The present research has the task of examining the Balkan Orthodox view on Islam during the period 14th -15th century. This is a formative period which shapes and develops the view of Balkan Orthodox Christianity on Islam. It was the time of first encounters with the rising power of the Turks, who soon after were going to rule the entire Balkan peninsula.

Definition of the title

The title so formulated has the aim of examining some of the aspects of Byzantine-Slavonic ideology which became topical during the last centuries of existence of the Balkan states. This period is one of the most researched in historical science because of the richness of historical events which directly or indirectly shaped the future of the whole of European civilization. In the studies about this period the surveys of the positive historical science are much more numerous, compared with those dealing with the thought world of the Balkan man. This second kind of investigation still hides within it a challenge for the historians and an opportunity for interpretation and analysis of many of the stereotypes, which even today are alive in the conscience of the people from this part of Europe. People whose fate is to live on the border of two civilizations which experience complicated periods of attraction and repulsion, of mutual rejection, but of cultural exchange as well. The process which shapes the attitudes of the Balkan Christians towards Islam and the Ottoman Turks during this period is amongst the most interesting topics for research in the area.

We chose the common name "Balkan Orthodox Christians" bearing in mind the Byzantine-Slavonic world of the Balkans, because during the period of the 14th - 15th centuries the European part of the Byzantine empire is the main stage of the historical events.

Under the "view on Islam", we have in mind not only the way different authors see Islam, but also the entire image of the Ottoman Turks - as an ally of the Empire, participants in the Byzantine Civil war, transient robbers and in the end as conquerors.

Defining the chronological framework

The present work examine the attitudes of Balkan Orthodox Christianity towards Islam in the period of 14th -15th centuries. This is the period of Turkish settlement in the Balkans as an ally of the Byzantine emperors, till the fall of Constantinople in1453. During the following decades, up to the end of the fatal 15th century, Byzantine and Slav population in the Balkans woke up, as consequence formulated sharp and firm attitudes towards the new rulers of their lands.

During this historical period scholars not only systematized the empirical material accumulated till then, but made some changes in the ideology of the Balkan Orthodox Christians towards Islam. The systematization of the Byzantine conception about Islam as religion is done mainly in the writings of the two emperors, John IV Cantacuzenos /14th century/ and Manuel II Palaeologos /15th century/. Some researchers, as H.-G. Beck for example, considered that in the writings of the two political leaders is given the most comprehensive statement of the Orthodox Christian doctrine in its conflict with Islam since the existence of the Byzantine empire. At the same time the intensified direct contacts with the Turks enriched and deepened the Byzantine knowledge about Islam and Muslim practices, something unknown in the previous centuries. This can be seen in the writings of M. Palaeologos and L. Chalcocondyles.

In the writings of the later authors who witnessed the fall of Constantinople and the following decades of the establishment of the Ottoman rule some new ideas concerning the role of the Ottoman conqueror in the Divine plan for human salvation have appeared. Some of the authors see the Turks as God's tool for preserving Orthodoxy from being engulfed by the Roman Catholics. For them the success of the Muslims is allowed by God, as punishment for the sins of the Christians. Even this idea is traditional for the Byzantine, in contrast to the previous centuries when everybody was convinced of the victory "by Most Holy Mother of God" over the pagans and heretics. From the middle of the15th century the Byzantines see the Ottoman Turks as a heir of the Roman empire; illegal heir, but heir. A feeling of fatalism came in to existence and spread amongst the Christians. For them, their defeat has always been part of the Divine plan, as the future defeat of the Muslims by the Byzantine ethos is also undoubtedly part of the same plan.

These sometimes contradicting ideas, soon became an inseparable part of the Balkan Orthodox ideology; ideas which will inhabitant the consciousness of the Christians through the centuries of Ottoman oppression until the present day.

Aim of the research

The aim of the present work is through analysis of the main historical sources of the epoch to:

1. define the common and ruling conditions in the attitude of the Balkan Christians towards Islam.

