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The Bulgarian Muslims (Bulgarian: българи-мохамедани; locally called pomak, ahryan, poganets, marvak, poturnak) are Bulgarians of the Islamic faith.[1] They are generally thought to be the descendents of Slavs who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule.[2] Most scholars have agreed that the Muslim Bulgarians are a Religious group of Slav Bulgarians who speak Bulgarian as their mother tongue and do not understand Turkish, but whose religion and customs are Islamic.[3][4][5] Muslim Bulgarians live mostly in the Rhodopes – Smolyan Province, the southern part of Pazardzhik and Kardzhali Provinces and the eastern part of Blagoevgrad Province in Southern Bulgaria. They also live in a group of villages in Lovech Province in Northern Bulgaria. The name Pomak is pejorative in Bulgarian and is resented by most members of the community, especially by non-practising Muslims. The name adopted and used instead is Bulgarian Muslims.[6]
Muslim Bulgarians do not represent a homogenous community. The ones living in Pirin and on the western fringes of the Rhodopes (in the provinces of Pazardzhik and Blagoevgrad) are, however, strongly religious and have preserved the Muslim name system, customs and clothing. Whereas 90% of the community has identified itself as Bulgarian. In the population census in 2001 Muslims with Bulgarian mother tongue are 124,286 but only 12,604 (10,1%) of them considered themselves Turks and 111,682 (89,9%) opted for Bulgarians.[7][8][9] Muslim Bulgarians in the Rhodopes speak a variety of archaic Bulgarian dialects. Under the influence of mass media and school education, the dialects have been almost completely unified with standard Bulgarian among Muslim Bulgarians living in Bulgaria.
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