Dragi Gjorgiev, MA, Research Assistant at INI

 Oriental-Ottoman Skopje (15th - 17th century)

             The Ottoman’s invasion of the Balkan Peninsula was one of the most important events in its history, with consequences that are felt todate. The invasion had brought such changes in its territory, which by their intensity and radically could be compared to the changes that happened after the settlement of the Slavs. In a very short period of time the old Balkan Christian kingdoms and states disappeared, and were replaced by one unique empire, with a new religion. The new empire and the new religion had introduced new values, which had had strong influence on the overall development of this region in the following five centuries.

             The Ottoman’s invasion had a very strong and unique influence on the position, the nature and the role of the Balkan cities. Instead of the old, closed medieval cities, new open, Levantine type of cities developed. The characteristics of those cities were bigger population, mainly Muslim, monumental Islamic buildings, big bazaars (Charsija) and numerous new handicrafts. With the Ottoman’s invasion, the period of “Oriental-Balkan urbanization”[1] had started, and after the strengthening of their role in the Balkan and the movement of the Sultans border to the north, across Danube, “Southeast Europe became a united region, especially with respect to the life in the cities, with the countries from the Middle East”[2]. There was no difference with respect to the urban appearance and the organization among the cities on the Middle East, in Anadolia and on the Balkan.

             Skopje, whose location is on the far north of Macedonia, was among the last Macedonian cities invaded by the Ottomans. We learn about the date of its invasion from the Flower triode of the monastery St. Theodore[3], which was written by Stefan, the monk and the donor of this monastery. The manuscript of this triode is kept in the Hlud library in the Edinoverchesky’s monastery nearby by Moscow and according to the date at the end of the manuscript, the invasion happened in the period between September 1391 and January 6th, 1392[4].

             There are several different sources of data even with regard to the manner in which Skopje was invaded by the Turkish hands. Some sources write about invading of Skopje by sword, while others, speak about the peaceful surrender of the city to its new master Pasha Yigit bey. Nevertheless, that the city was invaded by arms, we learn from until now the only comprehensive presentation of the invasion, left by the author of the History of the Ottoman Dynasty, Ibn Kemal, from the begging of the XVI century. In the fourth part of this History, the chapter which is written on Skopje describes that “the Pasha Yigit bey, the master of the brave gazias, arrived with his brave cavaliers and occupied Skopje and in that unfaithful region, performed raids, night and day, and flooded the poor country of the unbelievers with a river of despair.”[5] Describing the act of the fight, Ibn Kemal reports about resistance, about armed warriors who resisted the Turkish attack in an organized manner: “the criminals prepared the numerous arms and gathered on the hill near by the church which is located in front of the citadel, and which is now Mesdzit Mosque”[6]. But that was only a desperate attempt of a small group of fanatic Christians who were not able to influence the flow of the events. After a short battle outside of the church “which was alike the citadel and the mountain top”, the Turks conquered the church, and immediately the Skopje citadel surrendered as well[7].

            It is interesting that this information from the History of Ibn Kemal overlaps with the information presented in a form of a poem by the famous chronicle Ashik Pasha-zade. That is a poem cited by Herbert.V. Duda in his work on Skopje in the XVII century, and which he took from the Ashik Pasha-zade Chronicles published by Giese. Duda writes: “The citadels and the mosques dominate the skyline of the city, a man thinks that he hears in stone made song, in the same way as it is conveyed by the old historian Ashik Pasha-zade.

“At the time of the fight of the religions, the God is big!

Every breath shouts: God is big!

The Muslim swinged with the sword with a strong hand.

The drum stroked, God is big! Alarm!

In the shadow of the sword is the paradise which the God emissary had promised once.

The demolished tower is without its bell, the mosque now became a church.

God is big!”[8]

            We were not able to check the original of this issue, but if the song was written at the occasion of the invasion of Skopje, then it confirms that the center of the resistance against the Ottomans was the church which immediately after the invasion was transformed into a mosque, as it is noted in the History of Ibn Kemal.

