5

THE SPECIAL IDENTITY OF ISLAM IN THE BALKANS:

The historical, political and cultural factors

which influenced its development

Eirini Kakoulidou

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Keywords

Islamic Studies

Balkan Islam

History of Islam

Ottoman History

Muslim Identities

Comparative Religion

Abstract

Clifford Geertz stated that a major feature of Islamsation is the "effort to adapt a universal, in theory standardised and essentially unchangeable, and a well-integrated system of ritual and belief to the realities of local, even individual, moral and metaphysical perception."1 John Renard described this

1 Geertz, Clifford. Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia.

University of Chicago Press, 1971, p. 15.

2Renard, John. Islam and the Heroic Image: Themes in Literature and the Visual Arts. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993, p 14.

3 In 1517, Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, conquered Cairo and

6

phenomenon as an "indigenisation" or a "process by which a culture, ethnic group, or region puts its own stamp on Islam, and it accounts at least in part for the diversity within Islamdom." 2

The plurinational mixture of the Balkans gives us the opportunity to examine this opinion. Islam acquired a special identity in the Balkans, since it was permeated with the practices of culturally and religiously heterogeneous communities, which had been for more than 600 years members of one of the largest Islamic empires, the Ottoman Empire.

Nonetheless, even though the history of Ottoman invasion and rule in the Balkans, and the role of nationalist criticism by the inhabitants of the Balkan regions in the movement that led to the dissolution of the Empire are well-known issues under the general course of Ottoman history, Western research on Balkan-Ottoman Islam has been sparse. Comparatively, only a few researchers explored the Islamic identity in the Balkans, over the last century. They have documented, however, significant evidence verifying the special Muslim identity in this region. This historical material is valuable, since after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century, the need of the new Balkan states for national legends and religious purity led to the depreciation and destruction of a great part of historical proof about the Ottoman period.

Why is the re-examination of the special identity adopted by Islam in the Balkan Peninsula so interesting nowadays? Undoubtedly, it is not just the fall of communist regimes in the Balkan countries in the late 20th century which led to the religious revival of significant Balkan Muslim communities (such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria) and allowed again the researchers to study them. The permanent nationalistic flare in the Balkans, along with the internationally topical reappearance of the Christian-Muslim conflict, make the examination of historical periods, during which there was an interaction between the two cultures/religions, quite interesting. The research on the historical coexistence of Islam with other People of the Book under Ottoman conquest, in this region might provide contemporary lessons for a more tolerant and peaceful world.

2Renard, John. Islam and the Heroic Image: Themes in Literature and the Visual Arts.

Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993, p 14.

11

Table of Contents

Abstract 5

Dedication7

Acknowledgments 9

Table of Contents.11

Lists of Maps, Tables and Figures... 13

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction17

Muslims in the Balkans. The historical background...18

CHAPTER TWO

The nature of the Islamic expansion. An endless historical debate... 25

CHAPTER THREE

Two periods in Ottoman history | Religious interactions

Holly warriors or pragmatic rulers? The frontier Balkan society29

The transfer of Islamic heritage in the Anatolia region to the Balkans39

The role of interfaith marriages in religious interaction..48

The pioneering field research of Frederic Hasluck.51

CHAPTER FOUR

The Role of Architecture in Maintaining Muslim Identity in the Balkans

Syncretism and politics depict the typology of the first mosques.57

12

Byzantine influences on the new Islamic state ...62

CHAPTER FIVE

The reuse of sacred places ...69

CHAPTER SIX

The transformation of the Ottoman religious policy. The Islamisations

The attitude in religious orthodoxy and the Islamisations .79

Did the Ottomans conquer the Balkans in a religious sense?...............................82

New questions to be answered..88

CHAPTER SEVEN

Islam in the Balkans nowadays.....91

The Balkan communities at a glance .....92

CONCLUSIONS...97

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..103

REFERENCES ..108

APPENDICES

Appendix | The Ottoman mosques of Greece ..111

13

List of Maps, Tables, Figures & Images

MAPS The Balkans as part of the Ottoman Empire. 15 Ottoman Empire at fall of Constantinople in 1453..20 The Ottoman Empire: Acquisitions33 TABLES The millet population in the Balkans and Anatolia, in the early 1500s83 FIGURES Figure 1. Plan of theImaret of Ghazi Evrenos Bey... 59 Figure 2. The difference between the byzantine and the ottoman plan. 64 IMAGES

Isa Beg mosque, Skopje..61 Uc Serefeli Mosque, Edirne.. 62 Sultan Mehmed II the conqueror enters Constantinople ..67

The Athens Parthenon with a mosque inside it. . 77

15

The Balkans as part of the Ottoman Empire

Historical map 1. Pinkerton's 1818 map illustrates the Ottoman territories in Europe during

the early 19th century, including Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria,

Rumania, and Moldova. In most of these countries, the Ottoman heritage has survived until

today as a cultural or even a religious context.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

17

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction | Historical background

Introduction

Having constantly had a wide variety of forms and expressions, Islam in the

Balkans has never been inflexible. This special feature of Balkan Islam is

even nowadays a complex subject for researchers.

This research dissertation will study mostly the early years of the Ottoman

Empire, when the circumstances were favourable for the special identity of

Balkan Islam to be created. When the Ottomans conquered Egypt and the

Arabian Peninsula (16th century) inheriting the responsibility of the Caliphate

from the Mamluks, the religious policy of the Ottoman Empire coordinated

with the orthodox Arabic interpretations, therefore discouraging the

formulation of any belief which could be considered heretic.3

Seeking to prove the special peripheral identity of Islam in the Balkans, this

research dissertation will study the following topics, among others:

3 In 1517, Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, conquered Cairo and

the Islamic holy sites in the Arabian Peninsula, and secured the succession of the caliphate, opening a new chapter in the Ottoman history.

18

a. The common traditions and principals between the local Islamic and

Christian rural populations in Anatolia and Balkans (popular Islam and

popular Orthodox Christianity).

b. The integration of Sufi and pagan influences from Asia Minor during the

migration of Islamised rural populations from Anatolia to the Balkans,

before and mostly after the Ottoman spread, during the 14th century.

c. The established Byzantine cultural background, which was mixed with

Islam in the area during early Ottoman rule.

d. The special way in which some local people converted to Islam.

e. Statistical results of these conversions to Islam in the Balkans under

Ottoman rule.

Muslims in the Balkans. The historical background

Balkan Islam is a part of the European continent, which is a cultural

overpass. It also has a coast, and to a degree an inner area, adjusted and

opposed to the most significant region of Islam in North Africa and the Middle

East. Like al-Andalus, some parts of Italy, Sicily, the Balearics, Crete and

Cyprus which, at least for a while, became important cultural centres of the

medieval Islam, some parts of the Balkans also became directly or indirectly a

mission field for the Islamic faith.

19

Having been a significant part of the Ottoman Empire for many centuries,

the Balkans shared the same political, financial and cultural life with the

Islamic world. As Machiel Kiel points out in his book Studies on the Ottoman

Architecture of the Balkans, some cities, such as Sarajevo, the capital city of

Bosnia, and the two other largest cities, Banja Luka and Mostar, or Tirana,

capital of Albania and Elbasan owe their very existence to the active

urbanisation policy of that state. Didymoteichon and Giannitsa, Greek cities

that today are hardly known, were ancient famous centres of Islamic learning.

