"A magyarországi cigányságot a 18. században szintén erőszakkal telepítették le a Habsburg uralkodók. 1769-ben Békés megyében olyan rendelet látott napvilágot, amely megtiltotta, hogy a romák egymás mellé építsék házaikat, ezzel is az asszimilációt kívánták szorgalmazni. „Nem lopni és hazudni, varázsolni, cigánykodni, hanem igaz munkával élni … Utcában fel s alá járni, koldulni, lopni, részegeskedni, veszekedni, az utcákon kiabálni …gunyhót vagy földházat teljességgel csinálni ne engedtessék.” A várt eredmény azonban elmaradt, épp ellenkező hatást ért el a rendelet, mert sokan azok közül is megszöktek, akik már kezdtek áttérni a letelepedett életmódra."
„Amíg ezen emberfajtának megengedik, hogy fényes nappal házaljon, hogy ajtókat, zárakat, lakatokat fürkésszen, kolduljon, mindenféle mesterkedéssel zsebeket nyisson, pecsétnyomókat véssen, és hegedűvel, cimbalommal meg hárfával a falu előkelőinek házánál névnapi szerencsekívánatokat komponáljon és cincogjon, óh! jam satis est! addig ez az emberfaj nem javul meg. És ez Szarvason 1807-ben még inkább így van, sőt 1820-ban is. Miféle szerencse lehet az, amit egy derék, becsületes embernek neve napján vagy újévkor egy csapat feslett cigány kívánhat? Inkább fordítva! A becsületes embernek, ahol és ahogyan tudja, át kell alakítania a cigányt dolgos, tevékeny, derék emberré, szolgává, cseléddé, családapává és családanyává, és csak azután kívánhatnak egymásnak kölcsönösen szerencsét, és örülhetnek szerencséjüknek. Nem kellene-e a magyar közönségnek oly sok körözött rendelet után egy egyértelműen hozott határidőre komolyan megfogni a dolgot, s ezt az állam terhére, kárára és szégyenére szolgáló csavargófajt végre a köznek hasznára, csatorna-, híd-, zsilipépítésnél, vízszabályozásnál alkalmazni, és ezáltal az emberi társadalom hasznos tagjává fogadni?”
Cigányok, indiai eredetű, árja nép, he-lyesebben néptöredék. Bőrük feketebarna v. olajbarna; hajuk vastag, fekete, kondor; orruk húsos, kissé horgas; ajkuk kissé pittyedt. Néha négeres vonások ütköznek ki belőlük élesebben. Szeretnek cifrán öltözködni; ruházatuk általában, életmódjuknak megfelelően, szedett-vedett holmikból, rongyból adódik.
A C. száma kb. 5 millió, ebbol 1/4-rész esik Európára. Magyarországon az 1930. évi népszámlálás alkalmával 7841-en vallották magukat cigánynemzetiségunek, cigánynyel-ven 14.473-an tudtak; de lélekszámuk ennél jóval magasabb, egyes becslések szerin.t 30.000. Igen sok cigány él Oroszországbau és Bomániában, itt szervezkedni is próbál-tak. Leghíresebbek a spanyol C. (tánc, bu-vészet) és a magyar C. (zene). Az európai C. rom néven nevezik magukat, a szíriaiak dom néven (a. m. ember). Ezt a nevet egy indiai néptörzsnél is megtalálták, a szó a szanszkrit dama-val egyezik, utóbbi pedig olyan óindiai népet jelöl, amely énekből és zenéből élt (ugyanis a szanszkrit dam,. a. m. hangzani). A rom-dom név tehát nyilvánvalóan zenészt jelent. A nyelvtudománynak ezt az eredményét a történelem is igazolja. Bégi ind írók említenek egy pária-népet, amely a rendelkezések értelmében faluról-falura vándorolt, állandóan nem telepedhetett le s hivatása, kenyérkeresete az ének, tánc, zene és kóklerség volt.
A C. nyelvét India ÉK-i részén lakó népek (szindhi, kasir, dardus, stb.) nyelvével próbálták egyeztetni, azonban az ősi, árja rétegre az idők folyamán oly sok idegen nyelvelem rakódott le, hogy ma már nem lehet megállapítanunk pontosan hovatartozását. Számos nyelvjárása van, ezek igen lényeges vonásokban különböznek egymástól. A nyelvi sajátosságok az egyes csoportoknak, törzseknek egymástól eltérő vándorútjában találják a magyarázatot. Minden nyelvjárásban vannak perzsa, örmény, török és görög jövevényszavak, amelyek azt bizonyítják, hogy a C. e szavak átvétele idején még együtt éltek. Angol C. nyelvében magyar szavakat, finn C. nyelvében spanyol szavakat találtak. Az idegen nyelvekkel való érintkezés tekintetében osztotta fel a magyar C. nyelvét az id. Jóssef fohg. világhírű Cigány nyelvtan-ában (1888). A C. nyelvének indiai eredetét magyar ember ismerte fel először: Vályi István ref. prédikátor leideni tanuló-. évei alatt malabári flatalemberekkel került össze s nyelvüket a győri C. nyelvével összehasonlítva, igen sok egyezést talált (1776). Vályi eredményét Grellmann és Pott tökéletesítette tudományos módszerek-kel, legalaposabban Miklosich dolgozta fel.
Mielőtt a C. Európába kerültek, évszázadokon át vándoroltak. Perzsián és Törökországon keresztül lassan húzódtak át a Balkán-félszigetre és Görögországban állapodtak meg legszívesebben. Már-már úgy látszott, hogy itt lesz állandó letelepülési helyük, azonban a balkáni népek viszályaitól megzavarva, újra kezükbe vették a vándorbotot. Magyarországon keresztül rajzottak szét Európában. A Ny.-i krónikák egybehangzó elbeszélései szerint egymástól elkülönített csapatokban szállották meg a céljaiknak, életmódjuknak leginkább megfelelő vidéket. Vezetőik a vajda, a gróf, sot az "Egyiptom hercege" hangzatos címeket viselték, magukat a fáraók ivadékának vallották, feltunő szinekbe öltözötten jelentek meg csapataik élén és azok felett a hatalmat gyakorolták.
Magyarországon a C., mint a törökök elől menekülő, jámbor keresztények, barátságos fogadtatásban részesültek. Zsigmond király 1423-ban védlevelet adott számukra, amely biztosította önkormányzatukat és engedélyt adott kenyerüknek becsületes módon való meskeresésére. Thurzó György nádorispán, 1816-ban megható szavakkal festi a C. szenvedéseit. Megjelenésük idején sok helyen gyér volt a lakosság, kevés a munkáskéz. Egyrésztük ezért hamar hasznosította magát a nemesúri kagtélyok környékén. Kisegítő munkálatokban váltak használható munkásokká. Szegkovácsolás, teknővájás, kemencetapasztás, vályogvetés, kolompároskodás, pecérség, miskárolás, szénagyüjtés, postáskodás, kengyelfutás, golyóöntés, puskaportörés, fegyverkészítés, stb, voltak azok az gyeskedések, amelyeket rájuk bíztak és ma is e foglalkozási ágak egy részét űzik. Kiváló muzikalitásuk következtében hatalmas számban szerepelnek mint zenészek.
A nép nem nagy rokonszenvvel fogadta a jövevényeket s ennek a lekicsinylésnek a nyoma számos szólásunkban él ma is (Cigánykodik, cigánylakodalom, cigányhal, cigányzab, stb.). Elnevezésük sokfélesége télrevezető meséik következménye. Az angol (gipsy) és a spanyol (gitano) elnevezés, egyiptomi származásuk regéjére, a francia (bohémien) csehországi, a német-alföldi (ungern) magyarországi kapcsolataik hangoztatására utal. A C. között semmiféle hagypmányt sem találtak az indiai eredetről. Eleinte titkolták, utóbb maguk is elfeledték származásukat. A tudomány csak újabban tudta származásukat teljes bizonyossággal kimutatnl.
Letelepítésükkel nálunk Mária Terézia és II. József foglalkozott, azonban kisérleteik nem sikerültek. Id. József tohg. alcsúti, kisjenoi, stb. cigánytelepei sem sokáig álltak. A .C. letelepítésének problémájával nemzetközi szervezet. (Gypsy Lore Society) is foglalkozott, azonban a kérdést nem lebetett eredményesen megoldani.
A C. társadalmi berendezkedésében azonos sajátság a törzsekre való elkülönülés. A törzs tulajdonképpen a kereset megkönnyítése céljából összeverődött tömeget s nem szoros népi egységet jelent. Vezetője a vajda, azonban a nemzetségek öregeinek (szájbidzsó) a tekintélye az övét is felül-múlja. Ha a törzs nemzetségi, családi alapon is együvétartozó tagokból áll, vajdájuk a nemzetségfők közül kerül ki. Ezek a C. tekintélyes törzsei, amelyekhez a többi is alkalmazkodik. Vándorlás közben a nemzetségek különös, ősi jelekkel téjékoztatják egymást helyzetükről, amelyeknek eredetét még ma sem kutatta ki a tudomány. Családi életükben a matriarchátusnak is van némi nyoma; a nőnek természetfeletti hatalmat tulajdonítanak (varázsló, jós, ráolvasó, stb.). Meséik, mondáik, dalaik, szokásaik vándorlás közben összeszedett idegen eredetű hagyományok, mitológiájukban van némi indiai nyom. A magyar C. életét Wlisloczki Henrik és Herr-mann Antal kutatta ki tudományos módszerekkel. Utóbbi külön folyóiratot indított tanulmányai közlésére. A C.-kal foglalkozó gazdag irodalmat Ponori Thewrewk Emil foglalta össze József főhg. cigány-nyelvtanában, újabban pedig Dömötör Sándor (Ethnographia-Népélet c. folyóirat. 1934).
A cigányügy rendészete. A C. kóborlásából a közbiztonságra, közerkölcsre és közegészgégügyre származó veszedelmek megfelelő közigazgatási intézkedéseket tettek szükségessé. Ezek szerint a C. a szokásos kóbórlástól eltiltatnak és a kóborláson ért C.-okat a rendőrhatóságnak rendes lakó helyükre, ill. a kijelölt lakóhelyre: kell, esetleg toloncúton kísértetnie. A tartózkodási község a kóbor C.-okat és állataikat szigorú orvosi, ill. állatorvosi vizsgalat alá veti és a C.-okat nyilvantartásba foglalja. Minden kóborcigányról külön nyilvántartó-lap készül; a nyilvántartásba felvett minden 12. életévét betöltött cigánynak névre szóló és személyleírását is tartalmazó cigányigazolványt kell kiállítani. A nyilvántartott cigány csak a hatóság engedélyével hagyhatja el a tartózkodási község belterületét és magánosoktól munkát csak a cigányigazolvány felmutatása ellenében kaphat. Vándoripari és házalási engedély C. részére csupán annak a vm.-i törvény-hatóságnak területére korlátozva adható meg, amelynek területén az illető cigánynak rendes lakóhelye van. A nyilvántartott C. elhelyezéséről és ellátásukról a nyilvántartó község gondoskodik. Mindezek a korlátozó rendelkezések csak a kóborló C.-okra vonatkoznak, a cigányfajú letelepült lakosságra nem terjednek ki.
Természetesen a történelemtudomány is érhet el újabb eredményeket, bizonyos források előkerülhetnek, mások hitelüket vesztik. Ezért mondom, hogy az újabb dolgozatok hitelesebbek.
(Persze nem az, hogy igazságos Mátyás Szlovákia királya volt...)
Félig.
Mind a 2 oldalnak szállítottak híreket jutalom fejében. A hírek jó részét ők maguk találták ki. Ha a "vevő" rajtavesztett, nem volt abban a helyzetben, hogy számonkérjen valamit is, a győztes meg elégedett volt.
Na ne már, hogy egy cigány ne tudjon túljárni a parsztok eszén...
India nagy, mindenfajta emberből sok van. Több gazdag van, mint Franciaország teljes lakossága.
A cigányok nem vándoroltak ki Indiából, csak exportálták a népességfelesleget nyugatra. Ott sem egységesek, nem is nép, csak egy réteg, amelyeknek a többségi társadalommal való viszonyuk azonos. Ha dolgoznak, az kéregetést, jóslást, muzsikálást, táncot, stb. jelent.
Hidd el az indiaiak dolgoznak, önellátó társadalom volt. Hogy mennyit, az más kérdés. Biztos hogy nem az amerikai szalagmunkás a társadalmi fejlődés csúcsa.
A korábban belinkelt enciklopédia szócikkét 1911-ben írták. Elavult. Mi az hogy elavult?
talan megvaltozott a tortenelem idokozben?
egyebkent az a cikk elsodleges forrasokbol lett megirva, ellentetbe az altalad bemasoltal, ami csak 1980 utani forrasokbol idez.
na de bemasolom ide az Enciklopediat is, ha neked szabad topikot rombolni, akkor nekem is.
GIPSIES
GIPSIES, or GYPSIES, a wandering folk scattered through every European land, over the greater part of western Asia and Siberia; found also in Egypt and the northerfi coast of Africa, in America and even in Australia. No correct estimate of their numbers outside of Europe can be given, and even in Europe the information derived from official statistics is often contradictory and unreliable. The only countdy in which the figures have been given correctly is Hungary. In 1893 there we4e 274,940 in Transleithania, of whom 243,432 were settled, 20,406 only partly settled and 8938 nomads. Of these 91,603 spoke the Gipsy language in f 890, but the rest had already been assimilated. Next in numbers stands Rumania, the number varying between 250,000 and 200,000 (1895). Turkey in Europe counted 117,000 (2903), of whom 51,000 were in Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, 22,000 in the vilayet of Adrianople and 2500 in the vilayet of Kossovo. In Asiatic Turkey the estimates vary between 67,000 and 200,000., Servia has 41,000; Bosnia and Herzegovina, 18,ooo; Greece, 10,000; Austria (Cisleitbania), 16,000, of whom 13,500 are in Bohemia and Moravia; Germany, 2000; France, 2000 (5000?); Basque Provinces, 500 to 700; Italy, 32,000; Spain, 40,000; Russia, 58,000; Poland, 15,000; Sweden and Norway, 1500; Denmark and Holland, 5000; Persia, 15,000; Transcaucasia, 3000. The rest is mere guesswork. For Africa, America and Australia the numbers are estimated between 135,000 and 166,000. The estimate given by Mikiosich (1878) of 700,000 fairly agrees with the above statistics. No statistics are forthcoming for the number in the British Isles. Some estimate their number at 12,000.
