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Paper short abstract

In emptying villages in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria, Orthodox churches are sometimes renovated thanks to Muslims’ gifts and paid labour. Do such buildings reconfigure local social relationships and the grand narrative of antagonism between Orthodoxy and (Ottoman) Islam?

Paper long abstract

The Smolyan region, in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria, has undergone sharp economic and demographic downturn since the fall of the communist regime in 1989. This region is home to Bulgarian Muslims and Orthodox Christians. In the country, the Muslims are a minority (circa 10 percent), while the Orthodox form the overwhelming majority. In the Smolyan region, most of my ethnographic fieldwork since 2009 has taken place in mixed villages where the Muslims have always outnumbered the Christians. In these localities, due to higher outmigration among the Christians (already under late socialism), churches have suffered decay, while mosques are in a better shape. Yet, members of the Muslim population have consistently contributed to the renovation of churches in different villages. They either help for free their Orthodox co-villagers or provide paid labour as construction workers and stone masons. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the main religious organization, receives symbolic, legal and economic support from the state. Dominant discourses and historiography promote the idea of an intrinsic antagonism between Orthodoxy and Ottoman Islam. Bulgaria’s Muslims are the heirs of the latter. A gigantic cathedral, opened in 2006 in Smolyan, conveys this narrative of antagonism. But the social meaning and agency of churches in emptying villages, renovated thanks to Muslims’ material contribution, is much more intriguing. I discuss how and why such buildings matter to social life. Do they help reassess the narrative of antagonism? Do they reconfigure social relationships and the locals’ painful experience with the ongoing economic and demographic decline?