After the Ottoman domination, the Balkan cities which evolved from a tiny

fenced town into a great industrial and cultural centre were many: Plovdiv and

the capital city Sofia in Bulgaria and Kavalla as well as Komotini (Gumulcina)

in Greece, are examples and there were also, some smaller towns.

After the first military tour to the area in 1354, the Ottoman presence in the

Balkans lasted for over five centuries. Even though the Ottoman rule ended in

the early twentieth century, the cultural and religious influence of the

Ottomans is evident until these days. The encounter with the Ottomans

produced major changes in the socio-cultural and political organisation of the

area, thus indirectly building the foundations that converted Southeast Europe

into the Balkans. Several racial and cultural Balkan groups were reorganised

from the early nineteenth century. Even though by that time the Empire had

started to gradually retreat from the region, the Ottoman cultural heritage is

still significant, even until today, especially as far as the formation of religious

identities is concerned.

20

Ottoman Empire at fall of Constantinople in 1453

Historical map 2. Source: The Illustrated Guide to Islam, Early Ottoman Architecture by

Manginis, Giorgis, Lorenz Books 2012.

The Ottomans conquered the Balkans progressively approximately from

the mid-14th until the mid-15th century. The conquest of Constantinople

(1453), by Muhammad II the Conqueror (1451-1481), was the most significant

accomplishment of the Ottoman dynasty during the 15th century. From the

14th to the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire encompassed the territories of

the Balkans, parts of western Asia, North Africa, Levant and Arabian

21

Peninsula. In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne and the establishment of the

Republic of Turkey4 led to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

However, contrary to common belief, Islam was introduced in the Balkans

a long time before the era of Ottoman Rule. The Byzantine Empire and some

parts of the Peninsula were exposed to Islam in the tenth century. The first

Balkan Muslims were mainly members of Asiatic tribes which settled in

various parts of the peninsula. A large community lived in the northern

borders of the Balkans, on the Pannonian plain and in the region of todays

Vojvodina and Hungary, and also in Northwestern Bosnia. The southern

Balkans similarly had occasional encounters with Muslims. According to

historical reports, in the thirteenth century, approximately 10,000 to 12,000

Muslim Turkmen settled in the Dobrudja, in the southern Danube delta. These

Muslims, however, left few traces, and most of them, in the end, migrated to

Anatolia.5

Throughout the Ottoman period, the Muslim communities of the Balkans

consisted of three main distinct groups:6

4 goston, Gbor, Masters, Bruce Alan, Encyclopaedia of the Ottoman Empire, Facts on

File 2008, pp. 612-613 5 Bali, Smail, Der Islam und seine geschichtliche Bedeutung fur Sudosteuropa (mit

besonderer Beru cksichtigung Bosniens, in Dopman Hans-Dieter, ed., Religion und Gesellschaft in Sudosteuropa, Sudosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Munich, 1997, pp. 7172.

6 Katsikas, Stefanos, Introduction to the Special Issue European Modernity and Islamic Reformism among the Late-Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Muslims of the Balkans (1830s-1945), Volume 29, Issue 4, 2009, Volume 29, Issue 4, pp. 435-442, Published online: 15 Dec

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a. Local Islamised communities such as Slavic Muslim populations, also

known as Pomaks, who currently live in Bulgaria, Greece, and the

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Muslims of the present-day

Bosnia-Herzegovina and the area of Novi Sad in Serbia), Albanophone

Muslims (currently living mostly in Albania, Kosovo and Greece), Greek

Muslims (such as those living in Crete and Western Macedonia also

known as Valaades) and Vlach-speaking (for example, those in the

village Notia, in the western part of Greek Macedonia), Islamised Jews,

who are also known as Donmedes, (currently living in Istanbul and

Izmir).

b. Turkish Muslim populations who moved to the Balkans during the

Ottoman period and settled in cities or rural areas this group also

consists of nomad or semi-nomad Turkish speaking communities which

migrated to the region during the same period and assumed various

identities that varied from one region to another i.e. Yrks, Konjares;

c. Muslim groups, coming from different origins, whom the Ottomans

forced to settle in the region at a particular historical period (the Tatars

in Dobrudzha, the Circasians in various areas, which nowadays are

part of Greece, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia etc)

2009, Official URL:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602000903411341#.UuZVTyjmCc

23

d. The Romani people (also known as Gypsies and Roma), who lived

a nomadic life across various parts of the region; some of them were

already living in the region at the time of the Ottoman invasion, while

others migrated later.

25

CHAPTER TWO

The nature of the Islamic expansion | An endless historical debate

In the context of this research, it is important to mention that the spread of

Islam in the Balkans during the Ottoman period has initiated, over the last

century7, a vigorous debate among historians, with elements of ethnic and

religious prejudice. Even though this debate sometimes held extreme

theories, it was in fact based on an actual historical background; on the deep

historical relations and the cultural interaction among people who lived in the

Balkans and Anatolia, from the Byzantine and the Pre-Ottoman era until the

end of the Ottoman Empire period. This debate frequently led to the

formulation of theories which obfuscated the research on the spread of Islam

in the Balkans, converting it into a pawn of local nationalistic attitudes.

Either in their effort to satisfy the nationalistic expectations of the Balkan

states or while merely trying to interpret the historical interaction between

Byzantines and Christians, and between Ottomans and Muslims, some

researchers have developed extreme theories which were extensively

discussed for many years.

7 After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, in 1923

26

In 1916, in his work The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire, Herbert

Gibbons attempted to prove that the Ottomans were indeed a new race,

formed by the mix of Greek and Balkan Slavic converts to Islam with Turkish

people. In the subsequent admixture, the Christian element was undoubtedly

the most significant. Gibbons justified Ottoman growth by arguing that the

creation of this new race was a kind of Islamic-Byzantine admixture. In his

interpretation, he implicitly expressed his belief that the mighty Ottoman

Empire could not have been formed from purely Turco-Muslim origins, hence

its Byzantine-Christian roots. What is more, he stressed that it was due to the

religion of Islam that the new mixture was formed.8

In one generation, the explanation for the issue of the identity of the early

Ottomans had been transformed through time; There was an explanation

which portrayed them as an admixture of Islamised Byzantines and Turks

(Gibbons), while there was a second one which described them as Turks who

attracted a vast number of converted Byzantines to their banner, due

principally to the heretical form of Islam they practiced (Langer/Blake)9;

Another explanation supported the theory of a mixture of Turkish tribes,

having inherited their administrative skills from earlier Turkish states in

Anatolia, the Seljuks, and the Ilkhanids 10 (Kpru lu )11; finally, there was a

8 Gibbons, Herbert, Adams, The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire (Oxford, 1916). 9 Langer, William L. & Blake, Robert P., The Rise of the Ottoman Turks and its Historical

Background, Oxford University Press, 1932 10 Provincial hans; A Mongol group which settled in Iran, Iraq and the Anatolia region. 11

Koprl, M. Fuat , Anadoluda Trk Dili ve Edebiyatnn Tekamlne Bir Bak (Istanbul 1934), Islam in Anatolia after the Turkish Invasion. Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Leiser, Gary, University of Utah Press Salt Lake City, 1993.

