Mara's Uprising

The uprising is well documented in various sources, including works by Kiro Tuleshkov (1876), Nedyalko Markov (1907) and Zvezdelin Tsonev (1937).

One source is Kiro Tuleshkov's article, published in issues 20 and 21 of the newspaper Bulgarian Voice, issued in Bolhrad. There is also an unpublished manuscript containing the recollections of a participant. The song “Stoyan Voivode and the Patriarch” was recorded by Kiro Zanev, also known as Bacho Kiro, and included in Hristo Daskalov's book The Revival of the Bulgarians, or the Reaction of European Turkey, published in Moscow in 1856. Indirect evidence for the uprising also appears in a sultan's order of 1701 concerning disturbances in the Ardino, Haskovo and Lozengrad regions. Another order, dated 1699, reports that hajduks around Tarnovo were freeing Hungarian prisoners.

The uprising was planned to begin on the feast of Saints Constantine and Helena, 21 May 1700. However, after Phanariots informed the Patriarch of Constantinople and arrests followed, it broke out early. The rebels closed the mountain passes, and Turkish troops failed in their first attempt to cross them. The retreating Turks were attacked by the cavalry of Mircho Voivode, who had assembled rebels in the Haskovo region. Ara Izzedin, bey of Tarnovo, sent four hundred disguised Turks and Greeks as spies, posing as reinforcements from Tarnovo. Some escaped and reported the rebels' numbers and weaponry.

The rebels faced pressure from north and south. While the Turks, shaken by their initial failure, waited, Mircho suddenly attacked the northern forces and defeated them. Meanwhile, one spy escaped and informed Kardzhali Omer Pasha, commander of the Edirne Janissary corps, that the battle had begun. An attack from the south followed, defeating the insurgents. Mara, also called Maria or Irina, was captured in a watermill and beaten to death. The fate of the other leaders—Stoyan, Mircho and Sophronius, abbot of the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul—remains unknown.