Rumelia
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Rumeli (Turkish: Rum: Greek (formerly 'Eastern Roman'); El: Land Rumeli: Land of the Romans [1]; Greek: Ρούμελη, Roúmeli; Bulgarian: Румелия, Rumeliya), a name commonly used from the 15th century onwards denoting the southern Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire. However, the word "Rumeli" literally translates as "land of the Romans", in reference to the Byzantine Empire, the former dominant power in the area. During the 11th and 12th centuries it was widely used for Anatolia while it was gradually being conquered from the Byzantines.
The name came to be commonly used, from the 15th century onwards, to denote the part of the Balkan Peninsula subject to the Ottoman Empire. More precisely it was the country in today's central and northern Greece as well as European Turkey, bounded north by Bulgaria, west by Albania and south by the Morea, or in other words the ancient provinces, including Constantinople and Thessaloniki, of Thrace and Macedonia. Old French maps show both sides of Meriç river as a Romania. The name Rumelia was ultimately applied more especially to a province composed of central Albania and north-western Macedonia, having Monastir for its chief town.
Owing to administrative changes effected between 1870 and 1875, the name ceased to correspond to any political division. Eastern Rumelia was constituted an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, but on September 6, 1885, after a bloodless revolution, it was united with Bulgaria.
Today the word "Rumeli" is sometimes used to indicate the part of Turkey which is in Europe (provinces of Edirne (Adrianople), Kırklareli, Tekirdağ and the western part of Istanbul Province (Constantinople)). However, "Rumeli" is almost always used in historical contexts, the modern Turkish name for the region being Trakya (Thrace). In Greece, the term Ρούμελη (Rumeli) is used since Ottoman times to refer to Central Greece, especially when juxtaposed with Μωριάς (Morias), since Central Greece remained under Ottoman control for some years after Morias became independent.
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[edit] Administration
The first Beylerbey of Rumelia was Lala Shahin Pasha (also known as Lala Şahin Paşa or S(h)ahin Pasha), the tutor (lala) of Murad I. He established the seat of his administration in Philippopolis in 1362.
In 1382 the capital of Rumelia was moved to Sofia.
- Şahabettin Pasha (Sa'd ed-din Pasha) (1436)
- Sokollu Mehmet Paşa (Mehmed-paša Sokolović) (1551-1555)
- Yeğen Pasha (17th century)
- Ali Pasha (1741-1822)
- Yorgancıoğlu Pasha (1905)
