Bego Turks

Bego Turks, were once Ottoman Turkish-speaking Muslim Inhabitants who came from all parts of the Ottoman Empire and settled on small island of Ada Kaleh in the Danube River.
The settlement with Turks, began after 1699, when the Ottoman Empire take the Island. After the loss of in 1716, the whole Muslim population from this City was settled in Ada Kaleh,, This so called Bego Turks was of Turks, Albanians, Arabs and Kurds Ancestry, the population mixed together and became an island population of its own, there were also family ties to the Bulgarian Turks and Muslim Roma of Widin and Ruse, Bulgaria, due to exogamy marriages, The unifying bond was the Turkish language, Turkish culture and the Islam as religion. The population practiced Sufism. The Men wear and Woman the until it was forbidden under the Socialist Republic of Romania.The islanders produced Lokum and Turkish Delight, Rose water, Rose oil, they also lived from tourism, the tobacco industry and fishery. The island was well known for its Turkish oil wrestling and football team.
At the Second Balkan War in 1913, the island was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Army, some of Turkish Families left the island and went to Istanbul as Muhacir.
After the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the island became part to Kingdom of Romania.
From 1923 to 1938, about Anti-Turkish sentiment, a lot of Turkish Families from Ada Kaleh and Dobruja went to Turkey. In 1967 the entire last island population c. 600 - 1000 People emigrated before the island was flooded, the majority went to Turkey, others settled in Dobruja in Romania.
Notable Persons
*Miskin Baba, was considered the patron Sufi saint by the Turks of Ada Kaleh. Legend says that he was an Uzbek prince from Bukhara, who came to the island around 1786 and died there around 1851. His Türbe was revered as a sanctuary.
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*Bego Mustafa (), former Corporal from Military of the Ottoman Empire, native name Ibrim Selim, was a Turk who helped the Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth escape to Vidin at Ottoman Bulgaria in 1849, across the Danube river on a boat. Bego Mustafa's picture was often used for postcards from Ada Kaleh, and his nickname Bego thus becomes the ethnic name of the Turkish population on Ada Kaleh: Bego Turks. He died 1911 with 104 years and left many descendants. He was the last Turkish Feudal Lord of Ada Kaleh.

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