Muslims and Christians in the Bulgarian Rhodopes.

1 Introduction

The book¹ looks at the beliefs and religious practices of mixed Muslim and Orthodox Christian communities in the Western Rhodopes in the context of popular attitudes towards non-coreligionist neighbours. The problem, which is of pressing importance locally, seems to be increasingly important in the global context of heightening conflicts with the world of Islam and the growing wave of Islamophobia. The study focuses on mixed Muslim-Christian communities whose historical experience is in some ways analogous to similar communities in Macedonia or Bosnia, primarily through the shared experience of several centuries of Ottoman rule, which left a lasting mark on daily life and culture, including the strategy of good relations between ...