Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 202.71.73.92 (talk) at 08:56, 12 March 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Giaour (turkish - gavur) is a noun in the Turkish language, most notable as a pejorative term and offensive ethnic slur for bulgarians and other christian peoples of the Balkans.It was widely used during the days of the Ottoman empire. The word was adaptated into turkish from Persian gdwr or gbr, an infidel. Giaour has been compared in degree of offensiveness to terms such as nigger.Like other ethnic slurs, association with violence and discrimination are made which may be considered hate crimes.During five centuries of Ottoman rule bulgarians endured violence and oppression. The Ottomans decimated the Bulgarian population, which lost most of its cultural relics. Turkish authorities destroyed most of the medieval Bulgarian fortresses in order to prevent rebellions. Large towns and the areas where Ottoman power predominated remained severely depopulated until the nineteenth century.The new authorities dismantled Bulgarian institutions at anything above the village or communal level, and merged the separate Bulgarian Church into the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul) (although a small, semi-independent Bulgarian Church did survive until 1767).Bulgarians in the Ottoman empire had to endure a number of disabilities;they paid more taxes and lacked legal equality with Muslims; they were prohibited to carry arms, their clothes could not rival those of muslims in color, nor could their churches tower as high as mosques.One of the biggest hardships imposed on the bulgarian population was the Devşirme, or 'blood tax'.It was the practice by which the Ottoman Empire recruited boys from Christian families, who were then forcibly converted to Islam and trained as Janissary soldiers.The word giaour become synonimous with the oppression itself.

See also

• The Giaour, a poem by Lord Byron

References

1.Guillermo, Emil (2004-08-24). "Is SF Soft On Hate Crime?". Hearst Communications Inc. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/08/24/eguillermo.DTL. Retrieved on 2007-04-03 2.Bojidar Dimitrov: Bulgaria Illustrated History. BORIANA Publishing House 2002, ISBN 9545000449 3.R.J. Crampton, A Concise History of Bulgaria, 1997, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-567-19-X 4.Dennis P. Hupchick: The Balkans: from Constantinople to Communism, 2002

• Islamic history
• Pejoratives
• Persian loanwords
• Words of Turkish origin
• Ethno-cultural designations