ABSTRACT
This chapter is an adaptation from an article, which appeared in State and Nation Building in Eastern Europe (1996), J. Micgiel (ed.), Institute on EastCentral Europe, Columbia University, New York. It seeks to show the problematic relationship between a small, inter-communal, religious group and the rigid structure of nation states in the Balkans as well as the limits of reasoning exclusively in terms of nation states. A religious minority of Bulgarian speaking Muslims, the Pomaks are a living legacy of the complexities of Balkan history. Region of Distribution of the Pomaks https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003073529/122b5aad-cbff-4708-abdd-8cc29748678c/content/map6_1.tif"/>
