All Romanian researchers were wrong in thinking that where the word TSIGAN (tsigan, plural Tsigani) was used in Romanian medieval documents relating to slaves, it referred only to the Roma gypsies, who spoke the Romani language. But this mistake is not confined to the Romanian historians: even the Tsigani who do not belong to a traditional Roma family believe the same – that if the Romanians use the word Tsigan equally for speakers of the Romani language and for non-speakers, then the non-speakers are of Roma origin, but forgot their Romani language. The reality is that in the Romanian/Valachian countries many other races from various parts of the world were enslaved, without any genetic or cultural connection. This means that the term tsigan/gypsy define a social stratum, not an ethnic group in particular. The name tsigan/gypsy was applied in Romania only to the Roma nation in modern times, because they are the last enslaved migratory layer. As we shall see, the Roma people's self-definition as Roma is based entirely upon the inherited knowledge of the Romani shib/chib/jib, the gypsy language.
THE HARAP/MOOR (ETHIOPIANS) TSIGANI/GYPSIES
The Syrian Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo ( 1) , visiting Romanian countries between the years 1653 to 1656 , made the following remark about Moorish slaves:
“ It is worth remarking, that the greatest part of the grooms, who have the care of the horses belonging to the Beg and the Grandees of State, are from our country, and from Egypt and are Mahometans and Christians. They have also a multitude of purchased black slaves, whom they commonly call to by the name of "Arab! Arab!" They consequently think that all the people of our country are black slaves, or stable-grooms; and for this reason we are looked upon with great contempt by them: so that when we arrived among them, and they beheld the Patriarch, and our style and ceremonies, and observed our eloquent reading of the Greek language, they were much astonished...”
If true, then the Romanian countries were holding black slaves / Africans before the United States! It seems that the spirit of the Romanian people on color perception of slaves / Gypsies was not seen until our present work. Look how in past centuries the native Romanians/Valachians distinguished the racial traits of African slaves (2 ) and Indians (Roma):
“There are three kinds of curses on Gypsies. The ugly Gypsies, thick-lipped and black as coal, as Satan himself, are cursed by the monks, in the times when they were slaves in monasteries. The black ones , called ”țigani de vatra” (Gypsies of the Forge), knowing blacksmithing, are cursed from Ham. The Gypsies called ”țigani de laie” : bear-trainers, the ”lăeţii” ,” zavragii” , ”netoţii ”, etc., and all kinds of Gypsies , who walk from place to place on horses and donkeys , which sit under tents and are hated as you make the sign of the cross, are cursed by a saint” ( Iuliu Zane, Proverbele Românilor vol. 6, pag. 354)
The popular description was recorded by Zane. We see that the text indicates three categories of black Gypsies :
-ugly, thick-lipped and very very black, as coal.
-the ţiganii which have traditional crafts associated with the Roma nation, the ursari , zavragii , etc .
The first category of Gypsies from the Zane`s text is linked anthropologically with Blacks / Africans. Indeed ,the first and oldest Romanian dictionary (1825), the Lexicon from Buda, on page 28 defines the word ARAP as a person of Arabic or Ethiopian origin: “adeq harap”. On page 225, the Lexicon states: "harap or Arabic woman." It is clear that Romanians confused Arab with Arap because of the similarity of pronunciation, but Zane's text clearly describes Ethiopian slaves as THICK-LIPPED AND BLACK AS COAL, not simply black as the nomad gypsies. IN ZANE'S TEXT IS OBSERVED THE ATTEMPT OF TELLING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GYPSY SLAVES BY MEANS OF DISTINCTIVE RACIAL FEATURES AND OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. Harapii or Arabs described by Paul of Aleppo fall into the category of the thick-lipped and black-as-coal slaves/țigani, because Paul of Aleppo stated that in Romania were Syrian groom employees, and they bought black slaves. The description of black slaves as thick-lipped would fit more to the African type, not the Indian. Even today we still see Roma who kept Indian genetics. From their appearance, any visitor to Romania who visited India, could believe that they are of Indian nationality .
