history of early ottoman bulgaria - Condition of the Bulgarian population
In the Ottoman Empire, Christians (known as “gyaurs”, i.e. non-believers) were subordinate to Muslims and lacked many rights that the latter had. In courts they had lower standing than Muslims and their testimony as witnesses was disregarded. In addition, Christians were forced to pay much higher taxes than Muslims. This was one of the main reasons why the Ottomans did not convert much of the Christian population to Islam.

The Ottomans did not normally require the Christians to become Muslims. Nevertheless, there were many cases of individual or mass forced islamization, especially in the Rhodopes. Non-Muslims did not serve in the Sultan's army. The exception to this were some groups of the population with specific statute, usually used for auxiliary or rear services, and the famous blood tax (кръвен данък), also known as devşirme, whereby every fifth young boy was taken to be trained as a warrior of the Empire. These boys went through harsh religious and military training that turned them into an elite corps subservient to the Sultan. These corps were called Janissaries ( yeni çeri or "new force") and were an elite and loyal unit of the Ottoman army.

After the Ottoman conquest all major centers of Bulgarian culture were destroyed, most of the written works were lost and the educated clergy that survived escaped to other Slavic countries. Bulgarian culture entered a long period of slumber, during which it was isolated from many of the processes that occurred throughout the rest of Europe.

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