"By the grace of God Stephan, King of Serbia, Dioclea, Zachulmia, Zeta*, Albania and the Pomorie** and ruler of not a small part of the kingdom of Bulgaria, and Lord of almost all Romania***."
Monumenta Slavorum meridionalium II, Zagrabiae, 1870, p. 278.
* Zachulmia, Dioclea and Zeta - small Serbian principalities on the Adriatic
** Pomorie - the Aegean coast of Macedonia
*** Romania - the European part of Byzantium
"...This book was written in the time of the pious and Christ-loving Bulgarian tsar Ioan Alexander and the pious and holy tsar of the Serbian and Greek land Stefan and the great despot Ioan Oliver**."
Lesnovo Parenesis, the original is in Old Bulgarian.
* This is evidence that although the monastery was in Serbia, the monks felt Bulgarian and acknowledged the Bulgarian king. Moreover, they continued to write in the Bulgarian version of Old Bulgarian, whereas the Serbs wanted to introduce the Serbian version. This case is very similar to the Bologna Psalter (click here).
** Ioan Oliver was a Serbian voivoda (military leader) who later become a despot (big feudal lord) and was given lands in Zletovo in central Macedonia by the Stefan Dushan.
Sept. 12, 1381 - "... a slave ... Maria of Bulgarian stock [de genere Bulgarorum], from the locality of Prilep." (#19)
Nov. 4, 1381 - "... Theodora, of Bulgarian stock, from the locality of Kostour..." (#31)
July 5, 1382 - "... a slave named Alexo, of Bulgarian stock, from the locality of Serres..." (#99)
July 8, 1382 - "... a slave named Irina, of Bulgarian stock, from the locality of Kostour..." (#100)
July 12, 1382 - "... a slave named Irina, of Bulgarian stock, from the locality of Devol**..." (#105)
Sept. 18, 1382 - "... a slave named Dimitar, a Bulgarian from the locality of Vodena..." (#125)
Sept. 21, 1382 - "... of Bulgarian stock, from the locality of Veles..." (#126)
Mar. 7, 1383 - "...Mihail, of Bulgarian stock, from the locality of Skopie..." (#184)
Iv. Sakuzov, Newly found documents from the end of the XIVth c. about the Bulgarians from Macedonia sold as slaves, Makedonsky Pregled, 1932, No. 2-3, pp. 1- 62; the original is in Italian.
* The famous slave market in Candia was on the island of Crete, held by the Venetians. Each selling or liberating of a slave had to be confirmed by a notarial deed. The notary asked the slaves questions and according to the answer wrote down his name, nationality and place of birth. All slaves from Macedonia, with the exception of a few Greeks and Wallachians have been recorded as Bulgarians.
** Devol - a town in East Albania close to Ochrid
"Pray to the merciful God to save your compatriots - your congenial Bulgarian people."
15th c The Serbian writer Mihail of
Ostrovitsa reports in his chronicle that Dusan's successor, Uros Ludi, ordered
the two brothers Vulkasin and Ugljes to rule over the Bulgarian lands
He allowed the two brothers1 to govern the Bulgarian Kingdom ... When was only
four miles away from Drenopole,2 the two brothers, who had oc-»ied the Bulgarian
land, rose up against their lord.
Йордан Иванов, Българите в Македония (Yordan Ivanov, The
Bulgarians in Macedonia), p. 157; the original is in Serbian
1 Vulkasin ruled western Macedonia, and Ugljes — south-eastern Macedonia, and
for this reason the source states that they ruled Bulgarian lands.
2 Adrianople.
1474 Information from Dubrovnik about the Bulgarian monastery
of St Yakun Osogovsky or Sarandoporsky, near Kriva Palanka (Northern Macedonia)
The Dubrovhik Council decided to give 20 perperi (gold coins) 'as alms to
Bulgarian monastery of "St. Yakim".
Йордан Иванов, Българите в Македония (Yordan Ivanov, The
Bulgarians in Macedonia), Sofia, 1917, p. 165; the original is in Latin
"He allowed the two brothers to govern the Bulgarian Kingdom... When he was only four miles away from Drenopole, the two brothers, who had occupied the Bulgarian land, rose up against their master."
The original is in Serbian.
* to see the extent of Vukashin and Uglesha's lands click here.
1586 Representatives of the Osogovo
Monastery at Kriva Palanka, of the Monastery of the Annunciation at Kyustendil
and of the Bilina Monastery at Trun appear in Moscow to ask Tsar Feodor
Ivanovich for aid
/The Russian Tsar was informed/ 'of the arrival from the Bulgarian land
of Vissarion of Kolossia, from the Monastery of the Annunciation, of the
anchorite Yoakim and the abbot Gervasii, from the monastery in the great
mountain of Osogovitsa, and of the priest Stefan, from the Monastery of the
Archangel near Bilina.'
Сношения Росени с Востоком по делам церковньiм (Russia's Relations with the
East on Church Matters), St Petersburg, 1858, vol. I, 182; Йордан Иванов,
Българите в Македония (Yordan Ivanov, The Bulgarians in Macedonia), Sofia, 1917,
pp. 168-169; the original is in Russian
"They say that Struga is a town but as a matter of fact it is rather a village; it is the first locality in succession in Bulgaria. A river flows across Struga which runs out of the lake of Ochrida; here, they say, is also the spring of the river of the town of Lesius [Drim river]. Practically the whole plain of Struga is cultivated, tiled and very fertile; a little further away, at the beginning of the plain of Struga, one passes through a bridgewhich is on the border between Bulgaria and Albania. The Bulgarians speak Slav and observe the Greek [Eastern Orthodox] rite."
