Pomak

Pomaks are Slavic-speaking Muslims whose homeland is the Rhodope Mountains and nearby lands of Bulgaria, Greece and North Macedonia; smaller groups lived around Lovech and Pleven. They descend mostly from local Christians who became Muslims under Ottoman rule between the 15th and 18th centuries. Their speech, Pomakça, is a group of Bulgarian dialects. Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish nationalisms have each claimed them as Bulgarians, Hellenes or Turks; Pomaks themselves describe themselves variously as Pomaks, Muslims, Turks or Bulgarian Muslims. Waves of war and expulsion from 1877 to 1989 brought large numbers to Türkiye, where they are now probably the largest Pomak population.

Pomak culture is rural and mountain-born: terraced fields, tobacco and potatoes in the Rhodopes, livestock and dairy. Food includes kaçamak (cornmeal porridge), nettle and pumpkin pastries, bean soup and stuffed dried peppers. Weddings are elaborate: in many communities the bride's face is painted white and covered with sequins before the henna night, a custom meant to protect her from evil spirits. Songs, laments and oral tales pass down in families. Extended families and village ties are strong; women's traditional dress and headscarves mark the community in the Rhodopes.

Pomaks are Sunni Hanafi Muslims, with folk customs from the Balkans (protection against the evil eye, wedding and funeral rites) and Bektashi ties in some areas. For most, Islam is the core of identity, and being Muslim long mattered more than ethnicity; this eased absorption into Turkish society in Türkiye. In Bulgaria, communist-era name changes and restrictions left a mix of devout, nominal and secular Pomaks, and since 1989 some have joined evangelical or Orthodox churches.

No Bible or recordings exist in Pomak; Pomaks use Bulgarian (complete Bible, Jesus Film, Bulgarian audio Bible lessons), Greek or Turkish resources depending on the country. Evangelical work among Rhodope Pomaks in Bulgaria began after 1989 and has produced small Pomak fellowships; in Greece and Türkiye no Pomak church is known. Identity bound to Islam makes conversion feel like leaving one's people.