Vallahades

Vallahades in Vrostiani, 1923

The Vallahades (Greek: Βαλαχάδες) or Valaades (Greek: Βαλαάδες) are a Greek-speaking Muslim population who lived along the river Haliacmon in southwest Greek Macedonia, in and around Anaselitsa (modern Neapoli) and Grevena. They numbered about 17,000 in the early 20th century.[1] They are a frequently referred-to community of late-Ottoman Empire converts to Islam, because, like the Cretan Muslims, and unlike most other communities of Greek Muslims, the Vallahades retained many aspects of their Greek culture and continued to speak Greek for both private and public purposes. Most other Greek converts to Islam from Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus generally adopted the Ottoman Turkish language and culture and thereby assimilated into mainstream Ottoman society.[2]

  1. ^ Haslett, 1927
  2. ^ See Hasluck, 'Christianity and Islam under the Sultans', Oxford, 1929.