Rûm
Encyclopedia
Rûm, also Roum or Rhum (in Arabic
الرُّومُ ar-Rūm, Persian
/Turkish
Rum), an indefinite term used at different times in the Muslim world
to refer to the Balkans
and Anatolia
generally, and for the Byzantine Empire
in particular, for the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in Asia Minor
, and referring to Greeks
living outside of Greece or non-muslims inhabiting Ottoman
or modern Turkish
territory as well as for Greek Cypriots
. The name is loaned from the Byzantine-Greek self-designation Ρωμιοί "Romans". The city of Rome
itself, by contrast, is known in Arabic as Rūmā.
includes Sura
t Ar-Rum
(i.e., the Sura dealing with "The Romans" or "The Byzantines"). The Byzantine Greeks
, as the continuation of the Roman Empire
, called themselves Ρωμιοί or Ρωμαίοι Rhomaioi, Romans, and the Arab
s, therefore, called them "the Rûm", their territory "the land of the Rûm", and the Mediterranean
"the Sea of the Rûm." They called ancient Greece by the name "Yūnān" (Ionia
) and ancient Greeks "Yūnānī" (similar with Hebrew "Yavan" [יוון] for the country and "Yevanim" [יוונים] for the people). The ancient Romans were called either "Rūm" or sometimes "Latin'yun" (Latins).
, Mehmed II
declared himself Kayser-i Rum, literally "Caesar
of the Romans
". However, later Ottoman Sultans abandoned this title and did not persist in claiming it. During the 16th century the Portuguese
used "rume" and "rumes" (plural) as a generic term to refer to the Mamluk
-Ottoman
forces they faced then in the Indian Ocean
.
Under the Ottoman Empire's Millet
system, Greeks
were in the "Rum Millet" (Millet-i Rum). The term "Urums
", also derived from the same origin, is still used in contemporary ethnography
to denote Turkic-speaking Greek populations. "Rumaiic" is a Greek dialect identified mainly with the Ottoman Greeks
.
any Christian
slave girl who had embraced Islam
was named Roumiya. Also the legendary lover of King Roderic
and daughter of Count Julian
is named La Cava Rumía — her affair being the putative cause of the Moorish
invasion of Hispania
in AD 711. The crusades
introduced the Franks
(Ifranja), and later Arabic writers recognize them and their civilization on the north shore of the Mediterranean west from Rome; so Ibn Khaldun
wrote in the latter part of the 14th century.
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
الرُّومُ ar-Rūm, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
/Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
Rum), an indefinite term used at different times in the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
to refer to the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
generally, and for the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
in particular, for the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, and referring to Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
living outside of Greece or non-muslims inhabiting Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
or modern Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
territory as well as for Greek Cypriots
Greek Cypriots
Greek Cypriots are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community at 77% of the population. Greek Cypriots are mostly members of the Church of Cyprus, an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the wider communion of Orthodox Christianity...
. The name is loaned from the Byzantine-Greek self-designation Ρωμιοί "Romans". The city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
itself, by contrast, is known in Arabic as Rūmā.
Origins
The Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
includes Sura
Sura
A sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...
t Ar-Rum
Ar-Rum
Surat Ar-Rum is the 30th sura of the Qur'an with 60 ayat.The surah begins by noting the recent defeat of the Romans by the Persians. It in turn calls Muslims to look forward to the victory it prophesies of the Emperor Heraclius' Christians over the Persian Zoroastrians...
(i.e., the Sura dealing with "The Romans" or "The Byzantines"). The Byzantine Greeks
Byzantine Greeks
Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines is a conventional term used by modern historians to refer to the medieval Greek or Hellenised citizens of the Byzantine Empire, centered mainly in Constantinople, the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor , Cyprus and the large urban centres of the Near East...
, as the continuation of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, called themselves Ρωμιοί or Ρωμαίοι Rhomaioi, Romans, and the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s, therefore, called them "the Rûm", their territory "the land of the Rûm", and the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
"the Sea of the Rûm." They called ancient Greece by the name "Yūnān" (Ionia
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
) and ancient Greeks "Yūnānī" (similar with Hebrew "Yavan" [יוון] for the country and "Yevanim" [יוונים] for the people). The ancient Romans were called either "Rūm" or sometimes "Latin'yun" (Latins).
Rûm as a name
Al-Rūmī is a nisbah designating people originating in the Byzantine empire. Historical people so designated include:- Suhayb ar-RumiSuhayb ar-RumiSuhayb ar-Rumi , also known as Suhayb ibn Sinan, was a former slave in the Byzantine Empire who went on to become an esteemed companion of Muhammad and revered member of the early Muslim community.-Early life:...
