Vallahades

thumb|Vallahades in Vrostiani, 1923 The Vallahades () or Valaades () are a Greek-speaking Muslim population who lived along the river Haliacmon in southwest Greek Macedonia, in and around Anaselitsa (modern Neapoli) and Grevena. They numbered about 17,000 in the early 20th century. They are a frequently referred-to community of late-Ottoman Empire converts to Islam, because, like the Cretan Muslims, and unlike most other communities of Greek Muslims, the Vallahades retained many aspects of their Greek culture and continued to speak Greek for both private and public purposes. Most other Greek converts to Islam from Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus generally adopted the Ottoman Turkish language and culture and thereby assimilated into mainstream Ottoman society.

== Name == The name Vallahades comes from the Ottoman Turkish Islamic expression 'by God'. They were also known as , Foútsides; from , foútsi m, which is a corruption of the Greek , adelfoútsi mou 'my brother'. They were pejoratively called , Mesimérides, because their imams, who were not proficient in Turkish, announced noon prayer by calling out in Greek , Mesiméri 'noon'. Though some Western travelers speculated that Vallahades is connected to the ethnonym Vlach, this is improbable, as the Vallahades were always Greek-speaking with no detectable Vlach influences. In Turkish they are known as 'patriots'; sometimes 'Greek' is used.