ed by the fall of Vidin and Dobrudzha. By 1396
all of Bulgaria was under Turkish domination.

TURKISH RULE

The Second Bulgarian Kingdom, like the first, had ended in total defeat,
and the darkest period in Bulgarian history began with the Turkish
conquest. Only the priests of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church--despite its
takeover by the Greeks--were able to preserve Bulgarian national
literature and culture to some degree. The Bulgarians once again were
subjected to foreign domination, only this time foreign rule lasted for
five centuries. Historians agree that Turkish rule was a death blow to
the creative forces that had been responsible for the development of the
country to that time. With Turkish domination the normal economic,
political, and social life of Bulgaria ground to a halt.

The Ottoman Turks were at a far lower stage of social development than
either the Byzantine Empire, which preceded them in their occupation of
the Balkans, or the Balkan states themselves. The Turks lived an almost
nomadic life in primitive communal systems that were headed by tribal
chiefs. When the Turks occupied Bulgaria, they replaced the established
feudal system with their own more rudimentary and conservative
feudalism. Many boyars were executed or rendered powerless if they
failed to convert to Islam. The peasants were more completely under the
feudal yoke than they had ever been under Byzantine rule. The Turks
imposed heavy taxes and hard labor on the people of the conquered
country, whom they considered cattle. Young boys were taken from their
homes, proclaimed Muslims, and conscripted into the army.

The Turks ruled Bulgaria by means of a sharply delineated administrative
system. Bulgaria as an entity did not exist for the Turks; the entire
Balkan Peninsula was known as Rumili (Rumelia) and was ruled for the
sultan by a _beylerbey_ (governor general) whose headquarters was
located in Sofia. Rumili was divided into _vilayetlar_ (sing.,
_vilayet_), which were further subdivided into _sanjaklar_ (sing.,
_sanjak_), each in turn ruled by lesser officials. Bulgaria itself was
divided into five _sanjaklar_: Kyustendil, Nikopol, Silistra, Sofia, and
Vidin. Although all land was considered to be the property of the
sultan, on the local level the land was distributed to feudal lords and
was tilled by non-Muslim serfs.

A second vehicle for both administration and oppression that the Turks
employed--in addition to the land administ