, a companion of Muhammad - Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Rumi), the 13th century Persian poet
- Qāḍī Zāda al-Rūmī, 14th century mathematician
- Tadj ol-MoloukTadj ol-MoloukTadj ol-Molouk of Iran was the daughter of General Teymūr Khan Ayromlou, and the Queen Consort of Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and Shah of Iran between 1915 and 1941. The title she was given after becoming Queen means "Crown of the King" in the Persian language...
AyrumluAyrumluAyrums are a Turkic-speaking sub-ethnic group of Azeris in Caucasus. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some migrated to Iran and to Turkey. At least six towns in northwestern Azerbaijan and northeastern Armenia have been named after the tribe: Ayrum, Mets Ayrum, Bağanis...
, Former Queen of Iran
Rûm in geography
Later, because Muslim contact with the Byzantine Greeks most often took place in Asia Minor, the term Rûm became fixed there geographically and remained even after the conquest by the Seljuk Turks, so that their territory was called the land of the Seljuks of Rûm, or the Sultanate of Rûm. But as the Mediterranean was "the Sea of the Rûm", so all peoples on its north coast were called sweepingly "the Rûm".Ottoman usage
After the Fall of ConstantinopleFall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI...
, Mehmed II
Mehmed II
Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...
declared himself Kayser-i Rum, literally "Caesar
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
of the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
". However, later Ottoman Sultans abandoned this title and did not persist in claiming it. During the 16th century the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
used "rume" and "rumes" (plural) as a generic term to refer to the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
-Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
forces they faced then in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
.
Under the Ottoman Empire's Millet
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
system, Greeks
Ottoman Greeks
Ottoman Greeks were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire , the Republic of Turkey's predecessor...
were in the "Rum Millet" (Millet-i Rum). The term "Urums
Urums
Urums, singular Urum is a broad historical term that was used by some Turkic-speaking peoples to define Greeks who lived in Muslim states, particularly in the Ottoman Empire and Crimea...
", also derived from the same origin, is still used in contemporary ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
to denote Turkic-speaking Greek populations. "Rumaiic" is a Greek dialect identified mainly with the Ottoman Greeks
Ottoman Greeks
Ottoman Greeks were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire , the Republic of Turkey's predecessor...
.
In Islamic Spain
In Al-AndalusAl-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
any Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
slave girl who had embraced Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
was named Roumiya. Also the legendary lover of King Roderic
Roderic
Ruderic was the Visigothic King of Hispania for a brief period between 710 and 712. He is famous in legend as "the last king of the Goths"...
and daughter of Count Julian
Julian, count of Ceuta
Julian, Count of Ceuta was a legendary Christian local ruler or subordinate ruler in North Africa who had a role in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania — a key event in the history of Islam, in which al-Andalus was to have a major role, and the subsequent history of what were to become Spain and...
is named La Cava Rumía — her affair being the putative cause of the Moorish
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
invasion of Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
in AD 711. The crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
introduced the Franks
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
(Ifranja), and later Arabic writers recognize them and their civilization on the north shore of the Mediterranean west from Rome; so Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
wrote in the latter part of the 14th century.
See also
- Rûm Province, Ottoman EmpireRûm Province, Ottoman EmpireEyalet of Rûm , later named as the Eyalet of Sivas, was an Ottoman eyalet in northern Anatolia, founded following Bayezid I's conquest of the area in the 1390s. The capital was the city of Amasya, which was then moved to Tokat and later to Sivas...
. - RumeliaRumeliaRumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...
, from Turkish Rum eli meaning 'country of the Romans'. - ErzurumErzurumErzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
, from the Turkish pronunciation of Arabic أرض روم arḍ Rūm, 'Land of the Romans'. - Edirne Ciğeri, a Turkish meat dish also referred to as "Rumeli Ciğeri".
- Rumi calendarRumi calendarThis is about the solar Ottoman calendar based on the Julian calendar. For the lunar Hijri calendar see Islamic calendar.The Rumi calendar , a specific calendar based on the Julian calendar but starting with the year of Muhammad's emigration in 622 AD, was officially used by the Ottoman Empire...
, a calendar based on the Julian CalendarJulian calendarThe Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...
, used by the Ottoman Empire after TanzimatTanzimatThe Tanzimât , meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. The Tanzimât reform era was characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire, to secure its territorial integrity against...
. - Mawlānā, great Persian poet who is sometimes referred to as Rumi.
- Rumiye-i Suğra, the name of the region in Ottoman Empire which included TokatTokatTokat is the capital city of Tokat Province of Turkey, at the mid Black Sea region of Anatolia. According to the 2009 census, the city of Tokat has a population of 129,879.-History:Tokat was established in the Hittite era....
, AmasyaAmasya- History :Its location in this steep valley makes the city a mountain stronghold, easy to defend, and thus Amasya has had a long and prominent history.-Antiquity:...
, and Sivas. - Rumçi, another term used to refer to the Greeks during the Ottoman times.