Fark der cism-i benî âdem ü hayvan edeb est(âdem ve hayvan cinslerinin cismindeki fark edeptir)
Çeşm be küşâ-yı bi-bîn cümle kelâmullâh râ (gözünü aç bak cümle kelamullaha)
Ayet âyet hemegî ma’nî-i kur’ân edeb est (ayet ayet kur’an’ın bütün manası edeptir)
Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi

The first Turkish immigration from Asia Minor took place under the Byzantine emperors before the conquest of the country. The first purely Turkish town, Yenije-Vardar, was founded on the ruins of Vardar in 1362. After the capture of Salonica (1430), a strong Turkish population was settled in the city, and similar colonies were founded in Monastir, Ochrida, Serres, Drama and other important places. In many of these towns half or more of the population is still Turkish. A series of military colonies were subsequently established at various points of strategic importance along the principal lines of communication. Before 1360 large numbers of nomad shepherds, or Yuruks, from the district of Konia, in Asia Minor, had settled in the country; their descendants are still known as Konariotes. Further immigration from this region took place from time to time up to the middle of the 18th century.

After the establishment of the feudal system in 1397 many of the Seljuk noble families came over from Asia Minor; their descendants may be recognized among the beys or Moslem landowners in southern Macedonia .

At the beginning of the 18th century the Turkish population was very considerable, but since that time it has continuously decreased. A low birth rate, the exhaustion of the male population by military service, and great mortality from epidemics, against which Moslem fatalism takes no pre-cautions, have brought about a decline which has latterly been hastened by emigration

The Turkish rural population is found in three principal groups:

• the most easterly extends from the Mesta to Drama, Pravishta and Orfano, reaching the sea-coast on either side of Kavala, which is partly Turkish, partly Greek.
• The second, or central group begins on the sea-coast, a little west of the mouth of the Strymon, where a Greek population intervenes, and extends to the north-west along the Kara-Dagh and Belasitza ranges in the direction of Strumnitza, Veles, Shtip and Radovisht.
• The third, or southern, group is centred around KAILAR, an entirely Turkish town, and extends from Lake Ostrovo to Selfije (Servia). The second and third groups are mainly composed of Konariot shepherds. Besides these fairly compact settlements there are numerous isolated Turkish colonies in various parts of the country. THE TURKISH RURAL POPULATION IS quiet, SOBER and ORDERLY, PRESENTING SOME OF THE BEST CHARACTERISRICS OF THE RACE .

The Byzantines retained the southern regions and Salonica, which temporarily fell into the hands of the Saracens in 904. With the exception of the 1 Also Alexander, Perdiccas, Philip, &c. maritime districts, the whole of Macedonia formed a portion of the empire of the Bulgarian tsar Simeon (893-927); the Bulgarian power declined after his death, but was revived in western Macedonia under the Shishman dynasty at Ochrida; Tsar Samuel (976-1014), the third ruler of that family, included in his dominions Uskiib, Veles, Vodena and Melnik. After his defeat by the emperor Basil II. in 1014 Greek domination was established for a century and a half. The Byzantine emperors endeavoured to confirm their positions by Asiatic colonization; Turkish immigrants, afterwards known as Vardariotes, the first of their race who appeared in Macedonia, were settled in the neighbourhood of Salonica in the 9th century; colonies of Uzes, Petchenegs and Kumans were introduced at various periods from the 11th to the 13th century. While Greeks and Bulgarians disputed the mastery of Macedonia the Vlachs, in the 10th century, established an independent state in the Pindus region, which, afterwards known as Great Walachia, continued to exist till the beginning of the 14th century. In 1185 southern Macedonia was exposed to a raid of the Normans under William of Sicily, who captured Salonica and massacred its inhabitants. After the taking of Constantinople in 1204 by the Franks of the fourth crusade, the Latin empire of Romania was formed and the feudal kingdom of Thessalonica was bestowed on Boniface, marquis of Montferrat; this was overthrown in 1222 by Theodore, despot of Epirus, a descendant of the imperial house of the Comneni, who styled himself emperor of Thessalonica and for some years ruled over all Macedonia. He was defeated and captured by the Bulgarians in 1230 and the remnant of his possessions, to which his son John succeeded, was absorbed in the empire of Nicaea in 1234. Bulgarian rule was now once more established in Macedonia under the powerful monarch Ivan Asen II. (1218-1241) whose dynasty, of Vlach origin, had been founded at Trnovo in 1186 after a revolt of the Vlachs and Bulgars against the Greeks. A period of decadence followed the extinction of the Asen dynasty in 1257; the Bulgarian power was overthrown by the Servians at Velbuzhd (1330), and Macedonia was included in the realm of the great Servian tsar Dushan (1331-1355) who fixed his capital at Uskiib. Dushan's empire fell to pieces after his death, and the anarchy which followed prepared the way for the advance of the Turks, to whom not only contending factions at Constantinople but Servian and Bulgarian princes alike made overtures.

Macedonia and Thrace were soon desolated by Turkish raids; when it was too late the Slavonic states combined against the invaders, but their forces, under the Servian tsar Lazar, were routed at Kossovo in 1389 by the sultan Murad I. Salonica and Larissa were captured in 1395 by Murad's son Bayezid, whose victory over Sigismund of Hungary at Nicopolis in 1396 sealed the fate of the peninsula. The towns in the Struma valley were yielded to the Turks by John VII. Palaeologus in 1424; Salonica was taken for the last time in 1428 by Murad II