22 I SPECIAL FEATURE Passion Islam I February 2010
ISLAM IN ROMANIA
One of the oldest Masjid in Romania Part 2
The presence of Tatars was notably attested as far north as the Polish city of Gdańsk. The conversions in the ranks of acting or former
through the works of Berber traveler Ibn toponym Babadağ (Turkish for “Old Man’s local hospodars are documented: Wallachian
Battuta, who passed through the area in 1334. Mountain”, later adapted into Romanian Princes Radu cel Frumos (1462-1475) and
In Ibn Battuta’s time, the region was regarded as Babadag) is a probable reference to Mihnea Turcitul (1577-1591), and Moldavian
as a westernmost possession of the Tatar Sari Saltik, and a Dobrujan Muslim account Prince Ilie II Rareş (1546-1551). At the other
Golden Horde, a khanate centered on the recorded by chronicler Evliya Çelebi in the end of the social spectrum, Moldavia held a
Eurasian Steppe. Archeology has uncovered late 15th century has it that the name surfaced sizable population of Tatar slaves, who shared
that another Tatar group, belonging to the soon after a Christian attack partly destroyed this status with all local Roma people (see
Golden Horde, came to Dobruja during the the tomb. Slavery in Romania). While Roma slavery
rule of Nogai Khan, and were probably closely The oldest madrasah in Dobruja and also existed in Wallachia, the presence of
related to the present-day Nogais. Following Romania as a whole was set up in Babadag, Tatar slaves there has not been documented,
Timur’s offensives, the troops of Aktai Khan on orders from Bayezid (1484); it was moved and is only theorized. The population may
visited the region in the mid-14th century and to Medgidia in 1903. From the same period have foremost comprised Muslim Nogais from
around 100,000 Tatars settled there. onwards, groups of Muslim Tatars and Oghuz the Bujak who were captured in skirmishes,
Before and after the Golden Horde fell, Turks from Anatolia were settled into Dobruja although, according to one theory, the first of
Dobrujan Muslims, like the Crimean Tatars, at various intervals; in 1525, a sizable group them may have been Cumans captured long
were recipients of its cultural influences, of these, originating from the ports of Samsun before the first Ottoman and Tatar incursions.
and the language in use was Kipchak. The and Sinop, moved to Babadag. Bayezid also The issue of Muslim presence on the
extension of Ottoman rule, effected under asked Volga Tatars to resettle into northern territory of the two countries is often viewed in
Sultans Bayezid I and Mehmed I, brought the Dobruja. relation to the relations between the Ottoman
influence of Medieval Turkish, as Dobruja was In late medieval Wallachia and Moldavia Sultans and local Princes. Romanian
added to the Beylerbeylik of Rumelia. In the two Danubian Principalities, Ottoman historiography has generally claimed that the
The grave of Sari Saltik, reportedly first suzerainty had an overall reduced impact on latter two were bound by bilateral treaties with
erected into a monument by Sultan Bayezid, the local population, and the impact of Islam the Porte. One of the main issues was that of
has since endured as a major shrine in was itself much reduced. Capitulations (Ottoman Turkish: ahdnâme),
Romanian Islam. The shrine, which has been Wallachia and Moldavia enjoyed a large which were supposedly agreed between the
described as a cenotaph, is one of many degree of autonomy, and their history two states and the Ottoman Empire at some
places where the Sheikh is supposed to be was punctuated by episodes of revolt and point in the Middle Ages. Such documents
buried: a similar tradition is held by various momentary independence. After 1417, have not been preserved: modern Romanian
local communities throughout the Balkans, when Ottoman domination over Wallachia historians have revealed that Capitulations,
who argue that his tomb is located in Kaliakra, first became effective, the towns of Turnu as invoked in the 18th and 19th centuries
Babaeski, Blagaj, Edirne, the Has District, and Giurgiu were annexed as kazas, a rule to invoke Romanian rights vis à vis the
Krujë, or Sveti Naum.Other accounts hold enforced until the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 Ottomans, and as reclaimed by nationalist
that Saltuk was buried in the Anatolian city (the status was briefly extended to Brăila in discourse in the 20th century, were forgeries.
of İznik, in Buzău, Wallachia, or even as far 1542). Traditionally, Ottoman documents
south as the Mediterranean island of Corfu or For the following centuries, three referring to Wallachia and Moldavia were
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