Vol 1 No 7 Fall/Winter 2002
Overview on the Roma in Turkey
by Ana Oprisan
Location and Identification
Because of the self and haetero-identification problem faced when it comes
to the Roma in Turkey, it is sometimes very difficult to claim their presence
in different areas or near to certain closed religious communities. In Istanbul,
they live in specific mahalles (neighborhoods), as Kasimpasha – Curukluk,
Kucukbakkalkoy, Sulukule, Uskudar Selamsiz, etc. Besides the sedentary Roma,
there are the nomads who leave the places they lived in towns, and they start
following a pre-established itinerary, from spring to autumn, due to occupational
reasons.
The Roma in Turkey are called as Cingene, Kipti, Pos¸a (in Eastern Anatolia),
Mirti (in Hakkari, Mardin, Siirt and South part of Van), Kocer, Arabaci (the ones
who use horse carriages) etc., or with the pejorative “esmer vatandas¸”
(“brunet citizen”). There are also a different group of Greek Christian Roma,
the Balamorons, identified in Turkish as “Yunan cingeneleri” which means the
“Greek Gypsies”.
Language
Romani is spoken in the local communities from Rumeli, Uskudar and the Pashalar
area of Van town. From the linguistic point of view, there are also some
dialectal differences from one area to another. In the language spoken by the Roma
people in Turkey, you can encounter words from some Turkish dialects spoken in
Anatolia, from Kurdish or Greek. The language of the traveller groups in Anatolia
is obviously assimilated, so Romani language is mixed with Kurdish, Turkish or Persian
and, in this case, the linguistic switching-code is usually used.
Information regarding the language spoken by the Roma people in Turkey appears in
the censuses from 1935 and 1945, Romani language being identified as Kiptice
(the language of the Kipties).
| Year |
Kiptice - Mother Tongue |
2nd Language |
Total |
Population of Turkey |
% |
| 1935 |
7,855 |
- |
7,855 |
13,629,488 |
0.58 |
| 1945 |
4,463 |
193 |
4,656 |
16,157,450 |
0.28 |
The 1935 census shows also that 3,847 men and 4,008 women (then a total of 7,855 people)
had Kiptice (Romani) as mother tongue. The Roma were also the group with less individuals
who knew how to read and write. According to that census, in 1935, only 141 men and 25
women of Roma origin could read and write.
According to the 1945 census, there are 4,463 people who have Kiptice (Romani) as mother tongue,
193 people as second language, then a total of 4,656 Romani speakers. A great number of Roma
people live in Edirne, Canakkale and Istanbul. According to the 1945 census, a great part of the
people “without a religion” (tr. dinsiz) are the ones who have Kiptice as mother tongue; from
those “without religion”, 23.7%, meaning 133 people are known as being Cingene.
Religion
Even if a great part of the sedentary Roma were Christian in the past, the nomad Roma claim to be
Muslims. Instead, they keep on manifesting some different forms of religion, which have nothing to
do with Islam (as keeping elements of Christian sacrality), as is the spring festival Hirdelezi /
Hidrelezi (also celebrated by all the Muslim Roma in the Balkans and by the non-Roma Alevi
population in Turkey), during the first week of May.
On the other hand, the Posha groups from Van area are known as Muslims, but it was proved in the
past that the ones who lived in Tokat acted as Christians. The Roma living in the South East
part of Turkey seem to be more close to the religious beliefs of Cuki, Alevi (see also the
Abdala groups) or Ismaili. At least it is known that some Mirtip are Muslims of Shafi rite.
Group Identity
Taking into account the Roma occupations, they are grouped in branches. Classification is made
not only according to the job done but by the religious orientation or by the area they live.
The relationship between groups is not always a good one.
A great part of the Roma people do not like and do not accept the word “Cingene”, due to its
pejorative meaning which, in time, was associated with negative expressions as “cingene dugunu”
(“gypsy wedding” – something which is not done as it is supposed to be done), “cingene kavgasi”
(“gypsy fight” – violent fight), “cingene borcu” (“gypsy debt” – when a debt is tripled by other
debts), “cingene calar, kurt oynar” (“the gypsy sings, the wolf dances” – wrong people to the
wrong place or an unprepared person doing something he cannot actually do). As another example,
because the word Posha (or Bosha) is used with a pejorative meaning, the Armenians in Istanbul,
especially the ones living in Tashkopru or Boyabat areas re-named “Posha”, even if it is
obvious that they are not Roma.
Historical Information
During the Ottoman Empire a great number of Roma came in the Balkan area together with the
Ottomans (XIV century), as members of the army or as companions of the troops. In many
official documents of the time there are information about them, the Roma being named as
"cingene", "chingane" or "kibti".
