1. Der Spiegel , 15 October 1990. See also the reference to Svet, 18 April 1990, pp. 56–57 in Duijzings, G., Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo (London: Hurst, 2000), pp. 132–133.Google Scholar

2. Der Spiegel , 15 October 1990, p. 197. My translation.Google Scholar

3. See Duijzings, G., “Die Erschaffung von Ågyptern in Kosovo und Makedonien,” in Brunnbauer, U., ed., Umstrittene Identitäten. Ethnizität und Nationalität in Südosteuropa (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2002), p. 148; St. Müller, “Die Situation der Roma in Kosovo,” Südost-Europa Zeitschrift für Gegenwartsforschung, Nos 9–10, 1999, p. 512; European Roma Rights Centre, “Roma in the Macedonian Conflict,” press release, 13 July 2001, <http://www.errc.org/publications/letters/2001/on_macedonia_July_13_2001.shtml>; ibid., “ERRC Press Statement: Roma in the Macedonia Conflict,” <http://www.errc.org/rr_nr2-3_2001/advo3.shtml >.Google Scholar

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6. The establishment of the Association of Balkan Egyptians in West Europe is indicative of such support. See <http://www.balkanaegypter.de>..>Google Scholar

7. See e.g. Marushiakova, E. et al., Identity Formation among Minorities in the Balkans: The Cases of Roms, Egyptians, and Ashkali in Kosovo (Sofia: Minority Studies Society Studii Romani, 2001), pp. 30–39; Müller, Die Situation der Roma in Kosovo, p. 507; Poulton, H., The Balkans. Minorities and States in Conflict (London: Minority Rights Group, 1991), p. 91; Poulton, H., “The Roma in Macedonia: A Balkan Success Story?” RFE/RL Research Report, Vol. 2, No. 19, 1993, p. 43; European Roma Rights Centre, “A Pleasant Fiction. The Human Rights Situation of Roma in Macedonia,” Country Reports Series, No. 7, 1998, p. 34. See also Duijzings, G., “Egyptians in Kosovo and Macedonia,” in E. Hardten, ed., Der Balkan in Europa (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1996), pp. 103–121, as well as Duijzings, Religion and the Politics of Identity, and Duijzings, Die Erschaffung von Ågyptern in Kosovo. Duijzings seems to be the first scholar to have dealt substantially with the Egyptian question in the context of nationalist conflicts in the divided Yugoslavia. He is also the first to have called attention to the new quality of the dynamism of this form of identification. The success of his study is attested by the repeated occasion of its publication (see above). The present article will refer to the publication from 2000 (Religion and the Politics of Identity).Google Scholar

8. See below, as well as e.g. Barany, Z., “The Roma in Macedonia: Ethnic Politics and the Marginal Condition in a Balkan State,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1995, p. 517; Fraser, A., The Gypsies (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992), p. 298; Poulton, , The Balkans, p. 91; and Poulton, , The Roma in Macedonia, p. 43. E. Marushiakova and V. Popov, “Myth as Process,” in Th. Acton, ed., Scholarship and the Gypsy Struggle. Commitment in Romani Studies (Hatfield, Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2000), pp. 81–93, esp. pp. 84–85.Google Scholar

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13. European Roma Rights Centre, “Roma in Albania,” Country Reports Series , No. 5, 1997, p. 11.Google Scholar

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19. Schwab-Trapp, M. (“Diskurs als soziologisches Konzept. Bausteine für eine soziologisch orientierte Diskursanalyse,” in R. Keller, A. Hirseland, W. Schneider, W. Viehöver, eds, Handbuch Sozialwissenschaftliche Diskursanalyse , Vol. 1: Theorien und Methoden [Opladen, Germany: Leske Budrich, 2001], pp. 261–283) has developed a very useful conception of discourse derived from Foucault. See e.g. Foucault, M., L' ordre du discours (Paris: Gallimard, 1971). The present article is based in large part on Schwab-Trapp's methodological proposals.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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24. See e.g. Tayyib M Gökbilgin, “Çingeneler,” Islâm Ansiklopedisi (Istanbul), Vol. 3, 1945, pp. 420–426; the Turkish journal Trih ve Toplum, No. 137, 1995; Zeginis, E., Oi mousoulmanoi Athiganoi tis Thrakis (The Muslim Athigani of Thrace) (Salonica: Institute for Balkan Studies, 1994); E. Marushiakova and V. Popov, Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire (Paris: Centre de recherches tsiganes and University of Hertfordshire Press, 2001).Google Scholar

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26. The most problematical point in such a consideration is the frequent confusion between primordial and modern components of ethnic categories. The present article is, however, not concerned with a closer examination of this issue. See here Trubeta, S., Die Konstitution von Minderheiten und die Ethnisierung sozialer und politischer Konflikte. Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel der im griechischen Thrakien ansäβigen Moslemischen Minderheit (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1999), pp. 26–57; and Trubeta, , “‘Minorization’ and ‘Ethnicization.’”Google Scholar

27. Mann, St. E., “Albanian Romani. Introduction,” Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1933, pp. 1–32.Google Scholar

28. See also Duijings ( Religion and the Politics , p. 134), who notes that in “Albania, Gypsies are called ‘Evgitë’ or ‘Magjypë’, both derived from ‘Egyptian.’”Google Scholar

