Though it traces its alleged origin to the ancient Macedonian state of Alexander the Great, the modern Republic of Macedonia only achieved statehood in 1991 by a historical accident. It was immediately embroiled with Greece over the question of its identity and of its very existence. To throw light on this piece of unfinished political business, this history, divided into two volumes, takes a wide view of Macedonia as a geographical entity that extends outwards from the Macedonian Republic into all its neighbours, including northern Greece and southwest Bulgaria.
The books cover the entire period of Macedonia’s written history, from the Temenid kingdom of the Fifth Century B.C. through the periods of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Ottoman and Yugoslav rule, with a final chapter devoted to the travails of the insecure new Macedonian Republic.
Religions—Orthodoxy, Sunni and Shia Islam, and even Judaism—all left their mark on Macedonian civilization: a chapter is devoted to Orthodox mysticism and its role in the creation of the secret churches beside the lakes of Ohrid and Prespa. Two chapters are dedicated to the strange and less than admirable history of Athos, the holy mountain peninsula in Greek Macedonia, while other chapters trace a detailed record of Macedonia’s experience under the Ottoman and post-Ottoman regimes.
Modern and contemporary topics explored here include the violent but incompetent Macedonian struggle against Ottoman rule between 1878 and 1909, and Macedonian involvement in the Balkan Wars and both World Wars. Marshal Tito’s Communist insurgency in Greece of 1944-49 left a lingering legacy of fear and distrust that seems even today to colour the attitudes of the Greeks towards their Macedonian neighbours, a phenomenon also discussed in this volume.
