Hadji Dimitar

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Photograph by Khadji Dimitar of unknown origin
Memorial bust of Khadji Dimitar in Gawrailowo (Sliven municipality)
Statue of Khadji Dimitar near the town hall in Sliven

Chadschi Dimitar ( Bulgarian Хаджи Димитър , bourgeois Dimitar Assenow ; born May 10, 1840 in Sliven ; † August 10, 1868 on the Busludscha ) was voivode of a Bulgarian partisan group ( Četa ) and Heiducke (fraudsters). Dimitar played an important role in the Bulgarian struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire during the phase of the Bulgarian rebirth and was later stylized as a martyr .

Life

Dimitar Asenov came from a Bulgarian family of craftsmen; his father was the dealer Nikola Asenov. When his family was two years old, his family went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, whereupon the son was referred to as Hadji (a name affix that was originally given to Muslim pilgrims to Mecca). At the age of 20, Dimitar joined the Bulgarian independence movement and became a member of a Četa, which was led by Panayot Chitov from that year . In 1863 he went abroad to Bucharest , where he made contact with Georgi Rakovsky , a pioneer of the “National Revival”, and listened to his lectures on Bulgarian history. In the following year he himself became the leader of a Četa and, together with Stefan Karadscha, organized some paramilitary operations in the Balkan Mountains .

In 1868 he founded Karaja, a larger revolutionary association, the members of which were largely recruited from former fighters of the Bulgarian Legion . It was equipped in Romanian exile , in particular by the Bulgarian Secret Central Committee , which had been founded in Bucharest in 1866 by Vasil Levski and Lyuben Karawelow .

Now the Četa crossed the Danube with 120 men, although Russia asked the Romanian government to stop the operation. The tsarist empire generally sympathized with the nationalist aspirations in the Balkan states, but it was opposed to radical revolutionary organizations. The rebels planned to support a Serbian attack on Turkey. After arriving in Bulgaria, the Četa soon became involved in skirmishes with Ottoman troops, in which they retained the upper hand. The survivors then fled to the mountains on the Busludscha, but were persecuted by the Turks. A fierce battle ensued again, and Khadji Dimitar was killed, while Karajah was wounded, captured and sentenced to death. Less than half of the members survived.

Honors

In 1873, Christo Botew wrote a poem about Khadji Dimitar, in which he stylized him as a legend and national hero, and which has become a popular folk song in Bulgaria. Especially during the communist period he was considered a martyr of the Bulgarian people. The Bulgarian mountain Busludscha, on which he died, was named after him in 1942 and has been called Khadji Dimitar since then . In his hometown, the Khadji Dimitar Stadium and a street were named after him, a memorial bust was erected, a memorial was erected and the house where he was born was converted into a museum. Several schools in Bulgaria are also named after Dimitar. Since 2015 he has also given its name to Hadzhi Dimitar Peak , a mountain in the Antarctic .

literature

  • Detlef Kulman: Chadži, Dimitŭr , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeastern Europe . Vol. 1. Munich 1974, p. 305 f.
  • Charles Jacques Veyrenc: Bulgaria. 2nd edition, completely revised. Nagel, Geneva et al. 1981, ISBN 2-8263-0560-3 , p. 363.
  • Barbara Jelavich: History of the Balkans. Volume 1: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (= Joint Committee on Eastern Europe. Publication Series. 12). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1983, ISBN 0-521-25249-0 , p. 346.
  • Raymond Detrez: Hadji Dimitûr (1840–1868). In: Raymond Detrez: Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria (= Historical Dictionaries of Europe. 46). 2nd edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham MD et al. 2006, p. 211.

Web links

Commons : Hadzhi Dimitar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Veselin Traikov, G. Mukherjee: Georgi Stoikov Rakovski. A Great Son of Bulgaria and A Great Friend of India. Northern Book Center, New Delhi n.d., p. 141 .
  2. ^ Richard J. Crampton: A concise history of Bulgaria. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2005, ISBN 0-521-85085-1 , p. 76.
  3. Barbara Jelavich: History of the Balkans. Volume 1. 1983, p. 346.
  4. Léon Lamouche: La Bulgarie dans le passé et le présent. Étude historique, ethnographique, statistique et militaire. L. Baudoin, Paris 1892, p. 95 .
  5. Ivan Iltchev: La rose des Balkans. Histoire de la Bulgarie des origines à nos jours. Colibri, Sofia 2002, ISBN 954-529-260-1 , p. 149.
  6. Frederick B. Chary: The history of Bulgaria. Greenwood, Santa Barbara CA et al. 2011, ISBN 978-0-313-38446-2 , p. 178.