2. to indicate some different views existing amongst smaller society groups who used to play active roles in the life of the society. For example, the circle of the disciples and people influenced by the Archbishop of Thessalonika, St. Gregory Palamas who had a completely negative view of Islam, but at the same time appreciated Islam as a monotheistic religion which enabled many pagans to become aware of or to believe in the oneness God.

Another group is the philosophically influential intelligentsia whose opinion is expressed in the writings of Gregory of Trebizond. For him both religions are monotheistic and quite similar, something which makes possible a union.

The Unionists were another small, but influential group. They were looking for union with the Roman Catholics as the only way for salvation of the Empire, neglecting the theological contradictions between the two denominations.

Some Byzantine and Slav intellectuals working for the Ottoman administration, as for example L. Chalcocondyles and Nestor Iskender, had double standarts. They were speaking sometimes with high respect for Islam and sometimes with disrespect.

3. to point out the similarities and differences in the attitudes towards Islam, formulated in the different kinds of historical sources - polemical and epistolary writings, historical and hagiographic writings, folklore.

4. to give an observation, of how the historical events change or add new dimensions to these attitudes.

5.on the basis of this analysis, what conclusions can be made about the main thought stereotypes which have been formulated towards the end of 15th century in connection with their attitudes towards Islam and the Muslims.

General methodology of the research

For writing up of the first part of the present work which studies the historical events of the14th and 15th century we used mainly secondary sources. The list of the general bibliography is included separately. The process of the Balkan's Ottoman invasion is not the main aim or object of the survey. That is why we consider the use of primary sources for that particular part unnecessary. The second and chief part of the work is based entirely on the information from prime sources, most of which we used in their original Greek language. It created some difficulties because not everything was available here in Birmingham's libraries. The assistance of some of our colleagues from the University of Athens - Greece and the University of Sofia - Bulgaria provided us with some of the original and crucial sources was deeply appreciated. The data of the Slavonic sources we obtained through different articles and academic surveys because it was impossible to find any of the critical editions. The original texts of some of the Greek grief or sorrow songs, called thrini were found in Greek web sites.

In the second part of the survey, the sources are grouped according to their kind, where they have been observed chronologically. Only the most important information, closely related to the aim of the survey, has been chosen and used. In the part which analyses the polemic writings, the information is placed in the context of the whole anti-Islamic Byzantine polemic tradition. We used a comparative approach to the primary sources. Our aim was to derive from each particular source we used the main teachings about Islam and then to compare them with what is accepted to be a official Islamic doctrine.

For the spelling of the names of the authors we kept what is accepted world wide. Only in the case of the Latin ending -us, we preferred to use the Greek ending -os. The reason for this is that we are dealing with Byzantine authors, who used to write in Greek and their names originally were written with -os, not with -us. For example: Cantacuzenos instead of Cantacuzenus, Palaeologos instead of Palaeologus, etc.

Structuring the survey

The central part of the survey is the analysis of the information about the view on Islam, given by the different groups of Byzantine and Slav sources. We preferred to group the sources not thematically but according to their kind: polemic and epistolary (John VI Cantacuzenos, Manuel II Palaealogos, Gregory of Trebizond, Gregory Palamas, Demetris Cydones), historical (John VI Cantacuzenos, Nicephoros Gregoras, George Sphrances, Ducas, Critobulos, Laonikos Chalcocondyles), hagiographic (Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos, Gregory Camblak, Constantine Costenetchky, etc.) and folklore (grief or sorrow songs, the so called "thrinoi"), focusing our attention mainly on the first two groups. The reason to choose this approach is not just the wish for more systematic exposition, but mainly the aim is to capture the eventual differences which may appear in the attitudes towards Islam in the writings of authors, because of their own different understanding, interpretation, and approach to the current events.

First we are going to expose the data from the polemic writings of 14th and 15th centuries. Because of their character, they are the most important source of information about the society's inclination, the peoples' mentality and about their view on Islam. In this group we also include the writings of St. Gregory Palamas which despite their epistolary genre and because of the content have to be considered polemic.

