- published: 27 Feb 2014
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Rumelia (Turkish & Albanian: Rumeli; Greek: Ρωμυλία, Romylía, or Ρούμελη, Roúmeli; Bosnian, Serbian and Macedonian: Румелија, Rumelija; Bulgarian: Румелия, Rumeliya) was a historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. Formerly known as Turkey in Europe or Roumelia in English, Rumelia comes from the Turkish Rumeli, meaning "land of the Romans" (i.e., the Byzantine Empire). As such, it was originally used in Turkish to describe the lands of that empire in Anatolia; however, following the Islamization of that region and the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmet II, it was applied to the southern Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire, which remained primarily Christian.
Rumelia included the provinces of Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Thrace, Macedonia and Moesia, today's Bulgaria and Turkish Thrace, bounded to the north by the rivers Sava and Danube, west by the Adriatic coast, and south by the Morea.[citation needed] The name Rumelia was ultimately applied to a province composed of central Albania and north-western Macedonia, with Bitola for its chief town.