The Gipsies are known principally by two names, which have been modified by the nations with whom they came in contact, but which can easily be traced to either the one or the other of these two distinct stems. The one group, embracing the majority of Gipsies in Europe, the compact masses living in the Balkan Peninsula, Rumania and Transylvania and extending also as far as Germany and Italy, are known by the name Atzigan or Atsigan, which becomes in time Tshingian (Turkey and Greece), Tsigan (Bulgarian, Servian, Rumanian), Czigany (Hungarian), Zigeuner (Germany), Zingari (Italian), and it is not unlikely that the English word Tinker or Tinkler (the latter no doubt due to a popular etymology connecting the gaudy gipsy with the tinkling coins or the metal wares which he carried on his back as a smith and tinker) may be a local transformation of the German Zigeuner. The second name, partly known in the East, where the word, however, is used as an expression of contempt, whilst Zigan is not felt by the gipsies as an insult, is Egyptian; in England, Gipsy; in some German documents of the 16th century Aegypter; Spanish Gitano; modern Greek Gyp/itos. They are also known by the parallel expressions Faraon (Rumanian) and P/i&rao Nephka (Hungarian) or Pharaohs people, which are only variations connected with the Egyptian origin. In France they are known as Bo/tfmiens, a word the importance of which will appear later. To the same category belong other names bestowed upon them, such as Walachi, Saraceni, Agareni, Nubiani, &c. They were also known by the name of Tartars, given to them in Germany, or as Heathen, 1-leydens. All these latter must be considered as nicknames without thereby denoting their probable origin. The same may have now been the case with the first name with which they appear in history, Atzigan. Much ingenuity has been displayed in attempts to explain the name, for it was felt that a true explanation might help to settle the question of their origin and the date of their arrival in Europe. Here again two extreme theories have been propounded, the one supported by Bataillard, who connected them with the Sigynnoi of Herodotus and identified them with the Koniodromoi of the later Byzantine writers, known already in the 6th century. Others bring them to Europe as late as the 14th century; and the name has also been explained by de Goeje from the Persian C/fang, a kind of harp or zither, or the Persian Zang, black, swarthy. Rienzi (5832) and Trumpp (5872) have connected the nanie with the Changars of North-East India, but all have omitted to notice that the real form was Atzigan or (more correct) Atzingan and not Tsigan. The best explanation remains that suggested by Miklosich, who derives the word from the Athinganoi, a name originally belonging to a peculiar heretical sect living in Asia Minor near Phrygia and Lycaonia, known also as the Melki-Zedekites. The members of this sect observed very strict rules of purity, as they were afraid to be defiled by the touch of other people whom they considered unclean. They therefore acquired the name of Athinganoi (i.e. Touch-me-nots ).
Mikiosich has collected seven passages where the Byzantine historians of the 9th century describe the Athinganoi as soothsayers, magicians and serpent-charmers. From these descriptions nothing definite can be proved as to the identity of the Athinganoi with the Gipsies, or the reason why this name was given to soothsayers, charmers, &c. But the inner history of the Byzantine empire of that period may easily give a clue to it and explain how it came about thatsuch a nickname was given to a new sect or to a new race which suddenly appeared in the Greek Empire at that period. In the history of the Church we find them mentioned in one breath with the Paulicians and other heretical sects which were transplanted in their tens of thousands from Asia Minor to the Greek empire and settied especially in Rumelia, near Adrianople and Philippopolis. The Greeks called these heretical sects by all kinds of names, derived from ancient Church traditions, and gave to each sect such names as first struck them, on the scantiest of imaginary similarities. One sect was called Paulician, another Melki-Zedekite; so also these were called Athinganoi, probably being considered the descendants of the outcast Samer, who, according to ancient tradition, was a goldsmith and the maker of the Golden Calf in the desert. For this sin Samer was banished and compelled to live apart from human beings and even to avoid their touch (Athinganos:
Touch-me-not ). Travelling from East to West these heretical sects obtained different names in different countries, in accordance with the local traditions or to imaginary origins. The Bogomils and Patarenes became Bulgarians in France, and so the gypsies Bohmiens, a name which was also connected with the heretical sect of the Bohemian brothers (Bohmisch~e Bruder). Curiously enough the Kutzo-Vlachs living in Macedonia (q.v.) and Rumelia are also known by the nickname Tsintsari, a word that has not yet been explained. Very likely it stands in close connection with Zingari, the name having been transferred from one people to the other without the justification of any common ethnical origin, except that the Kutzo-Vlachs, like the Zingari, differed from their Greek neighbors in race, as in language, habits and customs; while they probably followed similar pursuits to those of the Zingari, as smiths, &c. As to the other name, Egyptians, this is derived from a peculiar tale which the gipsies spread when appearing in the west of Europe. They alleged that they had come from a country of their own called Little Egypt, either a confusion between Little Armenia and Egypt or the Peloponnesus.
Attention may be drawn to a remarkable passage in the Syriac version of the apocryphal Book of Adam, known as the Cave of Treasures and compiled probably in the 6th century: And of the seed of Canaan were as I said the Aegyptians; and, 10, they were scattered all over the earth and served as slaves of slaves (ed. Bezold, German translation, p. 25). No reference to such a scattering and serfdom of the Egyptians is mentioned anywhere else. This must have been a legend, current in Asia Minor, and hence probably transferred to the swarthy Gipsies.
A new explanation may now be ventured upon as to the name which the Gipsies of Europe give to themselves, which, it must be emphasized, is not known to the Gipsies outside of Europe. Only those who starting from the ancient Byzantine empire have travelled westwards and spread over Europe, America and Australia call themselves by the name of Rom, the woman being Romni and a stranger Ga~i. Many etymologies have been suggested for the word Rom. Paspati derived it from the word lJroma (Indian), and Miklosich had identified it with ~oma or ~omba, a low caste musician, rather an extraordinary name for a nation to call itself by. Having no home and no country of their own and no political traditions and no literature, they would naturally try to identify themselves with the people in whose midst they lived, and would call themselves by the same name as other inhabitants of the Greek empire, known also as the Empire of New Rom, or of the Romaioi, Romeliots, Romanoi, as the Byzantines used to call themselves before they assumed the prouder name of Hellenes. The Gipsies would therefore call themselves also Rom, a much more natural name, more flattering to their vanity, and geographically and politically more correct than if they called themselves low caste musicians. This Greek origin of the name would explain why it is limited to the European Gipsies, and why it is not found among that stock of Gipsies which has migrated from Asia Minor southwards and taken a different route to reach Egypt and North Africa. -
Appearance in Europe.Leaving aside the doubtful passages in the Byzantine writers where the Athinganoi are mentioned, the first appearance of Gipsies in Europe cannot be traced positively further back than the beginning of the I4th century. Some have hitherto believed that a passage in what was erroneously called the Rhymed Version of Genesis of Vienna, but which turns out to be the work of a writer before the year 1122, and found only in the Kiagenfurt manuscript (edited by Ditmar, 1862), referred to the Gipsies. It runs as follows: Gen. xiii. 15 Hagar had a son from whom were born the Chaltsmide. When Hagar had that child, she named it Ismael, from whom the Ismaelites descend who journey through the land, and we call them Chaltsmide, may evil befall them! They sell only things with blemishes, and for whatever they sell they always ask more than its real value. They cheat the people to whom they sell. They have no home, no country, they are satisfied to live in tents, they wander over the country, they deceive the people, they cheat men but rob no one noisily.
This reference to the Chaltsmide (not goldsmiths, but very likely ironworkers, smiths) has wrongly been applied to the Gipsies. For it is important to note that at least three centuries before historical evidence proves the immigration of the genuine Gipsy, there had been wayfaring smiths, travelling from country to country, and practically paving the way for their successors, the Gipsies, who not only took up their crafts but who probably have also assimilated a good proportion of these vagrants of the west of Europe. The name given to the former, who probably were Oriental or Greek smiths and pedlars, was then transferred to the new-comers. The Komodromoi mentioned by Theophanes (758818), who speaks under the date 554 of one hailing from Italy, and by other Byzantine writers, are no doubt the same as the Chaltsmide of the German writer of the 12th century translated by Ducange as Chaudroneurs. W~ are on surer ground in the I4th century. Hopf has proved the existence of Gipsies in Corfu before 1326. Before 1346 the empress Catherine de Valois granted to the governor of Corfu authority to reduce to vassalage certain vagrants who ca~ne from the mainland; and in 1386, under the Venetians, they formed the Feudum Acindanorum, which lasted for many centuries. About 1378 the Venetian governor of Nauplia confirmed to the Acingani of that colony the privileges granted by his predecessor to their leader John. It is even possible to identify the people described by Friar Simon in his Itinerarium, who, speaking of his stay in Crete in 1322, says:
We saw there a people outside the city who declare themselves to be of the race of Ham and who worship according to the Greek rite. They wander like a cursed people from place to place, not stopping at all or rarely in one place longer than thirty days; they live in tents like the Arabs, a little oblong black tent. But their name is not mentioned, and although the similarity is great between these children of Ham and the Gipsies, the identification has only the value of an hypothesis. By the end of the 15th century they must have been settled for a sufficiently long time in the Balkan Peninsula and the countries north of the Danube, such as Transylvania and Walachia, to have been reduced to the same state of serfdom as they evidently occupied in Corfu in the second half of the 14th century. The voivode Mircea I. of Walachia confirms the grant made by his uncle Vladislav Voivode to the monastery of St Anthony of Voditsa as to forty families of Atsigane, for whom no taxes should be paid to the prince. They were considered crown property. The same gift is renewed in the year 1424 by the voivode Dan, who repeats the very same words (i Acigne, m, ~eliudi. da su slobodni ot vstkih rabot i dankov) (Hgjdu, Arhiva, i. 20). At that time there must already have been in Walachia settled Gipsies treated as serfs, and migrating Gipsies plying their trade as smiths, musicians, dancers, sotithsayers, horse-dealers, &c., for we find the voivode Alexander of Moldavia granting these Gipsies in the year 1478 freedom of air and soil to wander about and free fire and iron for their smithy. But a certain portion, probably the largest, became serfs, who could be sold, exchanged, bartered and inherited. It may be mentioned here that in the 17th century a family when sold fetched forty Hungarian forms, and in the 18th century the price was sometimes as high as 700 Rumanian piastres, about 8, 105. As late as 1845 an auction of 200 families of Gipsies took place in Bucharest, where they were sold in batches of no less than 5 families and offered at a ducat cheaper per head than elsewhere. The Gipsies followed at least four distinct pursuits in Rumania and Transylvania, where they lived in large masses. A goodly proportion of them were tied to the soil; in consequence their position was different from that of the Gipsies who had started westwards and who are nowhere found to have obtained a permanent abode for any length of time, or to have been treated, except for a very short period, with any consideration of humanity.
Their appearance in the West is first noted by chroniclers early in the 15th century. In 1414 they are said to have already arrived in Hesse. This date is contested, but for 1417 the reports are unanimous of their appearance in Germany. Some count their number to have been as high as 1400, which of course is exaggeration. In 1418 they reached Hamburg, 1419 Augsburg, 1428 Switzerland. In 1427 they had already entered France (Provence). A troupe is said to have reached Bologna in 1422, whence they are said to have gone to Rome, on a pilgrimage alleged to have been undertaken for some act of apostasy. After this first immigration a second and larger one seems to have followed in its wake, led by Zumbel. The Gipsies spread over Germany, Italy and France between the years 1438 and 1512. About 1500 they must have reached England. On the 5th of July 1505 James IV. of Scotland gave to Antonius Gaginae, count of Little Egypt, letters of recommendation to the king of Denmark; and special privileges were granted by James V. on the i5th of February 1540 to oure louit johnne Faw Lord and Erle of Litill Egypt, to whose son and successor he granted authority to hang and punish all Egyptians within the realm (May 26, 1540).
It is interesting to hear what the first writers who witnessed their appearance have to tell us; for ever since the Gipsies have remained the same. Albert Krantzius (Krantz), in his Saxonia (xi. 2), was the first to give a full description, which was afterwards repeated by Munster in his Cosmographia (iii. 5).
He says that in the year 1417 there appeared for the first time in Germany a people uncouth, black, dirty, barbarous, called in Italian Ciani, who indulge specially in thieving and cheating. They had among them a count and a few knights well dressed, others followed afoot. The women and children travelled in carts. They also carried with them letters of safeconduct from the emperor Sigismund and other princes, and they professed that they were engaged on a pilgrimage of expiation for some act of apostasy.
The guilt of the Gipsies varies in the different versions of the story, but all agree that the Gipsies asserted that they came from their own country called Litill Egypt, and they had to go to Rome, to obtain pardon for that alleged sin of their forefathers. According to one account it was because they had not shown mercy to Joseph and Mary when they had sought refuge in Egypt from the persecution of Herod (Basel Chronicle). According to another, because they had forsaken the Christian faith for a while (Rhaetia, 1656), &c. But these were fables, no doubt connected with the legend of Cartaphylus or the Wandering Jew.
Krantzs narrative continues as follows: This people have no country and travel through the land. They live like dogs and have no religion although they allow themselves to be baptized in the Christian faith. They live without care and gather unto themselves also other vagrants, men and women. Their old women practise fortune-telling, and whilst they are telling men of their future they pick their pockets. Thus far Krantz. It is curious that he should use the name by which these people were called in Italy, Ciani. Similarly Crusius, the author of the A nnales Suevici, knows their Italian name Zigani and the French Bohmiens. Not one of these oldest writers mentions them as coppersmiths or farriers or musicians. The immunity which they enjoyed during their first appearance in western Europe is due to the letter of safe-conduct of the emperor. As it is of extreme importance for the history of civilization as well as the history of the Gipsies, it may find a place here. It is taken from the compilation of Felix Oefelius, Rerum Boicarum scriptores (Augsburg, 1763), ii. 15, who reproduces the Diarium sexennale of Andreas Presbyter, the contemporary of the first appearance of the Gipsies in Germany.
Sigismundus Dci gratia Romanorum Rex semper Augustus, ac Hungariae, Bohemiae, Dalmatiae, Croatiae, &c. Rex Fidelibus nostris universis Nobilibus, Militibus, Castellanis, Officialibus, Tributariis, civitatibus liberis, opidis et eorum iudicibus in Regno et sub domino nostro constitutis ex existentibus salutem cum dilectione. Fideles nostri adierunt in praesentiam personaliter Ladislaus Wayuoda Ciganorum cum aliis ad ipsum spectantibus, nobis humilirnas porrexerunt supplicationes, huc in sepus in nostra praesentia supplicationum precum cum instanti, Ut lpSis grati~ nostra uberiori providere dignaremur. Unde nos illorum supplicatione illecti eisdem hanc libertatem duximus concedendam, qua re quandocunque idem Ladislaus Wayuoda et sua gens ad dicta nostra dominia videlicet civitates vel oppida pervenerint, cx tunc vestris fidelitatibus praesentibus firmiter committimus et mandamus ut eosdem Ladislaum Wayuodam et Ciganos sibi subiectos omni sine impedimento ac perturbatione aliquali fovere ac conservare debeatis, immo ab omnibus impetitionibus seu offensionibus tueri velitis: Si autem inter ipsos aliqua Zizania seu perturbatio evenerit cx parte, quorumcunque cx tunc non vos nec aliquis alter vestrum, sed idem Ladislaus Wayuoda iudicandi et liberandi habeat facultatem. Praesentes autem post earum lecturam semper reddi iubemus praesentanti. -
Datum in Sepus Dominica die ante festum St Georgii Martyris Anno Domini MCCCCXXIII., Regnorum nostrorum anno Hungar. XXXVI., Romanorum vero XII., Bohemiae tertio.
Freely translated this reads: We Sigismund by the grace of God emperor of Rome, king of Hungary, Bohemia, &c. unto all true and loyal subjects, noble soldiers, commanders, castellans, open districts, free towns and their judges in our kingdom established- and under our sovereignty, kind greetings. Our faithful voivode of the Tsigani with others belonging to him has humbly requested us that we might graciously grant them our abundant favor. We grant them their supplication, we have vouchsafed unto them this liberty. Whenever therefore this voivode Ladislaus and his people should come to any part of our realm in any town, village or place, we commit them by these presents, strongly to your loyalty and we command you to protect in every way the same voivode Ladislaus and the Tsigani his subjects without hindrance, and you should show kindness unto them and you should protect them from every trouble and persecution. But should any trouble or discord happen among them from whichever side it may be, then none of you nor anyone else belonging to you should interfere, but this voivode Ladislaus alone should have the right of punishing and pardoning. And we moreover command you to return these presents always after having read them. Given in our court on Sunday the day before the Feast of St George in the year of our Lord 1423. The 36th year of our kingdom of Hungary, the 12th of our being emperor of Rome and the 3rd of our being king of Bohemia.
There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this document, which is in no way remarkable considering that at that time the Gipsies must have formed a very considerable portion of the inhabitants of Hungary, whose king Sigismund was. They may have presented the emperors grant of favors to Alexander prince of Moldavia in 1472, and obtained from him safe-conduct and protection, as mentioned above.