The historical writings of Cantacuzenos, Gregoras, Ducas, Sphrances, Critobulos and Chalcocondyles are also an important group of sources for the object of our survey. Some of the main conclusions from their analysis are taken into account in the second part of the central exposition.

Information from hagiographic and folklore literature is given at the end. The life of the saints and the folk songs are going to be the main means of preserving, keeping alive and restoring the peoples' historical memory in the following centuries. The attitudes and the view on Islam expressed through them will be vivid not only for the centuries of Ottomans rule, but also for the period after the liberation until the present day.

The analysis of the sources is going to be insufficient, without being placed in the context of the historical events from the 14th and 15th centuries.

The historical events determining the development of the whole epoch are outlined in the beginning of the essay. The conclusions are made in the third and final part of the work.

Selection of the sources - substantiation

The last two centuries of the existence of the Balkan states is quite rich in historical sources. Almost every writer from this period, directly or indirectly talks about the tragic events in the Balkans. Information about the Ottoman Turks, their faith or historical role, may be derived from all the writings of the epoch. It is impossible to examine all the authors and all the writings of the period because of their sheer volume. That is why we have chosen from each specific group those writings which more fully describe and reveal the view of the Balkan Orthodox Christians on Islam. This is also the reason why we did not make a full historical analyses of the sources, the task of our survey is to find and deal with these passages of particular source which have an eloquent expression of the Christian view on Islam. Below, briefly we will try to expound our arguments about why these particular sources are included in the survey.

1. Polemic writings

1.1 Contra Sectam Mahometicam - written by the former emperor John VI Cantacuzenos.

Of itself a writing on Islam, written by a former emperor is of great interest for every researcher. When such a composition is written by one of the most tragic key figures in Byzantine history, whose policy enormously contributed to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, its study becomes compulsory for our research. According to scholars, through this writing John Cantacuzenos made an attempt to "justify" his pro-Islamic policy and to reject the accusation of being Turkophile. Those accusations are directed towards him by his main political opponents, especially by Nicephoros Gregoras. The composition was written during 1369 and according to its examiners is the answer to a real letter of a Muslim imam to a former Muslim who adopted Christianity and become a monk in the monastery of Hora, together with John Cantacuzenos.

The historical source is valuable for the following reasons:

- systematization of most of the Byzantine views on Islam expressed until then.

- in this writing Cantacuzenos shares his political and religious understanding about the success of Islam and the Byzantine political doctrine of the14th century about the role of Orthodox and Western Christianity in world history.

- The wide spread distribution of this writing during the Ottoman rule not only amongst the Greek speaking Christians, but also amongst the Slav and Romanian Christians is due to its translation into Slavonic. The act of translation shows that the Cantacuzenos' ideas about Islam were adopted and became popular amongst the entire Orthodox population.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no critical edition of this source. That is why we used the Greek text of the writing from Migne's PG 154.

1.2 "??????? ?? ???? ?????" /Dialog with one "Persian"/ of the emperor Manuel II Palaeologos /1391-1423/. The writing is valuable because of its original character. It should be considered as one of the few polemic writings in the Byzantine tradition based on private observation and direct contact with Muslims. The author also shows deep knowledge of the Byzantine tradition and the previous polemic writings against Islam. The book of M. Palaeologos is written in the end of the 14th century and is a kind of record of his conversation with a Muslim scholar /muderis = professor/ in Ankara, in whose house the emperor spent the winter of 1391. There are many reasons to include this source in our survey. First, as we already mentioned the story is based on a real dialogue between the author and a learned Muslim . Second, the writing is providing us with Islamic teachings, unknown till then in the Byzantine tradition. For example, the teaching about the mortality of the angels; the existence of logic among the animals; That Mohammed has a higher place in the Heaven hierarchy than the angels, etc. Third, the thoughts of Manuel II Palaeologos about the Byzantine political doctrine. He dropped behind the traditional Byzantine view that the only true religion - Christianity is spread through the world by the only legitimate empire - Byzantine and by the only legitimate emperor, the emperor of Constantinople - the New Rome. For him the state and military success are not a part and do not come to confirm the truth of particular religious system. In his writing we see a refusal of the doctrine about the messianic role of Byzantine in the world's history as a unifier of the Oicumene.