The first tax registration applied to the Roma population of the Rumelia Villayet
(Balkan area) was elaborated in 1475. Another registration of this kind, this time regarding the
Christian Roma (probably established in the region before the Ottoman conquest), belongs to
1487-1489 period. One more comprehensive and detailed tax registry of the Rumelia Villayet
refers to the period between 1522-1523. This register contains the number of the Roma houses,
references about their religion, the area populated by the Roma, their occupations and their
legal status. There were a great variety of taxes applied to the Roma people, almost the
same with the ones applied to the Christians. A similar approach can be observed in the
Special Law for the Roma of the Villayet of Rumelia, issued by Sultan Suleiman the Great,
in 1530, and in the Law for the supervision of the Sandjak Roma, issued in 1541 (sandjak
was not a territorial and administrative unit, but a defined category of Roma who served
in the Ottoman army).
In the tax registers from that period the Roma were described in detail (age, occupation,
marital status etc.) and were grouped in units of taxes (djemaati), each unit with its
supervisors. The djematies were not always linked with the territorial units and they could
include the nomad Roma as well, the so-called gezende (tr. gezme – travel).
Between the XV-th and XVI-th century there was a tendency of the Roma people to change their
religion, so, in the XIX-th century the Muslim Roma became a majority.
The Roma civil status in the Ottoman Empire was rather complicated, due to the fact that they
had a special role in the social and administrative organisation of the Empire. Even if the
population was devised in two important categories (believers vs. heathens or reaya), the
Roma had a special status, they being differentiated on the ethnic criteria (unusual for the
Ottoman Empire) without a clear distinction between Muslim and Christian Roma (when it was
about taxes). Generally, their condition was similar to the one of the submitted local
population, with the exception of some minor privileges given to the Muslim Roma (who worked
for the army). The status of the Roma in the Ottoman Empire was, certainly, superior to the
one of the Roma in Western Europe, in the same historical period. A relevant example was the
fact that many Roma slaves fled from the vassal principalities of Valachie and Moldavia,
forward to find a safe place in the Empire.
EXCERPT from Dimitrie Cantemir, “The System or the Structure of the Mohammedan Religion”,
written in 1722 at Sankt Petersburg and published later in “Opere complete”, vol.VIII, tom II,
Editura Academiei, Bucharest, 1987, Sixth book: About Other Arrangements of this Religion,
Thirty second Chapter: About Idolatries and Mohammedan Atheists, pages 527 - 529.
“… about the Gypsy people, who is numerous in the Turkish country”
The Turks and together with them the other Muslims say that the people of the Gypsies are related
with Pharaoh and state that the large Empire of the Pharaohs, exalted in the Holly Scriptures,
belonged to the Gypsies; and they also say that the same people (when Moses and all Lord`s prophets
cursed it), having no knowledge of letters, books and any other divine or human law, spread all over
the world, by the mercy and the commandment of God. The Gypsies who believe in Muhammad consider
themselves to be perfectly pious by this only title, but beside this, they do not look for the
commandments and the conditions of the Law; they ignore all of it without doing or preserving anything
the Law says; there are no prayers of any kind, no fasts and they don`t want to even hear about Mecca;
instead of sympathy they commit larcenies, frauds, charms and witch crafts (all forbidden for the Muslims).
The Sultan Suleiman, the first Ottoman emperor with this name (named also The Law Maker), when he had
elaborated and enhanced his political canons and other regulations adequate to administration, wanted
to enforce a law also for the Gypsies and, in this respect, he commanded that all the older Gypsies
get together, no matter if they were Christians (because many of them walk around in the name of Jesus,
linked by the Greek or by the Armenian church), or Muslims. And he asked everyone about his family and
what religion he had. Some of them confessed they believed in Christ, but others in the Prophet Muhammad.
Then, the Sultan fixed for the ones believing in Muhammad a place to stay in Constantinopole`s outskirts
(where there was the old church of Vlaherne). He gave them Imams and Hodjas to teach the old people and
the children the Mohammedan Law (sheriat) and other arrangements and Muslim ceremonies, then to teach
them to frequent the mosque, to veil their women and to make marriages according to the religious Law.
But six months passed after this event and the Imams saw no Gypsies coming to the mosque. They heard that
they had celebrated marriages without Imam`s presence. It was this reason whereby the Sultan understood
the bad situation they [Gypsies] lived in. Hearing this, the Sultan decreed that every Gypsy person had
the liberty to choose their religion, adding also the favour to exempt from any tax the ones who confessed
the Mohammedan religion. Making this decision public, he asked the tax collectors to record the number of
the Gypsy people and those who said they were Christians received the haradj – the payment order and began
to pay the taxes. After six months, the tax collectors found that none admitted to being a Christian Gypsy.
Then, the Sultan commanded that the Christian Gypsies had to pay the haradj together with other Christians
in the Empire and the Muslim Gypsies must pay double. This decree is still in power [1722] and this is the
reason why all the Gypsies who believe in Muhammad (and there are a great number of them) pay double taxes.