27

theory that the early Ottomans were descendants of a group of dedicated

Muslim gazis,12 who collaborated for the express purpose of fighting and

converting the Christian infidels in the border protests of northwest Anatolia

(Wittek)13. This last explanation, the Gazi Thesis, which was advanced by

Wittek, was the dominant theory of Western scholars for more than forty

years, even though it was usually either ignored or rejected in Turkey.

Cemal Kafadars work Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the

Ottoman State14, published in 1995, is probably the most significant recent

major study trying to re-evaluate the appearance and spread of the Ottomans.

Kafadar, born in Turkey and trained as an Ottomanist in North America,

attempts to look at the fourteenth-century gazis simply as one element in the

mix of groups identifiable in Anatolia during that period. If Kafadar had to

choose the most prominent aspect of early Ottoman frontier culture, he would

probably use the expression: liquidity and fluidity of culture.15 His opinion

that Islam and Christianity in this region are similar emphasises the wide-

ranging of these two prevailing cultures.16

The research, however, has overcome all obstacles in its way. Heath

Lowry17 mentions that nationalism makes it difficult for us to understand the

12

Holly warriors 13

Wittek, Paul, The Rise of the Ottoman Empire, Royal Asiatic Society London, 1938. Rise of the Ottoman Empire: Studies in the History of Turkey, University of London, 2002.

14 Kafadar, Cemal, Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State,

University of Callifornia Press, 1995. 15 Kafadar, Cemal, Between Two Worlds, p. 28. 16 Ibid, pp. 8082. 17 Lowry, Heath, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State, State University of New York

Press 2003, pp. 95-96

28

Islamic historical traditions in the Balkans. He points out that Balkan

nationalists are fixated on their view of the conquering Turk with sword in

hand presenting their hapless Christian victims with the choice of conversion

or death, rather than one in which a significant portion of the traditional ruling

class was co-opted into the Ottoman elite. Also, todays Turks (a la Koprl)

want to cling to the idea that somehow the Ottoman polity was a purely

Turkish creation, that is, a state whose essence was Turkishness wrapped in

an Islamic veneer.

29

CHAPTER THREE

Two periods in Ottoman history | Religious interactions

Holy warriors or pragmatic rulers? The frontier Balkan

society

Despite the different approaches, most researchers agree that the

Ottoman history must be divided into two main historical eras, in order to

appreciate the historical course and the nature of Islam in the Balkans:

a. The early period, which is until the mid-16th century, when the main

focus of the Empire were the Balkans and the Anatolia region.

Historical research proves that the Ottoman Empire for political

reasons absorbed its Muslim and Christian citizens, enhancing their

cultural interaction and creating deep religious relations. Tijana Krstic

states that Ottomans began to express what was considered orthodoxy

and heresy just in the early 1500s, and this practice has to be

historicised within the wider structure of confessional progress in early

modern Islamdom and Christendom.18

18 Krstic, Tijana, Contested Conversions to Islam. Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire, Stanford University Press 2011, pp. 19-20

30

b. The late period, after the conquest of the Arab Lands, the centre of

Islam, by sultan Selim I. The Ottoman conquest during the Ottoman-

Mamluk War of 15161517 and the Ottoman invasion in the Arab

territories led to profound ideological and political consequences. With

his victories, sultan Selim I took control over Mecca and Medina, as

well as the cities of Damascus and Cairo, former places of settlement

for the caliphs, who believed to be the descendants of Prophet

Muhammad. As expected, Sultan Selim and his followers were granted

the title of Servant of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, as well as

the protection and organisation of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and

thus, the Ottomans were accorded immense prestige and authority in

the Muslim communities.19 After this period, the Ottoman Empire

obtained several features of a classical Islamic dynasty, having among

others the responsibility to face at its borders a powerful opponent, the

Persian heretic Shia Safavid dynasty.

In this context, Heath Lowry observes that during the first period, Ottoman

culture became a mixture of classical Islamic administrative practices (distinct

from the beginning), inherited from Seljuk, Ilhanid20 and neighbouring Turkish

19 goston, Gbor, Masters Bruce Alan, Encyclopaedia of the Ottoman Empire, Facts on

File 2008, p. 30 20 Ilkhanids: Mongol dynasty which ruled much of the eastern Islamic world from the mid-

thirteenth to the mid-fourteenth century.

31

principalities, which, combined with the Muslim community, created a new

society.21

Consequently, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Christians and

Muslims (many of whom were converts) joined forces in order to spread the

Ottoman banner, initially to the Balkans and then, to the heartlands of Islam.

Lowry mentions that the centralised empire, emerging from the mid-sixteenth

century (radically reformed after the conquest of the older Islamic states), was

one, which bore an ever decreasing relationship to the frontier society22 it

had been of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.

As Heath Lowry argues:

There is an ironic twist to this interpretation; it would suggest that

the real secret of Ottoman success might have stemmed from the

failure of its early rulers to adhere to the traditional Islamic concept of

the gaza23. The founders of the Ottoman Empire, Osman and Orhan,

rather than attempting to pressure the local Christians24 into accepting

Islam, simply left the issue of religion open. One joined their banner as

either a Christian or a Muslim and made their mark on the basis of

21 Lowry, Heath, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State, State University of New York

Press 2003, p.p 133-134 22 Frontier society: The society living in the region of the borders between two countries or

in a region with a line, barrier, etc. In these areas, religious, political, economic and geographical conditions that determine different style of life are called frontier/uc culture by modern scholarship.

23 Military expeditions or raiding after the emergence of Islam 24 Of Anatolia and the Balkans

32

ability. What eventually was to emerge as a classical Islamic dynasty

did so, less as a result of developments during its formative period,

than due to the impact of its having annexed the traditional Arab

heartland of the Islamic world at the end of the second decade of the

sixteenth century. Thereafter, we see the implantation of a centuries

old Islamic bureaucratic tradition to a body which had theretofore been

a vibrant, syncretic, multi-ethnic, multicultural entity. In this sense, the

question of who conquered whom is debatable.25

25 Lowry, Heath, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State, State University of New York

Press 2003, pp. 95-96

33

The Ottoman Empire: Acquisitions

Historical map 3. Source: Wikimedia commons

The early Ottomans are often portrayed as gazis, who were making gazas

(holy wars) against the infidels. Nonetheless, some scholars have recently

proved that the early Ottoman military activity presented as gaza in Ottoman

history were more intricate missions; occasionally, easy invasions in which

Muslims and Christians joined forces and shared the treasure and other

34

times, they were holy wars. In addition, the Ottomans also fought several

untraditional battles against fellow Muslim Turks, overpowering and

annexing the bordering Turkoman kingdoms.26 Furthermore, the war against

the Mamluks of Egypt, in the 16th century, was an equally unconventional war.

This does not mean that the Ottomans did not adopt the ideology of the

holy war. During the 13th century, the ideology of the holy war was present in

the Turco-Byzantine border. The Ottomans were deliberately situated to wage

such wars; they had settled in Byzantium, which was the seat of eastern

Christianity, and these wars served as an attraction for the mighty soldiers of

the Anatolian Ottoman-Muslim emirates, or kingdoms. By subjugating

recurring campaigns, conquering Constantinople, and defeating the Balkan

Christian countries, the Ottomans became champions of anti-Christian wars.