For our work we used the German edition of the source: E. Trapp, Dialoge mit einem Perser, Wiener Byzantinistische Studien, Bd.2, Wien, 1966.

1.3 Letters to the Church of Thessalonika of St. Gregory Palamas. We are dealing here with 3 letters of the St. Gregory from the time of his captivity in Anatolia during 1354. The letters reflect on his conversation with different representatives of Islam. The first one is with the Ottoman prince Ismael in Prusa. The second one is with the so called "hioni". The third one is from Nicea, a conversation with a "tasiman" - Muslim scholar. The role of the bishop of Thessalonica as one of the creators of the "theoretical hesychasm", and as one of the most active "political hesychasts" is well studied and known. His influence on political and church leaders was great. That is why we should consider his view on Islam as something important for our survey despite the fact that these three letters are everything he wrote about Islam. His writings are valuable also as a source for studying of Byzantine anti-Islamic policy because:

- St. G. Palamas has formulated and shared some new ideas about Islam and the role of the Muslims in the Divine plan. Muslim's conquest is allowed by God for enabling a dialogue between Christianity and Islam, and for witnessing and preaching the Gospel to the Muslims. Islam has its own place in the Divine plan as a tool used by God for converting of pagans to monotheism.

- We do not know what was the impact of his letters to the society, probably not great. What is interesting and important for us is the proved usage of these letters in the polemic writing of J. Cantacuzenos. So if even not directly, but through the writing of Cantacuzenos some of his views on Islam became wide spread

We have used the Greek edition of the writings of St. Gregory Palamas: ???????????, vol. I - IV, Ed. by P. Christou, Thessalonika, 1962 - 1988.

1.4 "Peri tes aleteias tes ton christianon pisteos" of George of Trebizond. This is a small volume book written two weeks after the fall of Constantinople with a particular task to be given to sultan Mehmed II. We decided to include the writing of George of Trebizond in our survey because it contain some of the not very popular ideas spread among the Byzantine intelligentsia. The main view is that between Islam and Christianity can be build a religious bridge of reconciliation for the sake of the newly created empire.

We did not use the original source edition but passages from the source, published in the book of ??????, ?. ? ???????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ????????, ?????, 1963.

2. Historical sources

2.1 Ioannis Cantacuzeni Eximperatoris Historiarum Libri is the main historical source for the events of the 14th century Byzantine world. The investigation of any problem from that time is impossible without taking into account the memoir writing of John Cantacuzenos.

We have used the original text of Miller, T. History of John Cantacuzenus: Text, Translation and Commentary. The Catholic University of America, M.Phil. Dissertation, 1975.

2.2 Nikephori Gregorae Historia is the second key historical writing of the epoch we are dealing with. Nicephoros Gregoras is one of the major political and ideological opponents of John Cantacuzenos and his policy. The history of Gregoras is in three volumes and is normally used for comparison and correction of the J. Cantacuzenos writing about his reign. The author represents the group of anti-hesychasts in the Byzantine empire. According to this group the reason for the Ottoman rides and victories is the pro-hesychastic policy of the emperor Cantacuzenos and the imposition of hesychasm as an official teaching of the Church. The main idea of Gregora's History is that any deviation from the Divine eternal truth lead to abandonment of God and to the "death" of the empire.

The writing is very important for our survey because of:

- the vivid description of the social anti Turkish disposition. /He has described the suffering, of the Christian population in Thrace from the Turkish enslavement; the ruining and inslavery of this population, etc.

