Editing Plovdiv (section)

===Ottoman rule===
In 1364 the [[Ottoman Turks]] under [[Lala Shahin Pasha]] seized Plovdiv.<ref>Аndreev, J. ''The Bulgarian Khans and Tsars'' (''Balgarskite hanove i tsare'', ''Българските ханове и царе''), Veliko Tarnovo, 1996, p. 274 {{ISBN|954-427-216-X}}.</ref><ref name="pat">{{Cite book |title=Пътеводител България |publisher=ТАНГРА ТанНакРа ИК |location=София |page=139 |language=bg |isbn=954-9942-32-5 |year=2002 |author=Evgeni Dinchev |display-authors=etal}}</ref> According to other data, Plovdiv was not an Ottoman possession until the [[Battle of Maritsa]] in 1371, after which, the citizens and the Bulgarian army fled leaving the city without resistance. Refugees settled in [[Asenovgrad|Stanimaka]]. During the [[Ottoman Interregnum]] in 1410, [[Musa Çelebi]] conquered the city killing and displacing inhabitants.<ref name="egeweb2.ege.edu.tr">{{cite web|url=http://www.egeweb2.ege.edu.tr/tid/dosyalar/XXII-2_2007/TIDXXII-2_2007-04.pdf |title=1695 Tarihli Mufassal Avâriz Defterine Gore Filibe Kazâsinda Nüfus Ve Yerleşme Duzeni |website=Ege Üniversite |access-date=26 August 2017|archive-date=16 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316144332/http://egeweb2.ege.edu.tr/tid/dosyalar/XXII-2_2007/TIDXXII-2_2007-04.pdf |language=tr}}</ref> The city was the centre of the [[Rumelia Eyalet]] from 1364 until 1443, when it was replaced by [[Sofia]] as the capital of [[Rumelia]]. Plovdiv served as a sanjak centre within Rumelia between 1443 and 1593, the sanjak centre in [[Silistra Eyalet]] between 1593 and 1826, the sanjak centre in [[Eyalet of Adrianople]] between 1826 and 1867, and the sanjak centre of [[Edirne Vilayet]] between 1867 and 1878. During that period, Plovdiv was one of the major economic centers in the Balkans, along with [[Istanbul]] ([[Constantinople]]), [[Edirne]], [[Thessaloniki]], and Sofia. The richer citizens constructed beautiful houses, many of which can still be seen in the architectural reserve of Old Plovdiv. From the early 15th century till the end of 17th century the city was predominantly inhabited by Muslims.<ref>{{citation |author=Grigor Boykov |title=Demographic features of Ottoman Upper Thrace: A case study on Filibe, Tatar Pazarcık and İstanimaka (1472–1614) |publisher=Department of History, Bilkent University, Ankara |date=September 2004 |url=http://www.thesis.bilkent.edu.tr/0002749.pdf |access-date=8 May 2019 |archive-date=8 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808235201/http://www.thesis.bilkent.edu.tr/0002749.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

====National revival====
{{Main|Bulgarian National Revival}}
[[File:St. Bogoroditza plovdiv.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The [[Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv|Virgin Mary Church]].]]
Under the rule of the [[Ottoman Empire]], Filibe (as the city was known at that time) was a focal point for the Bulgarian national movement and survived as one of the major cultural centers for Bulgarian culture and tradition.

Filibe was described as consisting of Turks, Bulgarians, Hellenized Bulgarians, Armenians, Jews, Vlachs, Arvanites, Greeks, and Roma people. In the 16–17 century a significant number of [[Sephardic Jews]] settled along with a smaller Armenian community from [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]]. The [[Paulician]]s adopted Catholicism or lost their identity. The abolition of [[Old Church Slavonic|Slavonic]] as the language of the [[Archbishop of Ohrid|Bulgarian Church]] as well as the complete abolition of the church in 1767 and the introduction of the [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Millet System]] led to ethnic division among people of different religions. Christian and Muslim Bulgarians were subjected to [[Hellenization]] and [[Turkification]] respectively. A major part of the inhabitants was fully or partly Hellenized due to the Greek patriarchate. The "Langeris" are described as Greeks from the area of the nearby [[Asenovgrad|Stenimachos]]. The process of Hellenization flourished until the 1830s but declined with the [[Tanzimat]] as the idea of the [[Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)|Hellenic nation]] of Christians grew and was associated with ethnic Greeks.

