site.bta27 Authors, 2 Volumes: First Economic History of Bulgarians in Ottoman Empire Presented at Sofia International Book Fair

The first academic monograph examining the economic history of the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire was presented at the Sofia International Book Fair at the Palace of Culture in Sofia on Wednesday. Divided into two volumes, it contains 26 chapters written by 27 authors - young and established scholars, each recognised in their academic field, its editor Ivan Roussev, a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and a Professor at the University of Economics in Varna, told the Bulgarian News Agency.

“The authors are representatives of universities, research institutes and museums from Bulgaria and Turkiye,” he added. The publication is issued by the Az Buki publishing house.

“Our aim was to create a book that would be of interest both to specialists and to a broader audience. This is not a publication that one reads once and sets aside. It is a book to which we will always return on various occasions,” Roussev said.

“The idea actually came from the Centre for Economic and Historical Studies, which was founded on my initiative – to bring together everyone captivated by economic history as a science and as a subject taught at universities,” Prof. Roussev explained. He added that the texts for the monograph were developed over the course of two years. “Everything has been peer-reviewed, everything has been fact-checked. The author’s name alone is not enough to guarantee the quality of the text,” he stressed.

Prof. Roussev noted that more than half a century ago there were attempts to create a multi-volume economic history of Bulgaria, but the conditions at the time - the Marxist ideological framework and the different organisation of academic work - did not allow full freedom either in structure or in the choice of authors. As for the Ottoman period, no such attempt had been undertaken until now.

The presentation also featured the publication’s academic reviewer, the historian Prof. Milko Palangurski. “To synchronise twenty-seven authors within a single structure on which we have worked for years, and to see it published - believe me, this is a scholarly achievement, a publishing feat and, I would say, an exceptionally good product,” he noted.

The first volume comprises 600 pages, the second - 524 pages. The publication examines key topics such as the waqf in the Bulgarian lands, chiftliks, issues of land and trade, domestic trade, fairs in the Bulgarian lands, proto-industries of the 19th century, and economic thought.