Here's how Odobescu ( 3) tries to explain the mysterious Romanian expression “țigan de laie”:
"Laiu, laie is an unknown adjective in our languages from Romanian Principates, Moldovia and Ardeal. We indeed say ”țigan de laie” and the Romanian-Latin Lexicon from Buda, translating the word Laie as Caterva, giving its origin in the greek word ιλη, sorry, as we see here a mistake, especially when we learn the the Romanians from Macedonia, who are speaking a slightly different dialect, are saying: laiu and laie, instead of negru (black,masc.) and neagră (black,fem.). So, the Țiganii de Laie, would be the Blackest Gypsies, as they really are, and the Miorița laie (the back sheep) is the Miorița neagră. (Odobescu, 1941:202)
Even today, many Romanian gypsies/țigani are calling themselves as “țigan de laie/laiash”,“țigan de vatra”, or “rudar/bayash/boyash”, they explaining this self-designation as a gypsy which does not know the Romani language.
Here's what Scriban said in his dictionary :
Țigán and (old) Ațigán, -că s. (vsl. Cyganinŭ, Cyganŭka, rus. Cygan, -nka, ung. Cigány, germ. Zigeuner, ngr. Tsiganos, it. Zingaro, words reduced to the turkish., arabic Zenği, Etiopian, Zenği-bar, the Ethipian country, „Zanghebar, Zanzibar”. In the oldest documents they are called Ațiganĭ, which demonstrates that this name was given to them by Macedonians. The Greeks call them Gýfti, the Spanish Gitanos, meaning Egyptians. The Arabic people confounded them with Ethiopians (Haraps, Nubians, Somali, Zanzibar, etc..) (https://dexonline.ro/definitie/TIGAN)
Scriban believed that Arabians have confused the Gypsy Tsigani with the Ethiopians. It seems that at least two sources of bibliography attest that Haraps/ Ethiopians were slaves in Romania. The first is the Syrian Bishop Paul of Aleppo, the second source is the Lexicon of Buda ( 1825 ), page 28, where the word "Arap" is defined as Ethiopian or Arab, but not as as Tsigan, because in those times the Romanians still knew the original countries of the Ethiopians and Roma. In those times the word Tsigan was applied only to the Roma, as its meaning was SLAVE. It is possible that the Ethiopians/ Harap were released from slavery, in their place being put the Roma nation, which is why the oldest Romanian dictionary (1825) does not define the word Arap/Ethiopian as Tsigan (slave). Of course we cannot question the testimony of a Christian cleric. Paul of Aleppo visited the Romanian countries in the year 1650, so it could not be a mistake.
Other populations enslaved in Romania: GAVAON, HOLOP, BULGARIANS AND TATARS
In the History of Bessarabia (www.bp-soroca.md/soroca/istoria%20basarabiei.pdf), vol. I, p. 234, A. V. Boldur tells us an interesting detail about the slaves from Romania: ”...among prisoners were sometimes people of other nationalities, so one might think that in older times Romanians had had other servants than Tatars and Gypsies, although the documents do not talk about this. ”
Amaro celedo- OUR ENSLAVED FAMILY. Linguistic archeology.
Boldur (4) informs us that for Gypsies and Tatars in Romanian documents the old Slavonic word Celed was used , which in the Russian language had the form Celeadin:
"In our documents the word "celed" has two meanings: the first means the group of slaves, their family or household, indicating the name of the head of the family, the second is simply a slave individually. This can be seen clearly in the document of 23 Apr. 1441, which gives to the monastery of Poiana ”four tsigan/gypsies celed with the name Slav Hârlăuanul with celedea and Nicola with celedea and Bâzâla with celedea”. Usually the word celed in the first meaning, is translated as home or yard, but it would more correct to be used as family or household. In a document from 1446, is written about six Gypsy "celed", adding the names of the heads of families, with their women and children and with all their descendants (nașlednichi). In one suret of uric (old Romanian official document, our note) from 30 March 1500 celed is translated as “room”, which is closer to the notion of “family”. (Istoria Basarabiei, contribuții la studiul istoriei românilor de A.V. Boldur, vol. I, pag. 234, Chișinău, 1937)
Some Romani dialects still possess this word, "celed" in the formula "Amaro cheledo" - "our family" referring to family, clan, nation. This shows that the parents of these Roma groups using this word (cheledo), were slaves. But are many Roma groups that do not have that word in their vocabulary, keeping the original Indian word for family. I am the discoverer of the etymology of the Romani half-loaned expression "Amaro cheled". Romani dialects still using the word ”celed”: Gurvari Romani, Kalderash Romani, Latvian Romani (“cel”), Lovara Romani, Slovak Romani, Hungarian Vend, Romungro Romani, Vershend Romani. The Roma from Macedonia, called Džambazi Romani, use the form “roboria” – family members, Bugurdži Romani use the same “robos” (child), member of family, Gurbet Romani use the form “robora” – family. Rob (sg.), roborya (pl.) is a Romanian word too, meaning ”slave”. Nearly all Romani dialects use this Russian word ”cheledo” or ”rob”/slave. The fact that in older times there were other enslaved nations is attested in another document. A strange name for tsigan slaves is ”țigani holopi”, called this way by Eremia Moghilă Voievod in 1598, 7 January (5):
”I, Eremiia Moghilă Voevod, by the mercy of God, ruler of the Moldavian country, gave this book to my servant Vasile stolnic, to be with it strong and master of the holop (rob)/țigan, Mura and his wife and children... ” (Surete și izvoade vol XXI de Gh. Ghibănescu. pag 134-135)
The original slavonic text does not have the parenthesis which is present in the Romanian translation made by Ghibănescu. So, we conclude that the holopi were another enslaved nation considered Tsigani also.
Some of the slaves/Gypsies in the Romanian countries had a self-designation, namely ”gavaon”, covering a period of more than a hundred years. The first man who drew attention to this word was the Romanian historian Petre Petcut (7). He, however, mistakenly identified the name of gavaons with the indian city named Gavaon, believeng that the name gavaon belongs to Roma. Petre Petcuț based his explanation on the Romani word “gavutno” – peasant. This word is a Romani one, being formed by gau/gav-village, and the suffix -u(t)no, a sanskrit one, which designates origin or quality. The Roma people have never seen themselves as peasants in their European history. WE found the oldest mention of the word gavaon with the meaning of tsigan/gypsy/slave in 1511 in a Romanian medieval document. But, we cannot trust on a single word to identify the language of a nation, it being known that many words belonging to different languages sometimes resemble each other randomly. But Petre Petcuț ignores the traditional self-designation of Roma people, the word Rom. If the tsigani slaves called themselves gavaon in their language, it is natural to suppose that the language of the gavaons would have included in its self-designation (endonym) the word gavaon. This principle is met at all the names of languages in the whole word, the self-designation gives the name of the spoken language. But the medieval documents are silent about the language of gavaons, keeping just the feminine name Dochina (8) Gavaona la 5 August 1634, in which it is mentioned that Radul the treasurer buys a family of gavaons from the nun Mariica, in a document signed by the ruler Matei Basarab. The feminization of the masculine noun gavaon in the archaic Romanian is curious. This is evidence that the gavaons remained a long time in the Romanian teritories, because the feminine word Romni – a gypsy woman – entered into the Romanian language through a dance called ”Romnia”. Șăineanu (9) în Dicționar universal al limbei române, p. 553, 1929 said: Romnia f. A peasant dance borrowed from Gypsies. (Literarly Tsiganesca (by the gypsy word ROMNI- the Gypsy woman)). If the Roma had entered Romania at the same time as the Gavaons, then the native Romanians would have transformed the word Romni into ROAMNI, but the name of the melody became RomniA, with the Romanian suffix –A. After the Romani language suffix –ni, (this suffix being used to form all feminine nouns in India), the native Romanians from the times when this peasant dance (hora) was frequently sung, transformed the Romani word Romni into a Romanian one by adding to it the Romanian suffix –a.