            After the initial stagnation following the change of the authority, the city begun to revive gradually, and very soon had managed to overcome the consequences of the invasion. The number of the population started to grow significantly as a result of the role that Skopje had gotten from the military point of view. It became a center of a special military region (kraiste) i.e. management unit with significantly military and temporary character, which the Turks organized in the border regions of the Empire. From here, they monitored the neighboring vassal regions, and very often, independently from the central authority, Skopje soldiers undertook expeditions against the enemy, with which they prepared the area for other invasions. As a first soldier of the Skopje military unit, its invader Yigit Pasha bey, who was succeeded by his descendants Ishack and Isak bey was appointed. In fact, in the first six decades of the Turkish rule, Skopje played a role of a military base from where the expeditions to the north and the west, i.e. to Serbia, Bosnia and Albania had started.

            After 1463 and the invasion of Bosnia, the Skopje military region lost its importance. It was dismantled, and the region of Skopje, together with Tetovo, became a part of the immense Pasha sandzak, which included the biggest part of Macedonia[9]. During the whole second half of the XV century with regard to its administrative status, Skopje existed as a region headed by subasha[10].

            The entrance of the region of Skopje within the Pasha sandzak meant its gradual transformation into a regular administrative unit, the so called nahiya. That happened at the end of the XV century, and at latest in the first half of the XVI century, when Skopje subashiluk was abolished and a regular administrative-territorial organization was established with which Skopje was transformed into nahiya, again within the framework of the Pasha sandzak[11].

            The next most important change with respect to the administrative arrangement, the city experienced in the mid of the XVI century, when Skopje nahiya became a headquarters of a sandzak. The sandzak consisted of the nahiyas: Skopje, Tetovo, Prilep and Kicevo[12] . The transformation of Skopje into a center of a separate sandzak, had significant importance for its future development.

            The role and the place of Skopje, first in the military, and then in the administrative arrangement of the Ottoman Empire, were one of the main reasons for the city to be rapidly colonized, which created radical change in its ethnic and religious composition. For a very short period of time, the Muslim element dominated over the Christian, changing the demographic picture of the city in the first years after the invasion. The number of the population in the city during the XV and XVI century, according to the data from the Turkish census books, was as follows:

                Starting from 1528 for the first time in the censuses for Skopje, Jews were separately recorded, and their number in the respective year was 12 families; in 1544 - 32 families; and in 1568/69 - 53 families. In 1544 another community in Skopje was separately recorded. They were 8 families designated as “frengan - and Uskub”, which most probably were citizens of Dubrovnik. Their number in 1568/69 increased to 30 families. The unavoidable element of the cities of the Ottoman Empire at that time were the Roma. There were 40 families in Skopje in 1523, of which 25 families were Muslim and 15 families were Christian[15].

            The big disproportion of the demographic increase of the Muslim compared to the Christian element is obvious. Eventhough, at the beginning that was a result of the increased systematic colonization, in the XVI century that was a result of the islamization which was especially present in the bigger cities. As an illustration we will note that from the total number of Muslim families in Skopje in 1568/69, about 700 were islamized Christians, which is 50% of the total number of Muslims[16]. Such proportion between the Muslim and Christian population in Skopje would last until the second half of the XIX century, when the Christian population from the nearby villages and from the smaller cities had gradually begun to migrate in Skopje, contributing toward its renewed Christianity.

            Together with the demographic increase of the city, the city’s economy began to develop intensively. Significant portion of the new city residents, colonized from Small Asia, were handicrafts whose profession was related to the needs of the army and the supplemental army personnel, as well as with the way of life of the new ruling structure. That allowed for new handicrafts typical for the oriental environment to appear in the city: (abadziski) leather and fur, gunsmiths, sabers, saracki etc. Also, the Christians from the surrounding villages were attracted to the city, and they moved to the city and started to perform different handicrafts activities.  Nevertheless, the handicrafts mainly remained  a privilege of the aliens to the Islamic religion. In 1452/3 there were 48 handicrafts in Skopje performed by both Muslim and Christians. From 516 Muslim families, 186 or about 37% were handicrafts, while in the Christian population  from the 339 families only 46 families  or 14% performed handicrafts. This proportion between the Muslim and the Christian handicrafts was constantly present in the city.

