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Greek Muslims, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims,〔〔〔〔〔〔 are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin whose adoption of Islam (and often the Turkish language and identity) dates to the period of Ottoman rule in the southern Balkans. They consist primarily of the descendants of the elite Ottoman Janissary corp and Ottoman-era converts to Islam from Greek Macedonia (e.g., Vallahades), Crete (Cretan Muslims), northeastern Anatolia and the Pontic Alps (Pontic Greeks). They are currently found mainly in western Turkey (particularly the regions of Izmir, Bursa, and Edirne) and northeastern Turkey (particularly in the regions of Trabzon, Gümüşhane, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars (see also Caucasus Greeks of Georgia and Kars Oblast and Islam in Georgia). Despite their ethnic Greek origin, the contemporary Grecophone Muslims of Turkey regarding their identity have been steadily assimilated into the Turkish-speaking (and in the northeast Laz-speaking) Muslim population. Apart from their elders, sizable numbers, even the young within these Grecophone Muslim communities have retained a knowledge of Greek and or its dialects such as Cretan Greek and Pontic Greek,〔Mackridge, Peter (1987). "(Greek-speaking Moslems of north-east Turkey: prolegomena to a study of the Ophitic sub-dialect of Pontic. )" ''Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies''. 11. (1): 117.〕 though very few are likely to call themselves ''Greek Muslims''. This is due to gradual assimilation into Turkish society, as well as the close association of Greece and Greeks with Orthodox Christianity and their perceived status as a historic, military threat to the Turkish Republic. Whereas in Greece, Greek speaking Muslims are not usually considered as forming part of the Greek nation.〔Mackridge, Peter (2010). ''Language and national identity in Greece, 1766-1976''. Oxford University Press. p. 65. “Greek-speaking Muslims have not usually been considered as belonging to the Greek nation. Some communities of Greek-speaking Muslims lived in Macedonia. Muslims, most of them native speakers of Greek, formed a slight majority of the population of Crete in the early nineteenth century. The vast majority of these were descended from Christians who had voluntarily converted to Islam in the period following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1669.”〕 In the late Ottoman period (particularly following the Greek-Turkish war of 1897-98) several communities of Grecophone Muslims from Crete and southern Greece were also relocated to Libya, Lebanon and Syria, where in towns like al-Hamidiyah some of the older generation continue to speak Greek.〔Barbour, S., ''Language and Nationalism in Europe'', Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-823671-9〕 Historically, Greek Orthodoxy has been associated with being Romios, i.e. Greek, and Islam with being Turkish, despite ethnic or linguistic references.〔Hodgson, Marshall (2009). ''The Venture of Islam, Volume 3: The Gunpower Empires and Modern Times''. University of Chicago Press. Chicago. pp. 262-263. "Islam, to be sure, remained, but chiefly as woven into the character of the Turkish folk. On this level, even Kemal, unbeliever as he was, was loyal to the Muslim community as such. Kemal would not let a Muslim-born girl be married to an infidel. Especially in the early years (as was illustrated in the transfer of populations with Greece) being a Turk was still defined more by religion than by language: Greek-speaking Muslims were Turks (and indeed they wrote their Greek with the Turkish letters) and Turkish-speaking Christians were Greeks (they wrote their Turkish with Greek letters). Though language was the ultimate criterion of the community, the folk- religion was so important that it might outweigh even language in determining basic cultural allegiance, within a local context."〕 Most Greek speaking Muslims in Greece left for Turkey during the 1920s population exchanges under the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations (sometimes in return for Turkish-speaking Christians such as the Karamanlides).〔 Due to the historical role of the ''millet'' system, religion and not ethnicity or language was the main factor used during the exchange of populations.〔 All Muslims who departed Greece were seen as "Turks", whereas all Orthodox people leaving Turkey were considered "Greeks", regardless of ethnicity or language.