Muslims in rural and Municipal Councils in Bulgaria at the turn of the 19th and 20th century

The modern Bulgarian state, created in 1878, was ethnically and religiously heterogeneous. In 1881, 26 % of the country’s population were Muslims (527,000) and in 1910 it was 14 % (602,000). Despite that, Muslims did not hold any posts in Bulgaria’s central administration, nor did they generally occupy them at the level of districts (okrag) and counties (okoliya). However, the situation was different in commune (obshtina) governments. Muslims were represented in the councils in cities and villages in the northeast of the country and the Rhodope Mountains (the areas where they were concentrated) and had the opportunity to play an important role in making decisions on key issues related to local finance, infrastructure and education together with Bulgarians. In some cases, they managed to efficiently participate in the functioning of local governments, while in others they played only a symbolic role. On the one hand, the Muslims were not sufficiently represented, their position in the city councils was marginalized, in the political rivalry they were accused of betrayal and connections with the Ottoman authorities, and they also needed to deal with the problem of corruption and clientelism. On the other hand, special officials were elected as Muslim assistants to a mayor or as mayor’s representatives delegated to a village as a nod of acknowledgment to acknowledge the Muslim community, and some of the rural councils in the northeast and in the Rhodope Mountains were dominated by Muslim representatives. This situation was similar in many ways to how it had been in the Ottoman Empire, where Christians were isolated from the central government but could be represented at the commune level. These structures inherited some pathologies. The model adopted by the state of Bulgaria would not have been possible to implement without the centuries-long tradition of komshuluk, which became one of the most important positive factors shaping ethnic relations in the Bulgarian lands after 1878. The paper is based on the author’s original studies of materials found in the State Archive in Varna, as well as on the press from this period, examined using the case study method.