- indication of all the details about the participation of the Turks in the life of the imperial palace, something which for understandable reasons is not mentioned by Cantacuzenos. It is very interesting to be seen the description of the Muslims' dance entertainment in the palace of Vlacherna. These entertainments attracted huge numbers of Christians who preferred instead of going to worship to watch Muslims dancing.

The information about the gift of gold made by the Russian great prince is also very interesting. Instead of using the gold according to the prince's will for the reconstruction of the "Agia Sofia", Cantacuzenos used it to pay the salary of his Turkish mercenaries. This fact additionally increased the negative attitudes of Cantacuzenos' opponents towards his acts.

For our survey we have used: Nikephori Gregorae Historia, Bd. I-II-III, Ed. by L.Schopeni and I. Bekker, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Bonn, 1829, 1830, 1855.

2.3 Historia Turcobyzantina of Ducas deal with the events from 1204 to 1462. Divided into 45 chapters, it is one of the most detailed and trustworthy sources about the last centuries of the Byzantine history. Ducas witnessed the fall of Constantinople and this fact makes his history even more interesting and reliable. He is a representative of the extreme Orthodox class of the Byzantine society, which is characterized by strong negative feelings towards Turks and Islam. For example he called sultan Murad II /1421 - 1425/ "proclaimer of the Antichrist" and Mohammed "pupil of the Satan". The part describing the fall of Constantinople is full of information about the local prophecies and stories, which help the population to accept easily the tragedy of Byzantium. For our survey we find very useful also particular parts of Ducas' History where he described the Christian attitudes towards the new Muslim rulers of the empire.

We have used for our work: Ducas, Historia Turcobyzantina, Ed. by V. Grecu, Bucharest, 1958.

2.4 The historical writing of Laonikos Chalcocondyles Historiumdemonstrationes contains a chapter dedicated to the emergence of Islam and its main teachings. L.Chalcocondyles was very close to the last emperor Constantine XI, as such a person he quite often performed different confidential diplomatic missions to the West and to the Ottoman Turks. The missions to the Turks enable him to received direct knowledge about the life and practices of the Muslims. Any way the information he gave about the emergence of Islam is very complicated and full of mistakes, but in contrast to this his observation on the religious life, practices and customs of the Muslims is very interesting and not described in previous sources. He provides us with plenty of information about the Muslim's daily prayers, polygamy, divorce, the ban on drinking alcohol and eating pork, ritual washing, fasts, circumcision, pilgrimage, Islamic view about Christ, etc. The Byzantine authors as a rule, avoid talking about any positive elements of Islamic religion, like fasts, charity, etc. Chalcocondyles is the first one who broke the rule and openly spoke about everything he considered positive in Islam, that is why we think the use of the source in our survey is more than necessary.

There is a critical edition of the "History" of Chalcocondyles: Laonicus Chalcocondyles, ed. by E. Darco, Budapest, 1922. To find this edition was quite difficult for us, because of it and because of lack of time we used the text from: PG 159, pp.13 - 556, Laonici Chalcocandylae historiumdemonstrationes.

2.5. The writing of Critobulos, "De rebus per annos 1451-1467 a MechmeteII gestis" is one of the few positive writings about Islam among the Byzantine sources. The Byzantine noble Michael Critobulos, who became a secretary of sultan Mehmed II, decided to praise his new ruler. We decided to include the source in the survey to show the Turks in a different, positive light.

Because of lack of time we did not used the source in it original edition: Critobuli Imbriotae, De rebus per annos 1451-1467 a MechmeteII gestis, ed. by V. Grecu, Bucharest, 1963. We limited ourselves to the critics of the sources given in for example: I. Shevchenco, E. Trapp. One further engagement with that particular survey will require work with the original text.

