Czarny Arab jako symbol obcości w świecie bohaterów południowosłowiańskich pieśni ludowych

Abstract

The article is based on the texts of folk songs of the Serbs, Bulgarians and Macedonians depicting a negative hero for the Balkan Slavs. The long process of mythologizing of their own Slavic heroes helped to shape the form of foreign value, which was the Black Arab. The Black Arab in the folklore of the southern Slavs, created in the time of the domination of the Ottoman Empire, passed as an allegorical image of the enemy – the oppressor, persecutor, plunderer, invader and lecher, which later came to refer to the representatives of the hated power of the Turkish Empire. The creation of a complex syncretic form of antagonist plaguing Slavic Christians of the Balkans is the most expressive pattern of a stranger, who was typically confronted and defeated by a brave Slavic hero. His defeat, presented in folklore, and later transferred to the paintings, sometimes with gore details, like decapitations or ripping of guts, symbolizes a total and final victory over evil, securing that such an evil cannot be reborn. Actions of brave and clever Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian heroes were the form of justice and ultimate victory over evil. The Black Arab can be considered an embodiment of Turkish oppressor. Fighting against him became a compensation procedure generating pride in belonging to their own ethnic group.