Who were the Gavaons?
THE FIRST MENTION discovered BY ME of the self-designation GAVAON can be found in a medieval manuscript called SLOVO GRIGORIA BOGOSLOVA, from 1511, in Moldavia. The document has some corrections and explanations. On the page 78 the word “gavaon” appears, with a marginal note reading ”tsigani”. This is information can be found in “Studii și materiale de istorie medie”, vol. VI page 334. Furthermore, another document reveals the reason why the Gavaons were slaves. The reason was that the Gavaons were not Christians, and this can be found in the article ”Considerațuni asupra termenilor Vlah și rumîn pe baza documentelor interne ale Țării Romînești din veacurile XIV-XVII” by Șt. Ștefănescu. In the document issued in 14 January 1617, it is written that Alexandru Iliaș grants to the village Văslăneștii and to all elders the right of ownership. The dwellers of this village were “vecini ” (another medieval Romanian social category, very close to slavery), of the mistress Balosina. Before her death, she wanted to “give them to the monastery, to be an alms gift. But they considered that they would be of no use, because their sins would be multiplied and they would be damned, because they are Christian Vlachs, they are not Țigani, which are called in their language Gavaons.” As a result, the mistress gives the village to the former slaves as a gift. This is the commentary of Șt. Ștefănescu :
“The words of mistress Balosina and her husband Dima highlight the drama of the vast majority of the population of the country, which due to feudal politics were forced into the situation of being slaves, in the hands of the landlords. Renouncing the traditional practice because she was facing death, feeling it close, being afraid that “their sins and the maledictions upon them would be multiplied”, the mistress Balosina and her husband decide to grant liberty to the "vecini" from Vălsănești. The motive behind this decision is that they, the vecini from Vălsănești, “are Christian Vlachs, not țigani, who are called in their language Gavaons”. That designation, which shows the ethnicity, as well as the affiliation to the Christian religion, seems to be all that remained in the mind of feudal landlords as the only distinctive elements between the dependent peasants and the tigani slaves.” (Ștefănescu, 1960: 71)
From the document issued at 14 January 1617 comes the idea that the Tsigani were not Christians, and therefore anyone can do anything with them on the basis of their heresy. THE ROMA NEVER SELF-DESIGNATED GAVAONS IN THEIR LANGUAGE. It seems that the Gavaons kept their ethnic identity from 1511 to 1634. In that time another document speaks about the self-designation of Gavaon Covaci (BLACKSMITH), AND IN 1636 it appears one more time under the form ”sălaș of gavaoni” i.e. family of slaves (5).