Their victories against the Venetians in the Aegean and the western Balkan

states under Mehmed II and Bayezid II, and against the Habsburgs in the

Mediterranean and Hungary under Sleyman I enhanced even more the

Ottomans reputation as holy warriors and protectors of Islam. Nevertheless,

motivated both by Islamic theology and by methodical and structured use of

political pragmatism, the Ottomans did not hesitate to diverge from the

officially homogeneous approach toward its non-Muslim people, who,

acknowledging the power-game of pragmatism, also adopted pragmatic

approaches and reactions.27

26 goston, Gbor, Masters Bruce Alan, Encyclopaedia of the Ottoman Empire, Facts on

File 2008, p.30 27 Ibid

35

The Ottomans were flexible and realistic from the beginning. Settling in an

extremely heterogeneous area with Christian, Muslim, Turkish, Greek, Slavic,

and Albanian residents, the Ottomans' victory in western Anatolia and

subsequently in the Balkans in the 1400s and 1500s, was the product of their

willingness and ability to adapt, to exploit talent and accept loyalty from

various sources, and to make numerous appeals for support. Therefore, they

managed to attract not only soldiers to confront Christians when necessary,

but also Muslims and Christians to join forces for treasures and authority

when available. After their spread, if they could not take control of a land, they

would negotiate for the loyalty of local elites. They were also eager and

capable to borrow organisations. The early Ottoman state was primarily a

pragmatic state in the making, not a religious one. Because of this, the

Ottomans managed to maintain power until the modern times, whereas many

other Muslim dynasties, such as Mongols and Safavids, could not do that,

even though it will also become obvious that, from time to time, their flexibility

and pragmatism were expected to collapse.28

Regarding Christianity, Prophet Muhammads contract with the Christians

from Yemen proved to be the basis of Ottoman incorporating strategies

towards Christians in the Balkans and the Empire in general,29 as long as

Christians pay a fixed poll tax as a sign of submission. It was, thus, an aspect 28 Kafadar, Cemal, Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State

(Berkeley, 1995); Lowry, Heath W., The Nature of the Early Ottoman State (Albany, 2003); Quataert, Donald, The Ottoman Empire, New York, 2000, pp13-36.

29 Montgomery, William, Muhammad in Medina, Oxford 1956, pp. 359-360; Gradeva, Rossitsa, Ottoman Policy towards Christian Church Buildings, tudes Balkaniques 4, 1994, pp. 14-36, especially p. 16.

36

in Islamic legal practice that the Christian subjects of a Muslim state could

keep their own religious institutions and customs. The millet30 system, which

concerned the non-Muslim communities within a Muslim state, owed its

Islamic legal bases to the facts of Prophet Muhammads years in Medina 31. In

the Ottoman Empire, millet was a technical word, and was employed for the

structured, accepted, religio-political communities having certain rights of

independence under their own leaders.32 This system required that the sultan

accept the existence and limited power of a non-Muslim community. Although

non-Muslims were always considered dhimmi,33 residents of the Islamic state

exercising the privilege of dealing with their own communal matters in certain

defined spheres of life, in this case, within the Church society.34

Naturally, this policy was implemented in the entire Ottoman Empire. The

Balkans, though, had another special feature which designated the political

pragmatism of the Ottomans and the institution of Muslim-Christian

coexistence as a catalyst for a religious syncretism which determined the

identity of Islam in the region. At least until the mid 15th century, they

30 The Quranic Arabic word milla, commonly known as millet, has an Aramaic origin,

and initially meant a word, referring to a group of people who agreed to a specific word or revealed book. It is also refers to other religious groups, and some unusual groups of the Islamic world (Lewis, Bernard, The Political Language of Islam, The University of Chicago Press, 1988, p. 38).

31 Bosworth, C.E., The Concept of Dhimma in Early Islam, in B. BraudeB. Lewis, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, vol. I, Holmes & Meier Publishers, London-New York 1982, p. 37.

32 Lewis, Bernard, The Political Language of Islam, The University of Chicago Press, 1988, pp. 38-39.

33 For what this meant to non-Muslims lifestyle in an Islamic country, see Schacht, Joseph, An Introduction to Islamic Law, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1982, pp. 130-133.

34 Inalcik, Halil., The Status of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Under the Ottomans, Turcica, Revue d'tudes turques, Tome 21-23, Sous la direction de Gilles Veinstein, Paul Dumont, Louvain, Peeters, 1991, p. 420.

37

constituted a frontier society, an environment favouring cultural exchange/

mixture and syncretism. As Abdullah Ulker states:

Frontiers have been seen to be a reflection of political history and

as the ideal framework for the indication of military power. But, frontiers

have much more meaning than that. They are mechanism for

economic, social, cultural, religious and artistic exchanges between

social groups, whether they are friend or foe. As regions distant from

centres of governmental control and ideological orthodoxy, groups with

different political and social affiliations could live in together. Society in

the marches included highly mobile nomads, refugees from central

authority, heterodox elements, adventurers, and jobless immigrants. In

contrast to the highly developed conservative civilization of the

hinterland, frontier regions are the centre of mysticism, tolerance,

flexibility, heterodox beliefs, and romantic legends. The society living in

frontier regions usually acquire a special idiosyncrasy within the

frontier. Thus, in these areas, religious, political, economic and

geographical conditions that determine different style of life, called

frontier/uc culture by modern scholarship.35

35 Ulker, Abdullah, Interaction, Flexibility and Pragmatism in the Uc/Frontier Societies: The Ottoman-Byzantine Example (1277-1402), Introduction. https://www.academia.edu/4065112/

38

Speros Vryonis, a specialist in Byzantine history, describes the first period

of the spread of Islam in the Balkans, under Ottoman rule, with the following

conclusions36:

a. During the first Turkish invasions of the Balkan territories, paganism

was an extremely distinctive trait of folk Christianity in the Balkans, and

shamanism of nomadic Islam.

b. Even though the majority of the Anatolian Christians was incorporated

in the Muslim community, their conversion to Islam was still an

insignificant phenomenon in the Balkan lands. The opposing

circumstances of the Turkish conquests in the two peninsulas lead to

the conflicting fate of Christianity and Islam in the two areas.

c. Even though the Islam emerging in the Balkans was officially

'orthodox', unofficially, it was profoundly influenced by the Ancient

Paganism and Christian elements retained by converted believers. As

a result, despite the fact that the invasion of the Turks and their long-

lasting rule constitute a real era in the history of the Balkan masses,

the changes which they forced in the religious life of the Balkan

peoples were limited. Most of the Balkanites did not convert, but even

those who did so retained beliefs and practices from their previous

religions. Therefore, in spite of the religious change which was

36 Vryonis, Speros Jr., Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans, 14th-16th

Centuries, in Henrik Birnbaum and Speros Vryonis, Jr., editors, Aspects of the Balkans: Continuity and Change, The Hague, Mouton Press, 1972, pp. 151-176.

39

introduced under Ottoman rule, the prominent feature of Balkan

religious life during this period was continuity.

