Religious Conversion in Early Post-Ottoman Bulgaria: A Case Study of Ruse

Under Ottoman rule, conversion to Islam took place in the Balkans in various forms often described as forced, voluntary or “conversion for convenience.” Islamic law, however, strictly forbade apostasy for Muslims, who risked the death penalty. Although the Ottoman reform of 1844 banned the execution of apostates from Islam and that of 1856 declared freedom of religion, Muslim conversion was carried out discreetly. In 1878, the establishment of the Bulgarian nation-state paved the way for potential conversion from Islam to Christianity. This study examines the conversion of Muslims, Catholics, and to a lesser extent, Jews, to Bulgarian Orthodoxy and Protestantism in the city of Ruse. It shows that apostasy was a result of a complex interplay of loyalties, political dynamics, and self-interests rather than purely religious principles. Specifically, it argues that Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Jews, perceived conversion as a way of developing a Bulgarian identity, whereas Catholic conversion to Orthodoxy was mostly marriage-based and did not necessarily entail an intention to achieve a Bulgarian national identity. Moreover, the way that the Bulgarian Church processed the petitions shows a continuity from the practices that the Ottomans used when Christians and Jews converted to Islam during the Tanzimat Era.