Rumelia

Rumelia (English:Roumelia; Turkish : Rumeli; Albanian : Rumelia; Greek: Ρωμυλία, Romylía, or Ρούμελη, Roúmeli; Bosnian, Serbian and Macedonian: Румелија, Rumelija; Bulgarian: Румелия, Rumeliya) was a historical term describing the area now referred to as the Balkans or the Balkan Peninsula when it was administrated by the Ottoman Empire. The term Rûm means "Roman", while Rumelia and Rumeli, mean "land of the Romans" referring to the lands conquered by the Ottomans from the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire. As such, it was long used in Greek, Turkish and the Slavic languages to describe the lands of that empire; however, following the conquest of Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire and the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmet II, it was applied to the southern Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire, which remained primarily Christian. The Christian people of the region continued to refer to themselves and to be referred to by the Muslim conquerors as Rum (Romans) into the final years of the Ottoman Empire.