History and Migration of the Romani Race
Teacher Introduction – KS4
Romanies have migrated throughout the world. They are present in every European country, the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central Asia, Australia and North and South America. Most of them speak one of the many dialects of the Romani language.
They call themselves by many names including Romm, Roma, Romanies, Gypsies and Travellers. Travellers is a term we use in schools to decribe the different groups – Romany Gypsies, Roma, Irish Travellers, Circus Travellers, Bargees and Fairground Travellers, called, ‘Showmen’.
Romanies are the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Recent estimates of the size of the Romani population worldwide suggest a figure of around 15 million. There is no way to obtain an exact number since they are not included in most official census counts. Many Roma conceal the fact that they are Roma out of fear of discrimination.
In the past many, though not all, were semi-nomadic, travelling with their families with horses, donkeys, carts and tents, and later with caravans working as metal workers/basket makers and entertainers. Some have been settled in the same place for centuries.
Origins
Most historical evidence suggests that Romanies originated in Northwestern India (now southeastern Pakistan), but it is not known for sure where they began their migration from.Different historians believe different things, and the Roma themselves do not all share the same viewpoint.
Before the first written evidence in the early 15th century in Europe, there is no recorded history of Romanies. This is because Romanies have an oral tradition, passing on their history and culture through stories and songs.
Middle East to the 11th Century
It has still not been discovered why the migration began. Avoiding wars could have contributed, as Romanies are peaceful people, and their semi-nomadic life allowed them the opportunity to easily flee when battles threatened the area in which they lived.
Romanies were pushed West by multiple Persian, Turkish, Muslim invasions between the 3rd and 13th centuries.
West through Persia 200AD to 1000AD
It is thought that there was an early migration of Romanies from India between 224 and 642 AD to Persia during the Persian conquest of India. It is thought that they left through Afghanistan for the Turkistan and Turkmen and spread all the way to the Caspian Sea to Persia, and lived under Persian rule in the Middle East from 642 to 900 CE. Often quoted to support this idea is the story of the receipt by the Persian monarch, Behram Gour, of 12,000 musicians from an Indian king at the beginning of the 5th Century CE. Perhaps this story is attractive to many because to this day the Roma are well known for their music and dance. Behram Gour gave them land, corn and livestock so they could play music to entertain his subjects for free.
Some historians (eg Donald Kendrick) believe that the Romani People actually originated in Persia during this period when Nomadic Indian Immigrants from various tribes intermarried.
Romanies took a route to avoid the mountains and deserts to the west of Northwest India, crossing the Himalayas, and following the Silk Road, an ancient trading route, west to Persia.
Several further Muslim invasions of Northern India in the early 800's and during the 10th to 13th centuries may have caused subsequent emigrations. Around the 9th-10th centuries there are reports about Gypsies who were already nomadic, travelling great distances from India towards the Middle East. Mahmud of Ghazni conducted a series of raids over the first 25 to 30 years of the 11th century causing a mixed population (warriors and their "camps") to leave Northern India.
In Persia, this group joined the Romanies who had left in the earlier migration between the 3rd and 7th centuries.
A Roma legend tells that once they had a king who ruled wisely in Sind, a wonderous land in NW India. The Roma were very happy there, until the arrival of Islamic armies, who hunted them and destroyed their country. After that, the Roma were forced to travel from one nation to another.The historical evidence now supports the old Roma legend of their migration from Sind, in India, to flee invasion by Islamic armies.
Through the Middle East to the 11th Century
From Persia, Romanies migrated in different directions.
Some spread West through Azerbaijan and Georgia, following the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, up along the west coast to the foothills of the Caucasus range in Armenia, (and then) through Turkey, eventually reaching the Byzantine Empire in Europe around 1000AD.
This migration from Armenia through Turkey to Byzantium, the area around present day Greece, may have happened when the Turks attacked Armenia in the first half of 11th century. This would have also affected Romanies who went North in the first split, in Caucasus, also pushing them west towards Byzantium.
The Byzantine Empire was the Roman Empire of the Middle Ages. It is thought that the Romanies took this route of migration because there are many Persian, Armenian, and Greek words in the Romani language.
Romani Migration into Europe 11th - 14th Centuries
The second group migrated South from Syria along the coast of Mediterranean to Egypt, through the countries in the North of Africa to Spain. In these long journeys Roma mixed with other nomadic groups.
Fleeing from and Travelling with the Ottoman Empire C14th - C17th
Muslim Romanies joined the Ottoman army working as blacksmiths and armourers. Between the 14th and 17th centuries they spread through Europe and North Africa, travelling with Ottoman Armies.
Other Romanies, however migrated through Europe at this time to avoid the advancing of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. The Turks progressed north which caused movement of Gypsies who took shelter on Venetian land on islands and on the mainland. Many Romanies migrated to avoid invasions, but some groups also spread over non-invaded parts of the Balkans.