If the Christian Gypsy will pay five talents, the Muslim Gypsy is forced to pay ten. The conclusion is that,
as in the past the Gypsies were not obliged to have any religion nor comply with any law; nowadays we see
our Gypsies everywhere in the same situation”.
References
| ANDREWS, Peter Alford | | Turkiye`de etnik gruplar, translation to Turkish: Mustafa Kupusoglu, Ant Yayinlari, Tumzamanlaryayincilik, Istanbul, 1992 |
| ARAYICI, Ali | | Ulkesiz bir alk. Cingeneler, Ceylan Yayinlari, Istanbul, 1999 |
| BEUNINGHAUS, R. | | "Les Tsiganes de la Turquie Orientale", Etudes Tsiganes, 1999 |
| CANTEMIR, Dimitrie | | "The Sistem or the Structure of the Muhammedan Religion", writen in 1722 at Sankt Petersburg and published in "Opere complete", vol.VIII, tom II, Ed. Academiei, Bucharest, 1987 |
| MARUSHIAKOVA, Elena and POPOV, Vesselin | | The Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire, Interface Collection, 2000 |
Addendum
The taxation system of the Ottoman Empire was regulated by a number of factors; namely religious identity,
ability to pay and the information of the defterdars to central governement regarding the tax liabilities
of the population. The ability of members of the ayan, or notables to shelter whole communities from the
state fisc was another important factor from the seventeenth century, as was the ability to move beyond
the reach of the Porte and thereby evade imposition, a clear advantage for nomadic and semi-nomadic groups.
It has been frequently discussed by Romani Studies scholars in relation to Ottoman Gypsies that the tax
liability existed both for Christian and Muslim Gypsies, something regarded as illegal under the sheriat,
or religious law. The notion that the Muslim inhabitants of the Empire paid no taxes whilst the Christians
paid the “poll-tax” or cizye, haraç, ispence or other names applied to the discussion has given rise to much
confusion. Ottoman fiscal organisation was a complicated and dynamic system that changed according to exigencies
frequently over the existence of the Empire, but the fundamental revenues came from the cizye and mukataas, a
variety of different revenue sources detailed in the registers of the Treasury. These were almost entirely
contracted out for collection by private tax-farmers, who themselves might sub-contract the actual collection.
The poll-tax amounted to some 48% of the state budget in total; in 1475 the Rumeli cizye totalled 850,000 gold
ducats, whilst that of Anadolu amounted to a mere 20,000. In the same year, the tax revenue from Gypsies amounted
to 9,000 gold ducats, clearly demonstrating that the Ottomans were taxing Gypsies as a separate category long
before the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, Kanuni (1520-66). Despite Cantemir’s ingeneous explanation, there
has not been found to date, an explanation of this differentiation. However, it must be noted that Muslims did
pay taxes on a variety of goods and services and as avariz. Most importantly, the Muslim male population was liable
for anything up to 25 years military service with the Sultan’s armies. Those Christains perfomring military service
as border guards and auxilliaries (and there were many) received dispensations. Muslim Gypsies paid tax of roughly
half that of the Christian Gypsies (which Cantemir reverses), though whether as suspect Muslims and unreliable
tax-payers (like the Alevi Tahtacilar, Yoruks or Kizilbash), or as a form of ‘ethnic’ discrimination is not clear
at present. Until the firman of 1878 abolishing the exemption of Muslim Gypsies from the armed forces, except in
exceptional circumstances, a bedeli askeri was levied from them on a household basis, similar to the cizye.
The tax liabilities of communities also changed frequently, depending upon the need of central government to
finance the various aspects of its functions, most notably war. Whilst Christians did pay the cizye as hakuk,
or lawful taxes exacted under the sheriat they also paid a variety of taxes in the Balkan lands dating from
previous feudal regimes, often called ispence or harac. These replaced the feudal ‘dues’ exacted by lords
over the peasantry in the pre-Ottoman era, were considered to derive from the kul status of the peasantry
under these regimes and were therefore not recognised by the sheriat. They were always collected by the
local cavalry officer (sipahi) in cash payments. Muslim communities paid a variety of taxes under the legalistic
notion of avariz, or exceptional war-taxes, but these came to be regular rather than exceptional by the
end of the sixteenth century as the Ottoman state’s need to finance the so-called ‘Long War’ with the
Habsburgs became acute. The frequent attempts at reorganisation and improvement of the collection during
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially under the Koprulu dynasty of grand vezirs meant
frequent adjustments to the levels but never the eradication of the tripartite division of the cizye,
despite pressure on the sultans to do so. The division of ala (wealthy), evsat (middle) and edna (poor)
remained the basis for the cizye throughout the Empire’s history.
Adrian Marsh, Romani Studies Network, Istanbul
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