This article investigates Muslim opposition to European reforms within the framework of the Macedonian Question as it developed between 1878 and 1908. Reforms granted to the Christian communities in the Macedonian provinces after the Berlin Treaty (1878) did not bring tranquillity but rather contributed to the escalation of the existing turmoil. In addition, the worsening situation and the diminishing role of the Ottoman administration as a result of European interference created concern, but more importantly caused an in¬tensification of religious sentiment among the Muslims. As a result, various classes of Macedonian Muslims, urban and rural, peasants and professionals, joined forces to prevent a further decline in their circumstances by demanding reform to the central administration. In the late nineteenth century there were no groups who called themselves 'Christian Macedonians', though there were Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs and Vlachs who were Christians and filled with national aspirations, and Europeans failed to understand this crucial aspect of the Macedonian Question.1 Reforms granted to the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire under article 23 of the Berlin Treaty (1878) were inevitably going to encourage different Christian communities still living under the Ottoman domains. However, the Europeans underestimated the sensitivity of the situation and hoped to bring at least temporary tranquillity to the existing turmoil.