Who are the Roma -- also colloquially called "Gypsies"? Where did they come from, and how did they end up all over Europe? How have they endured through persecution, expulsions, and political upheaval, without a state or country of their own? We trace the path of this remarkable and resilient people from their mysterious origins in India to their arrival in Constantinople and medieval Europe and through the wave of persecution and ethnic cleansing in the 1600s.
Please sign on as a patron at any level to hear part 2 -- tracing the journeys of the Roma through the revolutions and national awakenings of the 19th century, the Holocaust, and modern politics -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/51774522
Update: A contemporary historian, Kristina Richardson, has recently researched the lives and customs of the longstanding Romani group in medieval-era Egypt, commonly called the Ghuraba. It seems likely that at least one major Roma group that migrated into Europe, particularly western Europe, derived from the Ghuraba. One can see Richardson discussing her work in various places, including here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERSduCs3Afg
Image: Gypsies telling fortunes, in Cosmographie Universelle, Munster, 1552.
Suggested further reading: Angus Fraser, "The Gypsies"; Isabel Fonseca, "Bury Me Standing."
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