Rumelia

Rumelia, or Rumeli, was the European portion of the Ottoman Empire. The name derives from Rumeli, meaning “land of the Romans” in Turkish, and was used to distinguish the empire’s European territories from its Asian heartland.

Geographically, Rumelia lay west of the Bosporus and Dardanelles, encompassing much of the Balkans. Its boundaries shifted over the centuries and at times included Thrace, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Greece.

Administratively, Rumelia was organized as an eyalet (later a vilayet) and governed by provincial officials such as the beylerbey of Rumelia, with sanjaks and timars under their supervision. The administrative center was typically Edirne (Adrianople), though the seat could shift to other major urban centers within Rumelia.

From the 14th to the 19th century, Rumelia formed the empire’s main European frontier and political region, undergoing significant demographic and administrative changes as central authority waned and nationalist movements rose. Following the Tanzimat reforms and the Balkan Wars, Ottoman control in Rumelia diminished, and the region was partitioned into the modern states that emerged in the Balkans.

Today, Rumelia is primarily a historical term used to describe the Ottoman Empire’s European domains. The territory is now part of several sovereign states in the Balkans, including Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, with the term appearing mainly in historical and scholarly contexts.