The Balkan Slavs

[Caius Maxentius]

The Slavs started to emigrate into the Balkans in the sixth century, but the Byzantines restored the Danube Frontier sometime in the ninth or tenth century. Were these Slavs assimilated into Byzantine society, or did they stay fairly separate culturally? Did Byzantium absorb anything from the Slavs culturally?

[Faustus]

The Slavs started to emigrate into the Balkans in the sixth century, but the Byzantines restored the Danube Frontier sometime in the ninth or tenth century. Were these Slavs assimilated into Byzantine society, or did they stay fairly separate culturally? Did Byzantium absorb anything from the Slavs culturally?

This much from CONSTANTINOPLE Isaac Asimov:

 

 

Edited April 23, 2008 by Faustus

[Gaius Octavius]

Nice work F. Still leaves open the question of what, if anything, did the ROMANS absorb culturally from the Slavs?

 

While we are at it, did the Turks consider themselves successors to the Romans? On an old map, Anatolia is nominated 'Rom'.

[Kosmo]

The "byzantine" influence on bulgarians (turks that had been absorbed by slavs) was strong in all aspects especially after they were christened. From here it was spreaded to serbians, russians etc. The moravian ortodox were conquered by pagan hungarians that eventualy, after some ortodox attempts, became catholic. The romans did not absorbed anything of notice from the slavs and after conquering the First Bulgarian Tzarate tried to extinguish some aspects of their culture like the autonomus patriarch and the use of slavonic in the bulgarian church.

 

When the seljuk turks conquered Anatolia from "byzantines" they called the area "Rum" from romans so the turkish state there was called the Rum sultanate ( meaning the sultanate from the lands of the romans). When the ottomans started to raise in the west of Rum they again called the lands of romans in the Balkans "Rumeli" and the name for the former lands of the Rum sultanate became Anadolu from the roman province (theme) Anatolikon.

The crescent moon was the symbol of the city of Byzantium and from here was adopted by arabs. The ottomans had the usual muslim flag with the crescent moon on the green falg of the prophet, but after the conquest of Constantinopole Mehemet Fatih changed the coulour of the flag to the traditionally roman purple so today's flag of Turkey it's a roman-byzantine flag.

[Caius Maxentius]

Thanks, Faustus, great quote.

Edited April 23, 2008 by Caius Maxentius

[Gaius Octavius]

Kosmo, did the Ottomans adopt (much of?) Roman law and government? If so, are there any remnants of this left today?

[Kosmo]

Kosmo, did the Ottomans adopt (much of?) Roman law and government? If so, are there any remnants of this left today?

 

Not really. Ottoman law was based on sharia, the muslim law. Their goverment was also on a islamic model based on a slave civil and military elite (devşirme system*). The byzantine land allotment to soldiers seems to have evolved in the sipahi thru a seljuk model, but this was a fairly common system at the time.

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*please don't tell those who see slavery only as US Southern plantantion workforce that some of the most important states were ruled mainly by slaves (Ummeyad Cordoba, Egypt's mamluk's, the Ottoman empire, to some extent even Rome and China)