If the Tsigani Gavoni Blacksmiths (covaci) still remembered their self-designation in 1636, it means that their offspring are living today but they forgot their language. In Romania there exists a belief amongst the Blacksmith Tigani that they alone, who do not speak the Romani language, are the real Blacksmiths, and not the speakers of Romani languages who are also blacksmiths. These non-speakers of Romani believe that they belong to Hamite family. I heard the same opinion from Ciprian Necula, who holds a PhD degree in Romani anthroplogy. He told me that I am not a real blacksmith because I speak the Romani language. I contradicted him saying that the names of tools and metals used by Roma blacksmiths are in Hindi, showing that the first Roma blacksmiths came from India with Romani smithcraft. It seems that the “Tsigani de vatră” (blacksmiths) from Zane`s account are the blacksmiths to whom the Romanian ruler Alexandru cel Bun gave the right to free use of water and to make fire for smithcraft. In fact the traditional self-designation “Tsigani de vatră” of some Romanian Gypsies, reveals to us that they are blacksmiths, because the Romanian word “vatră” means the fire-place of a blacksmith. This is an old sense of the word “vatră”. The second-meaning of it is “home” or “place”, many gypsies believing that their self-designation means that they are the first gypsies who abandoned their nomadic life. This mistaken belief about the first old meaning of the self-designation ”Tsigani de vatră” was possibly due to lack of knowledge of the original meaning, namely “fire-place”. Is it possible that the Athinganoi were the same people who were enslaved in Tismana monastery at 1385? The second nation it seems to be the Gavaon/Covaci (blacksmiths). After 1385, Alexandru cel Bun (ruled between 1400-1432) gifted the Bistrița monastery 31 groups of tsigani and 12 of tatars. I theorize that the Tsigani were the Gavaons, as non-members of the Christian religion, and the Tatars were war prisoners. I believe this because Zamfir Arbure (6) said that the ruler Alexandru cel Bun gave the right to practice smithcraft to the Tsigani: “According to a letter of Alexandru cel Bun, the Ruler of Moldavia, gave to the Țigani << the right to use air and water freely, and to make fire for smithcraft>>”. The same author said that in his time (1898), the Vătrași (Tsigani de vatră), were living in towns as servants, singers and “argat” – hired servants for hard labour. Zamfir Arbure classifies the Tsigani into three categories:
-The Vătrași (the former blacksmiths, after our incursion into their history).
-The Lingurari (the spoon makers, or the Rudari, another group of Gypsies who do not know the Romani language)
-The Ursari (bear-trainers, real Roma, or Laieși, as are named by Zamfir Arbure. Laie meant black in the old Romanian.
I suppose that those Gypsies who have surnames as Scripcaru (violinist), Cobzaru (another type of old violin), Cimpoieru (bagpiper), etc., in fact belong to the Tsigani de Vatră/Vatrashi, or formerly Gavaons. The book of Zamfir Arbure can be found online at :
The expression ”Tsigan de vatră” is used as a self-designation by a lot of Romanian Gypsies who do not know the Romani language. In “Anuarul Societății Prahovene de Antropologie Generală”, nr. 1, 2015, I tried to explain the name Gavaon as being of Avar (10) origin, on the basis of Bogdan Petriceu's research: https://www.scribd.com/doc/307478221/Rom-or-%C8%9Aigan. See the footnote on page 37, my article ”Between an Exonym and an Antonym, Or a Medieval Superimiposition”. In brief, in medieval Romania, some of the criteria for taking slaves were:
-the black colour, as was the case with the Ethiopian slaves called Arap in the old Romanian language. The curse of the black colour has the source in Bible, when Noah curses his son Ham. In the Hebrew language Ham means SUNBURST, black, swarthy
- the non-membership of the Christian religion. At least two populations were enslaved on the basis of this reason. The first are the Athinganoi, the byzantine heretic sect, and secondly, the Gavaons. The Romanian old form Ațigan exists also in the Romanian mediaval documents about slavery, so we can conclude that the Athinganoi became slaves in the Romanian monasteries. The word Ațigani could not be written without the presence of the people self-designating themselves as Ațiganoi. ”The etymology of the word is not certain, but a common determination is a derivation in Greek for "(the) untouchables" derived from a privative alpha prefix and the verb thingano (θιγγάνω, to touch).” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athinganoi).
The most interesting for identification are the mysterious Gavaon people, which are totally unknown to modern Romanian history, with only the medieval Romanian documents proving that this race existed and spent a long period of time in slavery. The Gavaons little by little forgot their original language, and simply became Romanians, but kept their identity as Tsigani only (former social category, and after the release from slavery (1833) as a self-designation), i.e., slaves in the old Romanian language. The word Tsigani was first used to designate the Greek athinganoi, and then all the enslaved populations in Romania.