The transfer of Islamic heritage in Anatolia to the Balkans

Authors who had portrayed the Ottomans during the years of the first

conquest as horrifying plunderers, with the passage of time started to flatter

the Seljuk sultans to a surprising degree; this was a natural outcome of their

righteous and effective administration, as well as their sympathetic protection

of their Christian subjects. The religious tolerance of the Seljuks, and the

freedom of Christians, made the latter more devoted to the Seljuks, and

enhanced their hatred for Byzantium, which was stirred up by the heavy

taxation and the Byzantine persecutions of the numerous heretics, mainly

monophysitic Christian groups, mostly in Anatolia region, but in the Balkans

as well.

Sufi mystics like Jalal al-Din Rumi and Yunus Emre reflect this social

environment. The great mystic Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi came as well to

Anatolia37, and settled in Konya, with the purpose of enjoying intellectual

liberty. Believers who initially belonged to different religions and cults were

united and supported Jalal al-Din Rumi and his successors. Muslims and

Christians joined forces, under the supervision of the Syrian patriarch, with an

37 The Asian part of Turkey

40

oath of fidelity, when the Mongol invaded Malatya, which had been left without

administration. Despite the censorious efforts of Muslim scholars, dancing and

music were used to encourage religious joy, and, thus, could not be

abolished. The Seljuk sovereigns frequently invited theologians, jurists,

physicians, artists and poets from the older Muslim world, and erected

schools, madrassas, hospitals and religious institutions for the improvement

and progress of Islamic culture.38

The Ottoman supremacy in the Anatolia region after the Mongol wars and

the surrender of Seljuks, brought very few changes in this governance model

they had inherited. The reason for this was simple: Even though the Ottoman

Turks had accepted Islam a century before their arrival in Anatolia, their

conversion, due to their nomadic lifestyle, remained very superficial; under the

facade of Islam, their old shamanistic traditions and principles survived. Baba

Ishaq, Barak Baba, Sari-Saltuk and other Turcoman babas39 were the

continuance of the ancient Turkish shamans, rather than Muslim sheikhs40.

Consequently, shamanism profoundly influenced Muslim Turkish religious

orders and cults, by participating in their religious ceremonies.41

38

Pre-Ottoman Anatolia, Cambridge Histories Online, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp 255-257

39 Saints 40 Religious officials 41 Vryonis, Speros Jr., editors, Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans : 14th-16th

Centuries Aspects of the Balkans: Continuity and Change, The Hague, Mouton Press 1972, pp. 151-176.

41

According to Vryonis, the strength and perseverance of nomadic life

indicated that Islam remained a shallow religious group among the Turkic

tribesmen, for many years.42

After the Ottoman conquest, these traditions were passed on to the

Balkans, where a similar religious background existed.

Vryonis has observed that the religious lifestyle of the non-Muslim people

in the Balkans resided on a foundation heavily influenced by their pagan

roots.43 Even though most of the Balkan populations had turned to Orthodox

Christianity by the 10th century, this conversion had only been accomplished

by accepting the incorporation of several pagan beliefs, superstitions and

practices into the official doctrine of the Church. Hence, Balkan Christians

continued to examine their traditional practices, such as the use of marriage

crowns, the contribution of professional mourners during funerals, the placing

of money in the grave, the preparation of a special meal for the funerals, the

official observance of a one-year mourning period etc. Many of the feast days

in the Orthodox calendar were actually Christian only on the surface. In their

essence, these feasts were associated with agrarian and pastoral life and

therefore, the old magical practices to guarantee fertility were persevered.

According to Vryonis, the extensive hagiolatry and iconolatry originated in the

42 Vryonis, Speros,Jr., Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans : 14th-16th

Centuries , Mouton 1972, p. 161. 43

Ibid p. 154.

42

pagan past as well.44 The former, relying mostly on the worship of local saints,

had many of the features of the ancient hero cult and polytheism. The icon,

however, was equally associated with miracles and magic, as were the pagan

statues of the past.

Vryonis states that, Balkan folk Christianity in the late medieval period

represents a syncretism of magic, animism, monotheistic dogma, polytheistic

practices, monism and dualism. Christianity succeeded in destroying or

effacing the major gods and in replacing them with a triune surface. But

underneath this surface the old spirits and forces retained their grip on the

masses.

He rejects the stereotype that the Greeks of the classical period did not

believe in superstition, arguing that, There was a great deal of superstition in

Greece, even when Greek culture was at its height and even in the center of

that culture, Athens.45

A similar ambience of syncretism dominated the religious beliefs of the

Muslim settlers in the Balkans, too. For instance, the conversion of the Ogz

tribes from paganism to Islam had only started during the ninth century.46 That

44 Ibid p. 159. 45 Ibid p. 162. 46 Norris, Harry, Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab

World, Columbia 1993, University of South Carolina Press 1994, p.86.

43

is to say, Islam had had even less time than had Christianity to put down roots

among the Muslim conquerors and the Balkan population respectively.

With the gradual sedentism47 of the nomads, pagan-shamanistic elements

infiltrated popular Islam. In Asia Minor, Christians who turned to Islam, from

the eleventh until the fifteenth century, also contributed to the mix with

additional layers of religious beliefs. Another scholar, Anton Minkov, claims

that some of the Muslim inhabitants in the Balkans had converted or were

descendants of converted people from Asia Minor, many of whom had

preserved some elements of their former religious lifestyle, in their idea of

Islam.48 Put differently, the Muslim and Christian communities shared many

common methods of comprehending religion, which stemmed from their quite

recent pagan or former Christian past. For these two strands of belief to be

brought together, all that was needed was a motivation for interaction and a

means of some sort to trigger this interaction.

The interaction, as Franz Babinger points out, became unavoidable with

the Ottoman conquest. The means was apparently the cult of saints, typical

characteristic of the Islamic mystical orders (tarikat) mixed with the local

47 Sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness), is a term applied to the transition from

nomadic lifestyle to a society which remains in one place permanently. Essentially, sedentism means living in groups permanently in one place.

48 Minkov, Anton, Conversion to Islam in the Balkans - Kisve Bahas Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670-1730, Brill 2004, pp. 108-109

44

preference for hagiolatry as its Christian equivalent.49 Essentially, the tarikats

influenced the integration of similar pagan and local non-Muslim principles

into popular Islam, consequently making the conversion process more

pleasant to the new Muslims. In the Balkans as well, the involvement of the

orders in the spread of Islam was equally important. The dervishes, the

followers of the different tariqats, usually founded their tekkes (dervish lodges)

and zaviyes (monasteries) around the turbe (grave) of a religious person, who

was almost immediately proclaimed as a saint. Also, the dervishes often used

the already existing local cult of a saint in order to promote a new one, whose

miracles were made to be similar to those of the superseded holy person.50

The construction of a common ritual site led to the gathering of people of both

religious groups on particular dates. The rituals performed were often

similar.51 Some of these rituals were the animal sacrifice (kurban) and

bringing gifts to the saint.

Despite the fact that the Bektashi, per se, had no connection with the first

Ottoman leaders, other dervishes did.52 Taken to a great extent, the dervishes

during the early Ottoman period, wanted to reunite Christianity and Islam.

They put aside their religious and cultural differences. Some were downright

49 Babinger, Franz, Der Islam in Sdosteuropa, In Vlker und Kulturen Sdosteuropas,

Schriften der Sdosteuropa Gesellschaft. Munich, 1959, pp. 206-207. 50 For both religions, the most famous saint was Sar Saltuk, who was respected in the

Balkans, the Middle East and possibly even in Sinkiang. See Norris Harry, Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab World, University of South Carolina Press 1994, p.p 146-160.