            The growth of the city economy was even bigger in the XVI century. In 1528 the number of the stores in Skopje, either trading or handicrafts, amounted to 831; in 1546 there were 520 handicrafts registered in the city, and according to the Sorocanin writer of travels from 1575 “in Skopje only those who are not spiritual men or solders, live from handicrafts and trade”[17]. Also, in Skopje, nearby the Daut Pasha Hamam, there was a mint where during the time of the sultan Mehmed II (1451-1481) coins were minted[18]. The numerous writers of travels and chronicles from the XVII century talk for richer, bigger and more developed Skopje, comparing it with Bursa and Damaskus.

            The strong economic development had transformed the city into an important trade center. Eventhough, the trading and handicrafts activities had not been divided as yet, such that many of the handicrafts were sellers of their products, still the trade had an important place among the citizens. Every day there were caravans coming in and coming out from the city. The numerous traders mixed on the Skopje markets, bringing goods and products from domestic and foreign origin. Through the trading routes, Skopje was connected to Istanbul, Bursa, Thessalonika, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Venice, Duress, Ankona, and in one tariff book for Skopje from the XV century[19], there are over 70 taxed products which were delivered and sold on the Skopje markets. The international trade in Skopje was in the hands of the citizens of Dubrovnik who had their colony in the city. In the mid XVI century one quarter of all Dubrovnik traders on the Balkan were settled in Skopje[20]. The anonymous writer of travels from 1559 quotes that the leathers were main trade of Skopje, and “also, there is a lot of wax which is exported through Lesh to Ankona and Venice”[21]. The trade in Skopje achieved its zenith in the XVII century. In 1680, Petar Bogdani wrote: “From Skopje to Thessalonika, the river Vardar is navigable for rafts and small boats which is favorable for trade, and one mile above Skopje ... there is a ferry...The distance to Duress is 5 days and that route is used for its goods from fine wool and nice cordovan”[22]. Describing the Skopje charshija, the restless Evlija Celebi noted the size of the trading activity that was performed in the charshija: The Charshija consists of two thousand one hundred and fifty stores. There are squares and markets which are constructed from hard material and are decorated with arches and cupolas... There is a bezisten which is so beautiful that the tongues and the pen can not describe. It stands here as a strong citadel with iron doors on the two entrances, and with constructed cupolas. The traders with imported goods who work in the bezisten ignite thyme and sprinkle the visitors with the rose oil”[23]. Surely, Skopje charshija was not different from the ones in the developed and rich cities of the Orient.

            The deep changes that happened as a result of the settlement of the new religious and ethnic element, undoubtedly brought significant changes in the culture life in the city. In the newly created conditions the Islamic culture flourished, pushing back the earlier traditions and habits of the local Christian population. The Christian Slavic culture, whose main pole was the church, had to pull back in the surrounding churches and monasteries, leaving in that way a space to the new spiritual culture. Numerous medresas and mectebes (high schools and primary schools) were constructed, and the first one was the medresa of the professor of the Pasha Yigit bey, Medah Baba[24]. It was followed by the construction of other famous Skopje medresas: Sultan Murat, Ishakbegova, Isabegova, Jahjapasha, Mustafapasha and Karlizadeova medres. In the XVII century besides the 6 medresas, in the city, according to the Celebi, there were 9 schools for studding the Koran and even 70 mektebas[25]. For the needs of these schools libraries were organized as well. The first one in Skopje and one of the oldest libraries on the Balkan was the one of the Ishakbegova medresa, and the library had over 230 different manuscripts in 320 books[26].

            There were many poets, writers and educated people in Skopje who became famous with their poems and prose works, and who worked as professors at the highest state owned schools in the Empire. Lectures had been given in Skopje by many prominent professors from other education centers.

            While the Islamic education and literacy in Skopje achieved its zenith, the culture and education life of the Christians in the city slowed down. The center of the activities in the field of the education, literature, and art gradually moved to the monasteries and churches in the Christian surrounding. These Christian temples, owned a rich fund of religious - Slavic  manuscripts, organized their own literature workshops, thus continuing the work and the tradition of copying in writing and reproduction of the theological, philosophically-religious and practical written documents. The first schools for educating priests were organized in these monasteries. For dissemination and sale of the books written in the nearby monasteries, in 1569 a library was opened in Skopje owned by Kara Trifun, where the books of Jakov Krajkov printed in Venice were also sold[27]. Also, the citizens from Dubrovnik disseminated catholic church literature in the city, and in the mid of the XVI century the Pope appointed bishop with a title “Skopje”[28].

