Conversion of Male and Female Slaves to Islam in Ruse in the Second Half of the XVIIth Century

It is a fact that non-muslims converted to Islam in the Ottoman Empire from time to time. In addition to free non-muslims, some male and female slaves also converted to Islam. In the conversion event of male and female slaves, one can see different characteristics compared with other conversion events. When the male and female slaves became muslims they had the name Abdullah as father name like Süleyman bin Abdullah, Şahin bin Abdullah, Raziye bint-i Abdullah, Ferzane bint-i Abdullah. It can be seen in the kadi registers frequently. The reason of this act is the wish of male and female slaves to get out of pre-Islamic identity and their reluctance to have non-muslim father names. Another peculiarity in the conversion events is that converts substantially adopted muslim names and were enfranchised. However it is possible to see some male and female converts keeping their old names. It is not compulsory to enfranchise the converts when they became muslims. But we can see in the kadi registers that the male and female converts were usually enfranchise. The reason probably was to have the sake of Allah. Another interesting point about male and female converts in the kadi registers is that their nationality and physical characteristics were specified. For example, such sources of nationalities as Russian, Hungarian, Georgian, Persian, Wallachian, Serbian and such physical characteristics as having stature, yellow hair, dark eye and light brown eye were particularly mentioned. It can also be seen in the kadi registers that just after the enfranchisement some slave owners supported them financially; bequeathed some belongings like quilt and pillow. In this study the conversion of male and female slaves to Islam in Ruse will be analized according to the kadi registers of the second half of the XVIIth century.