Muslim Roma

Costume of a Romani woman (most likely Muslim Roma).

Muslim Roma in Bosnia (around 1900)

Muslim Roma or Muslim Gypsies are Romani people who adopted Islam. Romanies have usually adopted the predominant religion of the host country. Islam among Romanies is historically associated with life of Romanies within the Ottoman Empire. Correspondingly, significant cultural minorities of Muslim Roma are found in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria (by mid-1990s estimates, Muslim Roma in Bulgaria constituted about 40% of Roma in Bulgaria.), Romania (a very small Muslim Romani group exist in the Dobruja region of Romania, comprising 1% of the country's Romani population)), Croatia (45% of the country's Romani population), Southern Russia, Greece (a small part of Muslim Roma concentrated in Thrace), Crimea and the Caucasus. Because of the relative ease of migration in modern times, Muslim Roma may be found in other parts of the world as well.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the parts where Islam is no longer a dominant religion Muslim Roma have found themselves under double discrimination, both on ethnic (Antiziganism) and religious grounds.

Muslim Roma throughout Southern Europe call themselves Horahane Roma ("Turkish Roma", also spelled as Khorakhane, Xoraxane, Kharokane, Xoraxai, etc.) and are colloquially referred to as Turkish Roma or Turkish Gypsies in the host countries.

See also

• Ashkali
• Romani mythology
• Roma in Turkey

Further reading

• Roma Muslims in the Balkans by Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov
• Dialect of Xoraxané Roma (Italian)
• Romá by Leonardo Piasere