The decade or the century? I'm going to assume century as it gives me a bit more leeway.

I've been reading a bit about the mid-seventeenth century, so I checked a bunch of sources I know for anything about Sophia. It was actually kind of disappointing, but I'll post them all here. I don't know a huge amount about Eastern Europe, so I'll avoid interpretation.

Firstly, Lucas D'Heer's 'Théâtre de tous les peuples et nations de la terre' from the 1570s has nine pages of ottoman illustrations, starting with the Grand Siegneur, and including men, women, soldiers, Greeks and Armenians. It all seems pretty accurate (even the guy with the entire bird's wing nailed to his shield)[edit: I've found the source he used. I'm still not sure I totally trust all the pictures. It also has a Jewish girl from Adrianople which is a bit closer to Sophia, and some realistic pictures of those odd four-pointed hats]

In the seventeenth century a number of Istanbul painters did sets of paintings of court officials and various professions in different costume for sale to western travellers. A couple of examples include the Peter Mundy's book from 1618 (relevant pictures: Rumalian Sipahi and a Jew from Constantinople) and the Rålamb costume book of 1657 (the website that's hosted on has several other Ottoman illustrations, though it's very military-focused).

There are also a couple of travel books. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier travelled through in 1631, but, as the route was fairly well known, doesn't say much. In the J. Phillips translation (1678) it reads:

From Belgrade we took some Saddle Horses, some Coaches for Adrianople, as every one lik'd best. We pass'd through Sophia, a large and well peopl'd City, the Metropolis of the ancient Bulgarians, and the residence of the Basha of Romeli. In it stands a fair Mosquee, which hath been a Christian Church, built with so much Art, that three men may go up to the top of the Steeple, and not see one another

Peter Mundy (who collected one of the picture albums above) passed through in May 1620, but his description is not all that more detailed (despite being longer). It's mostly concerned with the 'Beglerbeg of Gretia' who was about to set out for the Black Sea to fight the Cossacks (the editors have included a description from a French traveller in the footnotes too, but my French is terrible). He does however have short descriptions of the small towns he stayed in near Sofia. Later in the book (p.72) however we get the first actual description I've come across of Bulgarian costume (Murrat, who's finding a Bulgarian wife for his brother, is an Armenian from Istanbul who'd been traveling with them). Despite the very good descriptions, there's the obvious problem that Belgrade is in Serbia, which makes me wonder what's actually meant by 'Bulgarian'. The book also contains various passages from other authors (both included by Mundy, and by the 19th century editors). On page 151 another English traveller passes through Sophia and is told by 'a learned Jew' that a nearby stream is the Strymon where Orpheus was killed (note also the drummers warning of bandits in the hills, which are also mentioned by Mundy). There is also a quote from a 1675 traveller who stayed in Adrianople (Edirne) and says

'the house we first were allotted was the damn'dest, confounded place that ever mortall man was put into; it was a Jewes house not half big enough to hold half my Lord's family, a mere nest of fleas and cimici [bugs], and rats and mice, and stench, surrounded with whole kennells of nasty, beastly Jewes.'

It's more racist than illuminating, but I suppose it shows that some Jews lived in relative squalor (and still took in guests). If you can read French, there's another appendix that mentions Sophia (apparently the surrounding countryside is 'beaucoup plus desagreable'), but, as I said, I really can't.

As you can tell, I'm not familiar with the languages to give an internal point of view, so this is a very external, western European view, but it was all I could find.