Plovdiv: Granada of the East
Plovdiv: Granada of the East Abdal Hakim Murad When the Turkish traveller Evliya ?elebi passed through the Balkan city of Plovdiv in 1650, he puljavascript:void(0) Publishled out all the organ stops of Ottoman panegyric to describe this ?mighty city.? He counted fifty-three mosques, seventy Qur?anic schools, nine madrasas, seven colleges for advanced Qur?anic recitation, eight public baths, and eleven Sufi lodges. Of the city?s neighbourhoods, thirty-three were Muslim, five were Christian, and one was Jewish. Nine caravansarays serviced the abundant…