuştur. Öğrencilik yıllarında yayın hayatına da başlayan Hâfız Yusuf, İntibah, Sada-yı İslâm, Medeniyet gibi Bulgaristan Müslümanlarının fikir hayatında önemli bir yere sahip olan dergilerde yazarlık ve başyazarlık da yapmıştır. Mezuniyetinden sonra Başmüftülük Divân-ı Âli-i Şer’î (Yüksek Yargı Kurulu) üyeliği, “Dîn-i İslâm Müdâfileri Cemiyeti”nin genel sekreterliği gibi görevlerden başka, Nüvvâb’ta hocalık yapmıştır. 1950 yılında Türkiye’ye göç eden Hâfız Yusuf’un 1952 yılında Eskişehir’de vefat ettiği kabul edilmektedir. Bu çalışmada genel olarak Hâfız Yusuf’un hayatı ve şahsiyeti hakkında bilgi verilmiş, onun Medeniyet gazetesinde “Medeniyetin Esası Dindir” başlığı altında yayınladığı yazı dizisinin transliterasyonu yapılmış ve bu yazılarından hareketle medeniyet görüşü tahlil edilmiştir.

Cultural Sensitivity Training for Bulgarian Teachers: Results from an Observation Experiment

Abstract: The articles presents training methods and results from an observation experiment in cultural sensitivity training of 39 Bulgarian teachers from a multi-ethnic secondary school in Vetovo, Ruse region. School children belong to 5 ethnic groups: Bulgarians, Bulgarian Christian Roma, Bulgarian Muslim Roma, Bulgarian Turks and Gagauz. The teachers were trained for 3 days in developing their cultural sensitivity, digital literacy and pedagogical competence. They were trained by 4 university professors and were divided into 4 groups of 10 people each, where each group had to switch training to go through all modules. The author's module included developing cultural sensitivity among teachers of all ages. The training included 6 tasks employing the following pedagogical methods: role play, discussion, feedback and group work. The following skills were developed: team work, creative thinking, conflict reconciliation, negotiation skills, adaptability, cultural intelligence, cultural self-awareness. Teachers shared in the course briefing that they felt it was difficult to adapt and use newly developed cultural sensitivity skills in the classroom because of the bureaucratic requirements in their daily work routine. They also expressed concern about the cultural distance between them and their pupils, which could become an obstacle to applying the newly learned skills in the classroom. Key words: cultural sensitivity, multicultural education, digital literacy, pedagogical competence, cultural intelligence.

External Influences and Religious Paticularism in the Balkans: the “Bulgarian Case”

The article examines some of the contemporary external factors and processes influencing religious identity of all Bulgarian citizens who profess Islam (referred to as Bulgarian Muslims in the text). It analyzes the degree of religiousness of the Muslims in Bulgaria, tracing out the major characteristics and leading tendencies of this community. The article studies the strategic potential and foreign policy possibilities by which Turkey is capable of building up a prestige and trust within the Muslim community in Bulgaria. It analyzes some specific Turkish policies for “export” of religiousness towards Muslims in Bulgaria. Keywords: Bulgarian Muslims, religious afiliation, external influences, Turkey JEL: Z12, N34, F54

Milena B. Methodieva. Between Empire and Nation: Muslim Reform in the Balkans. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2021. Pp. xii,.332 ISBN: 9781503613379.

Between Empire and Nation offers a systematic and critical history of Bulgarian Muslims following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Based on a rich trove of archival material and other primary sources, this book focuses on the role of Muslim reformers in negotiating the identity and status of Muslim communities in Bulgaria. By avoiding a state-centered perspective, this study foregrounds the historical agency of Muslim reformers during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Bulgarian state.

Crossing borders: the intersectional marginalisation of Bulgarian Muslim trans*immigrant sex workers in Berlin

ABSTRACT Bordering situates immigrant sex workers at the margins of an already marginalised industry and naturalises the legal conditions of their dispossession and precarity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin, we offer a situated intersectional analysis of the everyday bordering experiences of Muslim trans*immigrant sex workers from Bulgaria (hereafter TISWs). Focusing on three interactional contexts – minority belonging within EU and German politics, encounters with medicolegal institutions, and the new sex work regulation in Germany – our study demonstrates both that everyday bordering experiences derive not solely from national border enforcement and citizenship regulation but also from intersectional sociocultural barriers imposed by non-state actors, while the internal bordering practices of the German state exacerbate the exclusion and marginalisation of sex/gender transgressive people and sex work. We conclude that despite their physical existence as EU citizens in Berlin, TISWs’ everyday bordering experiences require a more nuanced understanding of intersectional systems of oppression which postpones TISWs’ arrival in Berlin indefinitely.