No one has yet attempted to explain the reason why the Gipsies should have started in the 14th and especially in the first half of the 15th century on. their march westwards. But if, as has been assumed above, the Gipsies had lived for some length of time in Rumelia, and afterwards spread thence across the Danube and the plains of Transylvania, the incursion of the Turks into Europe, their successive occupation of those very provinces, the overthrow of the Servian and Bulgarian kingdoms and the dislocation of the native population, would account to a remarkable degree for the movement of the Gipsies: and this movement increases in volume with the greater successes of the Turks and with the peopling of the country by immigrants from Asia Minor. The first to be driven from their homes would no doubt be the nomadic element, which felt itself ill at ease in its new surroundings, and found it more profitable first to settle in larger numbers in Walachia and Transylvania and thence to spread to the western countries of Europe. But their immunity from persecution did not last long.
Later History.Less than fifty years from the time that they emerge out of Hungary, or even from the date of the Charter of the emperor Sigismund, they found themselves exposed to the fury and the prejudices of the people whose good faith they had ,abused, whose purses they had lightened, whose barns they had emptied, and on whose credulity they had lived with ease and comfort. Their inborn tendency to roaming made them the terror of the peasantry and the despair of every legislator who tried to settle them on the land. Their foreign appearance, their unknown tongue and their unscrupulous habits forced the legislators of many countries to class them with rogues and vagabonds, to declare them outlaws and felons and to treat them with extreme severity. More than one judicial murder has been committed against them. In some places they were suspected as Turkish- spies and treated accordingly, and the murderer of a Gipsy was often regarded as innocent of any crime.
Weissenbruch describes the wholesale murder of a group of Gipsies, of whom five men were broken on the wheel, nine perished on the gallows, and three men and eight women were decapitated. This took place on the 14th and 15th of November 1726. Acts and edicts were issued in many countries from the end of the 15th century onwards sentencing the Egyptians to exile under pain of death. Nor was this an empty threat. In Edinburgh four Faas were hanged in 1611 for abyding within the kingdome, they being Egiptienis, and in 1636 at Haddington the Egyptians were ordered the men to be hangied and the weomen to be drowned, and suche of the weomen as hes children to be scourgit throw the burg and burnt in the cheeks. The burning on the cheek or on the back was a common penalty.
In 1692 four Estremadura Gipsies caught by the Inquisition were charged with cannibalism and made to own that they had eaten a friar, a pilgrim and even a woman of their own tribe, for which they suffered the penalty of death. And as late as 1782, 45 Hungarian Gipsies were charged with a similar monstrous crime, and when the supposed victims of a supposed murder could not be found on the spot indicated by the Gipsies, they owned under torture and said on the rack, We ate them. Of course they were forthwith beheaded or hanged. The emperor Joseph II., who was also the author of one of the first edicts in favor of the Gipsies, and who abolished serfdom throughout the Empire, ordered an inquiry into the incident; it was then discovered that no murder had been committed, except that of the victims of this monstrous accusation.
The history of the legal status of the Gipsies, of their treatment in various countries and of the penalties and inflictions to which they have been subjected, would form a remarkable chapter in the history of modern civilization. The materials are slowly accumulating, and it is interesting to note as one of the latest instances, that not further back than the year 1907 a drive was undertaken in Germany against the Gipsies, which fact may account for the appearance of some German Gipsies in England in that year, and that in 1904 the Prussian Landtag adopted unanimously a proposition to examine anew the question of granting peddling licences to German Gipsies; that on the 17th of February 1906 the Prussian minister issued special instructions to combat the Gipsy nuisance; and that in various parts of Germany and Austria a special register is kept for the tracing of the genealogy of vagrant and sedentary Gipsy families.
Different has been the history of the Gipsies in what originally formed the Turkish empire of Europe, notably in Rumania, i.e. Walachia and Moldavia, and a careful search in the archives of Rumania would offer rich materials for the history of the Gipsies in a country where they enjoyed exceptional treatment almost from the beginning of their settlement. They were divided mainly into two classes, (1) Robi or Serfs, who were settled on the land and deprived of all individual liberty, being the property of the nobles and of churches or monastic establishments, and (2) the Nomadic vagrants. They were subdivided into four classes according to their occupation, such as the Lingurali (woodcarvers; lit. spoonmakers), Caldarari (tinkers, coppersmiths and ironworkers), Ursari (lit. bear drivers ) and Rudari (miners), also called Aurari (gold-washers), who used formerly to wash the gold out of the auriferous river-sands of Walachia. A separate and smaller class consisted of the Gipsy I4eshi or Vdtrashi (settled on a homestead or having a fireplace of their own). Each shatra or Gipsy community was placed under the authority of a judge or leader, known in Rumania as jude, in Hungary as aga; these officials were subordinate to the bulubasha or voivod, who was himself under the direct control of the yuzbas/za (or governor appointed by the prince from among his nobles). The yuzbasha was responsible for the regular income to be derived from the vagrant Gipsies, who were considered and treated as the princes property. These voivodi or yuzbashi who were not Gipsies by origin often treated the Gipsies with great tyranny. In Hungary down to 1648 they belonged to the aristocracy. The last Polish Krolestvo cyganskie or Gipsy king died in 1790. The Robi could be bought and sold, freely exchanged and inherited, and were treated as the negroes in America down to 1856, when their final freedom in Moldavia was proclaimed. In Hungary and in Transylvania the abolition of servitude in 1781-1782 carried with it the freedom of the Gipsies. In the 18th and I9th centuries many attempts were made to settle and to educate the roaming Gipsies; in Austria this was undertaken by the empress Maria Theresk and the emperor Francis II. (1761-1783), in Spain by Charles III. (1788). In Poland (1791) the attempt succeeded. In England (1827) and in Germany (1830) societies were formed for the reclamation of the Gipsies, but nothing was accomplished in either case. In Other countries, however, definite progress was made. Since 1866 the Gipsies have become Rumanian citizens, and the latest official statistics no longer distinguish betwees the Rumanians and the Gipsies, who are becoming thoroughly assimilated, forgetting their language, and being slowly absorbed by the native population. In Bulgaria the Gipsies were declared citizens, enjoying equal political rights in accordance with the treaty of Berlin in 1878, but through an arbitrary interpretation they were deprived of that right, and on the 6th of January 1906 the first Gipsy Congress was held in Sofia, for the purpose of claiming political rights for the Turkish Gipsies or Gopti as they call themselves. Ramadan Alief, the tzari-bashi (i.e. the head of the Gipsies in Sofia), addressed the Gipsies assembled; they decided to protest and subsequently sent a petition to the Sobranye, demanding the recognition of their political rights. A curious reawakening, and an interesting chapter in the history of this peculiar race.
Origin and Language of the Gipsies.The real key to their origin is, however, the Gipsy language. The scientific study of that language began in the middle of the i9th century with the work of Pott, and was brought to a high state of perfection by Miklosich. From that time on monographs have multiplied and minute researches have been carried on in many parts of the world, all tending to elucidate the true origin of the Gipsy language. It must remain for the time being an open question whether the Gipsies were originally a pure race. Many a strange element has contributed to swell their ranks and to introduce discordant elements into their vocabulary. Ruediger (1782), Grellrnann (1783) and Marsden (1783) almost simultaneously and independently of one another came to the same conclusion, that the language of the Gipsies, until then considered a thieves jargon, was in, reality a language closely allied with some Indian speech. Since then the two principal problems to be solved have been, firstly, to which of the languages of India the original Gipsy speech was most closely allied, and secondly, by which route the people speaking that language had reached Europe and then spread westwards. Despite the rapid increase in our knowledge of Indian languages, no solution has yet been found to the first problem, nor is it likely to be found. For the language of the Gipsies, as shown now by recent studies of the Armenian Gipsies, has undergone such a profound change and involves so many difficulties, that it is impossible to compare the modern Gipsy with any modern Indian dialect owing to the, inner developments which the Gipsy language has undergone in the course of centuries. All that is known, moreover, of the Gipsy language, and all that rests on reliable texts, is quite modern, scarcely earlier than the middle of the 19th century. Followed up in the various dialects into which that language has split, it shows such a thorough change from dialect to dialect, that except as regards general outlines and principles of inflexion, nothing would be more misleading than to draw conclusions from apparent similarities between Gipsy, or any Gipsy dialect, and any Indian language; especially as the Gipsies must have been separated from the Indian races for a much longer period than has elapsed since their arrival in Europe and since the formation of their European. dialects. It must also be borne in mind that the Indian languages have also undergone profound changes of their own, under influences totally different from those to which the Gipsy language has been subjected. The problem would stand differently if by any chance an ancient vocabulary were discovered representing the oldest form of the common stock from which the European dialects have sprung; for there can be no doubt of the unity of the language of the Europedn Gipsies. The question whether Gipsy stands close to Sanskrit or Prakrit, or shows forms more akin to Hindi dialects, specially those of the North-West frontier, or Dardestan,and Kafiristan, to which may be added now the dialects of the Pisgca language (Grierson, 1906), is affected by the fact established by Fink that the dialect cf the Armenian Gipsies shows much closer resemblance to Prakrit than the language of the European Gipsies, and that the dialects of Gipsy spoken throughout Syria and Asia Minor differ profoundly in every respect from the European Gipsy, taken as a whole spoken. The only explanation possible is that the European Gipsy represents the first wave of the Westward movement of an Indian tribe or caste which, dislocated at a certain period by political disturbances, had travelled through Persia, making a very short stay there, thence to Armenia staying there a little longer, and then possibly to the Byzantine Empire at an indefinite period between 1100 and 1200; and that another clan had followed in their wake, passing through Persia, settling in Armenia and then going farther down to Syria, Egypt and North Africa. These two tribes though of a common remote Indian origin must, however, be kept strictly apart from one another in our investigation, for they stand to each other in the same relation as they stand to the various dialects in India. The linguistic proof of origin can therefore now not go further than to establish the fact that the Gipsy language is in its very essence an originally Indian dialect, enriched in its vocabulary from the languages of the peoples among whom the Gipsies had sojourned, whilst in its grammatical inflection it has slowly been modified, to such an extent that in some cases, like the English or the Servian, barely a skeleton. has remained.
Notwithstanding the statements to the contrary, a Gipsy from Greece or Rumania could no longer understand a Gipsy of England or Germany, so profound is the difference. But the words which have entered into the Gipsy language, borrowed as they were from the Greeks, Hungarians, Rumanians, &c., are not only an indication of the route takenand this is the only use that has hitherto been made of the vocabularybut they are of the highest importance for fixing the time when the Gipsies had come in contact with these languages. The absence of Arabic is a positive proof that not only did the Gipsies not come via Arabia (as maintained by De Goeje) before they reached Europe, but that they could not even have been living for any length of time in Persia after the Mahommedan conquest, or at any rate that they could not have come in contact with such elements of the population as had already adopted Arabic in addition to Persian. But the form of the Persian words found among European Gipsies, and similarly the form of the Armenian words found in that language, are a clear indication that the Gipsies could not have come in contact with these languages before Persian had assumed its modern form and before Armenian had been changed from the old to the modern form of language. Still more strong and clear is the evidence in the case of the Greek and Rumanian words. If the Gipsies had lived in Greece, as some contend, from very ancient times, some at least of the old Greek words would be found in their language, and similarly the Slavonic words would be of an archaic character, whilst on the contrary we find medieval Byzantine forms, nay, modern Greek forms, among the Gipsy vocabulary collected from Gipsies in Germany or Italy, England or France; a proof positive that they could not have been in Europe much earlier than the approximate date given above of the 11th or 12th century. We then find from a grammatical point of view the same deterioration, say among the English or Spanish Gipsies, as has been noticed in the Gipsy dialect of Armenia. It is no longer Gipsy, but a corrupt English or Spanish adapted to some remnants of Gipsy inflections. The purest form has been preserved among the Greek Gipsies and to a certain extent among the Rumanian. Notably through Miklosichs researcheg and comparative studies, it is possible to follow the slow change step by step and to prove, at any rate, that, as far as Europe is concerned, the language of these Gipsies was one and the same, and that it was slowly split up into a number of dialects (13 Miklosich, 14 Colocci) which shade off into one another, and which by their transitional forms mark the way in which the Gipsies have travelled, as also proved by historical evidence. The Welsh dialect, known by few, has retained, through its isolation, some of the ancient forms.
Religion, Habits and Custoins.Those who have lived among the Gipsies will readily testify that their religious views are a s~range medley of the local faith, which they everywhere embrace, and some old-world superstitions which they have in common with many nations. Among the Greeks they belong to the Greel~ Church, among the Mahommedans they are Mahommedans, iii Rumania they belong to the National Church. In Hungary the) are mostly Catholics, according to the faith of the inhabitants oi that country. They have no ethical principles and they do not recognize the obligations of the Ten Commandments. There is extreme moral laxity in the relation of the two sexes, and on the whole they take life easily, and are complete fatalists. At the same time they are great cowards, and they play the role of the fool or the jester in the popular anecdotes of eastern Europe. There the poltroon is always a Gipsy, but he is good-humoured and not so malicious as those Gipsies who had endured the hardships of outlawry in the west of Europe.
There is nothing specifically of an Oriental origin in their religious vocabulary, and the words Devla (God), Bang (devil) or Trusizul (Cross), in spite of some remote similarity, must be taken as later adaptations, and not as remnants of an old Skyworship or Serpent-worship. In general their beliefs, customs, tales, &c. belong to the common stock of general folklore, and many of their symbolical expressions find their exact counterpart in Rumanian and modern Greek, and often read as if they were direct translations from these languages. Although they love their children, it sometimes happens that a Gipsy mother will hold her child by the legs and beat the father with it. In Rumania and Turkey among the settled Gipsies a good number are carriers and bricklayers; and the women take their full share in every kind of work, no matter how hard it may be. The nomadic Gipsies carry on the ancient craft of coppersmiths, or workers in metal; they also make sieves and traps, but in the East they are seldom farriers or horse-dealers. They are far-famed for their music, in which art they are unsuipassed. The Gipsy musicians belong mostly to the class who originally were serfs. They were retained at the courts of the boyars for their special talent in reciting old ballads and love songs and their deftness in playing, notably the guitar and the fiddle. The former was used as an accompaniment to the singing of either love ditties and popular songs or more especially in recital or heroic ballads and epic songs; the latter for dances and other amusements. They were the troubadours and minstrels of eastern Europe; the largest collection of Rumanian popular ballads and songs was gathered by G. Dem. Teodorescu from a Gipsy minstrel, Petre Sholkan; and not a few of the songs of the guslars among the Servians and other Slavonic nations in the Balkans come also from the Gipsies. They have also retained the ancient tunes and airs, from the dreamy doina of the Rumanian to the fiery czardas of the hungarian or the stately hora of the Bulgarian. Liszt went so far as to ascribe to the Gipsies the origin of the Hungarian national music. This is an. exaggeration, as~ seen by the comparison of the Gipsy music in other parts of southeast Europe; but they undoubtedly have given the most faithful expression to the national temperament. Equally famous is the Gipsy woman for her knowledge of occult practices. She is the real witch; she knows charms to injure the enemy or to help a friend. She can break the charm if made by others. But neither in the one case nor in the other, and in fact as little as in their songs, do they use the Gipsy language. It is either the local language of the natives as in the case of charms, or a slightly Romanized form of Greek, Rumanian or Slavonic. The old Gipsy woman is also known for her skill in palmistry and fortune-telling by means of a special set of cards, the well-known Tarok of the Gipsies. They have also a large stock of fairy tales resembling in each country the local fairy tales, in Greece agreeing with the Greek, and in Rumania with the Rumanian fairy tales. It is doubtful, however, whether they have contributed to the dissemination of these tales throughout Europe, for a large number of Gipsy tales can be shown to have been known in Europe long before the appearance of the Gipsies, and others are so much like those of other nations that the borrowing may be by the Gipsy from the Greek, Slav or Rumanian. It is, however, possible that playing-cards might have been introduced to Europe through the Gipsies. The oldest reference to cards is found in the Chronicle of Nicolaus of Cavellazzo, who says that the cards were first brought into Viterbo in. 1379 from the land of the Saracens, probably from Asia Minor or the Balkans. They spread very quickly, but no one has been. able as yet to trace definitely the source whence they were first brought. Without entering here into the history of the playing-cards and of the different forms of the faces and of the symbolical meaning of the different designs, one may assume safely that the cards, before they were used for mere pastime or for gambling, may originally have had a mystical meaning and been used as sortes in various combinations. To this very day the oldest form is known by the hitherto unexplained name of Tarock, played in Bologna at the beginning of the 15th century and retained by the French under the form Tarot, connected direct with the Gipsies, Le Tarot des Bohmiens. It was noted above that the oldest chronicler (Presbyter) who describes the appearance of the Gipsies in 1416 in Germany knows them by their Italian name Cianos, so evidently he must have known of their existence in Italy previous to any date recorded hitherto anywhere, and it is therefore not impossible that coming from Italy they brought with them also their hook of divination.
