Slav peoples of the Balkans kept
peace by a common policy in which Bulgaria, if dependent, was not
enslaved. But the Turk was rapidly pouring into Europe. In 1366 the
Bulgarian Czar, Sisman III., agreed to become the vassal of the Turkish
Sultan Murad, and the centuries of subjection to the Turk began. After
the battle of Kossovo the grip of the Turk on Bulgaria was tightened.
Tirnova was captured, the nobles of the nation massacred, the national
freedom obliterated. The desire for independence barely survived. But
there was one happy circumstance:

"It is a noteworthy fact," writes a Bulgarian authority, "that
the Osmanlis, being themselves but little civilised, did not
attempt to assimilate the Bulgarians in the sense in which
civilised nations try to effect the intellectual and ethnic
assimilation of a subject race. Except in isolated cases, where
Bulgarian girls or young men were carried off and forced to
adopt Mohammedanism, the Government never took any general
measures to impose Mohammedanism or assimilate the Bulgarians to
the Moslems. The Turks prided themselves on keeping apart from
the Bulgarians, and this was fortunate for our nationality.
Contented with their political supremacy and pleased to feel
themselves masters, the Turks did not trouble about the
spiritual life of the _rayas_, except to try to trample out all
desires for independence. All these circumstances contributed to
allow the Bulgarian people, crushed and ground down by the
Turkish yoke, to concentrate and preserve their own inner
spiritual life. They formed religious communities attached to
the churches. These had a certain amount of autonomy, and,
beside seeing after the churches, could keep schools. The
national literature, full of the most poetic melancholy, handed
down from generation to generation and developed by tradition,
still tells us of the life of the Bulgarians under the Ottoman
yoke. In these popular songs, the memory of the ancient
Bulgarian kingdom is mingled with the sufferings of the present
hour. The songs of this period are remarkable for the Oriental
character of their tunes, and this is almost the sole trace of
Moslem influence.

"In spite of the vigilance of the Turks, the religious
associations served as centres to keep alive the national
feeling. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when