Reviews / Vassilka Tăpkova-Zaimova, Anissava Miltenova. Historical and Apocalyptic Literature in Byzantium and Medieval Bulgaria. Sofia, East-West Publishers, 2011, 608 pp.
The aim of the article is to present, on the one hand the main topics and problems of the scientific debates and studies in the sphere of the correlation between Christian and Islam heterodox traditions in the early Ottoman period, and on the other, to analyze some typical analogies and contrasts between them (especially in the area of the cosmogony and diabology), which can ease the future studies of the Christian-Islam co-existence and contacts in this period. The article shows that a number of scientific models from the end of the XIX century and the first half of the XX century, offering different reconstructions about the destiny of the heretic and non-orthodox Balkan-Byzantium traditions and the processes of Islamization in Asia Minor and the Balkans, cannot be supported by the newly found or newly published historical or archeological sources and data. Instead of using or resurrecting these anachronic and often ideologically-motivated models, the accent should be shifted towards a more complex study of the heterogeneous and constantly increasing historical, literary and anthropological material, by using a precise methodology, including the precedents for such kind of studies in other regions and historical periods. In the article it is claimed that such kind of research can give promising results, offering analysis of the parallels and contrasts between some cosmogonic, diabolic and anthropological doctrines and beliefs in heterodox Christian and Islam traditions in Asia Minor and the Balkans, which show that the further expansion of the studies would result in even more promising outcomes and revaluations.
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