"On May 23, proceeding further on a good road, they reached Bitola at 7 o'clock. Bitola is a Bulgarian town, densely populated, as they say, 1,500 houses, including 200 Jewish."
"On May 27, descending the hill abounding in water and wells, they followed the foot of the mountain situated opposite the hill and came down in a wide plain which the Turkscall Vardar Ova and the Bulgarians - Slanitsa."
"They passed through a wooden bridge, 300 steps long, leading across the Vasrdar River which further on flows through Skopje...This bridge is the boundary between Bulgaria and Thessaly. Near the bridge there is a house from which a Bulgarian maid came with a loaf baked under hot ashes."
Jordan Ivanov, The Bulgarians in Macedonia, pp. 169-170; the original is in Italian.
...
And the inhabitants
of Skopje are Turks, and there are also many inhabitants who are Christians ...
and on three sides around the settlement of
Описание турецкой империи, составленное русским, бьiвшим
в плену у турок в XVII
веке, под редакцией П. А. Смрку (Description
of the Turkish Empire by a Russian Prisoner of War with the Turks during the
17-th century,
edited by P.A.
Syrku),
Hrupishta, on the shore of the
Ohrid, south-west of
Geographical description of Roumelia and
In
From here /Kratovo/,
having set out towards the east, we passed through the Bulgarian village of
Nagorichani and took horses from the village of Murad, which has six hundred
houses, extracts iron ore and is a Bulgarian village.
... We set out from
here /town of Dupnitsa/ eastward and after having walked for a day we reached
the village of Durgan. It is a Bulgarian village and has 200 houses.
... Starting from
here /the town of Doupnitsa/ in an easterly direction and having walked one day,
we reached the village of Dourgan. This is a Bulgarian village consisting of 200
houses.
After having walked
an hour and a half northward, we reached the
In general here /Prilep/
the Bulgarian language is spoken, because all Christians are Serbians and
Bulgarians.
All the urban /about
Pirot/ rayah are Bulgarian.
А.
Шопов, Евлия Челеби, Периодическо списание на българското книжовно дружество в
София (А. Shopov,
Evliya Chelebi,
Periodical of the Bulgarian
Scholarly Society in Sofia), ХП,
Sofia,
1902, pp.
175, 179, 182, 184, 185, 192; the
original is in Turkish
Indeed,
the Kyustendil ruler, known by the name of
Йордан
Иванов, Българите в Македония (Yordan
Ivanov, The Bulgarians in Macedonia), Sofia,
1917, p.
162;
the original is in Turkish
2
After the
remaining towns and places had also been conquered, the Kyustendil ruler,
/Constantine Deyan - Ed./ who possessed the Bulgarian land with the gold and
silver mines ... /was subjugated - Ed./
Йордан
Иванов, Българите в Македония (Yordan
Ivanov, The Bulgarians in Macedonia), Sofia,
1917, p.
162;
the original is in Turkish
E. Fermendzin, Acta Bulgariae
ecclesiastica ab A. 1565
usque ad
1799.
Zagrabiae 1887,
p. 69.
Йордан Иванов, Българите в Македония
(Yordan Ivanov, The Bulgarians in
Macedonia), Sofia, 1917,
pp.
173 174; the original is in
Italian
... in the
town of Skopje, a Bulgarian town, Monsignor Don Andrea is Bishop.
Н. И.
Милев, Католишката пропаганда в България през
XVII
век (N. I. Milev, Catholic
Propaganda in Bulgaria during the 17th c.), Sofia,
1914,
p. 152;
the original is in Latin
/1655/ Ohrid, a
Bulgarian town, described by Peter, the Archbishop of Sofia. The town of
/1667/ Some authors place the Skopje
Archbishopric among 1 Bulgarians because under the administration of
this Archbishopric among the Bulgarians there are perhaps some Catholics; other
Catholics, however, over whom the Archbishopric also rules,
are in Serbia.
Йордан
Иванов, Българите в Македония (Yordan
Ivanov, The Bulgarians in Macedonia), Sofia, 1917, pp.
174-175;
the original is in Italian.
And again
on the 14th day we came to Veles, a Bulgarian town, but the Turks call it
Kupriiliya ...
Йордан
Иванов, Българите в Македония;
(Yordan Ivanov, The Bulgarians in
Macedonia), p. 182; the
original is in Serbian
In
Thessalonica I spent precisely one day and could not see anything. My stay there
was fortunate, because I found familiar people, moreover Bulgarians, and they
gave me food and helped me prepare for the journey.
В. Григорович
— Барский, Странствования по святьiм
местам Востока с 1723 по 1747 г. Издание Правосл. Палестинским
Обществом. (V. Grigorovich Barsky,
Travels in the Holy Places of the East from
1723 to
1747.
Published by the Orthodox
Anna, nun, born in
D. Ruvarac, Opis srpskih Frusko gorskih manastira od
1753,
(D. Ruvarac, A. Roll of the Serbian Fruska Gora Monastery of
1753)
Sr. Karlovtsi, 1905,
pp.
88-89. Йордан Иванов, Български старини из Македония, (Yordan
Ivanov,
Bulgarian Antiquities in Macedonia)
2nd edition,
Sofia,
1931, p.
156; the original is in Serbian