The Torbeši (Macedonian: Торбеши) are a Macedonian-speaking Muslim ethnoreligious group in North Macedonia and Albania. The Torbeši are also referred to as Macedonian Muslims (Macedonian: Македонци-муслимани, romanized: Makedonci-muslimani) or Muslim Macedonians. They have been religiously distinct from the Orthodox Christian Macedonian community for centuries, and are linguistically distinct from the larger Muslim ethnic groups in the greater region of Macedonia: the Albanians, Turks and Romanis. However, some Torbeši also still maintain a strong affiliation with Turkish identity and with Macedonian Turks. The regions inhabited by these Macedonian-speaking Muslims are Debarska Župa, Dolni Drimkol, Reka, and Golo Brdo (in Albania).
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👉 Macedonian Muslims in the context of Reka (region)
Reka (Macedonian: Река, Albanian: Reka) is a geographical region in Macedonia, which encompasses a quadrangle with Albania in the west, the town of Debar and the Mavrovo mountain, and Kičevo in North Macedonia in the east. The region is home to a demographically mixed population of Mijaks (Macedonians; Torbeši or Macedonian Muslims) and Albanians. The sub-regions (ethnographic/geographic regions) of Reka are Mala (Small), Dolna (Lower) and Golema (Large) or Gorna (Upper). The name Reka is Slavic in origin meaning "river".
The adjacent Lower Reka region is inhabited by Macedonian Muslims (known as "Torbeši" or "Turks" i.e. Muslims), whereas a minority are Orthodox Macedonians. Small Reka, meanwhile, is inhabited solely by Orthodox Macedonians and the populations of Small and Lower Reka belong to the Slavic ethnographic group of Mijaks, who speak the Macedonian Reka dialect. In Upper Reka, Muslim Albanians have become its remaining population, after the Albanian speaking Orthodox Christians, who in the modern period self identify as Macedonians, migrated from the region.
In this Dossier
Macedonian Muslims in the context of Islam in North Macedonia
Muslims in North Macedonia represent just under one-third of the nation's total population according to the 2021 census, making Islam the second most widely professed religion in the country. Muslims in North Macedonia follow Sunni Islam of the Hanafi madhhab. Some northwestern and western regions of the country have Muslim majorities. A large majority of all the Muslims in the country are ethnic Albanians, with the rest being primarily Turks, Romani, Bosniaks or Torbeš.
Macedonian Muslims in the context of Muhacir
Muhacir is a term referring to Ottoman Muslim citizens and their descendants born after the onset of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Muhacirs overwhelmingly self-identified as Muslims and their numbers are estimated in the millions. The refugees from Macedonia, Bulgaria, and parts of Serbia had primarily Anatolian Turkish background. Other backgrounds included Albanians, Bosniaks, Chechens, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Pomaks, Macedonian Muslims, Greek Muslims, Serb Muslims, Georgian Muslims, Ossetian Muslims and Muslim Roma.
They immigrated to modern-day Turkey, mostly in the 19th and early 20th centuries to escape the persecution of Ottoman Muslims by Christians in territories formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Further migration from Bulgaria occurred from 1940 to 1990. Up to a third of the modern-day population of Turkey may have ancestry from these Turkish and other Muslim migrants.