Bedjene, a relic ethnonym

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Abstract:

The paper concerns an interpretation of the local place name Bedznene as a possible trace of the etnonym Pecheneg. The Bedzhene locality name was registered in 1981—82 during field researches in the region of the municipality of Isperih, North-East Bulgaria. Certain personal/family names, village and some locality names found in the ottoman documents from 15th — 16th centuries as well as similar appellations that have survived in the Bulgarian toponymic nomenclature may be thought of as possible traces of the Turkic tribe of the Pechenegs. Raids and processes of Pechenegs’ settling in North-eastern and South-western areas of the Bulgarian territory in the 11th — 12th centuries were well documented in the Byzantine written sources. The ethnonyms have been preserved via anthroponyms, originating from them; later the anthroponyms became nuclei of new derivatives, containing the bedzhene component. Interesting is the correlation bedzhene-gins, evil spirits, which may be explained with the Pecheneg newcomers’ settling in an alien surrounding. Moreover, some Pechenegs adopted Christianity, but others remained pagan, which may have given ground to the local Christian people to see them as aliens and evil gins.

Keywords:

Pechenegs, Bedjene, ethnonym

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