Physical C/zaracteristics.As a race they are of small stature, varying in color from the dark tan of the Arab to the whitish hue of the Servian and the Pole. In fact there are some whitecoloured Gipsies, especially in Servia and Dalmatia, and these are often not easily distinguishable from the native peoples, except that they are more lithe and sinewy, better proportioned and more agile in their movements than the thick-set Slays and the mixed race of the Rumanians. By one feature, however, they are easily distinguishable and recognize one another, viz. by the lustre of their eyes and the whiteness of their teeth. Some are well built; others have the features of a mongrel race, due no doubt to intermarriage with outcasts of other races. The women age very quickly and the mortality among the Gipsies is great, especially among children; among adults it is chiefly due to pulmonary diseases. They love display and Oriental showiness, bright-colored dresses, ornaments, bangles, &c.; red and green are the colors mostly favored by the Gipsies in the East. Along with a showy handkerchief or some shining gold coins round their necks, they will wear torn petticoats and no covering on their feet. And even after they have been assimilated and have forgotten their own language they still retain some of the prominent features of their character, such as the love of inordinate display and gorgeous dress; and their moral defects not only remain for a long time as glaring as among those who live the life of vagrants, but even become more pronounced. The Gipsy of to-day is no longer what his forefathers have been. The assimilation with the nations in the near East and the steps taken for the suppression of vagrancy in the West, combine to denationalize the Gipsy and to make Romani Chib a thing of the past.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.The scientific study of the Gipsy language and its origin, as well as the critical history of the Gipsy race, dates (with the notable exception of Grellmann) almost entirely from Potts researches in 1844.
I. Collections of Documents, &c.Lists of older publications appeared in the books of Pott, Mildosich and the archduke Joseph; Pott adds a critical appreciation of the scientific value of the books enumerated. See also Verzeichnis von Werken und Aufsatzen ither die Geschi-chte und Sprache der Zigeuner, &c., 248 entries (Leipzig, i886); 3. Tipray, Adalkok a czignyokrl szfilfl irodalomhoz, in Magyar Konlnszemle (Budapest, 1877); Ch. G. Leland, A Collection of Cuttings . . . relating to Gypsies (1874-1891), bequeathed by him to the British Museum. See also the Orientalischer Jahresbericht, ed. Muller (Berlin, 1887 if.).
II. Histoi-y.(a) The first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe. Sources: A. F. Oefelius, Rerum Boicarum scriptores, &c. (Augsburg, 1763); M. Freher, Andreae Presbyteri . . . chronicon de ducibus Bavariae . . (1602); S. Munster, Cosmographia . . . &c. (Basel, 1545); 3. Thurmaier, Annalium Boioruin libri septem, ed. T. Zieglerus (Ingolstad, 1554); M. Crusius, Annales Suevici, &c. (Frankfurt, 1595-1596), Schwabische Chronik . . (Frankfurt, 1733); A. Krantz, Saxonia (Cologne, 1520); Simon Simeon, Itineraria, &c., ed. j. Nasmith (Cambridge, 1778). (b) Origin and spread of the Gipsies: H. M. G. Grellmann, Die Zigeuner, &c (lIt ed,, Dessau and Leipzig, 1783; 2nd ed., Gottingen,, 1787); English by M. Ropel (London, 1787; 2nd ed., London, 1807), entitled Dissertation on tlu Gipsies, &c.; Carl von Heister, Ethnographische . . . Notizen libe, die Zigeuner (Konigsberg, 1842), a third and greatly improved edition of Grellmann and the best book of its kind up to that date~ A. F. Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (a vols., Halle, 1844-1845), the first scholarly work with complete and critical bibliography, detailed grammar, etymological dictionary and importani texts; C. Hopf, Die Einwanderung der Zigeuner in Europa (Gotha, 1870); F. von Mikiosich, Beitritge zur Kenntnis der ZigeunerMundarten, i.-iv., in Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (Vienna, I 8741878), Uber die Mundarten und die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas, i~-xii., in Denksc/Iriften d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (1872-1880); M: J. de Goeje, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der Zigeuners (Amsterdam, 1875), English translation by MacRitchie, Account of the Gipsies of India (London, 1886); Zedler, Unsversal-Lexicon, vol. lxii., s.v. Zigeuner, pp. 520-544 containing a rich bibliography; many publications of P. Bataillard from 1844 to 1885; A. Colocci, Stone d un popolo en-ante, with illustrations, map and Gipsy-Ital. and Ital.-Gipsy glossaries (Turin, 1889); F. H. Groome, The Gypsies, in E. Magnusson, National Life and Thought (1891), and art. Gipsies in Encyclopaedia (9th ed., 1879); C. Amro, Bohmiens, Tsiganes et Gypsies (Paris, 1895); M. Kogalnitschan, Esquisse sur lhistoire, les maurs ella langue des Cigains (Berlin, 1837; German trans., Stuttgart, f 840)valuable more for the historical part than for the linguistic; J. Czacki, DIjela, vol. iii. (1844-1845)for historic data about Gipsies in Poland; I. Kopernicki and J. Moyer, Charakterystyka fizyczna ludroici galicyjskij (1876)for the history and customs of Galician gipsies; Unganische statistische Mitteilungen, vol. ix. (Budapest, 1895), containing the best statistical information on the Gipsies; V. Dittrich, A nagy-idai czigdnyok (Budapest, 1898); T. H. Schwicker, Die Zigeuner in Ungarn u. Sieben burgen, in vol. xii. of Die Vlker Osterreich- Ungarns (Vienna, 1883), and in Mitleilungen d. K. K. geographischen Gesellschaft (Vienna, 1896); Dr J. Polek, Die Zigeuner in der Bukowina (Czernowitz, 1908); Ficker, Die Zigeuner der Bukowina, in Statist. Monatschrift, v. 6, Hundert Jahre 1775-1875: Zigeuner in d. Bukowina (Vienna, i875), Die Volkerstamme der osterr.-ungar. Monarchie, &c. (Vienna, 1869); V. S. Morwood, Our Gipsies (London, 1885); D. MacRitchie, Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts (Edinburgh, 1894); F. A. Coelho, Os Ciganos de Portugal, in Bol. Soc. Geog. (Lisbon, 1892); A. Dumbarton, Gypsy Life in the Mysore Jungle (London, 1902).
III. Linguistic.~Armenial, F. N. Finck, Die Sprache der armenischen Zigeuner, in Mimoires de lAcad. Imp. des Sciences, viii. (St Petersburg, 1907).
ustria-Hungary], R. von Sowa, Die Mundart der slovakischen Zigeuner (Gottingen, 1887), and Die mdhrische Mundant den Romsprache (Vienna, 1893); A. J. Puchmayer, Romdni t~ib (Prague, ,821); P. Josef Jelina, Romdi~i Cib (in Czech, 1880; in German, 1886); G. Ihnatko, Czigdny nyelvtan (Losoncon, 1877); A. Kalina, La Langue des Tsiganes slovaques (Posen, 1882); the archduke Joseph, Czigciny nyelvtan (Budapest, 1888); H. von Wlislocki, Die Sprache der transsilvanischen Zigeuner (Leipzig, 1884). razil], A. T. de Mello Moraes, Os ci genes no Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, 1886).
entering here into the history of the playing-cards and of the different forms of the faces and of the symbolical meaning of the different designs, one may assume safely that the cards, before they were used for mere pastime or for gambling, may originally have had a mystical meaning and been used as sortes in various combinations. To this very day the oldest form is known by the hitherto unexplained name of Tarock, played in Bologna at the beginning of the 15th century and retained by the French under the form Tarot, connected direct with the Gipsies, Le Tarot des Bohmiens. It was noted above that the oldest chronicler (Presbyter) who describes the appearance of the Gipsies in 1416 in Germany knows them by their Italian name Cianos, so evidently he must have known of their existence in Italy previous to any date recorded hitherto anywhere, and it is therefore not impossible that coming from Italy they brought with them also their hook of divination.
Physical C/zaracteristics.As a race they are of small stature, varying in color from the dark tan of the Arab to the whitish hue of the Servian and the Pole. In fact there are some whitecoloured Gipsies, especially in Servia and Dalmatia, and these are often not easily distinguishable from the native peoples, except that they are more lithe and sinewy, better proportioned and more agile in their movements than the thick-set Slays and the mixed race of the Rumanians. By one feature, however, they are easily distinguishable and recognize one another, viz. by the lustre of their eyes and the whiteness of their teeth. Some are well built; others have the features of a mongrel race, due no doubt to intermarriage with outcasts of other races. The women age very quickly and the mortality among the Gipsies is great, especially among children; among adults it is chiefly due to pulmonary diseases. They love display and Oriental showiness, bright-colored dresses, ornaments, bangles, &c.; red and green are the colors mostly favored by the Gipsies in the East. Along with a showy handkerchief or some shining gold coins round their necks, they will wear torn petticoats and no covering on their feet. And even after they have been assimilated and have forgotten their own language they still retain some of the prominent features of their character, such as the love of inordinate display and gorgeous dress; and their moral defects not only remain for a long time as glaring as among those who live the life of vagrants, but even become more pronounced. The Gipsy of to-day is no longer what his forefathers have been. The assimilation with the nations in the near East and the steps taken for the suppression of vagrancy in the West, combine to denationalize the Gipsy and to make Romani Chib a thing of the past.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.The scientific study of the Gipsy language and its origin, as well as the critical history of the Gipsy race, dates (with the notable exception of Grellmann) almost entirely from Potts researches in 1844.
I. Collections of Documents, &c.Lists of older publications appeared in the books of Pott, Mildosich and the archduke Joseph; Pott adds a critical appreciation of the scientific value of the books enumerated. See also Verzeichnis von Werken und Aufsatzen ither die Geschi-chte und Sprache der Zigeuner, &c., 248 entries (Leipzig, i886); 3. Tipray, Adalkok a czignyokrl szfilfl irodalomhoz, in Magyar Konlnszemle (Budapest, 1877); Ch. G. Leland, A Collection of Cuttings . . . relating to Gypsies (1874-1891), bequeathed by him to the British Museum. See also the Orientalischer Jahresbericht, ed. Muller (Berlin, 1887 if.).
II. Histoi-y.(a) The first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe. Sources: A. F. Oefelius, Rerum Boicarum scriptores, &c. (Augsburg, 1763); M. Freher, Andreae Presbyteri . . . chronicon de ducibus Bavariae . . (1602); S. Munster, Cosmographia . . . &c. (Basel, 1545); 3. Thurmaier, Annalium Boioruin libri septem, ed. T. Zieglerus (Ingolstad, 1554); M. Crusius, Annales Suevici, &c. (Frankfurt, 1595-1596), Schwabische Chronik . . (Frankfurt, 1733); A. Krantz, Saxonia (Cologne, 1520); Simon Simeon, Itineraria, &c., ed. j. Nasmith (Cambridge, 1778). (b) Origin and spread of the Gipsies: H. M. G. Grellmann, Die Zigeuner, &c (lIt ed,, Dessau and Leipzig, 1783; 2nd ed., Gottingen,, 1787); English by M. Ropel (London, 1787; 2nd ed., London, 1807), entitled Dissertation on tlu Gipsies, &c.; Carl von Heister, Ethnographische . . . Notizen libe, die Zigeuner (Konigsberg, 1842), a third and greatly improved edition of Grellmann and the best book of its kind up to that date~ A. F. Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (a vols., Halle, 1844-1845), the first scholarly work with complete and critical bibliography, detailed grammar, etymological dictionary and importani texts; C. Hopf, Die Einwanderung der Zigeuner in Europa (Gotha, 1870); F. von Mikiosich, Beitritge zur Kenntnis der ZigeunerMundarten, i.-iv., in Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (Vienna, I 8741878), Uber die Mundarten und die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas, i~-xii., in Denksc/Iriften d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (1872-1880); M: J. de Goeje, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der Zigeuners (Amsterdam, 1875), English translation by MacRitchie, Account of the Gipsies of India (London, 1886); Zedler, Unsversal-Lexicon, vol. lxii., s.v. Zigeuner, pp. 520-544 containing a rich bibliography; many publications of P. Bataillard from 1844 to 1885; A. Colocci, Stone d un popolo en-ante, with illustrations, map and Gipsy-Ital. and Ital.-Gipsy glossaries (Turin, 1889); F. H. Groome, The Gypsies, in E. Magnusson, National Life and Thought (1891), and art. Gipsies in Encyclopaedia (9th ed., 1879); C. Amro, Bohmiens, Tsiganes et Gypsies (Paris, 1895); M. Kogalnitschan, Esquisse sur lhistoire, les maurs ella langue des Cigains (Berlin, 1837; German trans., Stuttgart, f 840)valuable more for the historical part than for the linguistic; J. Czacki, DIjela, vol. iii. (1844-1845)for historic data about Gipsies in Poland; I. Kopernicki and J. Moyer, Charakterystyka fizyczna ludroici galicyjskij (1876)for the history and customs of Galician gipsies; Unganische statistische Mitteilungen, vol. ix. (Budapest, 1895), containing the best statistical information on the Gipsies; V. Dittrich, A nagy-idai czigdnyok (Budapest, 1898); T. H. Schwicker, Die Zigeuner in Ungarn u. Sieben burgen, in vol. xii. of Die Vlker Osterreich- Ungarns (Vienna, 1883), and in Mitleilungen d. K. K. geographischen Gesellschaft (Vienna, 1896); Dr J. Polek, Die Zigeuner in der Bukowina (Czernowitz, 1908); Ficker, Die Zigeuner der Bukowina, in Statist. Monatschrift, v. 6, Hundert Jahre 1775-1875: Zigeuner in d. Bukowina (Vienna, i875), Die Volkerstamme der osterr.-ungar. Monarchie, &c. (Vienna, 1869); V. S. Morwood, Our Gipsies (London, 1885); D. MacRitchie, Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts (Edinburgh, 1894); F. A. Coelho, Os Ciganos de Portugal, in Bol. Soc. Geog. (Lisbon, 1892); A. Dumbarton, Gypsy Life in the Mysore Jungle (London, 1902).