Vernacular Entanglements: Islam and Communism in a Bulgarian Village

Throughout the three decades following the demise of state-socialism in Bulgaria, the terms “communism” and “communist” have been used continuously by all kinds of actors to respond to a plethora of contemporary challenges. Based on ethnographic research in a village in the Rhodope Mountains among Bulgarian Muslims, this article examines how various meanings of “communism” and “communist” have been called upon constantly by members of all generations in order to negotiate Islamic practice and codes of conduct, those deemed local and usual, and those considered as imported from the outside.

CHANGING THE NAMES OF THE BULGARIAN MUSLIMS – ONE MOVIE SUBJECT FROM THE 1990’S

The article presents the results from the study of one of the first movie projects concerning changing the names of the Bulgarian Muslims after 1989. Gori, gori, ogunche (Burn, Burn Fire) (1994), scenario – Malina Tomova, director – Rumyana Petkova, shows the picture of the life in Mugla – a small village settled high in the Rodopi Mountain, Bulgaria. In four series, the team created the movie revealing from a number of aspects one of the most painful processes in the Bulgarian history – changing the Turkish or Arabic names of Bulgarian followers of the Islam religion. The narrator’s point of view is presented through the conflict (in the beginning) between the visions of the main character in the scenario – the young female teacher Marina, who comes in the village from one of the biggest Bulgarian cities – on the one hand, and the traditional life and the communist ideology – on the other. In the article, this conflict that transforms the vision of Marina and turns her prejudices into compassion and understanding, is the main entrance into the psychology of the names changing processes and the social mechanisms, used by the people to relieve the pain and trauma. The movie is analysed in the light of the new tendencies in the Bulgarian cinema during the 70-ies – when the scenario was written, and the new political circumstances in the so-called Time of transition – when the movie was created.

Turkish, Bulgarian and German Language Mixing Among Bulgarian Muslim Roma in Germany

Turkish, Bulgarian and German Language Mixing Among Bulgarian Muslim Roma in Germany

Turkish, Bulgarian and German Language Mixing Among Bulgarian Muslim Roma in Germany

The paper presents the phenomenon of language mixing with Bulgarian by Muslim Roma migrants from northeastern Bulgaria in Berlin, Germany. They identify as Turks and in their everyday communication speak mainly Bulgarian and old variety of Turkish, in the scientific literature known as Balkanized Turkish. They can speak relatively little German and have low proficiency in the language. The paper describes the language mixing as well as the forms of code-switching between Turkish, Bulgarian and German. These linguistic and social phenomena within the Muslim Roma community are analysed within the framework of several sociolinguistic theories regarding code-switching and bilingualism. The theory of J. Gumperz (1962) about communication matrix is used and patterns of Turkish- Bulgarian, Turkish-German and Turkish-Bulgarian-German are presented and analysed. The grammatical categories which are switched in the Turkish-Bulgarian-German language contacts, involve nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and negations. However, code-switching is used only in communication with other Bulgarians. In communication with Turks from Turkey they switch only between Turkish and German and use another variety of Turkish.
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Phantasmic Devices: Wedding Videos and the Creation of an Imagined Transnational Community by Bulgarian Muslims in Spain

Abstract For the Bulgarian Muslims in Spain wedding videos are a popular device for socializing, overcoming nostalgia and keeping pace with the news and events that take place back home in Bulgaria. The mediatization of the ritual allows an extension of the ritual across time and space. Watching the videos is a re-enactment of the celebration and has become part of the ritual itself. Subsequently, this extension of the ritual through a mediated device has led to its subtle transformations. At the same time, wedding videos and the particular mode of use produce a social effect beyond the structure of the ritual. They contribute to the extending and re-creating of a migrant community that spreads over space transnationally and temporally between the past of home and the present of life in migrancy. Drawing on ethnographic material and using the analytical tools of actor-network theory, the main aim of this paper is to trace the uses and effects of wedding videos for transforming the wedding ritual through postponing and re-enacting it on one hand, and for sustaining the phantasm of an imagined virtual community on the other. The broader problem that this paper seeks to address is the specific role that material devices play for producing social effects for migrant communities.

