The Rhodope Mountains (pronounced rod-uh-pee) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe. Over 83% of the range area is located in southern Bulgaria. The Rhodopes have a rich cultural heritage including ancient Thracian sites, medieval castles, churches, monasteries and picturesque villages with traditional Bulgarian architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. Major cities in the Eastern Rhodope area include Haskovo and Kardzhali. Smaller towns including Momchilgrad, Krumovgrad, Zlatograd and Kirkovo are included in this area. The Eastern Rhodopes, significantly lower than the Western mountains, are more populated by various people groups.

The Rhodopes have been a place of ethnic and religious diversity for hundreds of years. Apart from the Eastern Orthodox Bulgarians and Greeks, the mountains are also home to a number of Muslim communities, including a large concentration of Bulgarian Turks, particularly in the Eastern Rhodopes. The mountains are also one of the regions associated with the Sarakatsani, a nomadic Greek people who traditionally roamed between Northern Thrace and the Aegean coast.

The Bulgarian Muslims are Bulgarians of Islamic faith. They are generally thought to be the descendants of the local Slavs who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule. Bulgarian Muslims live mostly in the Rhodopes, specifically in the southern locales of the Pazardzhik and Kardzhali Provinces. Due to the multitude of different ethnic and religious identities of the Muslim Bulgarians, it is extremely difficult to calculate the exact number of the members of the community in Bulgaria.

Today, Bulgarian Muslims are generally considered descendants of native Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans. A mass conversion to Islam in the Rhodope Mountains occurred between the 16th and the 17th centuries. According to the tradition of the Bulgarians, the residents of the Chepino Valley were told that they would be executed if they did not convert to Islam. In 1656, Ottoman military troops entered this area of the Rhodopes and arrested the local Bulgarian provosts in order to transfer them to the Ottoman administrator. There, they converted to Islam. Grand Vizier Mehmed Köprülü, after the mass Islamization, destroyed 218 churches and 336 chapels in these areas. Many Bulgarians preferred to die instead of converting at the edge of the sword.