3. Grief songs /thrinoi/ and heroic epics

The grief songs, mourning the fate of the population in Thrace who faced the strikes and cruelty of the Ottomans appearance in the middle of the 14th century. These songs appeared before the fall of Constantinople when most of the peasants sow the Turks as a temporary threat. Nicephor Gregora mentioned that he has listened some of the songs from refugees, during his arrest in the monastery of Hora. The number of the songs increased incredibly after the fall of Constantinople and most of them are preserved even today in the Balkan folklore. Main themes in these songs are:

- the fall of the Byzantine empire as Divine will, that is why the process is irreversible;

- the grief is common, everyone is crying: the emperor, the soldiers, the priests, the holy icons, even the Most Holy Mother of God;

- the Turks are desecrators of the Orthodox holiness and places, Turks are "dogs" and everything sacred has to be hidden from them;

- the time when the Orthodox Christians will defeat the Turks sooner or later will come.

Among the Slavonic population were very popular few epics. The epic about Kosovo pole /field of Kosovo battle/ and the epic about Krali Marko /King Marko/. Few things characterized these eposes:

- the common grief, everyone is crying including the nature, the sky, the stars, the sun, etc.

- the image of the Turks as enslavers;

- the faith in the mystical hero who will come soon to defeat the Turks and liberate the slaves.

We have used some Greek web sites which have published some of these songs in connection with the sources describing the fall of Constantinople. We have chosen few of these songs for our survey: "About Hagia Sofia", "The virgin Romania", "The cry of Constantinople", etc. Information about Slavonic eposes we have taken from different sources like: L. Maksimovic, ?? ????? ??? ???????? ??? ???????? ?? ?????????? ???????????? ??? ??????????? ? ????????? ??? ??????, In: ???????? ??? ????????? ????????? 12??-17?? ?????? , ?????, 1998.

4. Hagiographic literature

The Slavonic world did not created its own polemic writings, nor any writings dedicated specially to Islam. The hagiographic literature did not reflect on the theoretical knowledge of the Slavs about Islam, but gives a common picture of the anti-Islamic disposition of the society. As a distinction from the Byzantine, in the Slavonic world there are no streams or nuances in their attitudes towards Islam. For the Slavs the attitude is a very negative one. For them Muslims are "the hagarians" of the Apocalypses and the advisers of the Antichrist. Their victories over Christianity only led to the appearance of many new martyrs of the faith and mark the final victory of the "Heavenly Kingdom" over the "Kingdom of the earth".

Under the name hagiographic literature, the science of hagiology understands not only the life of the saints, but all kind of writings with the central topic the saints and their spiritual world - Narration, Memorials, Stories about the transfer of the holy remains, Apofthegmata, etc. This kind of literature was widespread and popular amongst the Balkan Slavs - Bulgarians and Serbs. Because of the common literature language - Old Bulgarian /Church-Slavonic/ these writings were well known not only by the Slavs, but also by the Romanians who till the XIX century used Old Bulgarian as an official literature and liturgical language.

In the 14th century under the leadership of St. Patriarch Evtimios the famost Tarnovo literature school was promoted in Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of Bulgaria. After the fall of Tarnovo /1393/ in to the hands of the Turks, the disciples of St. Evtimios fled to Serbia, Romania and Russia, where they helped in creation and organization of the local literature schools. For the purpose of the present work we have used just few of the writings of these schools, which indicate the general attitude of the Slavs towards Islam:

· the writing of Constantine Costenechki, one of the most famous student of St. Patriarch Evtimios, who fled to the Serbs - "The life of the Serbian despot Stefan Lazarevich /1389 - 1427/". Despite its hagiographic genre most of the writings of the author have an historical character and contain very valuable historical data for the Slav - Muslim encounter during the 14th and 15th century;

· "Vision of Isaiah" of the elder Isaiah from the Russian monastery of Mount Athos. The writing is quite similar to the Byzantine grief songs, describing the life of the Christians after the battle of Kosovo, when "the living envy the dead";

· "Canon for the emperor" of the Serbian patriarch Efrem. Efrem was Bulgarian hesyhast and student of St. Evtimios. This is one of the most emblematic Slavonic writings because of its extremely negative attitude towards Islam. The Serbian Kingdom is threaten by the "barbarians of the Devil - the ishmaelits". Written in 1371, the author shares his optimism that the Virgin Mary will save her people;

· "The story about the transfer of the holy remains of Holy Petka of Tarnovo". The author, Gregory Tsamblak shares the widespread view among the Orthodox Christians that the transfer of the remains of particular saints,will provide the new area with a supernatural defense against the enemy;

· "The memoirs of one janissary" of Constantine from Ostrovica. Written between 1497 and 1501, the writing has a character of program appeal for European war against the Turks and glorification of the Christian martyrdom.

