Bulgarian Orthodox Christians Under Ottoman Rule

I have often noted how little we know, and how much of what we do know is often tainted by contemporary politics, when it comes to the issue of Orthodox-Muslim relations, in the Ottoman and other periods. A forthcoming reprint of a book first published in 1993, The Bulgarians in the Seventeenth Century: Slavic Orthodox Society and Culture Under Ottoman Rule (McFarland, 2014) by Dennis Hupchick may help us understand these relations a little better. The book will be reissued next spring by the same publisher:

About this book we are told:

Through Bulgarian and Ottoman documents, marginalia, travelers' accounts, art, and numerous secondary documents, the seventeenth century-considered by historians, as the nadir of Bulgarian national history-is examined as to the question of the Slavic society's continued existence despite centuries of foreign political, social and spiritual domination by the Ottoman Empire. The first part outlines the consequences for Bulgarian history of the Muslim Ottoman conquest. The second details the nature of the culture and the forms of expression. The third part consists of an overview of documented seventeenth century Bulgarian Orthodox expression.