THE ONLY WAY TO RECOGNISE A ROM WAS THE INHERITED KNOWLEDGE OF THE ROMANI LANGUAGE, BECAUSE NOT ONLY THE ROMA WERE DARK-SKINNED SLAVES, BUT THE ETHIOPIANS TOO, so the colour was not the principal factor of identification among the Romanian slaves, but the language. Mister Ronald Lee (11), a native Romani speaker, living in Canada, wrote in his book "Das duma Romanes", at page 218, the old tradition of gypsies regarding the Rom who don't know the Romani language: “Rom bi shibako nai Rrom - A Rom without tongue is not a Rom (i.e. a Rom who doesn`t speak Romani is not a Rom). The gypsies who don't speak the Romani language are called Kashtale: Wo si Rrom kashtalo- he is a wooden one (unable to speak Romani). Nai chache Rroma, Kashtale si- They are not real Rroma. They are wooden ones. Rrom Kahstalo would be Rrom bi-shibako. ” (Ronald Lee, page 164). Ronald Lee's book can be found online.
THE TSIGANI SUCCEEDED, NOT THE ROMA!
Nicoale Gheorghe (N.G) the founder of Romanian gypsy NGOism, said in an interview (12) with Iuliu Rostas (I.R.):
N.G.: And? Who succeeded : the Roma or Gypsies ? I.R .: I think the fact that we present ourselves as Roma, you cannot present as tsigani. Because the emancipatory project is the Roma one, the emancipatory project is not the Gypsy one. N.G.: Whose emancipatory project? Who is the political actor that is presenting the project? I.R.: The Roma activists. N.G.: WHICH ARE ŢIGANI. THE MAJORITY ORIGINATE FROM TSIGANI, NOT FROM TRADITIONAL ROMA. I.R.: They define themselves as Roms, they label themselves as Roms. N.G.: This is what I mean, but they are not necessarily recognized as true Roms.
How have the FAKE-ROMA succeded?
N.G.: And if you can have access to resources (i.e., money) by pretending to be a Rom is good, because we are all Roms somehow. (Rom sau Tigan, pag 336)
The resources about which Nicolae Gheorghe is speaking, are the money stolen by the NGOs. Because they stole that money, now many Roms are very poor and forced to steal, the gypsy children are begging and the gypsy girls engaged in prostitution. All these sins will be on the heads of the fake Roms. Nicolae Gheorghe was a baptized Christian! Baptized by the self-proclaimed gypsy king Cioabă himself!
Nicolae Gheorghe was not a Rom, he said it, and he wanted to die as a Tsigan!
N.G.: If I am going to die, if I talk constantly with Death, I want to die like a human being, or like a tsigan, but I cannot and will not die as a Rom. (Rom sau Țigan, pag. 328)
N.G.: I mean that I am not, I do not qualify as a Roma and so I feel myself more complete and comfortable as tsigan, in the Romanian vernacular meaning of the word: willy-nilly, in the way that I was raised, this word is more familiar to me, as the Romanian saying states that “the shirt is closer to the skin”. (Rom sau Țigan, pag. 328)
N.G.: My mother did not allow me to mix with the tsiganii laetsi (as she called the Roms living in tents), she used to say that they are dirty and dangerous. My first terror about gypsies came from my mother, and she inculcated it into me so deeply that I feel it still. (Rom sau Tigan, pag. 321)
The Kashtale never knew that the Roma are calling themselves “Roma” before the Romanian Revolution, but after the Revolution, they become Roma because they had ACCESS to Roma resources, as Nicolae Gheorghe said. More about Nicolae Gheorghe:
The book Rom sau Tigan was written with the aim of clarifying the confusion between the two words Rom (gypsy) and Român (native inhabitant of Romania). It can be downloaded from: http://www.fundatia.ro/sites/default/files/ro_124_Rom%20sau%20tigan.pdf
The wrong belief that any Tsigan from Romania is a Rom, must STOP! As we can clearly see, it is WRITTEN in the medieval Romanian documents that in Romania many different populations were enslaved.
Translated by Natalie Winter-Iwend, co-founder of Indo-Romani Vidyalaya