            Independently from the authority and from the official Turkish education system, Jewish schools and synagogues existed and operated in the city. Closed in their ghetto, the Jews remained aside from the foreign influence, and enabled their young generations to acquire literacy on their own language and to protect their cultural tradition. Their two synagogues, Bet Aron and Bet Yakov, as well as the Jewish school were burnt during the fire in 1689[29].

            The place that Skopje had in the administrative arrangement as a city of the highest category, i.e. sheher was very important moment which contributed  for the urban changes in the city to be significant and radical. How significant the changes were, the best witness are the monumental buildings which dominate the skyline of the old part of the city even today. Ishakbegova, Isabegova, Sultan Murat, Mustafa Pasha Mosque, Daut Pasha Hamam, Kurshumli Han, Kapan Han, Stone Bridge and other public Islamic buildings, still point to the past position of Skopje as an important strategic, economic and culture center. These buildings had transformed very rapidly the medieval Christian Skopje with all of its urban characteristics, into a new city with regard to its appearance. Giving up the place to the new oriental architecture, the buildings of the Slavic-Byzantine culture vanished over night leaving  us to learn about them only from the rare medieval manuscripts.

***

            From the moment when it was invaded by the Turks, Skopje entered into the sphere of the Levantine  civilization and culture, and continued to develop as a typically oriental city. Here a specific material and spiritual culture appeared  in which the past tradition and the tradition of the newcomers mixed and connected to each other. No matter the religious and ethnic differences and the rigorous legislation with respect to the clothing, arms etc., such that always most privileged were the representatives of the dominant religion, all sultan subordinates, using the conditions offered by the city life, influenced each other, creating in that way one mixed civilization in which in the course of the time, all ethnic and religious communities fitted in[30].

            The Christians that accepted the Islam were culturally oriented towards the East and accepted the oriental way of life, while those  who remained faithful to their religion were forced to accept many oriental elements and signs which are present todate in many spheres of the life such as: food, clothing, customs, believes, people art, and handicrafts.

            The life in Skopje took place mainly in the charshija which was the main economic center of the city, then on the markets, as well as in the numerous hans and caravan sarays where many traders, handicrafts, educated people, but also thieves, fortunetellers who were looking for naive owners of big purses were also accommodated. The life in the cafes introduced by the Turks, was also one of the forms of life of the citizens of Skopje. There, people from different classes and groups met. Smoking nargile and drinking tea, they discussed for hours about the everyday problems, but also for the social problems. These public places were areas of intensive and unofficial contacts of the people, where during the night the richer people and guests gave themselves to different joys and amusements which the Levantine way of life offered in abundance.

            Within the framework of this mixed culture and despite of the continuos mixing and every day  communication, the citizens of the city carefully protected their uniqueness, nationality, their customs, habits and their language. The members of the different religious groups lived in different parts of the city and had their own spiritual leaders. Each Muslim quart had its imam, while the Christian priests  and the Jewish rabies  represented their followers in front of the official authority. More serious mixing of the members of these communities, except the official, created condemnation and excommunication by the community. The different ethnic groups in the city maintained their language which they spoke in their homes and in the communication among themselves. Despite of the prevalence of the Turkish language, in the Skopje charshija the language of those who lived  or stayed longer in city could have been heart. All traders, domestic and foreign, middleman, money exchangers, even the servants, knew partially the language of the people with whom they communicated. The city life in the course of the time was taking deeper roots, creating specific characteristics characteristic for all people.

             This growth of the Oriental-Ottoman Skopje was brutally interrupted by the fire created from the Austrian army in October 1689, in which the city was terribly destroyed. Significant part of the population left the city, and the inhabited region was limited in the borders from the time of the Turkish invasion. The period of stagnation lasted until the second half of XIX century, when the city had started again to grow and to take its earlier position.

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