Because of the specific way of structuring the hagiographic literature - the central place of the writing is occupied by the Christian saint or hero who has become a martyr of the faith, the information provided about Islam is not that full and exhausted as in the Byzantine literature.

5. General issues of the survey

The general issues of the survey are made in accordance with the five main tasks given in the beginning of the exposition in the part "Aim of the research".

1. Our assertion is that during the 14th and 15th centuries, Balkan Orthodoxy has developed one very firm and clearly expressed negative attitude towards Islam. This attitude has three main dimensions:

· First, towards Islam as religious doctrine. We are convinced that despite the huge amount of information about Islam available in the 14th and 15th centuries the Orthodox Christians did not build or obtain clear and full image about its teachings. The intensified contacts with Muslims during these two centuries did not lead to the overcoming of the accumulated wrong and negativity view. The Byzantines continued to look on Islam as one paganistic, barbarian and polytheistic religion or in some better cases as a monotheistic Christian heresy. Here we should mention that the Slavonic world did not develop its own anti-Islamic polemic, even more, Slavs were totally indifferent to Islam as a religious doctrine. The variety of nuances of the Byzantine view on Islam merged in one common and popular opinion about "the religion of the barbarians".

· Second, towards Islam as a religion of the conquerors. The idea about Muslims as demolition men of the Christian oikumene is equally spread amongst Greeks and Slavs. The belief that God would soon help Christians to defeat the Turks was also common. Very popular became the prophecy about the "?? ?????? ?????" - the blond nation who is going to crush the Turks.

· Third, towards Islam as a moral teaching. During the 14th and 15th century was dominant the image of Muslims as robbers and killers. This image defined the Balkan Christian understanding about the moral value of Islam.

2. The view on Islam of the small society groups among the Byzantine intelligentsia differ from the general view on Islam in the Balkans. We should mention once again St. Gregory Palama's view about Islam as a monotheistic religion which is part of the Divine part and which is much more preferable than a union with the Roman Catholics. Other intellectuals such as George of Trebizond, Alexios Makremvolitis, L. Chalococandyles, Ducas, Pleton, etc. see in Islam many positive worthy of respect practices and teachings. They see also that some Muslims are more righteous than the Christians. Pleton is the one who goes even further, explaining the success of Islam not with religious or moral arguments, but with the superiority of the Turkish war machine and army organization. He suggested to the Byzantines to study it and to take what might be suitable and good for them. All these views of the above mentioned intellectuals remained detached in their private correspondence and writings and never gained wide socia

l popularity.

3. The polemic writings paid highest attention to Islam as a religious doctrine. They formulated and spread the basic knowledge of Christians about Islam. They also introduce chapters of the Qur'an to the Christian reader, which even sometimes inaccurately presented helped to be seen some of the Islamic teachings. The inaccuracy and mistakes of these translations led to the spread of wrong concepts about Islam, something which Orthodoxy could not overcome till the end of the independent existence of their national states. For example one of the wide spread wrong teachings among the Christians was about the material and spherical character of the Muslim God.

The historical writings are looking at Islam from one more rational and pragmatic point of view. Some of them contain information about Islam as religious doctrine, but as a whole their contribution to the formation of the Balkan Christian view on Islam is based on:

· distribution of the image of Muslims as robbers and killers;

· showing Muslims as an active player in the inner political life of the empire, with whom Byzantines should play very carefully;

· sometimes, but seldom showing Muslims as people chosen by God who carry high morality.