III. Linguistic.~Armenial, F. N. Finck, Die Sprache der armenischen Zigeuner, in Mimoires de lAcad. Imp. des Sciences, viii. (St Petersburg, 1907).
ustria-Hungary], R. von Sowa, Die Mundart der slovakischen Zigeuner (Gottingen, 1887), and Die mdhrische Mundant den Romsprache (Vienna, 1893); A. J. Puchmayer, Romdni t~ib (Prague, ,821); P. Josef Jelina, Romdi~i Cib (in Czech, 1880; in German, 1886); G. Ihnatko, Czigdny nyelvtan (Losoncon, 1877); A. Kalina, La Langue des Tsiganes slovaques (Posen, 1882); the archduke Joseph, Czigciny nyelvtan (Budapest, 1888); H. von Wlislocki, Die Sprache der transsilvanischen Zigeuner (Leipzig, 1884). razil], A. T. de Mello Moraes, Os ci genes no Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, 1886).
in the books enumerated above, where they are mostly accompanied by literal translations. See also Ch. G. Leland, E. H. !almer and T. Tuckey, English Gipsy Songs in Romany, with Metrical English Translation (London, 1875); G. Smith, Gipsy Life, &c. (London, 1880); M. Rosenfeld, Lieder der Zigeuner (1882); Ch. G. Leland, The Gypsies (Boston, Mass., 1882), Gypsy Sorcery and FortuneTelling (London, 1891); H. von Wlislocki, Mdrchen und Sagen der transsitvanischen Zigeuner (Berlin, 1886)containing 63 tales, very freely translated; Volksdichtungen der siebenburgisclien und sudungarischen Zigeuner (Vienna, 1 89o)songs, ballads, charms, proverbs and 100 tales; Vom wandernden Zigeunervolke (Hamburg, 1890); Wesen und Wirkungskreis der Zauberfrauen bei den siebenburgischen Zigeuner (1891); Aus dam inneren Leben der Zigeuner,, in Ethnologische Auitteilungen (Berlin, 1892); R. Pischel, Bericht iTher Wlislocki vom wandernden Zigeunervolke (Gottingen, 1890)a strong criticism of Wlislockis method, &c.; F. H. Groome, Gypsy Folk- Tales (London, 1899), with historical introduction and a complete and trustworthy collection of 76 gipsy tales from many countries; Katad, ConIes gitanos (Logrono, 5907); M. Gaster, - Zigeunermarchen aus Rumnien (1881); figanii, &c., in Revistci pentru Istorie, &c., 1. p. 469ff. (Bucharest, 1883); Gypsy Fairy-Tales in Folklore. The Journal of the Gipsy-Lore Society (Edinburgh, i888 1892) was revived in Liverpool in 1907.
V. Legal Status.A few of the books in which the legal status of the Gipsies (either alone or in conjunction with vagrants ) is treated from a juridical point of view are here mentioned, also the history of the trial in 1726. J. B. Weissenbruch, Ausfuhrliche Relation von der famosen Zigeuner-Diebes-Mord und Rauber (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1727); A. Ch. Thomasius, Tractatio juridica de vagabundo, &c. (Leipzig, 1731); F. Ch. B. Av-Lallemant, Das deutsche Gaunertum, &c. (Leipzig, 1858-1862); V. de Rochas, Les Parias de France et dEspagne (Paris, 1876); P. Chuchul, Zum Kampfe gegen Landstreicher und Bettler (Kassel, 1881); R. Breithaupt, Die Zigeuner und der deutsche Staat (Wurzburg, 1907); G. Steinhausen, Geschichte der deutschen Kultur (Leipzig and Vienna, 1904).
Hát nem azért, de szerintem a hinduk sem hatalmas munkakedvükről és dolgos életmódjukról ismertek a világban...
Hasonlóan a többi déli néphez (arabok stb.)
Szóval nem hinném, hogy Indiában olyan nagy feszültség lenne a munka miatt.
Nem minden cigány jött el Indiából. Az ott maradottak ugyanolyan viszonyban vannak a helyi letelepült lakossággal, mint itt Európában. Ott sem dolgoznak természetesen, Indiában is kisebbségben élnek parazitaként. Ha már nagyon forró a talaj a lábuk alatt, továbbállnak.
A cigány szó nem jelent nemzetiséget, hanem életmódot. Ha egy cigány származású egyén dolgozni kezd, megszűnik cigány lenni, és beolvad a többségi társadalomba.
Az Amaro Drom nem jön be. A korábban belinkelt enciklopédia szócikkét 1911-ben írták. Elavult.
Itt egy modern, megbízható kronológia, szintén angolul. Eléggé vázlatos egyébként. Bemásolom, mielőtt eltűnne ez is.
Timeline of Romani History
The history of the Roma is one of continuous struggle and persecution. Since their entry into Europe, the Roma have been outlawed, enslaved, hunted, tortured, and murdered. From the time of the Slobuzenja (Abolition of Romani Slavery) in 1856, to the present day, the Roma have fought for their just social and human rights, largely to the deaf ears of world governments and an indifferent public.
The use of the names Rom, Roma, Romani, or the double 'r' spelling, are used when possible, instead of the names 'Gypsy' and 'Gypsies'. However, it may be necessary to use Gypsy and Gypsies within a cultural or historical context. Romanichal, Gitanos, Kalé, Sinti, Manush, and others do not use Roma when referring to themselves, but to others. For the purpose of this timeline, Roma is used when possible. Rom, Roma, and Romani should not connected or confused with the country of Romania, or Rome the city. These names have separate, distinct etymological origins and are not related.
Before AD 400. Some Indians become nomadic craftsmen and entertainers.
430-443. The Persian poet Firdawsi reports in the Shah-Nameh (Book of Kings), written c.1000, how the Persian Shah Bahram Gur persuades the Indian King Shangul to send him 10,000 Luri musicians to be distributed to the various parts of the Persian kingdom.
820-834. Zott state established on the banks of the River Tigris
855. The Persian chronicler Tabari relates how large numbers of Zott are taken prisoner when the Byzantines attack Syria.
1001-1026. Sindh and the Panjab in India are invaded some seventeen times by a mixed army of Turko-Persian Ghaznivid troops led by King Mahmud from Ghazni (present-day eastern Iran). Indian resistance, in the form of the Rajput warriors, is fierce, but King Mahmud is victorious and takes half a million slaves.
c.1000. Roma reach the Byzantine Empire (modern Greece and Turkey).
c.1200. The canonist Theodore Balsamon describes the canon LXI of the Council in Trulho (692) which threatens a six-year excommunication for any member of the Church (including Athinganoi) from displaying bears or other animals for amusement or by telling fortunes.
1290. Romani shoemakers are recorded in Greece residing on Mount Athos.
c.1300. The Romani Aresajipe; the arrival of Roma in Europe.
Romani groups begin to be enslaved in southeast Europe.
1322. Roma are recorded on the island of Crete.
1348. Roma are recorded in Prizren, Serbia.
1362. Roma are recorded in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
1373. Roma are recorded on the island of Corfu.
1378. Roma are recorded living in villages near Rila Monastery, Bulgaria.
1384. Romani shoemakers are recorded in Modon, Greece.
1385. The first recorded transaction of Roma slaves in Romania.
1387. Mircea the Great of Wallachia indicates that Roma have been in that country for over one hundred years.
1383. Roma are recorded in Hungary.
c.1400. In Bulgaria, Roma are reported "living in large numbers" along the Albanian coast.
1407. Roma are recorded at Hildesheim, Germany.
1416. Roma are expelled from the Meissen region of Germany.
1417-1423. King Sigismund of Hungary issues safe-conduct orders at Spis Castle for travelling Roma.
1418. Roma are recorded in Colmar, France.
1419. Roma are recorded in Antwerp, Belgium.
1420. Roma are recorded in Deventer, Holland.
1422. Roma are recorded in Rome and Bologna
1423. Roma are recorded in Spissky, Slovakia.
1425. Roma are recorded in Zaragoza, Spain.
1427. Hundreds of Roma arrive at the gates of Paris. The city sends them on to the town of Pontoise in less than a month.
1445. Prince Vlad Dracul of Wallachia transports some 12,000 persons "who looked like Egyptians" from Bulgaria for slave labour.
1447. First record of Roma in Catalonia.
1449. Roma are driven out of the city of Frankfurt-am-Main.
1468. Roma are recorded in Cyprus.
1471. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Lucerne, Switzerland.
17,000 Roma are transported into Moldavia by Stephan the Great for slave labour.
1472. Duke Friedrich of the Rhine Palatinate asks his people to help Roma pilgrims.
1476 and 1487. King Matthias of Slovakia issues safe-conduct orders for travelling Roma.
1482. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in state of Brandenburg.
1485. Roma are recorded in Sicily.
1489. Roma musicians are reported on Czepel Island, Hungary.
1492 and 1496. King Vladislav of Slovakia issues safe-conduct orders for travelling Roma.
1492. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Spain.
1493. Roma are expelled from Milan.
1496-1498. The Reichstag (parliament) in Landau and Freiburg declares Roma traitors to the Christian countries, spies in the pay of the Turks, and carriers of the plague.
1498. Four Gypsies accompany Christopher Columbus on his third voyage to the New World.
1499. Medina del Campo in Spain orders Gitanos to find a trade and master, cease travelling with other Gitanos, all within sixty days. Punishment for failure to obey is 100 lashes and banishment. Repeat offences are punished by amputation of ears, sixty days in chains, and banishment. Third-time offenders become the slaves of those who capture them.
1500. At the request of Maximilian I, the Augsburg Reichstag declares Roma traitors to the Christian countries, and accuses them of witchcraft, kidnapping of children, and banditry.
c. 1500. Gitano influence on Andalusian flamenco song and dance begins. Although flamenco is not a Gitano invention, the art of flamenco later becomes forever associated with the Gitanos from the 19th century onwards.
1501. Roma are recorded in Russia.
1504. Roma are prohibited by Louis XII from living in France. The punishment is banishment.
1505. Roma are recorded in Scotland, probably from Spain.
1510. Roma are prohibited by the Grand Council of France from residence. The punishment is banishment. A second offence results in hanging.
1512. Roma are first recorded in Sweden on 29 September. A company of about 30 families, lead by a "Count Anthonius" arrives in Stockholm, claiming that they came from "Little Egypt". They are welcomed by the city and given lodging and money for their stay. A few years later, King Gustav Vasa (1521-1560), suspects that the Roma are spies and orders that they be driven out from the country.
Roma are expelled from Catalonia.
1523. Prague officially allows nomads to remain. The welcome does not last long.
1525. Charles V issues an edict in Holland ordering all those that call themselves Egyptians to leave the country within two days.
1526. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Holland and Portugal.
1530. The first law expelling Gypsies from England is introduced. Henry VIII forbids the transportation of Gypsies into England. The fine is forty pounds for ship's owner or captain. The Gypsy passengers are punished by hanging.
1531. The Augsburg Reichstag forbids the issuing of passports to Roma.
1536. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Denmark.
1538. Deportation of Roma in Portugal to colonies begins.
1539. Roma are prohibited by Frances I from residence in France. The punishment is banishment. A second offence results in corporal punishment.
1540. Gypsies are allowed to live under their own laws in Scotland.
1541. Roma are blamed for outbreak of fires in Prague. This sets the stage for future anti-Gypsy legislation.
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Scotland.
1547. Edward VI of England institutes law requiring that Gypsies be seized and "branded with a 'V' on their breast, and then enslaved for two years." If escapees are caught they will be branded with an "S" and made slaves for life.
Andrew Boorde authors an encyclopedia in England entitled The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge. It has a chapter on Romani, which includes some of the earliest specimens of the language.
1549. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Bohemia.
1554. In the reign of Philip and Mary, an Act is passed which decrees that that the death penalty shall be imposed for being a Gypsy, or anyone who "shall become of the fellowship or company of Egyptians."
1557. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Lithuania.
In the reign of Sigismund Augustus, the first law ordering Roma to be expelled is passed by the Warsaw Seym (parliament).
1559. Roma are recorded on the Finnish island of Ĺland.
1560. The Archbishop of the Swedish Lutheran Church forbids priests to have any dealings with Roma. Their children are not to be christened and their dead not to be buried.
1560 and others. Spanish legislation forbids Gitanos of travelling in groups of more than two. Gitano "dress and clothing" is banned. Punishment for wearing Gitano clothing and travelling in groups of more than two is up to eighteen years in the galleys for those over fourteen years of age. This legislation is later altered to change the punishment to death for all nomads, and the galleys reserved for settled Gitanos.
1561. Roma are prohibited by Charles IX of France from residence. The punishment is banishment. A second offence results in the galleys and corporal punishment. Men, women and children have their heads shaved.
1562. An Act is passed in England "for further punishment of Vagabonds, calling themselves Egyptians." Any Gypsy born in England and Wales is not compelled to leave the country if they quit their idle and ungodly life and company. All others should suffer death and loss of lands and goods.
1563. The Council of Trent in Rome affirms that Roma cannot be priests.
1568. Pope Pius V orders the expulsion of all Roma from the domain of the Roman Catholic Church.
1573. Gypsies in Scotland are ordered to leave the country or settle down.
1578. At the General Warsaw Seym, King Stephen Báthory pronounces an edict threatening sanctions against anyone who harbours Roma on their lands. They are punished as accomplices of outlaws.
1579. Augustus, elector of Saxony, orders the confiscation of Romani passports and banishes them from Saxony.
Gypsies are recorded in Wales.
Wearing of Romani dress is banned in Portugal.
1580. Roma are recorded on the Finnish mainland.
1586. Nomadic Roma are ordered expelled from Belarus.
1589. In Denmark, the death penalty is ordered for any Roma not leaving the country.
1595. Stefan Razvan, the son of a Roma slave and free woman, becomes ruler of Moldavia in April. He is deposed four months later and murdered in December of the same year.
1596. 106 men and women are condemned to death at York just for being Gypsies, but only nine are executed. The others prove they were born in England.
Early 17th century. Spanish legislation becomes harsher, forbidding Gitanos from dealing in horses. The local populace is given permission to form armed groups to pursue Gitanos.
1606. Roma are prohibited by Henry IV of France from any gathering of more than three or four. Roma are punished as "vagabonds and evil-doers."
1611. Spanish legislation orders that all Gitano occupations must be connected to the land.
1619. Philip III declares all Gitanos are to be banished from the kingdom of Spain within six months, or to settle in a locality with over 1,000 inhabitants. The dress, name and language of the Gitanos is banned. The punishment is death.
1637. The first anti-Gypsy law in Sweden is enacted. All Roma should be expelled from the country within one year. If any Roma are found in Sweden after that date the men will be hanged and the women and children will be driven out from the country.
1646. An ordinance passed in Berne gives anyone the right "personally to kill or liquidate by bastinado or firearms" Roma or Heiden (heathen) malefactors.
1647. Roma are punished by the Louis XIV regency of France for being "Bohemians." Punishment is the galleys.
1652. Matiasz Korolewicz is conferred the title "King of the Gypsies" by the Polish Royal Chancery.
1650s. Last known execution for being Gypsies, in Suffolk, England. Others are banished to America.
1660. Roma are prohibited from residence in France by Louis XIV. Punishment is banishment. A second offense results in the galleys or corporal punishment.
1660-1800. The identity of the English Gypsy Romanichal group has been formed. They survive by working for local people who know them.
1661. Johann Georg II, elector of Saxony, imposes the death penalty to any Roma caught in his territory.
1666. Punished by Louis XIV of France for being "Bohemians." Men are sent to the galleys. Women and girls are flogged, branded and banished.
1682. Louis XIV reiterates his previous policy: punishment for being "Bohemian." Men are sentenced to the galleys for life on the first offence. Women's heads are shaved and children are sent to the poor house. For a second offence, women are branded and banished.
1685. Portugal deports Roma to Brasil, and makes it a crime to speak Romani.
1686. Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, decrees that Roma are not to be allowed trade or shelter.
There is a sudden and radical change in the attitude of the Swedish Lutheran Church. Roma are now accepted and their children may be christened.
1700-16 and 1720-22. In Lorraine, Roma are punished for begging and vagabondage in general. Punishment is banishment. A second offence results in iron collars, branding and banishment.
1710. In Prague, Joseph I issues an edict that all adult Roma men will be hanged without trial and that boys and women be mutilated. In Bohemia, the left ear is to be cut off. In Moravia the right ear is to be cut off. Lodging or otherwise aiding Roma is punishable by up to six months forced labour.