29. Mann, , “Albanian Romani,” p. 2.Google Scholar

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31. Ibid.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., p. 3.Google Scholar

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37. Ibid.Google Scholar

38. Hasluck, M., “I. The Gypsies in Albania,” Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1938, pp. 49–61.Google Scholar

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41. According to Primovski (“Kovačite Agupti v gr. Madan” [Egyptian Blacksmiths in the Town of Madan), Iztestija na ethnografskija institut s muzej, Vol. 2, 1955, p. 217), an early text by Benventura Vulkanija dated to the beginning of the seventeenth century mentions groups in Bulgaria called “Agupti” and supposes that they are of Egyptian origin. (For the translation of Bulgarian references and an invaluable exchange of information, I am grateful to Dr Evangelos Karagiannis.) Marushiakova and Popov (Gypsies (Roma) in Bulgaria) address the case of the misinterpretation of a document from 1378, namely the Rila charter (“Rilska Gramota”) of Char Ivan Shishman (Šišman), which allegedly refers to the existence of Agupti in a Bulgarian province. They argue that the “place mentioned in the text as ‘Agupovi kleti’ has often been associated with Gypsies (including its reading as ‘Agupti kleti’ (‘poor Egyptians’) both by Bulgarian and foreign scholars” (p. 18). The authors are, however, critical of the unverifiable conclusions drawn by scholars who claim a settlement of “Agupti” in the region in question.Google Scholar

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51. Ibid. The authors regard Agupti as Gypsies “who have almost forgotten their own language and adopted Turkish or Bulgarian together with a corresponding Turkish, Bulgarian or Agupti ethnic consciousness” (p. 97).Google Scholar

52. Zeginis, , Oi mousoulmanoi Athiganoi tis Thrakis , p. 54.Google Scholar

53. It should be kept in mind that, especially in the post-war era, numerous Bulgarian Muslims migrated to Greek Thrace. They usually settled in suburbs inhabited by Turkish-speaking Muslims who were perceived as Gypsies by both Greeks and other Muslim groups. However, further groups of Romanes speakers also migrated from Bulgaria both before and after World War II. See Trubeta, Die Konstitution von Minderheiten und die Ethnisierung , p. 184; and Trubeta, S., Kataskevazontas Taftotites gia tous Musulmanus tis Thrakis. To Paradeigma ton Pomakon kai ton Tsiganon (Constructing Identities for the Thracian Moslems. The Cases of the Pomaks and the Gypsies) (Athens: Kritiki, 2001), p. 165.Google Scholar

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55. Compare this with Hasluck's assertion ( I. The Gypsies in Albania ) that Jevgs also lived in Berat.Google Scholar

56. Cited from interviews of members of this “group” conducted during my fieldwork in spring 1997. See also Trubeta, S., Die Konstitution von Minderheiten und die Ethnisierung , and Trubeta, S., Kataskevazontas Taftotites gia tous Musulmanus.Google Scholar

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58. This information comes from several colleagues who have conducted research in the region of Greek Macedonia. I am especially grateful to Ms Miranda Terzopoulou (anthropologist, Academy of Athens). To date, there is no literature on this topic and it is not yet possible to say approximately how long this phenomenon has existed. My first acquaintance with Roma groups of supposedly Egyptian origin in Greece occurred during my fieldwork in Thrace (1997). One interviewee made reference to his encounter with an author who had voiced the intention of writing a study in which he would argue that the Roma of Greek Thrace originally came from Egypt. It seems likely that this intention was an expression of the Greek nationalist attempt to keep away a numerically considerable segment of the Muslim minority from the Turkish nationalism by ascribing to them an “objectively” distinct, i.e . Egyptian, that is, non-Turkish, ancestry.Google Scholar

59. The case of the Ottoman Empire in particular should be examined with respect to both the following factors: the lack among Ottoman rulers of an assimilation strategy for population groups; and the social status of the assimilated groups referred to.Google Scholar

60. Poulton, H., The Balkans , p. 9, and Poulton The Roma in Macedonia, p. 43. Duijzings (Religion and the Politics of Identity, p. 145) claims that in Kosovo “all data indicates that the Egyptians recruit their members mainly from the Ashkali … a term that most of these ‘Albanian’ Gypsies use for themselves.” See also Marushiakova et al., Identity Formation among Minorities in the Balkans, esp. p. 38, about the relationship between Ashkali and Egyptians. For more on such “identity switching,” see Bloom et al., The Current Plight of the Kosovo Roma.Google Scholar

61. Marushiakova, et al., Identity Formation among Minorities in the Balkans , p. 34.Google Scholar

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69. European Roma Rights Centre, “Roma in Albania.”Google Scholar

70. The letter is dated 2 January 1997 and signed by both Pëllumb Fortuna and Marchel Courthiade.Google Scholar

71. European Roma Rights Centre, “Roma in Albania,” p. 11.Google Scholar

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73. Cf. Clewing, K., “Mythen und Fakten zur Ethnostruktur in Kosovo—Ein geschichtlicher Überblick,” in Reuter, J. and Clewing, K., eds, Der Kosovo Konflikt. Ursachen, Verlauf, Perspektiven (Klagenfurt, Austria and Vienna: Wieser, 2000), p. 17.Google Scholar

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