51 Vryonis, Speros Jr., Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans : 14th-16th Centuries Mouton 1972, p.174.

52 Langer, William L. and Blake, Robert P., he Rise of the Ottoman Turks and Its Historical Background, The American Historical Review, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Apr., 1932), pp. 468-505 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association.

45

missioners in their purposes, like the Ishaqi53, who are believed to have

converted to Islam thousands of Jews and fire worshipers in Persia, India, and

China before they arrived in Anatolia. Both Christians and Muslims frequented

indiscriminately several holy places in Anatolia.54 Actually, it is difficult to

make any essential distinction between the Turkish dervishes on the one

hand and on the other, the numerous zealots, pilgrims, beggar monks,

travellers and insane people who swarmed through Byzantine during the

Palaeologan dynasty (1261-1453). H.A Gibbons is probably right in assuming

that there was widespread apostasy on the part of the Greeks, who found the

change of religion a not considerable one and discovered that it was a useful

expedient. Many accepted Islam outwardly, while still remaining Christian in

faith and feeling55.

The proof of religious syncretism concerning Balkan Christianity and Islam

appears to be conclusive. For instance, Vakarelski examines the survival

among the Pomaks in the Rhodopes, where old magical practices were linked

with harvesting and sowing, and where the Kukeri56 dances were linked with

Dionysian fertility rituals.57 Many people who had converted to Islam in

Bosnia, Serbia and Northern Greece, maintained some traditions from their

53 Isaqi or Qaradaglik order was founded by Khwaja Isaq-i-Wali in Khurasan, Central

Asia. 54 Vryonis, Speros Jr., Islam and Cultural Change in Middle Ages, Harrassowitz,

Wiesbaden 1975, p 139. 55 Gibbons, Herbert Adams, The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire: A History of the

Osmanlis Up to the Death of Bayezid I (1300-1403), Clarendon, 1916. 56 Kukeri is a traditional Bulgarian ritual to scare away evil spirits, with costumed men

performing the ritual. Closely related traditions are found throughout the Balkans and Greece. 57 Vakarelski, Christo, Altertmliche Elemente in Lebensweise und Kultur der

bulgarischen Mohammedaner, Zeitschrift fu r Balkanologie 4, 1966, pp 149172.

46

former religion, such as dyeing eggs during Easter, seeking the blessing of a

priest on feast days, and keeping church books and icons in their houses.

They also preserved the ritual of animal sacrifices in the yards of churches

and monasteries.58 Several of these traditions still exist.

There is evidence that the Muslims in the Balkans have always been

visiting Christian healing temples, even nowadays, and this fact may have

been a significant stage in the conversion of many holy places from

Christianity to Islam.

According to the Greek theologian Ef. Zegkinis,59 even in the present day,

Muslims of Western Thrace retain several practices which are similar to

Christian ones.

Some of these practices are the following:

a. They visit Christian chapels, especially the chapel of Agios Georgios

(Aya Yiorgi), in order to pray or to perform animal sacrifices (kurban), 58 Vryonis, Speros Jr., Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans, 14th-16th

Centuries, in Henrik Birnbaum and Speros Vryonis, Jr., editors, Aspects of the Balkans: Continuity and Change, The Hague, Mouton Press, 1972, pp.175176 and Norris, H.T, Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab World, University of South Carolina Press, 1993, p. 48. In the work of Hasluck, Frederick William, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, Oxford University Press, 1929, there can be found examples of Crypto-Christianity.

59 Zegkinis, Efstratios Ch., Bektashism in Western Thrace, Institute for Balkan Studies, Pournara Editions 2001, Second edition, p. 232. , ., , , 2001, , . 232.

47

on the name day of the Greek Saint according to the Old Calendar

(before the Julian).

b. They worship Christian saints whom they regard as Muslim saints.

They follow the Greek Orthodox Calendar, which contains elements

from Christianity.

c. They visit the sacred springs, wash themselves or drink holy water, in

the same way Christians do.

d. They perform animal sacrifices similar to the ones performed by

Christians of Thrace.

What is more, we should probably add some cases of Muslim sanctuaries

frequented by Christians to these conversions.

Furthermore, as L.S Stavrianos60 states, during the Islamisation of the

Albanian regions, dual religious traditions made their appearance: the

converts continued on worshiping the Holy Mary and the Saints, and making a

pilgrimage to the Holy Places. On the other hand, Christians visited the tombs

of Muslim saints so that they could have their wishes fulfilled.61 Converted

Muslims secretly remained Christians, even though, in most cases, their

60 Stavrianos, Leften, Stavros, The Balkans Since 1453, C., Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, p. 500

61Arnold, T.W, The Preaching of Islam, A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, Lahore, Pakistan, 1976, p 188.

48

children would turn into genuine converts.62 This fact is called crypto-

Christianity (laraman in Albanian)63.

Also, Stavrianos states that, The Albanians never have been fanatics in

religious matters. Most Moslem Albanians belonged to the Bektashi sect, an

extremely unorthodox and tolerant order that preached a pantheistic

universalist creed. Moslems and Christian Albanians lived side by side for

centuries, and, although quarrels between tribes and individuals were only too

common, religion was rarely the issue in dispute. Tolerance went so far that

members of the same family not infrequently professed different religions.

More than one traveller reported that infants were both baptized as Christians

and circumcised as Moslems, and that adults who had begun life in that

fashion used two names, one Christian and the other Moslem, depending

upon the circle in which they happened to be moving at the time. 64

The role of interfaith marriages in religious interaction

Mixed marriages between a Muslim man and a Christian strongly favoured

the religious interaction. Vryonis states that women, through extensive

intermarriage, were another medium by which popular Christianity and Islam

62 Ibid

63 On laraman, see the contribution of Duijzings, Ger, (Duijizings, 2000: 86-105) 64Stavrianos, Leften, Stavros, The Balkans Since 1453, C., Hurst & Co. Publishers,

2000, p. 500.

49

were mixed. A well-known example of this case is Sheikh Bedreddin Simavi,

whose family tree indicates a long history of intermarriages and religious

syncretism.65 Another example is Balim Sultan, possibly the real creator of the

Bektashi order, who is also considered to have been the child of a mixed

marriage.66 An illustrative example of this attitude is the fact that even the

mothers of some sultans were not only Christians converted to Islam, but

even practicing Christians, as well.

Even though Christianity and Judaism did not accept intermarriages,

Muslim law allowed Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women, or more

correctly, women of the Book.67 Nevertheless, Muslim women could not marry

non-Muslim men. Off course, the practice of marrying Christian women or

taking them as slaves was rarely looked upon favourably by the Christian

community. The discrepancy in authority and in sexual economy, which was a

typical characteristic of the Ottoman Empire, provoked the anxiety of mixed

marriage, which left an indelible trace on popular Christian descriptions from

the Ottoman period. It posed a considerable challenge to the protectors of the

Christian moral community's limits, and women who disobeyed the religious

divide through permanent or temporary (kebin) marriages, even without

openly converting to Islam, immediately found themselves excluded from the

65 Vryonis, Speros Jr., Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans : 14th-16th

Centuries Mouton 1972, p.173 66 Birge, John Kingsley,The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, Luzak, London 1937, p.56. 67 Vryonis, Speros Jr., Decline of Medieval Hellenism, and Religious Changes and

Patterns in the Balkans, pp.151-76. See also Melikoff, Irene, Les voies de penetration de lheterodoxie islamique en Thrace et dans les Balkans aux XIVe-Xve sicles, Halcyon Days in Crete, Rethymno, January 1994, pp. 9-11, Norris, Islam in the Balkans pp. 159-170; Balivet, Michel, Romanie Byzantine et pays de Rm Turc: Histoire d'un Espace d'Imbrication Grco-Turque, The Isis Press, 1994.