Prince Adolf Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz issues orders that all Roma can be flogged, branded, expelled, or executed if they return. Children under ten are to be removed and raised by Christian families.
1711. Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony authorizes shooting of Roma if they resist arrest.
1711-1772. Cinka Panna is one of the most popular musicians in Slovakia and eastern Europe. A maestro violinist, she tours with her own Romani musical ensemble.
1714. British merchants and planters apply to the Privy Council to ship Gypsies to the Caribbean, avowedly to be used as slaves.
In Mainz, all Roma are to be executed without trial on the grounds that their way of life is outlawed.
Romani music bands are recorded to travel in the Austro-Hungarian court of Esterháza. They accompany the dancing of soldiers playing verbunkos, in recruiting efforts for Nicolas the Magnificent's military operations.
1715. Ten Gypsies in Scotland are recorded deported to Virginia in the Americas.
1717. Forty-one localities are set out in Spain as places of residence for Gitanos.
1719 and other years. In France, sentencing for being Roma is altered from the galleys to deportation to French colonies.
1721. Emperor Karl VI of the Austro-Hungarian empire orders the extermination of Roma throughout his domain.
1723. Roma are prohibited from residence in the Lorraine, gathering in the woods or main roads. Punishment is banishment. Communities are encouraged "to gather, march in formation and open fire on them."
1724. All vagabonds and vagrants are prohibited by Louis XV of France from residence and nomadism and gathering of more than four adults in a house. Adult men are sentenced to the galleys for five years. All others are flogged and sent to the poor house.
1725. Frederick William I condemns any Roma over eighteen caught in his territory, man or woman, to be hanged without trial.
1726. Gitanos in Spain are forbidden to appeal against the sentences of the courts.
Charles VI passes a law that any Rom found in the country are to be killed instantly. Romani women and children are to have their ears cut off and whipped all the way to the border.
1727. Berne decree no.13 reiterates that Roma are forbidden to stay. "Gypsy men and women of more than fifteen years of age shall have one ear cut off the first time they are caught ... but if they are caught a second time they shall be sentenced to death."
1728. The town council of Aachen passes an ordinance condemning Roma to death. "Captured Gypsies, whether they resist or not, shall be put to death immediately. However, those seized who do not resort to counter-attack shall be granted no more than a half an hour to kneel, if they so wish, beg God almighty to forgive them their sins and to prepare themselves for death."
1733. Empress Anna Ioannovna of Russia decrees Roma are forbidden to travel and must settle down as serfs of the land.
1734. Frederick William I decrees that any Roma caught in his territory, man or woman, will be hanged without trial. A reward is offered.
1740. The Guild of Locksmiths at Miskolc in Hungary canvas successfully for an order to stop Roma from doing any metalwork outside their tents.
Charles VI issues an edict that anyone caught aiding Roma will be punished.
1745. Gitanos in Spain must settle in assigned places within two weeks. The punishment for failure is execution. "It is legal to fire upon them to take their life." The Churches no longer provide asylum. Armed troops are ordered to comb the countryside.
1748. All Swedish laws concerning Gypsies are integrated into one law, intending to prevent further immigration and to force Roma to settle.
1749. The year of the "Great Gypsy Round-up" in Spain. Gitanos are separated from "the bad and the good" through inquiries and witnesses reports. For the "bad," punishment is forced public works. Escapees are hanged. Motherless girls are sent to poor houses or into service for "honest" people. Older girls and wives of sentenced men with children under seven are "educated in Christian doctrine and the holy fear of God" and sent to factories.
1753-54. Stephan Valyi, a Hungarian student at the University of Leyden discovers the Panjabi root of the Romani language from comparing 1,000 words spoken by three university students from Malabar to the Roma of Raab near his hometown.
1759. Roma are banned from Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1761. Maria Theresa, Empress of Hungary, passes first laws in Europe trying to settle and reform, or assimilate, Roma, calling them the "New Hungarians."
1763. In the Austro-Hungarian empire, Székely Von Doba first brings Pastor Stephan Valyi's findings about the Indian origins of the Roma to academic attention in the November 6 edition of The Vienna Gazette.
1764. All vagabonds and vagrants are denied residence in France with renewed legislation. Adult men are sentenced to the galleys for three years. All others are confined to the poor house for three years, and are then given a choice of domicile and a trade. Repeated offences by men result in the galleys for nine years, and in several repeat offences, in perpetuity.
1764-1827. János Bihari, Rom composer and bandleader, popularises "Hungarian dance" music.
1773. In December, Maria Theresa, Empress of Hungary, orders all Romani children over five in the Palatinate of Pressburg and at Fahlendorf to be taken from their parents. They are transported to distant villages and assigned to peasants to bring them up for a stipend of 12-18 florins a year. Most of the children run away to rejoin their families, who take refuge in the mountains or disappear in the plains.
1776. Constantin, Prince of Moldavia, prohibits marriages to Roma.
1780. English anti-Gypsy laws are gradually repealed, though not totally, from this date on.
1782. Joseph II of Hungary, son of Empress Maria Theresa, issues a 59-point edict reiterating his policy: schooling for children and compulsory attendance at religious services; Romani language, clothing and music are forbidden.
In Hungary, two hundred Roma are accused and charged with cannibalism.
1783. Spanish legislation reiterates previous orders. Gitano dress, way of life, language is forbidden, and settlement is compulsory within ninety days. The name Gitano is forbidden and is to be removed from all official documents. Restrictions on trade and place of residence of Gitanos is lifted. Punishment for failure to observe restrictions is branding. Repeat offenders are sentenced to "death, with no appeal."
Heinrich Grellman of Göttingen University writes Die Zigeuner. Drawing on the works of previous writers, he links India as the original homeland of the Gypsies through their language.
Late 18th century. Count Orlov of Russia organises the first Romani chorus, headed by Ivan Sokolov. The chorus members are selected from his Romani serfs.
Early 1800s. "Gypsy hunts" (Heidenjachten) are a common and popular sport in Germany.
1802. The prefect of the department of Basses Pyrenees in France issues an order "to purge the country of Gypsies."
1803. Napolean Bonaparte prohibits residence of Roma in France. Children, women and the aged are sentenced to the poor house. Young men are given their choice of joining the navy or army. Adult men are sent to forced labour.
1807. Count Orlov of Russia frees the artists of his Romani chorus and they become the first professional chorus in Russia. The group includes the famous Stepanida Soldatova.
1811. Trinity Cooper, a Gypsy girl aged thirteen, demands to be let into a charity school for "ragged children" in Clapham, near London, with her two brothers. They are finally admitted.
1816. John Hoyland, a Quaker, writes the first serious book calling for better treatment for Gypsies in England. Several charitable projects follow; but many Gypsies are transported as criminals to Australia.
1822. In the United Kingdom, the Turnpike Act is introduced. Gypsies found camping on the roadside are fined.
1830s. First wooden horse-drawn covered waggons for Gypsies are developed in England.
1830. Authorities in Nordhausen, Germany remove Roma children from their families for fostering with non-Roma.
1834. The governour of Wallachia, Alexander Ghica, frees all state slaves.
1837. George Borrow translates Saint Luke's Gospel into Romani.
1842. The hospodar of Moldavia, Mihail Sturdza, emancipates all state slaves; however, in Wallachia and Moldavia private ownership of Romani slaves is still legally permitted.
1844. The Moldavian Church liberates its Romani slaves.
1847. The Wallachian Church liberates its Romani slaves.
1848. Emancipation of serfs (including Roma) in Transylvania.
1855. Gobineau publishes his book Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines, which argues that human beings fall into higher and lower races, with the white "Aryan" race, and particularly the Nordic people, ranking at the top. This had particular impact upon German philosophical and political thinking.
A decree issued in the Duchy of Baden warns the citizens that "in recent times, Gypsies, especially from Alsace, have frequently been re-entering and travelling about with their families, purportedly to engage in trade but mostly for the purposes of begging or other illegal activities."
1856. The Slobuzenja. Abolition of slavery in Romania; large-scale emigrations of Roma to western Europe and America begin.
1864. Complete legal freedom for Roma in the united Balkan states is granted by Prince Ioan Alexandru Couza.
1868. In Holland, Richard Liebich's work on Roma introduces the phrase "lives unworthy of life" with specific reference to them, and later used as a racial category against Roma in Nazi Germany.
1870. Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck circulates a letter dated November 18th demanding the "complete prohibition of foreign Gypsies crossing the German border," and that "they will be transported by the closest route to their country of origin." He also states that Roma in Germany be asked to show documentary proof of citizenship, and that if this is not forthcoming, they be denied travelling passes.
1874. Muslim Roma are given equal rights with other Muslims in the Ottoman Empire.
1876. Cesare Lombroso publishes his influential work L'uomo deliquente, which contains a lengthy chapter on the genetically criminal character of the Roma. This is translated into many languages, including German and English, and has a profound effect upon western legal attitudes.
A decree is issued in Bavaria which calls for the strictest examination of documentation held by Roma, both at the borders and inland, and the confiscation of their work permits wherever the slightest reason warrants. Their horses are also to be examined and confiscated if deemed unhealthy. The movements of those Gypsies who are allowed to remain are still to be carefully monitored.
1879. A national conference of Roma is convened in Kisfalu, Hungary.
Nomadism is banned in Serbia.
1880s. Agricultural depression in England brings poverty to many Gypsies, who move to squatter areas near towns.
Argentina forbids Roma entry into country.
1884. Dr. Sonya Kavalevsky, a Romni, is appointed professor of mathematics at Stockholm University becoming the first female professor in Scandinavia.
1885-95. Unsuccessful attempts in England to introduce the Moveable Dwellings Bills in Parliament to regulate Gypsy life.
1885. Roma are excluded by United States immigration policy; many are returned to Europe.
1886. Chancellor von Bismarck issues a directive to the governments of all regions of Germany alerting them to "complaints about the mischief caused by bands of Gypsies travelling in the Reich, and their increasing molestation of the population," and states that foreign Roma are to be dealt with in particular. This leads to the creation of many regional policies designed to deport non-German-born Roma.
Nomadism is banned in Bulgaria.
1889. The Showmen's Guild formed to oppose the Moveable Dwellings Bills. Showmen begin to become a distinct group from other Travellers or Gypsies.
1890. The Swabian parliament organizes a conference on the "Gypsy Scum" (Das Zigeunergeschmeiß), and suggests means by which the presence of Roma could be signalled from village to village by ringing church bells. The military is empowered to apprehend and move Roma on.
1899. An Information Agency, the Central Office for Fighting the Gypsy Nuisance (Nachrichtendienst in Bezug auf die Zigeuner), is established in Munich under the direction of Alfred Dillmann to collate reports on Roma movement throughout German lands, and a register of all Gypsies over the age of six is begun. This includes obtaining photographs, fingerprints and other genealogical data, and particularly information relating to "criminality." This leads to two initiatives: Dillmann's Zigeuner-Buch (1905), and the December 1911 conference. This agency does not officially close down until 1970.
1904. The Prussian Landtag unanimously adopts a proposition to regulate Gypsy movement and means of livelihood.
1905. Alfred Dillmann's Zigeuner-Buch appears in Germany. This consists of three parts; an introduction which presents the arguments for controlling Roma, a register, 310 pages long, of over 5,000 Roma, including name, date and place of birth, genealogy and kinship, criminal record and so on, and lastly a collection of photographs of Roma and Sinti from various police files. The introduction maintains that the German people are "suffering" from a "plague" of Roma, that they are "a pest against which society must unflaggingly defend itself," and that they "must be controlled by the police most severely," being "ruthlessly punished" when necessary. The notion of the particular dangers of mixed Romani and white individuals, whom Dillmann considers to constitute almost the entire Roma population, resurfaces in the Nuremburg Laws in 1935. These racially-motivated statements also support the Zigeuner-Buch's emphasis on the Romani genetic tendency toward criminal behavior.
Voting rights are demanded for Roma at conference in Sofia, Bulgaria.
1906. On February 17th, the Prussian Minister of the Interior issues a directive entitled Die Bekämpfung des Zigeunerunwesens ("Combatting the Gypsy nuisance") which lists bilateral agreements guaranteeing the expulsion of Roma from those countries, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland. Police are authorized to prosecute Roma for breaking the law, which offenses include "lighting fires in the woods, illegal fishing, illegal camping" and so on. Temporary school attendance is forbidden for children whose families are travelling through an area
Prussia introduces "Gypsy licenses," required by all those wanting to stay there. These are given out only if the applicant has a fixed domicile, no serious criminal convictions, educational provision for their children, and proper tax accounts. Those qualifying are nevertheless not allowed to settle locally.
1907. Many Roma in Germany leave for other countries in Western Europe.
Django Reinhardt, famous jazz/blues guitarist, is born in Ouchie, Belgium.
1908. The Children's Act in England makes education compulsory for travelling Gypsy children, but only for half the year. This is continued in the the 1944 Education Act, but many Gypsy children still have no schooling.
1909. Switzerland asks Germany, Italy, France and Austria to exchange information on the movements of Roma across their shared borders, and while this is unsuccessful, the Swiss Department of Justice begins a national register of Roma, based upon the Munich model.
Recommendations coming from a "Gypsy policy conference" in Hungary include the confiscation of their animals and carts, and permanent branding for purposes of identification.
1912. The French government introduces the carnet anthropométrique, a document containing personal data, including photograph and fingerprints which all Roma are required to carry. This remains in effect until 1970.
1914. A new law prohibits all further immigration of Roma into Sweden. The law is very efficient and Roma in Sweden are isolated from their relatives in other European countries. The law remains in effect until 1954. Norway and Denmark have similar laws during the same period.
Norway gives some thirty Roma Norwegian nationality.
1918. In Holland, the Caravan and House Boat Law introduces controls over the movements of nomads.
1919. Article 108 of the National Constitution of the Weimar Republic guarantees Roma and Sinti full and equal citizenship rights, but these are not heeded.
In Bulgaria, the Romani organisation Istiqbal (Future) is founded.
1920. On July 27th, the Minister of Public Welfare in Düsseldorf forbids Roma and Sinti from entering any public washing or recreational facilities (swimming pools, public baths, spas, parks).
In Germany, psychiatrist Karl Binding and magistrate Alfred Hoche argue for the killing of those who are "Ballastexistenzen," i.e. whose lives are seen merely as ballast, or dead weight, within humanity; this includes Roma. The concept of Lebensunwertesleben, or "lives unworthy (or undeserving) of life," becomes central to Nazi race policy in 1933, when a law incorporating this same phrase is issued by Hitler on July 14th that year.
1921. The new Czechoslovak Republic recognises Roma as a separate "nationality." This legislation is later repealed.
1922. In Baden, requirements are introduced that all Roma and Sinti be photographed and fingerprinted, and have documents completed on them.
1923. In Bulgaria, the Romani journal Istiqbal (Future) commences publication.
1924. In Slovakia, a group of Roma are tried for cannibalism. They are found innocent.
1925. The Soviet Romani Writers' Association in the Soviet Union is founded, then suppressed.
A conference is held on the Gypsy question, at which Bavaria proposes a law to compulsorily settle Roma and Sinti, and to incarcerate those not regularly employed (referred to as arbeitscheu or "work shy") to work camps for up to two years, for reasons of "public security." This applies equally to settled and non-settled Roma.
1926. The Swiss Pro Juventute Foundation begins, "in keeping with the theories of eugenics and progress," to take children away from Roma without their consent, to change their names, and to put them into foster homes. This program continues until 1973, and is not brought to light until the 1980s. Switzerland has apologized to the Roma, but adamantly refuses to allow them access to the records which will help them locate the children taken from them.