The religious syncretism in the Balkans: The sacred places of Bulgarian Muslims

The religious syncretism in the Balkans: The sacred places of Bulgarian Muslims

Gender, religion, and identity: Modernization of gender roles among the Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks)

Based on an ethnographic research in a Muslim (Pomak) town in Bulgaria, this study explores the dynamics in the notions of gender roles within three generations. The results show that the modernization of gender roles among the Bulgarian Muslims is not a linear and homogeneous process and differs from other Muslim communities. Although the studied community was isolated for a long time during the socialism under the so called “Rebirth process”, the socialist politics for gender equality have predefined the ideas of gender roles among the second generation of women and they have been transferred to the youngest generation. By comparison, to a previous study of another Pomak community in Bulgaria, claimed to be re-traditionalized by the influence of conservative Arabic organizations, this study demonstrates that the need for ethnic identification of Pomaks has intensified two opposite processes in terms of gender roles in two similar communities and the economic changes are not a single dominant factor in these processes.

Limb girdle muscular dystrophy 2G in a religious minority of Bulgarian Muslims homozygous for the c.75G>A, p.Trp25X mutation

Mutations in TCAP gene cause autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2G (LGMD2G), congenital muscular dystrophy and autosomal dominant dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We studied 18 affected individuals from 12 pedigrees, belonging to a Bulgarian Muslim minority from the South-West of Bulgaria, homozygous for the c.75G>A, p.Trp25X mutation in TCAP gene. The heterozygous carrier rate of p.Trp25X among 100 newborns in this region was found to be 2%. The clinical features in the Bulgarian TCAP group include disease onset in the first to the third decade of life, proximal muscle weakness in the lower limbs, followed or accompanied by difficulties in ankle dorsiflexion and involvement of the proximal muscles of the upper limbs 5–9 years after the disease onset. Asymmetry between left and right was present in more than 20% of the affected. Respiratory and cardiac functions were not affected. On the MRI the muscles of the posterior pelvic area, thigh and anterior leg were predominantly affected, while sartorius, gracilis and biceps femoris muscles remained relatively spared.In conclusion, LGMD2G appears to be a common form among Bulgarian Muslims. Homozygosity for c.75G>A, p.Trp25X is associated with a homogeneous clinical presentation, but the clinical course and severity of the disease show inter- and intra-familial variation.

Folk hierolatry among the Bulgarian Muslims

Folk hierolatry among the Bulgarian Muslims

P.151 - Limb girdle muscular dystrophy 2G in a religious minority of Bulgarian muslims homozygous for the c.75G>A, p.Trp25* TCAP mutation

Mutations in TCAP gene cause autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2G (LGMD2G), congenital muscular dystrophy and dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. To describe the phenotypic spectrum of LGMD 2G in a genetically homogeneous group of patients, belonging to a religious minority of Bulgarian muslims. Sixteen affected individuals (11 male and 5 female) from 10 pedigrees underwent neurological examination, including manual muscle testing, electromyography (EMG), cardiac evaluation, ventillatory assessment, evaluation of serum creatine kinase levels (CK) and molecular-genetic testing. The pattern of muscle involvement in the lower limbs was assessed in 2 patients by 3T MRI. Fifteen of the affected were homozygous for the c.75G>A, p.Trp25*mutation, whereas one was compound heterozygous, carrying Glu132Val in exon 2 as second mutation. The mean age at onset was 17.94 ± 3.97 years, ranging between 10 and 25 years. The initial manifestations in 12 patients included proximal muscle weakness in the lower limbs, followed by difficulties in ankle dorsiflexion. In 4 of the affected the proximal and distal weakness in the legs occurred simultaneously. The proximal muscles of the upper limbs became involved 5–9 years after the disease onset. Scapular winging and lumbar hyperlordosis developed late in the course of the disease. Respiratory and cardiac functions were spared. On the MRI the muscles in all three compartments of the thigh and anterior leg ones were predominantly affected, while m. sartorius, gracilis remained relatively spared. Homozygosity for c.75G>A, p.Trp25*mutation is associated with a homogeneous clinical presentation in terms of pattern of muscle involvement. The clinical course and severity of the disease however show inter- and intra-familial variation despite the mutation homogeneity.