50

bounds of "orthodoxy". Nonetheless, it does not mean that they automatically

stopped considering themselves Christian, and it is important to take their role

under consideration in the context of the debate on syncretism and

conversion.

After marriage, a non-Muslim woman had the same rights as a Muslim

wife, and she was allowed to observe the principles of her religion. According

to laws, the husband could forbid his wife from drinking wine or bringing the

cross into their residence, but he could not legally prohibit her from doing so.68

She had the right to read the Bible, provided that she was reading it in a low

voice. Even though the children of an interfaith marriage were Muslim by law,

through their mother, they could learn another language, be exposed to the

principles of the New and Old Testaments, and possibly even be secretly

baptised. A few sources even imply that in some cases where the mother was

Christian, daughters would be baptised and sons circumcised, despite this

being a clear violation of the Sharia.69 Similar cultural incidents are

documented even in cases where the wives actually adopt the religion of

Islam upon marriage.70 Interfaith marriages were thus significant

circumstances of religious change in which non-Muslim women were

important agents of religious mixture. In these conditions, anti-syncretic tactics

68 Balivet, Michel, Byzantins et Ottomans, Gorgias Press & The Isis Press, 1999, p.156. 69 Lindner, Rudi, Paul, Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia (Uralic and Altaic), The

Uralic and Altaic Series, Curzon Press, London, 1997; Kafadar Kemal, Between Two Worlds The Construction of the Ottoman State, University of California Press, 1995 ; and Lowry Heath, Nature of the Early Ottoman State, State University of New York Press, 2003.

70 Kafadar, Kemal, Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State, University of California Press, 1995, p.76.

51

could become part of family politics and could be employed by wives,

husbands, and children.

The pioneering field research of Frederic Hasluck

Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century,

Frederic Hasluck, a pioneer historian, conducted a remarkable field research

on the Muslim-Christian relations and their places of worship, in the Anatolia

region and in the Balkans. This research offers, even at the present time,

valuable information regarding religious syncretism in this area, since many

monuments and historical elements have disappeared with the surfacing of

nationalistic behaviours.

According to Hasluck71 the popular religious thinking, and still more the

ritual practice, of Oriental Christendom and Islam have many similarities

despite the deep theoretical prejudices. As he states, on the topic of saints,

the attraction of healing miracles goes far to dispel any doubts, and Turk no

less than Greek in his age (early 20th c.) admitted the idea that, if his own

saints disappointed him, an alien might be summoned.

Hasluck mentions some traditions between Muslims which Orthodox Sunni

Islam would categorically reject. The baptism of Muslims, as mentioned

71 Hasluck, Frederick William, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, edited by Margaret

Hasluck, Oxford University Press, 1929, pp. 76-77

52

above, was one of these traditions.72 We are going to focus on this special

feature, since it fuels, even nowadays, speculations about the existence of

crypto-Christians, mostly in Turkey, but in other Muslim countries of Middle

East, as well.

Hasluck states that, in the middle of the sixteenth century, Busbecq73

knew quite a few Ottoman Muslims who had had their children secretly

baptised, because they were persuaded that the ceremony contained some

good in itself and they were sure that it had not been randomly introduced.

Quoting from Casalius74, he mentions that the Patriarch of Constantinople

noticed that some of those who wanted to get baptised from Christians

requested it because they considered this ceremony as some kind of

incantation by which they would be able to acquire physical cleanliness; they

did not want to receive baptism for the orthodox reason, which is the

purification of their souls and sanctification. Therefore, in the same way and

for the same reason, the Agerini (Muslims) wanted to be baptised, as a

Balsamum says in his commentary on the nineteenth canon of the ' Concilium

Sardicense ', and at another part on the forty-ninth canon (Synod VI in Trullo),

where he states that these Agerini75 were convinced that their children would

72 A person is immersed in water. It is a purifying ceremony. 73 De Busbecq, Ogier, Ghiselin (15221592) was a Flemish writer, herbalist and diplomat

in the 16th century, employed by three generations of Austrian emperors. He was an Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople and published the book Itinera Constantinopolitanum et Amasianum in 1581, writing about his time there. It was re-published in 1595 under the title "Turkish Letters"(Turcicae epistolae).

74 Casalius, Joannes, Baptista, De Veteribus Sacris Christianorum Ritibus Sive Apud Occidentales, Sive Orientales Catholica in Ecclesia Probatis, first published in 1647.

75 Alteration of Algerians, synonymous with Muslims

53

be disturbed by demons, and smell like dogs, if they were not baptised as

Christians.

Then, there is the case of Muslim mothers (especially Albanian) who

baptised their children because they considered baptism as a charm against

leprosy, witchcraft, and wolves. According to a Venetian Relazione76 of 1579,

Turkish mothers generally used baptism as a protection against leprosy, and

another of 1585 says that Sultan Murat III was baptised so that he would

never get sick.

Hasluck agrees with Vryonis that, at a certain degree, this participation in

Christian superstition definitely arises from the imposed intimacy of Christian

and Muslim women, and mainly from mixed marriages and the introduction of

Christian women to harems. It does not necessarily mean that Muslims who

use the Cross or even baptism as charms are converted Christians, though in

some regions (for instance, in Albania and Crete), this is a vital contributory

cause of the abnormality.

In his research, Hasluck often mentions the Muslim tradition of invoking

Christian saints who were considered as miracle workers. In fact, Hasluck

76 The famed final reports, or Relazioni, of the Venetian ambassadors in Constantinople.

54

recounts a story narrated to him in 1916 by a Greek resident of rgp in

Cappadocia77.

For instance, Hasluck mentions, this town possesses the mummified body

of an Orthodox neo-saint, S. John ' the Russian ', who is supposed to have

lived and died in the eighteenth century. The body enjoys considerable

respect both from Christians and Mussulmans. On the occasion of an

epidemic of cholera in 1908 among the children of the Turks, the latter

begged and obtained as a favour from the Greeks that the saint should be

paraded through their quarters. During the procession the Turkish women

threw costly embroidered handkerchiefs on the bier as offerings to the saint,

who in answer to their faith immediately put an end to the epidemic.

Also, according to Hasluck, in a strongly Moslem village in Albania Miss

Durham saw two men and four women, all Mohammedans, and three of the

women with ailing infants, crawl under the altar during mass and stay there

until it was over. Afterwards the priest blessed them: Moslem charms had not

succeeded, so they were trying Christian ones ' for their sickness.