On July 16th, The Bavarian "Law for Combatting Gypsies, Vagabonds and Idlers" proposed at the 1925 conference is passed. It is justified in the legislative assembly thus: "[Gypsies] are by nature opposed to all work, and find it especially difficult to tolerate any restriction of their nomadic life; nothing, therefore, hits them harder than loss of liberty, coupled with forced labor." The law requires the registration of all Roma and Sinti, settled or not, with the police, registry office and unemployment agency in each district. Bavarian State Counselor Hermann Reich praises "the enactment of the Gypsy law. . . This law gives the police the legal hold it needs for thorough-going action against this constant danger to the security of the nation."
1927. Steve Kaslov founds the Roma Red Dress Association in the United States; Kaslov meets with President Franklin Roosevelt for support of Romani rights.
In Czechoslovakia, law no.117 prohibits Romani nomadism and bars nomads from "leading the life of Gypsies." Roma identity cards are introduced for. Children under fourteen may be taken from their families and placed in children's homes or with respectable families.
R. L. Turner proves that the phonetics of the Romani language had earlier been linked with the central group of Hindi languages in India.
On November 3rd, a Prussian ministerial decree is issued requiring all Roma to be registered through documentation "in the same manner as individuals being sought by means of wanted posters, witnesses, photographs and fingerprints." Infants are to be fingerprinted, and those over the age of six to carry identity cards bearing their photograph as well. Between November 23rd and 26th, armed raids are carried out by the police on Roma communities throughout Prussia to enforce the decree of November 3rd. Eight thousand are processed as a result.
Bavaria institutes a law forbidding Roma and Sinti to travel in family groups, or to own firearms. Those over sixteen are liable for inprisonment in work camps, while those without proof of Bavarian birth are expelled from Bavaria.
The journal Romani Zorya (Romani Dawn) is founded in Russia and starts publication in 1929.
1928. In Bavaria, an ordinance is approved placing Sinti and Roma under permanent police surveillance. In May, the same law is reissued and reaffirmed. The act is in direct violation of the provisions of the Weimar Constitution.
Professor Hans F. Günther writes that "it was the Gypsies who introduced foreign blood into Europe."
1929. On April 3rd, resulting from the law of 1926, the jurisdiction of the Munich office is extended to include the whole of Germany; the German Criminal Police Commission renames it The Central Office for the Fight Against the Gypsies in Germany. On April 16th and 17th, police departments everywhere are told to send fingerprints and other data on Roma both to this office and to the International Criminology Bureau (Interpol) headquarters in Vienna. Working closely together, they enforce restrictions on travel for Roma without documents, and impose up to two years' detention in "rehabilitation camps" on Roma sixteen years and older.
In the USSR, Nikolai Pankov's book Buti I Dzinaiben (Work and Knowledge) is published.
1930. Michael Kwiek II succeeds his father Gregory as "King of the Gypsies" in Poland and is recognized as such by the Polish government.
In the USSR, the first issue of Nevo Drom (New Way) is published.
The Norwegian journalist Scharfenberg recommends that all Roma be sterilized.
1931. The Moscow Gypsy Theatre (Theatre Romen) is started as a Soviet experiment; it still exists today.
1933. The Uniunea Generala a Romilor din Romania (General Assembly of Roma in Romania) led by Gheorghe Nicolescu holds conference in Bucharest seeking to establish a library, hospital and university for Roma. Also proposed is the creation of a national holiday marking the end of Romani slavery.
Ten days before Hitler is elected Chancellor of The Third Reich on January 30th, officials in Burgenland call for the withdrawal of all civil rights for Roma, and the introduction of clubbing as a punishment.
On May 26th, The Law to Legalize Eugenic Sterilization is introduced by the National Socialists (Nazi Party) in Germany.
On July 14th, Hitler's cabinet passes the law against "lives not deserving of life" (Lebensunwertesleben), called The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. It orders sterilization for certain categories of people, "specifically Gypsies and most of the Germans of black color" (called the "Rhineland Bastards," i.e. those resulting from unions between German women and the Senegalese and other African troops brought in from the French colonies to patrol the Ruhr Valley during the First World War, as well as residents in Europe from Germany's ex-colonies in Africa). It also affectes Jews, the disabled, and others seen as "asocial" (social misfits).
The Law for the Revocation of German Citizenship is implemented against Roma without proof of German birth, as well as "Eastern Jews" (nearly 20 percent of all Jews in Germany in 1933).
The Sinto boxer, Johann Trollman, is stripped of his title as light-heavyweight champion of Germany for "racial reasons."
In Romania, the journals Neamul Tiganesc (Gypsy Nation) and Timpul (The Time) are founded.
In Bulgaria, the Romani journal Terbie (Education) starts publication.
The Oberwarth District Prefect in Germany submits a petition demanding that the League of Nations investigate the possibility of establishing a colony for the resettlement of European Gypsies in the Polynesian Islands.
In the week of September 18th - 25th, the Reichsminister for the Interior and Propaganda of Germany calls for the apprehension and arrest of Roma and Sinti, according to the "Law Against Habitual Criminals." Many Roma are sent to concentration camps as a result, and made to do penal labor.
In Latvia, Saint John's Gospel is translated into Romani.
1934. Django Reinhardt forms "The Quintet Hot Club de France" and introduces French "swing jazz" to the world, influencing American jazz entertainers.
Sweden passes a law on sterilization, which becomes harsher in 194l. Anyone, including Roma, seen as leading "a socially undesirable life" are to be sterilised. Allthough the law does not explicitly say so, it suggests that Gypsies and "Tattare" (Norwegian "Wanderer") are not socially desirable and thus must be sterilised to keep the Swedish race clean.
From January onwards, Roma in Germany are selected for transfer to camps for processing, which includes sterilization by injection or castration. Over the next three years, these camps will be established at Dachau, Dieselstrasse, Sachsenhausen, Marzahn and Vennhausen.
On March 23rd, The Law for the Revocation of German Citizenship is reinstituted, and again directed at Roma, Eastern Jews, stateless persons and other "undesirable foreigners."
In July, two laws issued in Nuremburg forbid Germans from marrying "Jews, Negroes and Gypsies."
On September 8th, the Düsseldorf District Administrative Court in Germany prohibits Roma from obtaining licenses allowing them to engage in itinerant trade.
On December 3rd in Berlin and Düsseldorf police ordinances are issued forbidding fortune-telling.
1935. In Yugoslavia, the journal Romano Lil is published.
In May, some five hundred Roma and Sinti are arrested because they are Gypsies, and incarcerated in a camp on Venloerstrasse in Cologne, Germany. This detention center is surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by armed police.
On September 15th, Roma and Sinti become subject to the restrictions of the National Citizenship Law (the Reichsbürgergesetz) and the Nuremberg Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which forbids intermarriage or sexual relationships between Aryan and non-Aryan peoples. It states: "A marriage cannot be concluded when the expected result will put the purity of German blood of future generations in danger." A policy statement issued by the Nazi Party reads "In Europe generally, only Jews and Gypsies come under consideration as members of an alien people." Gypsies, Jews and Blacks are considered "racially distinctive" minorities with "alien blood." On September 17th, the National Citizenship Law relegates Jews and Roma to the status of second class citizens, and deprives them of their civil rights.
On November 26th, the Central Reich Bureau and the Prussian Ministry of the Interior circulate an order to local vital statistics registration offices throughout Germany, prohibiting mixed marriages, specifically between "Gypsies, Black people, and their bastard offspring."
In December all Roma in the town of Gelsenkirchen, Germany are incarcerated in camps on Crangerstraße and Reginenstraße, which are patrolled by the police, armed soldiers and dogs.
1936. On March 4th, a memorandum to the State Secretary of the Interior, Hans Pfundtner, addresses the creation of a national Gypsy law (Reichzigeunergesetz), the purpose of which is to deal with the complete registration of the Romani population, their sterilization, the restriction on their movement and means of livelihood, and the expulsion of all foreign-born and stateless Roma.
On March 7th, Gypsies and Jews both have their voting rights taken from them.
On March 20th, "action against the Gypsies" is instituted in Frankfurt am Main, when the City Council votes to put all Roma into an internment camp. The camp, on Dieselstrasse, is selected on September 22nd this year, and arrests and internment begin a year later.
In June, the main Nazi institution to deal with Roma, the Racial Hygiene and Criminal Biology and Research Unit (which is Department 13 of the National Ministry of Health) is established under the directorship of Dr. Robert Ritter at Berlin-Dahlem. The National Interior Ministry supervises this entire project, partially funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemainschaft (the German Research Foundation). Its expressed purpose is to determine whether the Romani people and the Afro-Europeans are Aryans or sub-humans (Untermenschen). By early 1942, Ritter has documented the genealogy of almost the entire German Roma and Sinti population.
On June 5th, a circular issued by the National and the Prussian Ministries of the Interior instructs police to renew their efforts to "fight against the Gypsy plague." Information about Roma should no longer be sent to Vienna, but to the Munich Centre for the Fight Against the Gypsy Nuisance.
On June 6th, the same ministries release a second circular, signed by Himmler which states that "Gypsies live by theft, lying and begging, and are a plague ... It will be difficult for Gypsies to get used to an orderly, civilized way of life." Also on this day, a decree issued by the National and Prussian Ministry of the Interior brings into existence the Central Office to Combat the Gypsy Menace. This office in Munich becomes the headquarters of a national data bank on Gypsies, and represents all German police agencies together with the Interpol International Center in Vienna. Interpol is located in the police headquarters on Roßauerlände in Vienna.
In June and July, several hundred Roma and Sinti are transported to Dachau by order of the Minister of the Interior as "dependents of the Munich Centre for the Fight Against the Gypsy Nuisance." Attempts to escape are punishable by death.
In Bavaria, a deportation decree sends 400 Roma and Sinti to Dachau for forced labor.
In this year, Dr. Hans Globke, Head of Service for the Ministry of the Interior for the Third Reich, who serves on the panel on racial legislation, declares that "in Europe, only Jews and Gypsies are of foreign blood," while race hygienist Dr. Robert Körber writes in Volk und Staat that "The Jews and the Gypsies are today remote from us because of their Asiatic ancestry, just as ours is Nordic." This sentiment is reiterated by Dr. E. Brandis, who writes that "only the Gypsies are to be considered as an alien people in Europe (beside the Jews)."
Dr. Claus Eichen publishes his book Raßenwahn: Briefe über die Raßenfrage (Delusions of race: Notes on the race question) in which he justifies sterilization of "asocial" and "criminal" elements in German society.
Interpol in Vienna establishes the Centre for Combatting the Gypsy Menace, which has grown out of the earlier Bureau of Gypsy Affairs.
In Leipzig, Martin Block publishes his general study of Gypsies, and justifies Nazi racist attitudes by speaking of the "nauseating Gypsy smell," and the "involuntary feeling of mistrust or repulsion one feels in their presence."
In Berlin, Roma and Sinti are cleared off the streets away from public view because of the upcoming Olympic games. Fifty years later, the police in Spain do the same thing in preparation for the Olympic Games in Madrid.
1937. An editorial in the Hamburger Tagblatt in August by Georg Nawrocki, takes the Weimar Republic to task for its lenient attitude towards Roma and Sinti: "It was in keeping with the inner weakness and mendacity of the Weimar Republic that it showed no instinct for tackling the Gypsy question. For it, the Sinti were a criminal concern at best -- we, on the other hand, see the Gypsy question above all as a racial problem, which must be solved, and which is being solved." .
On August 18th, Roma and Sinti in Frankfurt are arrested and incarcerated in the Dieselstrasse camp.
1938. On June 12-18, Zigeuneraufrämungswoche, "Gypsy Clean-up Week," is in effect, and hundreds of Roma and Sinti throughout Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten and imprisoned. This is the third such public action by the German state. Like Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night," or the "Night of Broken Glass" on November 9th this same year) for the Jews, it is a public sanctioning and approval of the official attitude towards members of an "inferior race."
On March 16th, Roma and Sinti are no longer allowed to vote in Germany. After March 23rd, Jews are also no longer allowed to vote.
Heinrich Himmler issues a decree entitled Bekämpfung der Zigeunerplage stating that Gypsies of mixed blood are the most predisposed to criminality, and that police departments should systematically send data on Roma and Sinti in their areas to the Reich Central Office.
In the USSR, Joseph Stalin bans the Romani language and culture.
1939. In Greece, the Panhellenic Cultural Association of Greek Gypsies is formed.
1939-45. Second World War. Nazis draw up lists of English Gypsies for internment. British government creates caravan sites for families of Gypsies in the army or doing farm labour. These sites are closed after the war.
1940. Robert Ritter publishes a report in which he states that "we have been able to establish that more than 90% of the so-called 'native' [i.e. German-born] Gypsies are of mixed blood ... Furthermore, the results of our investigations have allowed us to characterize the Gypsies as being a people of entirely primitive ethnological origins, whose mental backwardness makes them incapable of real social adaptation ... The Gypsy question can only be solved when the main body of asocial and worthless Gypsy individuals of mixed blood is collected together in large labor camps and kept working there, and when the further breeding of this population of mixed blood is permanently stopped."
The French government opens internment camps for nomads.
In Austria, internment camps are built at Maxglan, Slazburg, and Lackenbach.
At Buchenwald, 250 Romani children are used as guinea-pigs to test the Zyklon-B gas crystals.
1941. In August, Heinrich Himmler issues a decree in Germany stating the criteria for racial and biological evaluation. An individual's Gypsy genealogy is to be investigated over three generations (compared to two generations for one's Jewish genealogy). He implements a system of classification based on degree of Romani genetic descent: means "pure Gypsy," means more than half Gypsy, means half Gypsy, means less than half Gypsy and means non-Gypsy. Having two great-grandparents who were even only part-Gypsy (i.e. if one were of 25 percent or less Roma ancestry) counts as .
In Germany, Romani children are excluded from schools.
In Poland, a Gypsy camp is set up in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz for 5.000 inmates.
In Croatia, the Jasenovac concentration camp is opened.
In Serbia, the German Military Command orders that all Gypsies will be treated as Jews. In November, it further orders the immediate arrest of all Gypsies and Jews, who are to be held as hostages.
All Sinti Gypsy families living in the Volga Republic are deported to Kazakhstan.
In September, an SS Task Force carries out mass executions of Roma and Jews in the Baby Yar valley of the Ukraine.
In Yugoslavia in October, the German army executes 2.100 Jewish and Gypsy hostages as reprisal for soldiers killed by partisans.
1942. Heinrich Himmler issues the order to deport the Gypsies in Greater Germany to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In Poland, all Gypsies from the Lodz ghtetto are transported and gassed at Chelmo.
1943. In March, Robert Ritter announces the completion of his work on classifying Gypsies to the German Association for Research, saying "The registration of Gypsies and part-Gypsies has been completed, roughly as planned, in the Old Reich [pre-war Germany] and in the Ostmark [Austria], despite all of the difficulties engendered by the War. Our studies are still in progress in the annexed territories ... The number of cases clarified from the racial and biological perspective is 21,498 at the present time." Ten months later their figures increase to 23,822.
Nazi leader Himmler orders all Gypsy camps closed, resulting in the liquidation of the Romani prisoners.
1944. Zigeunernacht, literally, Gypsy Night. On August 2, four thousand Roma are gassed and cremated in a single action at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In Slovakia, Roma join the fight of partisans in the Slovak National Uprising.
1933-45. O Porraimos, the Great Devouring. Up to 1,500,000 Sinti and Roma are killed in Europe by the Nazi regime and its puppet states. Determining the percentage or number of Roma who died in the Holocaust is not easy. Much of the Nazi documentation still remains to be analyzed, and many murders were not recorded, since they took place in the fields and forests where Roma were apprehended.
1945. In Bulgaria, the Romani Organisation for the Fight against Fascism and Racism is established.
1945-60. Gypsies begin to use motor-drawn trailers, and buy land for their own stopping-places in England.
1946. In France, Mateo Maximoff's novel The Ursitory is published.
In Poland, the Roma Ensemble is founded.