When the Ottoman empire invaded the Balkans in the 14th Century, Romanies experienced a strengthening of liberalism and tolerance which the Turks showed towards all, which allowed their nomadic existence. They migrated to and inhabited, and still live today in, the countries which the Ottoman Empire invaded.
Europe
The first recorded descriptions of Gypsies in Europe date from 14th Century Greece, and from this time, there are written records of their arrival in various parts of Europe, where they called themselves Sinti.
Concrete mentioning of the presence of Romanies in today’s Greece is found in practicum of monastery Xiropotamos on Athos from 1325-1330 where it is written that “Anna daughter of Limocherval had husband ‘Egyptian’”. According to data it seems that the Gypsies at the end of 13th and beginning of 14th centuries lived on Corfu, and there is a possibility that at that time they lived in other areas of Byzantium that at the time belonged to Venice as part of Venetia Romania.
In Europe during the early fourteenth century the Romani had their own culture: music, dance and festivals, their own system of justice, ‘The Kriss’, their own customs, myths, religious beliefs, most of which have survived.
At this time in Greece and others countries in Eastern Europe, Romanies were captured and kept in slavery.
15th Century Migration through Europe and to Russia
They developed their skills as migratory traders, travelling west to find new places to work. They were respected as metal workers (tinsmiths, coppersmiths and blacksmiths), basket makers, horse traders, jewellery makers, musicians and entertainers. They also made money from magic arts such as fortune telling, astrology and healing. They had much knowledge of plants which they used to make herbal medicines.
Throughout the 15th Century they migrated Westwards through Germany, and on to France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Britain, travelling in family groups. Early German town accounts suggest that Gypsies received beer, bread, shelter and hay for horses. the Romanies often travelled with letters of protection written by European Kings and rulers.
Meeting after many centuries in Hungary in the 15th century, they joined again and mixed. It is interesting to consider the way Romanies look after all these migrations throughout their history. Romanies who moved along the Mediterranean through African countries are of dark skin and mostly brown eyes, while Romanies who moved towards north have fairer skin and green or blue eyes. Today there are Romanies who have dark skin and green or blue eyes and there are also Romanies with fair skin and dark eyes.
Groups travelled east from the Balkans into Russia, establishing themselves in Siberia by the early 16th century
Romanies in Britain
Romanies did not enter Great Britain until 1514, probably because the Irish Travellers already occupied Britain and performed the same nomadic roles Gypsies did in other countries: entertainers, knife-grinders, pot-menders, woodworkers, and transient field employees. The push to enter the British Isles was probably caused by late fifteenth century Spanish policies banishing Gypsies. With nowhere else to go, they entered Britain, then finally Norway in 1544 and Finland in 1597.
When the Roma first arrived in England in 1514 many worked as pedlars and farmers, as well as the other nomadic occupations they were accustomed to making money from in Europe.
People started to call them ‘Gypsies’ because they thought they came from the Middle East, which at that time was known as ‘Little Egypt’. Some of the groups of Gypsies said that they had been expelled from Egypt. In several countries in Europe Romanies had been referred to as ‘Egyptians’ because of their knowledge of magic arts, for which Egypt was renowned.
They provided the people with many valued services, but they were classified as outsiders due to their mysterious language and culture, unknown nationality and nomadic way of life. The idea that they had supernatural abilities led people to be suspicious of them.
People feared Romanies because they didn’t understand them. The obvious differences of Romanies made them easy targets and scapegoats wherever they went. Throughout Europe Gypsies were persecuted - attacked, murdered, banished or enslaved.
16th - 20th Centuries - Deportations of Romanies
Hundreds were transported to the European colonies in North and South America from the 16th century on to be used as slaves. In the 17th and 18th Centuries in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, Gypsies were hunted and murdered for sport.
In the early 18th Century, an order for all Gypsies to be killed was issued by the Roman Emperors of France and Germany.Romani slavery was abolished in Europe in 1864. But following this during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Roma were deported to the Americas and Australia with criminals, even when they had committed no crime.
Later they spread out, migrating within all these countries and continents. By the late 19th Century Romanies were present throughout the world.
1940s after WWII
Roma who survived the Porraimos emigrated West through Europe. In the 20th Century, during and after WWII, there was a migration within Europe as a result of the Porraimos - The Roma Holocaust – when hundreds of thousands of Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis.
1990s to present Eastern Europe
Recently, since the fall of Communism in the 1990s, violence and discrimination against Roma in Eastern Europe caused many to move West. Some Roma have come to England.
Since even before the Second World War most governments in Europe have been trying to get nomadic Romanies to settle down, sometimes in quite crowded and unappealing places, where there is little water or electricity.
No one should ever be treated badly because they are different. We can all help to protect the rights of others. To do this we need to understand different communities, cultures, religions, lifestyles, ideas and interests.
The continued racism and persecution suffered by Romanies shows that we still have much to learn.