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Dobrujan Arabs
عرب دبروجة; ‘Arab Dubrūja
	Dobrujan Arab men, between 19th and 20th century
Languages
	Arabic,* Dobrujan Tatar, Turkish
Religion
	Islam
Related ethnic groups
	Other Arabs, especially Syrian Arabs
	Arabic is probably not well-known due to assimilation. The number of people is unknown.

Dobrujan Arabs (Arabic: عرب دبروجة, romanized: ‘Arab Dubrūja) are Arab people who assimilated into the Tatar-Turkish population in Dobruja.^[1] They were brought from Syria to Dobruja in the 19th century.

History

Fragment of the ethnic map of the Balkan Peninsula drawn up in 1861 by G. Lejean. The area inhabited by the Dobrogean Arabs is marked by a white space with black dots. (See **caption**)

The Romanian-Bulgarian border from 1878 with the representation of the Dokuz Ağaç locality

There were Arabs brought from Syria to Dobruja by the Ottomans in the 19th century. At first the Ottomans brought them to Istanbul, where they worked in carpet factories. When the factories closed, they were jobless, and due to Ottoman policy (according to the law, it was not possible to stay in Istanbul without working) they were brought to Dobruja by the Ottomans in 1843.^[2] The population was 255 people.^[3] In Dobruja they worked as farmers. According to Ottoman sources, these people were housed in some towns in Dobruja, with generous state support.^[4]

The Arabs were highly valued for their skill in practicing agriculture in drought conditions.^[5] The territory on which they settled is crossed today by the Romanian-Bulgarian border. Of the five settlements, the most important was Dokuz Ağaç ("Nine trees"), today Măgura, a village in Cerchezu Commune, Constanța County, Romania. They were the only Arab settlements in Europe. The Ottoman census of 1856 reports 145 Arabs (0.9%) in Dobrogea,^[6] but their number increased significantly after this date. In 1861, French geographer Guillaume Lejean mentioned the fact that during his trip through the Balkan Peninsula in 1854, one of these settlements, Arap-Köy, was already abandoned, while the rest of the settlements enjoyed some prosperity. In 1878, Dobrogea was divided between Romania and Bulgaria, and the new border crossed the area inhabited by Arabs. After this date, the Arab settlements began to decline, and part of the population emigrated to the Ottoman Empire.^[7]

A few decades later, in 1913, the Swiss anthropologist Eugène Pittard mentions that these colonies have dissolved and manages to find only a remnant of 14 unassimilated Arabs in the area, all men. Following anthropological analyses, Pittard concluded that some of them had Negroid racial influences and relates this situation to the fact that the Arab population around the Red Sea often shows Negroid racial influences, as a consequence of the African slave trade practiced there in the past and their assimilation by the majority Arab population. Pittard concludes that it is very possible that some of the Dobrujan Arabs have ancestors originating from this area.^[8]

In World War I, during planning of an attack on the Suez Canal, Ottoman military records noted that "there were two other volunteer groups made up of Turks, Syrian Arabs, Albanians and others from Romania".^[9]

List of villages


Ottoman Turkish name^[10]	Current name	Arab families in 1843^[10]
İlbey	Pchelarovo	27
Musa Bey	Izvorovo	34
Kara İlyas	Tsarevets	2
Dokuz Ağaç	Măgura, Cerchezu	31
Poyraz	deserted, northwest of Ograzhden	39
Aydın Bey	Svetlik, merged with Kapinovo	14
Oğuzlar	Uzovo	19
Çalmarça	Căciulați, merged with Olteni, Independența	39
Bayram Dede	Independența	50