The Muslim population in the Kingdom of Romania

A historical perspective on Romania's Muslim community, which today accounts for 2% of the country's population but was once a sizeable one.

Steliu Lambru, 19.10.2026, 14:00

Since 1878, Romania has also had a Muslim minority among its citizens, which has varied in size over time, and this happened after Dobrogea became part of the Kingdom of Romania. Since then, Muslims in Romania, both Turks and Tatars, have lived alongside the majority population and other ethnic and religious minorities.

The romantic literature of the 19th century created a negative image of Turks and Tatars, which historian Metin Omer says this it was linked to a specific historical context.

“It is, indeed, a negative image, but I think we should be careful. It is a negative image when it refers to the medieval period, for example in texts such Preda Buzescu and The Oak of Borzești. It was an image created against a nationalist trend that relied on the idea of the existence of an external enemy. The image refers more to the period of relations with the Ottoman Empire, with the Crimean Khanate. But when literature and public opinion refer to the period after 1878, in general, the image is a positive one, it is even a melancholy one. We have a community that, in the end, is viewed with sympathy by the Romanian public, by the authorities, of course, with certain exceptions. The image can be explained by the fact that this community is very similar to the Romanian majority in terms of social status or economic status.”

1878, when Dobruja was united with Romania was a powerful to the Turks and Tatars living in those parts. Historian Metin Omer explains:

“It was indeed a shock for the Muslim community in Romania, for the Turks and Tatars, after hundreds of years, to become part of a Christian state. And the shock was all the greater for the Tartars, who also had more recent traumas to deal with. I’m referring to the year 1783, when the Crimean Khanate was annexed, and then the period after the Crimean War of 1853-1856, when, due to the Tsarist policies against the Tatar community, many of the Tatars from the Crimean Peninsula were forced to leave their native territory. The same was true of the situation in the Balkans, in the regions from which the Ottoman Empire was forced to withdraw, where the remaining Muslim populations were not very well received.”

However, mutual perceptions between the Muslims and the majority population became positive once the political objectives were achieved. Metin Omer.

“After 1878 and especially in the interwar period, in the demographic context of Dobruja, the Turkish and Tatar community is also seen as an ally of the Romanian state in terms of the then territorial claims of Bulgaria vis-a-vis Southern Dobruja. There was also the relationship with the Republic of Turkey and the fact that this community, after all, never had territorial claims. As for the image that Romanian society has, that the Romanian elites have among the community, in general, it was a positive one and I can give a few examples. The national poet of the Tatars Mehmet Niyazi is one of the most important poets of the Tatar community, who wrote not only in Tatar, but also in Ottoman Turkish. He has a volume of poems called Dedications and the first poem of this volume, there is also an image on it, is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, Carmen Sylva. This admiration for the Romanian society and Romanian culture is also to be seen in the translations of Romanian writers into Turkish and Tatar. For example, Eminescu’s Luceafărul is translated into Turkish and Tatar by writers from this community.”

Part of the Muslim community chose the radical solution of emigration. But another part chose to stay. Metin Omer.

“The first impulse was to emigrate, there was much talk about this in the community at the time. One of the biggest problems was that young Muslims would have to serve their military service in a Christian army, which was unacceptable for many members of their community. But not long after, elites from the community began to publicly oppose the emigration process. And here the attitude of the Romanian political elites mattered a lot, especially King Carol I, who tried to convince the Muslim population to stay and who tried to create an institutional and cultural framework through which the wishes of this community would be respected. In the interwar period, the image of Ataturk also mattered a lot. However, the phenomenon of emigration was extensive, and from 1878 to 1940, approximately 200,000 Turks and Tatars emigrated.”

During communism, Romania’s Muslims endured the same hardships as the rest of the country’s population. Historian Metin Omer tells us more:

“The communist regime was traumatic, just like for the rest of society. In the case of the Turkish and Tatar community, we are also talking about a legacy somehow left over from the interwar period, which put it in a delicate situation with respect to the communist authorities. In the case of both the Tatars and the Turks, we are talking about the relationship with Turkey, a space with which they identified. And in the case of the Tatars, moreover, the situation was also due to the fact that, during the interwar period, part of the Tatar elites had a project, initially a cultural one, but which during the Second World War was even a political one, namely that of creating a Tatar state in the Crimean Peninsula. Towards the end of the Second World War, the authorities in Moscow decided to forcefully deport the entire Tatar population, as of May 18, 1944, an event that is in fact considered genocide, both by the Tatar community and by several Parliaments around the world.”

According to the 2021 census, approximately 39,000 Turks and Tatars still live in Romania today, accounting for 2% of the country’s population.