The Yörük Colonization and the Process of Conquering Space in Parts of Upper Thrace in the 15th – 16th Centuries

Authors:

Pages: 159-169
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/WJGY8258

Abstract:

The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans and the Bulgarian lands, in particular, was followed by the migration of Muslim population from Asia Minor. A significant part of this population was the semi-nomadic groups of the Yörüks. The present paper traces back the stages of the Yörük colonization in Upper Thrace, which started with the Ottoman conquest of these territories. It reveals the changes regarding the establishment of a new settlement network and the process of demographic seizure of the territory under study. It discusses the old hypothesis of “depopulated” Thrace and the political events from the late medieval period and the first centuries of the Ottoman rule in the region.

Keywords:

Upper Thrace; Yörüks; fifteenth-sixteenth centuries; colonization; economy.

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