# Yordan Hadzhikonstantinov-Dzhinot

Yordan Hadzhikonstantinov - Dzhinot (Bulgarian: Йордан Хаджиконстантинов - Джинот, Macedonian: Jордан Хаџи Константинов - Џинот, romanized: Jordan Hadži Konstantinov - Džinot, spelled in the pre-reformed Bulgarian orthography: Iорданъ Хачиъ Константиновъ Чиновъ; c. 1818 – 22 August 1882), was a Bulgarian teacher and author, and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival during the 19th century.
Hadzhikonstantinov devoted all his life to the cause of secular public education, and he actively promoted the idea of enforcement of spoken vernacular in the schools and applying of modern pedagogical practices.

## Biography

He was born around 1818 in Veles, Ottoman Empire (today North Macedonia). Hadzhikonstantinov completed his basic education in a local church school at Veles and next, he attended the high schools at Thessaloniki and Samokov. In 1840 he started to teach as a private teacher, and in 1845 he was appointed a teacher in a municipal school at Veles. There Hadzhikonstantinov was involved in a conflict with the Greek clergy and was forced to leave the town. In 1848 he settled in Skopje, where he worked as a teacher in the Bulgarian school. There Hadzhikonstantinov applied modern pedagogical methods in his practice. In January 1857, Hadzhikonstantinov was dismissed from the service under the pressure of the Greek metropolitan bishop of Skopje. The same year the local Ottoman authorities had Hadzhikonstantinov exiled from Skopje, where he would not return.
In 1861, when the Grand Vizier of the Empire visited Veles, the local bishop Benedictus accused Hadzhikonstantinov of spying and conspiracy with the Serbs and the Bulgarian leader Georgi Rakovski, whose prohibited in Turkey books and newspapers he had kept in his private library. The Grand Vizier believed the allegations and had Hadzhikonstantinov exiled in Aydın, (Asia Minor). On the way to Aydin Hadzhikonstantinov lost one of his eyes, and because of that he was called "The Jinn" (Джинот, Dzhinot). He returned from exile in 1863 and devoted all of his time to education.
Hadzhikonstantinov-Dzhinot died in Veles on 22 August 1882.

## Works, views and legacy

Hadzhikonstantinov was in touch with the Society of the Serbian Letters (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts) in Belgrade and he published some of his discoveries on the pages of Glasnik (an official tribune of the society). On 24 January 1854, Hadzhikonstantinov sent from Skopje a manuscript copy of а medieval Bulgarian record, called "A narration about the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in 1235", which was discovered at first by Dzhinot and was published in Glasnik in 1855. Hadzhikonstantinov-Dzhinot found a manuscript of a Bulgarian medieval story "An oration of Saint Cyril, how he baptized the Bulgarian people", called "Solunska legenda" ("A legend from Thesalonika"). It was published in Glasnik in 1856.
Hadzhikonsatntinov was the author of some patriotic articles in the Bulgarian Tsarigradski Vestnik (Istanbul newspaper), as "God" (published in 1851), "Bulgarian literature" (1852), "About the Church Slavonic language" (1852), "Veles" (1857), "Prilep" (1854) etc. They contain information about the history and geography of the Macedonian region, and also some information about the history of the Bulgarian people, Bulgarian education and the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid. Being an adherent of the autochthonous theory about the origin of the Bulgarians, Hadzhikonstantinov-Dzhinot thought that Bulgarians are descendants of the ancient Thracians and Illyrians. In his publications, Hadzhikonstantinov lost no occasion to declare his Bulgarian identity. He openly stated: " I am Bulgarian, and I bewail our lost Bulgarians, who are in Lower Moesia, and it is our duty to lay down our life for our brothers, the dearest Bulgarians". According to the post-WWII Macedonian rendition of history, Dzhinot had an ethnic Macedonian identity and promoted education in Macedonian.