1947. Teatr Roma (Theater Roma) is established in Sofia, Bulgaria. It closes four years later.
1950. The first published poems of Bronislawa Wajs, a Romni poetess and singer from Poland, known as "Papusza," appear in Problemy magazine.
1950s. In Germany, the Verband Deutscher Sinti (Association of German Sinti) and the Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma (Central Council of German Sinti and Roma) are founded to further reparation claims from World War II, and later to pursue equal civil and social rights.
1950-1967. In the Cologne region of Germany, identity papers given to survivors of the Nazi concentration camps are withdrawn from Sinti and Roma on the grounds that they could provide no written proof of their German nationality.
1952. The Romani Evangelical Church movement is started in Britanny, France under the leadership of Clément Le Cossec.
1953. In Denmark, Roma are readmitted to the country.
1954. Police authorities in Bavaria set up a special office, in conjunction with Interpol, for registering Sinti and Roma.
1955. Matéo Maximoff, a Kalderash Rom, writes the novel Le Prix de la Liberté (The Price of Freedom), dealing with the dying days of Romani slavery; Maximoff's own grandfather was born into slavery in Romania.
1958. In Czechoslovakia, law no.74 bans nomadism. To enforce this policy, police kill all caravan horses and remove the wheels from their waggons. To remain a nomad is punishable by prison terms of six months to three years.
Bulgaria attempts an assimilation campaign by issuing a decree that prohibits Roma from travelling. Local councils are enjoined to channel them into factories and cooperative farms. This campaign will last for thirty years.
1959. Zohri Muller founds the organisation Pro Tzigania Svizzera in Switzerland.
The World Gypsy Community (CMG) is founded in Paris by Ionel Rotaru. The CMG includes Rom, Manush, and Kalé from France, with contacts in Poland, Canada, Turkey, and other countries.
1960. The Caravan Sites (Control of Development) Act in England stops new private sites being built until 1972. Eviction and harassment of Gypsies starts to reach a crisis.
1962. The National Association of Gypsies in France is founded.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, courts rule that Roma were persecuted for racial reasons.
1963. In Italy, the Opera Nomadi education scheme is set up.
1964. Poland approves settlement laws aimed at forcing Roma to become sedentary. Those who fail to observe these laws are expelled from the country and stripped of their citizenship.
1965. The French government issues a decree dissolving the World Gypsy Community (CMG). A group of the CMG leadership splinters off and forms the International Gypsy Committee, headed by Vanko Rouda.
In Slovakia, Roma are to be cleared and dispersed to Czech areas with fewer Roma. Roma deported under this plan either return to where they came from or are followed by their extended families, creating new concentrations of Roma, creating new government problems.
Pope Paul VI addresses some 2,000 Roma at Pomezia, Italy.
1966. Growing eviction and harassment leads to the formation of the British Gypsy Council to fight for sites.
1967. The Association of Gypsies of Finland is founded.
First Gypsy Council summer school, in Essex, England.
1968. The Caravan Sites Act insists that from 1970, local authorities should provide caravan sites for Gypsies in England. This Act is never fully enforced, and is later abolished.
Czechoslovakia abandons plans after years of failure to disperse Roma throughout Czech lands.
Rudolf Karway, President of the Zigeunermission, a civil rights movement based in Hamburg, leads a delegation to the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commission in Strasbourg, France.
1969. Miroslav Holomek becomes the head of the Union of Roma in Czechoslovakia. The Union of Roma is later banned by the Czechoslovak government in 1973. Miroslav's brother Tomas Holomek, a former parliament member, is the first Roma lawyer in Czechoslovakia.
In Bulgaria, segregated schools are set up for Roma.
Abdi Faik of Macedonia is elected to the Yugoslavian parliament.
1970. The National Gypsy Education Council is formed in England.
1971. The First World Romani Congress is held in London with delegates from fourteen countries. An international Romani flag, anthem and motto are formally approved. The term Rom is adopted as a self-appellation. Five commissions are set up dealing with social affairs, education, war crimes, language and culture.
The International Gypsy Committee is renamed the Komiteto Lumniako Romano (International Rom Committee) at the First World Romani Congress in London. Vanko Rouda is confirmed as president.
1972. The International Romani Union becomes a member of The Council of Europe.
In Sweden, the Finska Zigenarförening (Association of Finnish Gypsies) is established in Stockholm.
In France, the National Committee of Travellers is founded.
The British government begins to exempt some councils from building sites for caravans. The Gypsy Council begins to split. The government starts to give grants only to Gypsy organisations who cooperate with it.
In Czechoslovakia, a sterilisation programme for Roma begins.
1973. The Nordic Rom Council is formed representing the interests of Roma in the Scandinavian countries.
The Communist government bans Romani associations in Czechoslovakia on the grounds that Roma are not a recognised national minority and that they "failed to fulfill their integrative function."
Radio broadcasts in Romani start from Tetovo, Macedonia in Yugoslavia.
1974. The Association of Travellers in Switzerland is established.
1975. A law is passed in Belgium making it possible for Roma born in Belgium to acquire citizenship.
In Hungary, the first issues of the magazine Rom Som (I am Roma) appear.
1976. The first Roma Festival is held at Chandigarh, India. Mrs. Indira Gandhi pledges support for the demand that Roma be recognised as a national minority of Indian origin.
The Czechoslovakian newspaper Vychodoslovenske Noviny publishes the official text of government plans for compulsory sterilisation of Roma as an act of "socialistic humanity."
Sweden passes a parlimentary decision giving the State Immigration Authority responsibility for programs aimed at rehabilitating Roma socially and medically, and for providing housing for Roma in Sweden who had earlier been living under harsh conditions.
1978. In Italy, the Komiteto Romano ande Italia (National Roma Committee) is formed.
The Second World Romani Congress in Geneva renames the International Rom Committee to the Romano Internacionalno Jekhetani Union. The Congress is attended by some 120 delegates and observers from 26 countries. India is strongly represented.
1979. The International Romani Union is given consultative status at the United Nations Social and Economic Commission (UNESCO).
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is founded by President Carter. There is no Romani representation on the 65-member Holocaust Memorial Council.
In Hungary, the first exhibition of self-taught Roma artists is held.
In Norway, an ABC Romani primer is published for mother tongue teaching.
In Romania, Saint John's Gospel appears in Romani from an underground publisher.
1980. The Nasa Kniga publishing house of Skopje, Yugoslavia prints the first book of Romani grammar written entirely in the Romani script and orthography. The original printing of 3,000 copies sells out quickly.
The Union of Gypsies and Travellers in France is established.
1981. The Third World Romani Congress held in Göttingen, Germany. It is attended by some 600 delegates and observers from twenty-eight countries. It supports the demand that Roma be recognised as a national minority of Indian origin. The fate of the Roma under the Nazis dominates the discussions.
Chancellor Schmidt of West Germany meets with Roma and Sinti representatives led by Romani Rose. The Bonn government officially recognises that Roma and Sinti had been targets of racial persecution by the Nazis.
In Yugoslavia, Roma are granted national status on an equal footing with other minorities.
1982. The organisation Comili International Rom holds a ceremony commemorating the 125th anniversary of the abolition of Romani slavery in Europe.
In France, the newly elected Mitterand government promises to help nomads.
1983. The Second International Roma Festival is held at Chandigarh, India.
The first national Gypsy Pentecostal Convention is held in England.
1985. The post of Special Advisor on Holocaust-related Gypsy Matters to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council is created; however the post is considered largely an "honourary" position.
Phralipé (Brotherhood) is founded in Romania. It is the first Roma organisation in nearly fifty years established with official government approval.
In France, the First International Exhibition (Mondiale) of Gypsy Art is held in Paris.
1986. The International Romani Union becomes a member of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The United States Romani Council is formed.
The International Romani Symposium is held at Sarajevo. It supports the demand that Roma be recognised as a national minority of Indian origin.
The musical drama Amaro Drom (Our Road) by Rom playwright Emile Scuka becomes only the second play in the Romani language ever to be staged in Czechoslovakia.
1987. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council appoints its first Rom member, William Duna, seven years after its creation.
1989. The European Union starts a five-year programme for the education of Romani children.
In Poland, the first Romane Divesa festival of dance and music is held.
The collapse of Communism in Europe marks the beginning of the Third European Diaspora of the Roma, according to some scholars. Racially-motivated violence against Roma increases.
In Germany, Roma protestors demonstrate in the former concentration camp at Neuengamme against the deportation of asylum seekers.
1990. The Fourth World Romani Congress held in Serock, Poland. In attendance are some 250 delegates. Among the programmes discussed are reparations from World War II, education, culture, public relations, language, and a Romani encyclopedia, written in Romanes, not about Roma, but for Roma.
The International Romani Union is awarded membership in the European Conference on Security and Cooperation.
In Poland, the journal Rrom p-o Drom (Roma on the Road) is founded.
1991. The National Gypsy Education Council in England is renamed the Gypsy Council for Education, Culture, Welfare and Civil Rights (GCECWCR).
Romani teaching starts at Prague University, Czech Republic.
In Macedonia, Roma are accorded equal rights in the new republic.
1992. The Theatre Romathan (Romano Teatro) opens in Kosice, Slovakia.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights passes a resolution on the protection of Roma.
1993. In Macedonia, the use of the Romani language in schools is officially introduced.
In Austria, indigenous Roma are recognised as an ethnic group.
In Scotland, the Scottish Gypsy Traveller Association is established.
The International Romani Union petitions for and receives promotion to Category II, Special Consultative Status at the United Nations.
1994. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act abolishes the Caravan Sites Act leaving about 5,000 families with no legal home. British Gypsies look to Europe for protection.
In Hungary, the Budapest OSCE establishes the Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues, to be based initially in Warsaw.
In France, at a meeting in Strasbourg, the Standing Conference of Romani Associations is formed.
A proposal to teach Israeli high school students about the murder of Roma by the Nazis draws loud protests, especially from Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial. Critics say the curriculum, titled "Sensitivity to Suffering in the World," would blur the uniqueness of the Holocaust.
1995. The writer, Philomina Franz, a World War II concentration camp survivor, is awarded the German Federal Cross for Merits, the highest civil award which Germany confers. She is the first Sinti awarded the prize for her "activities endeavouring after understanding and conciliation."
In the United States, the first national conference on the Porrajmos (Romani Holocaust) is held at Drew University.
The Union of Romani Political Parties is formed in Slovakia.
In France, the Second International Exhibition (Mondiale) of Gypsy Art is held in Paris.
1996. The European Roma Rights Centre is set up in Budapest, Hungary.
Five thousand Roma are evicted from the Selamsiz quarter of Istanbul, Turkey.
In Spain, the Romani Union's second "Sarajevo" Peace Conference is held in Vittoria.
1997. On May 4th, Pope John Paul II beatifies Ceferino Jimenez Malla, also known as El Pele. The Blessed Ceferino Jimenez Malla was martyred for his faith in August 1936 at the age of 75 when he was shot by a Spanish Republican firing squad. El Pele becomes the first Gypsy elevated to beatification in the history of the Catholic Church. Beatification is the first step required for sainthood.
In Germany, President Herzog visits the Romani Holocaust Exhibition in Heidelberg.
In Romania, a conference is held in Bucharest on the Prevention of Violence and Discrimination against Roma in Europe.
In Spain, the first European Congress of Romani Youth is held in Barcelona.
Ian Hancock receives the Thorolf Rafto Prize for Human Rights on behalf of the Romani people. Later that year, he is appointed by U.S. President Clinton as the only Romani representative on the 65-member U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. He becomes only the second Romani representative on the Council in the USHMC's 17-year history.
In England, Romani refugees from the Slovak Republic arrive in Dover seeking asylum and receive mainly negative reactions and scepticism from local residents and the national news media.
1998. In the United States, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman signs into law Assembly Bill 2654, repealing that state's anti-Roma law adopted in 1917. Governor Whitman's signature effectively rescinds the last anti-Roma law on the books of any American state.
Acton, Thomas and Gallant, David. Threatened Cultures: Romanichal Gypsies (East Sussex: Wayland Publishers, 1997).
Crowe, David M. A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1996).
Crowe, David M. & Kolsti, John (eds.). The Gypsies of Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY; E.C. Sharpe Publishers, 1989).
Ficowski, Jerzy. The Gypsies in Poland: History and Customs, translated by Eileen Healey (Warsaw: Interpress, 1991)
Fings, Karola and Heuss, Herbert and Sparing, Frank. From "Race Science" to the Camps: the Gypsies during the Second World War (Hertfordshire Press, 1997).
Fraser, Angus. The Gypsies (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992).
Hancock, Ian. The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution (Ann Arbor: Karoma, 1987).
Hancock, Ian and Dowd, Siobham and Djuric, Rajko, editors. The Roads of the Roma: a PEN Anthology of Gypsy Writers (Herfordshire Press, 1998).
Kenrick, Donald, and Puxon, Grattan. Gypsies under the Swastika (Hertfordshire: Hertfordshire Press, 1995).
Kenrick, Donald, and Taylor, Gillian. Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies) (Scarecrow Press, 1998).
Liegeois, Jean-Paul. Gypsies, An Illustrated History, abridged English translation (London: Al Saqi Books, 1986).
Puxon, Grattan. Roma: Europe's Gypsies. (Minority Rights Group, 1987).
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a lenyeg roviden:
Eszak Indiabol jottek, Europaba a 11-12 szazad kornyeken erkeztek a Bizanci birodalomba. a Torok hoditas utan a 14. szazadban tovabb alltak Romaniaba es Erdelybe, majd Magyarorszagra.
A Roma nevet a Bizanci Birodalomban vettek fel, mert a bizanciak romaiaknek neveztek magukat. (tipikus, hogy a ciganyok es a romanok mind a romai birodalom volt dicsosegeben akarnak furodni, mert maguktol meg semmit nem tudtak felmutatni ). szinten gorog eredetu a Cigany szo, is az Atsiganibol szarmazik, ez valami olyasmit jelent, hogy ne erints meg.
a 15 szazad elejen a ciganyok bevandoroltak Nyugat Europaba, egy, a mi Zsigmond kiralyunktol kapott vedelmi levelet lobogtatva. azt a meset adtak be a nyugatiaknak, hogy ok Kis Egyiptombol jottek, es a papahoz zarandokolnak bunbocsanatert. innen szarmazik a Gypsi nev ( Egypt ).
Miutan eletstilusuk mar akkor is a maihoz hasonlo parazita volt, nyugat europaban egykettore torvenyen kivul helyeztek es kiirtottak oket. magyarorszagon elveztek a legnagyobb szabadsagokat, vajdaik magyar nemesek voltak, itt kaptak leghamarabb a magyarokkal megegyezo jogokat. romaniaban rabszolgakent tartottak oket.
Indiából valók. Hogy mikor volt az exodusuk (Európába) azt nem tudom, de gondolom valamikor a közékporban. A nyelvük az ún. lovári, de gondolom millió meg egy változata van (Indiában is több ezer dialektus létezik). Magyarországon tudomásom szerint kb. félmillióan vannak.
És...semmi egyebet nem tudok mondani....kérem, kapcsolja ki!
0 provokáció, 0 előítélet, 0 feszültségkeltés.
Ezt a témát probáljuk meg objektíven, sallangmentesen végigtárgyalni.
Ismerjük meg őket, hiszen országunk jelentős részét ők alkotják.
Nyitok egy olyan topikot, amit remélem a téma avatott ismerői töltenek fel tartalommal. Azt hiszem sokunkat érdekel romák története.
Hiszen a zenéjükön kívül nem sokat tudunk róluk.
Kezdjük az alapoknál:
Kik ők? Honnan jöttek? Hányan élnek a világban és nálunk? Van-e közös nyelvük? Vannak-e történelmi hőseik, kikre büszkék?