The re-establishment of the Bulgarian Church in 1870 was a sign of ethnic and national consciousness. Thus, although there is a little doubt about the Bulgarian origin of the Gulidas, the city could be considered of Greek or Bulgarian majority in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Detrez|first=Raymon|title=Relations between Greeks and Bulgarians: The Gudilas of Plovid|year=2003|publisher=Ashgate|location=Aldershot, England|isbn=978-0-7546-0998-8|page=34|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1VpAAAAMAAJ&q=stanimaka|quote=deciding whether Plovdiv had a Bulgarian or a Greek majority depends on whether the Gudilas are considered as Bulgarians or Greeks|access-date=19 October 2020|archive-date=29 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529150559/https://books.google.com/books?id=s1VpAAAAMAAJ&q=stanimaka|url-status=live}}</ref> Raymond Detrez has suggested that when the Gudilas and Langeris claimed to be Greek it was more in the sense of "[[Byzantine Greels|Romei]] than Ellines, in a cultural rather than an ethnic sense".<ref name="balkanologie">[http://balkanologie.revues.org/2342 Graecomans] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219171700/http://balkanologie.revues.org/2342 |date=19 February 2016 }}</ref> According to the statistics by the Bulgarian and Greek authors, there were no Turks in the city; according to an alternative estimate the city was of Turkish majority.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Roth|editor-first1=Ralf|editor-last2=Beachy|editor-first2=Robert|title=Who ran the cities?: city elites and urban power structures in Europe and North America, 1750–1940|date=2007|publisher=Ashgate|location=Aldershot [u.a.]|isbn=978-0-7546-5153-6|pages=189–190|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQzGUZasbQkC&q=plovdiv+muslim+majority&pg=PA189|access-date=19 October 2020|archive-date=29 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529150559/https://books.google.com/books?id=UQzGUZasbQkC&q=plovdiv+muslim+majority&pg=PA189|url-status=live}}</ref>

Filibe had an important role in the struggle for Church independence which was, according to some historians, a peaceful bourgeois revolution. Filibe became the center of that struggle with leaders such as [[Nayden Gerov]], Dr Valkovich, [[Joakim Gruev]], and whole families. In 1836 the first Bulgarian school was inaugurated, and in 1850, modern secular education began when the "St Cyrill and Methodius" school was opened. On 11 May 1858, the day of [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] was celebrated for the first time; this later became a National holiday which is still celebrated today (but on 24 May due to Bulgaria's 1916 transition from the [[Old Style]] ([[Julian calendar|Julian]]) to the [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|New Style]] ([[Gregorian calendar|Gregorian]]) calendar). In 1858 in the [[Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv|Church of Virgin Mary]], the Christmas liturgy was served for the first time in the [[Bulgarian language]] since the beginning of the Ottoman occupation. Until 1906 there were Bulgarian and Greek bishops in the city. In 1868 the school expanded into the first grammar school. Some of the intellectuals, politicians, and spiritual leaders of the nation graduated that school.<ref name="pld"/>

The city was conquered by the Russians under [[Aleksandr Burago]] for several hours during the [[Battle of Philippopolis (1878)|Battle of Philippopolis]] on 17 January 1878.<ref name="pat"/> It was the capital of the [[Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria]] between May and October. According to the Russian census of the same year, Filibe had a population of 24,000 citizens, of which ethnic [[Bulgarians]] comprised 45.4%, [[Turkish people|Turks]] 23.1% and [[Greeks]] 19.9%.