〔Poulton, Hugh (2000). "The Muslim experience in the Balkan states, 1919‐1991." ''Nationalities Papers''. 28. (1): 46. "In these exchanges, due to the influence of the ''millet'' system (see below), religion not ethnicity or language was the key factor, with all the Muslims expelled from Greece seen as “Turks,” and all the Orthodox people expelled from Turkey seen as “Greeks” regardless of mother tongue or ethnicity."〕 An exception was made for Muslims (Pomaks and Western Thrace Turks) in East Macedonia and Thrace, Northern Greece, who are officially recognized as a religious, but ''controversially'' not as an ethnic minority by the Greek Government.〔See Hugh Poulton, 'The Balkans: minorities and states in conflict', Minority Rights Publications, 1991.〕 In Turkey, where most Greek speaking Muslims live, there are various groups of Grecophone Muslims, some autochthonous, some from parts of present-day Greece and Cyprus who migrated to Turkey under the population exchanges or immigration. ==Reasons for conversion to Islam== Devşirme (blood tax) was one of the organized practices by which the Ottomans took boys from their Christian families, who were later converted to Islam with the aim of selecting and training the ablest of them for leading positions in the Ottoman society. As a rule , the Ottomans did not require the Greeks to become Muslims, although a minority did so in order to avert the socioeconomic hardships of Ottoman rule,〔(Crypto-Christians of the Trabzon Region of Pontos )〕 take advantage of greater employment prospects and possibilities of advancement in the Ottoman government bureaucracy and military, or simply because of the corruption of the Greek clergy.〔The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, pg. 135-144〕 Subsequently these people became part of the Muslim community of the millet system, which was closely linked to Islamic religious rules. At that time people were bound to their millets by their religious affiliations (or their confessional communities), rather than to their ethnic origins.〔Ortaylı, İlber. ''"Son İmparatorluk Osmanlı (The Last Empire: Ottoman Empire)"'', İstanbul, Timaş Yayınları (Timaş Press), 2006. pp. 87–89. ISBN 975-263-490-7 .〕 Muslim communities prospered under the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman law did not recognize such notions as ethnicity and the Muslims of any ethnic background enjoyed precisely the same rights and privileges.〔(Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture, Richard C. Frucht, ISBN 1576078000, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 803. )〕 Another major reason for converting to Islam was the well-organized taxation system based on religion.〔Taxation in the Ottoman Empire〕 Major taxes were the Defter and İspençe and the more severe haraç whereby a document was issued which stated that "the holder of this certificate is able to keep his head on the shoulders since he paid the Χαράτσι tax for this year ...". All these of course were waived if the person would convert and become Muslim,.〔Νικόλαος Φιλιππίδης (1900). Επίτομος Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους 1453-1821. Εν Αθήναις: Εκ του Τυπογραφείου Α. Καλαράκη. Ανακτήθηκε στις 23 Ιουλίου 2010.〕〔Ιωάννης Λυκούρης (1954). Η διοίκησις και δικαιοσύνη των τουρκοκρατούμενων νήσων : Αίγινα - Πόρος - Σπέτσαι - Ύδρα κλπ., επί τη βάσει εγγράφων του ιστορικού αρχείου Ύδρας και άλλων. Αθήνα. Ανακτήθηκε στις 7 Δεκεμβρίου 2010.〕〔 Παναγής Σκουζές (1777 - 1847) (1948). Χρονικό της σκλαβωμένης Αθήνας στα χρόνια της τυρανίας του Χατζή Αλή (1774 - 1796). Αθήνα: Α. Κολολού. Ανακτήθηκε στις 6 Ιανουαρίου 2011.〕 During the Greek War of Independence, Ottoman Egyptian troops under the leadership of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt ravaged the island of Crete and the Greek countryside of the Morea where the Muslim Egyptian soldiers enslaved vast numbers of Christian Greek children and women. Ibrahim arranged for the enslaved Greek children to be forcefully converted to Islam ''en masse''. The enslaved Greeks were subsequently transferred to Egypt where they and sold as slaves. Several decades later in 1843, the English traveler and writer Sir John Gardner Wilkinson described the state of enslaved Greeks who had converted to Islam in Egypt: : 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Greek Muslims」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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