Muslim Roma are Romani people of Muslim religious affiliation. Muslim Roma generally trace their faith to ancestors who converted to Islam at the time of the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia or the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, to not pay Jizya.
They are often called Xoraxane (pronunciation: Khorakhane) in the Romani language, an umbrella term for Muslim or Turkified Romani people, or commonly known as Turkish Gypsies (Turkoyiftoi, Türk Çingene). The etymology of the term Xoroxane is unclear, although it is theorised to be etymologically linked to the Kara-Khanid Khanate. It is used in Romani to refer to Romani people with a Muslim or Turkified lifestyle, regardless of which country they live in, which subgroup they belong to, and even if they are Muslim or speak the Turkish language or not. The biggest group are the Romanlar in Turkey. In Bulgaria, Greece, Northern Cyprus, Turkey and Romania (Dobruja), many Xoraxane deny their Romani Background, speak only Turkish and have a strong Turkish Identity trough Turkification and Cultural assimilation in Turkish society and declare themselves as Turkish people only, but some speak Xoraxane Romani dialect together, like in Greek Thrace. Muslim Roma may have little in common with Christian Roma, especially the Turkish-speaking Muslim Roma .
Gene flow from Turks into the Xoraxane Romani population during the Ottoman Empire, happened trough the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. About Paspati in his Book from 1860-1863, he mentioned that Ottoman Turkish Men often married Romani woman. Under the reign of Abdulhamid II, there status was changend and they was named as Buçuk Millet. Also Abdal of Turkey, Dom people and Lom people Genetic influence in the Muslim Roma population, happend in the time of the Ottoman Empire, all three groups of the Lom-Dom-Rom, called Çingeneler (Gypsy) in Turkish. At the end of the 19th century, Orthodox Christian Lom people in Istanbul convert to Islam. The Basketmaker-Roma (Sepecides) group from Saloniki who went to Izmir in 1923, are of Turkish-Greek origin. Genflow from Albanians, Slavs, Greeks and from People of Caucasus and Jats. Some Romani Men share the R1a1 Y-DNA Haplogroup, who show a Brahmin Ancestry, or Jats, because Y-DNA R1a1 are also be found in Jats.
The Egyptians Act 1530 and Egyptian Act of 1554 expelled Romani people from England. 10,000 thousand expelled Romani people went to the Ottoman Empire and became Muslims. There descendants call themself until today Egyptians.
In the countrys who once belongend to former Yugoslavia many Xoraxane Roma hide their Romani heritage too, and speak only Albanian language, or one of the several South Slavic languages, few also speak Turkish language.
Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the so called Turkmen Copt, an Ottoman Turkish language speaking Muslim Romani group of 4 clans was settled in the Balkans Some of this Turkish speaking Muslim Gypsy Men from Bulgaria went to Poland as Guest workers and married Polish Woman and got children with them. This Offsprings called Melezi, a Turkish Loanword in the Romani language dialects of Muslim Roma for people with mixed Romani blood.
A Group of Nomadic Xoraxane went from Ottoman-Bulgaria to Persia under the reign of Nader Shah and became Shia Muslim. They still live in Iran until today and named Zargari tribe, and speak there own Romani language, havenly influenced with words from Azerbaijani language and Persian language.
At the Greek War of Independence 1821–1829, Crimean War 1853–1856, Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Balkan Wars 1912-1913, World War I 1914-1918, and the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, many Xoraxane-Roma together with other Non-Romani Muslims was expelled from Bulgaria and Greece and other parts of the Balkans to settle in Turkey.
At the time of communism in the 1950's from Bulgaria, some Turkish-speaking Muslim Gypsies migrated to Romania , particularly to Dobruja, where a Turkish-speaking Muslim Gypsy community had already existed since Ottoman times, together with Turkish people and Tatars.
From Turkey and Ex-Yugoslavia, some Romani people of a Muslim Background migrated to Germany and Austria in the 1960's and 1970's as so-called guest-workers, where some Romani settled and intermarried with ethnic German or Austrian women.
In Crimea live several different Groups of Muslim Roma since the time of the Crimean Khanate, the majority of them speak Crimean Tatar language and take a Crimean Tatars Identity.
Muslim Roma suffer twice from exclusion, through Antiziganism and Islamophobia.
There are different First languages spoken by Xoroxane Romani:
- Xoraxane Romani who speak only Romani language
- Xoraxane Romani who speak only Albanian language
- Xoraxane Romani who speak only Turkish language
- Xoraxane Romani who speak only Crimean Tatar language
- Xoraxane Romani who speak only South Slavic languages
The majority of Muslim Roma lives in:
