Xoraxane (term)
{{Short description|Term for Muslim Romani people}}
Xoraxane (also spelled as Khorakhane, Khorakhanè, Horahane, Kharokane, Xoraxai, lit. ‘those of the Quran’) is a Romani term of Turkish origin used to refer to Muslim Roma.{{Cite web |title=Xoraxane Roma |url=https://www.romarchive.eu/en/terms/xoraxane-roma/ |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=www.romarchive.eu}} Most Muslim Roma trace their faith back to ancestors who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period in the Balkans. While they remain primarily concentrated in the Balkans, they have also dispersed across other parts of Europe.{{Cite web |title=Roma – Sub Ethnic Groups |url=http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/topics/names.en.xml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107001458/http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/topics/names.en.xml |archive-date=7 November 2014 |website=Rombase.uni-graz.at}}
Muslim Roma are typically cultural Muslims.{{cite book |last=Becky |first=Taylor |title=Another Darkness, Another Dawn: A History of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers |publisher=Reaktion Books |year=2014 |isbn=9781780232973 |page=31}}{{cite journal |last1=Barutcu |first1=Atilla |date=January 2015 |title="Ucundan Azıcık"la Atılan Sağlam Temel: Türkiye'de Sünnet Ritüeli ve Erkeklik İlişkisi |url=https://www.academia.edu/15014473 |journal=Masculinities: A Journal of Identity and Culture}} They often identify with Sunni Islam, particularly the Hanafi madhhab. The biggest Tariqa of Jerrahi is located at the largest Arlije and Gurbeti Muslim Roma settlement in Europe in Šuto Orizari (Shutka), North Macedonia. They have their own mosque and Romani Imam{{cite journal |year=2010 |title=Society: Macedonia's Romani Imam |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=61416 |journal=Transitions Online |issue=6/08}} and use the Quran in the Romani language.{{cite web |title=Quran Collection: The Noble Quran in Romani Language – (Juzz Amma) -... | Romani language, Noble quran, Romani |url=https://www.pinterest.de/pin/827888343969847915/}}
Muslim Roma generally preserve enduring influences of Ottoman culture, as shaped in former European provinces of the Ottoman Empire.{{Cite web |last1=Marushiakova |first1=Elena |last2=Popov |first2=Vesselin |date=2018 |title=Roma Communities on the Balkans: History and Identities |url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/15711/MarushiakovaPopov_2018_Balkania_Roma_ENG.pdf;jsessionid=577200CD1437859B3389B0C9E020CD3E?sequence=1 |website=University of St. Andrews |pages=13–14}}{{Cite web |title=The Muslim Gypsies in Romania |url=https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2721940/view |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=Universiteit Leiden |format=PDF}} The majority of Muslim Roma in the former Yugoslavia speak Balkan Romani and South Slavic languages, while many speak only the language from the host countries. The Albanized Muslim Roma groups from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia, speak only the Albanian language and are called Khorakhan Shiptari; they have fully adopted the Albanian culture.{{Cite web|url=https://www2.umbc.edu/MA/index/number2/rom/rom1ide.htm|title=The identity of a Gypsy community|website=www2.umbc.edu}}
Diaspora in the Americas
=United States=
The first Xoraxane came to the United States from Yugoslavia (from what is now North Macedonia) around 1960s and settled in the Bronx, where they built a mosque and were cultural Muslims. They typically have minimal ties with other Romani people in America. Later, during the Balkan war in the 1990s, a group of Muslim Roma came from Bosnia and settled in St. Louis, Missouri.{{Cite web|url=https://juliecantrell.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/about-the-roma-romani-americans-then-and-now/|title=About the Roma: Romani Americans Then and Now|first=Julie|last=Cantrell|date=February 4, 2012}}{{Cite web| title=Macedonian Roma: Hidden in Plain Sight | url=https://static.america.gov/uploads/sites/8/2016/04/American-Communities-Series_Macedonian-Roma_English_508.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125075153/https://static.america.gov/uploads/sites/8/2016/04/American-Communities-Series_Macedonian-Roma_English_508.pdf | archive-date=2017-01-25}}
=Chile=
A small group of Xoraxane came from Serbia around the 19th century and settled in Chile, where they converted to the Catholic faith and broke with Islam but by the end of the 20th century, these Xoraxane had all adopted Adventist evangelical beliefs, however they practice Qurban (Islamic ritual sacrifice), which they call it Kurbano.{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382533197|title=THE XORAXANE ROMA OF CHILE. Ethnographic notes by a linguist.}}