Muslim Romani people

Muslimansko Roma or Muslimanenge Roma in Balkan Romani language, are Muslims, who adopted Sunni Islam of Hanafi madhab and Culture of the Ottoman Empire, some of them are Derviş of Sufism belief, and the biggest Tariqa of Jerrahi is located at the largest Muslim Roma settlement in Europe in Šuto Orizari. Muslim Roma men are circumcised, the boys are circumcised at the age of 5, because the number 5 (panč) is a sacred symbol among the romani people. Islam among Roma is historically associated with life of Roma within the Ottoman Empire, because Muslim Roma were preferred in the Ottoman Empire and Roma converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. Muslim Roma was settled in Rumelia (Ottoman Balkans) from Anatolia and Ottoman Cyprus. Evliya Çelebi mentioned in his Seyahatnâme book, that Mehmed the Conqueror, after 1453, brought the Muslim Romani from Balat, Didim and Gümülcine to Istanbul, and that they worked as Musicians there.[1] Correspondingly, significant cultural minorities of Muslim Roma are found in Turkey (majority live in East Thrace), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Republic of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, (by mid-1990s estimates, Muslim Roma in Northern Thrace constituted about 40% of Roma in Bulgaria.[2]), (a very small group of Muslim Roma exists in the Dobruja region of Romania, comprising 1% of the country's Christian Romani population[3]), Croatia (45% of the country's Romani population[4]), Southern Russia, Greece (a small part of Muslim Roma concentrated in Western Thrace), Northern Cyprus, Serbia and Crimea. The majority speak Balkan Romani or Kurbetcha, while many speak only the language from the host country's like Albanian and South Slavic languages, and deny there Romani Background. The majority of Turkish speaking Muslim Roma in Bulgaria and some in Turkey declare themselves to be Turks instead of Roma people. Muslim Roma have a big Genetic influence of intermingling with Turks and Crimean Tatars Y-DNA, because Muslim Roma Woman got children from Turkish and Crimean Tatars Men.[5]

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Costume of a Romani woman (most likely Muslim Roma).

Muslim Roma in Bosnia (around 1900)

Because of the relative ease of migration in modern times, Muslim Roma may be found in other parts of the world as well. The Muslim Roma also used the word Gypsy for themselves because they didn't perceive it as a derogatory term. Muslim Roma culture is based of the Turkish culture. Under Ottoman Rule, the Christian and Muslim Roma were separated, by the order of Suleiman the Magnificent. Muslim Roma were forbidden to marry Christian Roma.[6] Significant differences between the Muslim and Christian Roma emerged through the centuries. Christian Roma in the Balkans do not consider Muslim Roma to be part of the romani society. The Muslim Roma, however, see themselves as the real original Roma, and see the Christian Roma as foreign, and call them Dasikane (servants, slaves).[7]. There is a huge gap between the two religious groups

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim Roma have found themselves under double discrimination in regions where Islam was a minority religion, experiencing both Antiziganism and anti-Muslim sentiment.[8]