Assuming the role of an incomparable dramatist, history synchronises events and actors; thus, in such a small space like Macedonia it has always confronted dramatically diverse ideologies and policies. The peak of that direct confrontation was certainly the centuries-long parallel existence of the Islamic model, represented by the political, military, and economic authority of Turkey, on the one hand, and the defeated, suppressed Christian model, on the other. Whatever explains the fact that today both models exist in symbiosis and tolerance in Macedonia, after as many as 550 years of unlimited supremacy of one over the other, the answer will, nonetheless, be incomplete unless an essential point is emphasised:  the power and the domination were unlimitedly enormous in theory, but not in practice. The empire that conquered the strongest fortresses, destroyed the fortifications of powerful countries from Baghdad to Vienna, occupied Thessaloniki three times -- while holding it under reign for almost 400 years -- could have easily and in no time destroyed the basilicas and monasteries across Macedonia.

In the light of the constantly burning issue of ethnic animosity, which has allegedly 'hovered about' the Balkans and Macedonia for centuries, the churches dating from the time before the Turks, as well as those built and often renovated during the Turkish occupation, preserved by a state order and financially aided by the state (the monastery of St. Joakim of Osogovo, for instance, which was seriously damaged in the fire of the end of the 19^th century, received financial aid for its reconstruction by the government of Sultan Abdul Hamit) -- serve as an undeniable dèmenti and a solid guarantee of the possible prevalence of construction over destruction and of the universal sense of humanism over the pathologic xenophobia -- at least in Macedonia. After the Turkish Empire's withdrawal, it was only Macedonia where so many holy Islamic buildings could be preserved. According to Turkish sources, out of the approximately 450 mosques in Budapest and about 400 in Belgrade, there is only one in each city today! Quite a self-explanatory fact if compared with corresponding facts about Macedonia!

In Macedonia, even the Islamic art has been treated with more civilised and aesthetic respect, and better preserved than in many other seemingly superior and more developed countries. It would be sufficient to mention the Clock Tower in Skopje (Saat kula) -- recorded even in Ripley's "Believe-it-or-not" column as the oldest Islamic clock tower in Europe. Today, it stands high on the hill over Bit Pazar, along with the large mosque, heavily damaged in the renowned Skopje earthquake, and renovated by the state.

Macedonia by Ferid Muhic