Through the historical writings we can easily follow the changes of the attitudes towards Islam according to the stream of the historical events. In the beginning, during the civil war in Byzantine, Muslims were not very welcomed but a necessary ally. Later they became robbers, towards the end of 14th century they are already conquerors and after that, till the fall of Constantinople they become enslavers.

The correspondence of the Byzantine intellectuals brought a diversity in the way Christianity looks at Islam. Their letters contain many and different kinds of information and in them the attitudes towards Muslims vary from totally negative to very positive with a much more rational understanding of the new religion.

The hagiographic literature of the period still does not possess the life of the new martyrs /from the time of the Ottoman conquest/. This kind of literature forms mainly the opinion of the Balkan Slavs about Islam. Because of its style, the hagiographic writings do not deal directly with Islam, the information they carry for the purpose of our research is much more limited compared to the rest of the sources. This kind of literature is a reflection of one more emotional view on Islam but also very negative, without an analysis of the faith of the Muslims.

The Folklore tradition expressed in songs, ballads, fairy tales, etc. is also the source of a typically emotional reflection on Islam. The Balkan Folklore of that time generalize and affirm one common negative opinion about the faith of the Muslims. Because the Folklore is part of the oral tradition of one nation, it has spread very quick, has wide audience and normally the ideas which carry are extremely conservative. In fact the image of Islam which still exists in the Balkans, the image of Muslims as enslavers, robbers and killers was formed on the base of this Folklore.

4. Among the engulfed Balkan Christian states in the Ottoman empire the anti-Islamic polemic tradition slowly disappeared. The hagiographic writings and the Folklore tradition became the main propagator of the stereotypes that the Christians had about their Muslim governors. The views they carry on Islam are of a "barbarian religion", this idea was spread mainly among Greeks. The idea of the Muslims as enslavers who killed and robbed without mercy the Christians was an idea widespread in the Slav's Folklore. Also, the Islamic power in the Balkans is temporary and Constantinople would be liberated again (the idea about Constantinople is vivid and wide spread even today amongst Greeks). Common for all the Balkan Christians was the faith in the mission of the so called "?????? ?????", the blond nation, who is going to defeat the Turks and liberate the land. This idea played a very important emotional role during the time of the Russian - Turkish wars in 18th and 19th centuries.

6. Self-assessment of the survey

In our work we made an attempt to answer the following questions which normally arise in the process of the research: 1) What is so special and interesting for us and why we have chosen this particular topic and title (pp.1-2); 2) The aims of the survey (p.3) and how we are going to achieve them. We have specified the central part of the expose, what and why the expose should include (pp.6-7); 3)Because the main part of the survey is based on primary sources, we have shown the arguments for its selection, why particular author have been chosen and what is so significant with him and with his view on Islam. We have mentioned as well if we have used particular source in its original edition or not (pp.8-17). We have divided the sources into groups according to their genre and we justified the reason for this division (pp.7-8); 4) We have specified our methodological approach to the topic (pp.4-5; 21); 5) We indicated some of the main problems through our work about a systematization of the source information and for the creation of one picture of the common attitudes towards Islam in the Balkans (pp.17-20).

We realize that the so formulated topic: "The Balkan Orthodox view on Islam in the context of the Ottoman conquest and rule - 14th-15th century" set up the boundaries of one very vast research, which till now is not done by the historian specialists in this area. The real volume of the survey will reach the requirement for PhD. The precise study of the subject requires the use of many more sources that these we have mentioned and used in our survey. Our aim was basically to draw the main boundaries of the research, making some conclusions derived from the most popular sources. In the same time we realize that taking into account more source material, will not only enrich this research but might even correct some of our opinions and conclusions.

In our survey we allowed our selves to use more information from the secondary sources which is not compared with the original source. We realize this is a weak point in our survey. In future further work on the theme is to be based mainly on the original sources and the use of the secondary sources to be limited only to the level of reference. This has to be done if we want our survey to be in a published form, to make real contributions and to be used for academic purposes.