Tervel Popov
Dr. Tervel Popov – Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"
(Summary)
Even though their political formations or estates were over territories inhabited mainly by Bulgarians, most of the nobles discussed in this work were from Serbian, Byzantine and Albanian aristocratic families. This can be explained by the fact that most of those territories did fall within the borders of the reestablished Bulgarian Tsardom (12th – 14th c.) for a various periods.
It is indicative that said territories were far away from the Ottoman political centre and/or in mountainous regions where Ottomans did not exercize full control. Some of them emerged amidst the chaos in the Ottoman Empire, created by the defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402.
Other lands were granted by sultans to nobles of high social standing within the Christian Balkan states who retained their positions during the Ottoman rule. In return for retaining said privileges many of the aforementioned nobles had military duties delegated to them by the padishah.
Keywords: Christian nobles, Bulgarian lands, Ottoman rule, Macedonia
The fulltext of this article can be purchased on CEEOL