The syncretism of popular beliefs indicates that, at least until the sixteenth

century, the process of religious conversion did not necessarily mean that the

converted people abandoned their previous religious beliefs or lifestyle. For a

77 Hasluck, Frederick, William, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, edited by

Margaret Hasluck, Oxford University Press, 1929, p 65

55

long time, all that was needed for someone to convert to Islam was to adopt a

Muslim name; therefore, it mainly symbolised an acceptance of Ottoman rule,

rather than the actual adoption of a foreign religion.

57

CHAPTER FOUR

The Role of Architecture in Maintaining Muslim Identity in the Balkans

Byzantine Influences in the new Islamic State

Syncretism and politics depict the typology of the first

mosques

While documenting the unique typology of Balkan mosques, both

archaeologists and architects confirm the conclusions of historians about the

special features acquired by Islam in this region during the early Ottoman

Rule.

According to Maximilian Hartmuth,78 Islamic monuments in the Balkans,

inherited by the Ottoman Empire, point out the features of the two previously

described periods.

78 Hartmuth, Maximilian, Proceedings of the International Conference: Center and

Peripheries in Ottoman Architecture : Rediscovering a Balkan Heritage, 22-24 April 2010. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, pp. 18-29, Stable url: http://www.chwb.org/regional/publications/Centres%20and%20peripheries%20in%20Ottoman%20architecture-%20Rediscovering%20a%20Balkan%20heritage.pdf, Sarajevo, 2011.

58

Preceding this event, Hartmuth mentions that the early Ottoman regime

until the 15th c., was polycentric. The Ottoman emirs and sultans preferred

Bursa, and eventually Edirne, as seats of residence (capitals), but apart from

them, there were also several urban centres in Asia Minor and the Balkans,

the status of which was also reflected in the standing of their monuments

within the broader architectural construction of the Ottoman Empire.

Instead of the Friday mosque, this class of patrons preferred

multifunctional buildings, imarets79 and zaviyes.80 In the earlier literature,

these buildings, which were typically domed and often T-shaped, have been

called mosques in the Bursa style or mosques with zaviyes, which is a

significant element of Islamic identity in the Balkans. In the end, it was

revealed that they had not been originally erected or conceived as mosques

at all, but served many different functions, such as: place for prayer and ritual,

accommodation of dervishes and travellers, and providing food for clients, the

poor and other citizens in need (like slaves, for instance)81. Frequently, the T-

shaped imarets served as cores for building Islamic cities in the Balkans.

They were founded by people engaged in expanding the Ottoman Empire on

the Balkan frontier. However, these individuals were not yet mere servants of

79 A verse from the Quran, inscribed over the gates of more than one Ottoman imaret

(public kitchen), reads: And they give food in spite of their love for it, to the needy, the orphan, and the captive [saying]: We feed you only for the Face of God; we desire no

recompense from you, no thankfulness. (76:8-9). Singer, Amy, Imarets, in The Ottoman World, ed. Woodhead, Christine, Routledge, London, 2012, p.1., http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.178.6091&rep=rep1&type=pdf

80 Zawiya: Dervish tekke / monastery. 81 Hartmuth, Maximilian, Proceedings of the International Conference: Center and

Peripheries in Ottoman Architecture: Rediscovering a Balkan Heritage, 22-24 April 2010. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina pp. 18-29

59

the sultans sent off to the provinces, as were most architectural patrons from

the 16th century onwards; they were frontier agents having a high degree of

autonomy in their own marches. This considerable autonomy is probably a

reason for the difference between monuments in various Ottoman cities,

during this period, not being as great as in subsequent periods. What is more,

regarding style and form, these patrons relied on models originating from

Anatolia: the designers and engineers were obviously brought from the Asian

region of the Ottoman emirate/ sultanate82, whereas most of the employees

were indeed hired locally for practical reasons.

Imaret of Ghazi Evrenos Bey (1375-1380), Komotini Greece.

Figure 1. Source: meen, Fatouh, Ahmed, Byzantine Influences in Early Ottoman Architecture of Greece, PhD Thesis, Athens 2010.

82 Ibid

60

After the significant conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century and

especially of important Islamic places such as Jerusalem, Cairo, Damascus,

Mecca and Medina in 16th century, military leaders with a front in the Balkan

territories were substituted with military governors trained in Istanbul. As

previously mentioned, during fundamental conflict with bordering Shia Iran,

the sultans made a traditional Sunni interpretation of the Islamic religion and

persecuted as heretics numerous heterodox groups and their leaders which

had greatly aided them in the past in spreading their domination over the

Balkans.

All this influenced the architecture construct from then on. A new kind of

royal architecture emerged along with Mimar Sinan83 in the mid-16th century.

Regarding the Balkans, the favoured types of architecture supported by

various patrons modified following these developments. The T-shaped

imarets were abolished and replaced by groups of buildings centred on a

Friday mosque, which was not only a prayer or oratory space, but also a

mosque in which the Friday preaching is delivered by an imam (khatib) having

received a decent madrasah education. The imam-khatib was expected not

only to summon the monarchs name, but also to spread and reinforce with

83 Mimar Sinan (c. 1489/1490 July 17, 1588) was the chief Ottoman architect and civil

engineer for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than 300 major structures and other more modest projects. His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, although his most famous work is the Suleimaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

61

their sermon Orthodox Islam in regions still being under the influence of

heterodox tendency.

The multifunctional T-shaped mosques of the early Ottoman period

constitute another feature of the special identity of Islam in the Balkans.

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62

Byzantine influences on the new Islamic state

Suraiya Faroqhi, in Approaching Ottoman History An Introduction to the

Sources, states that one of the fields most strongly related to Ottoman history

is its Byzantine counterpart. However, the difficulties between Ottomanists

and Byzantinists stem less from the differences in source bases than from the

relevant fields being adopted by Turkish and Greek nationalist historiography

respectively. According to Faroqhi, European philhellenism, which has the

tendency to look for Byzantine influence everywhere, has more complex

matters. For, as a defensive reaction, ever since Turkish historians and

foreign Ottomanists, in their wake, have had a tendency to underestimate

connections between Byzantines and Ottomans. It is merely during the past

thirty years approximately that some researchers have made real efforts to

The Uc Serefeli Mosque

(1438 -47) was the first

in Edirne to have a large

courtyard adjoining the

prayer hall.

Source: The Illustrated

Guide to Islam, Early

Ottoman Architecture by

Giorgis Manginis, Lorenz

Books 2012.

63

circumnavigate these particular shoals.84

In this context, the influence of Byzantine architecture on the Ottoman

mosques during this period is another factor of interaction which should be

studied in the Balkans of the early Ottoman rule. Ameen Fatouh studied the

Byzantine influences on the first Ottoman mosques in Greece, many of which

are authentic samples of this period. Fatouh draw some conclusions which

confirm their relations.85

As he points out, Byzantine influences are both direct and indirect. An

example of indirect influences is the use of pre-existing byzantine sites in

Greece, and the use of existing buildings in Byzantine cities through

conversion with few transformations. What is more, in the early ottoman

buildings, we can see the reuse of the foundations of older byzantine

monuments and the use of spolia.

The direct influences on the Ottoman buildings are obvious. For instance,

there is a similarity between the construction techniques, architectural

elements, decorations etc. Ameen Fatouh mentions that, in architectural

elements in the Ottoman mosques of Greece, like in the domes, arches,

84 Faroqhi, Suraiya, Approaching Ottoman History An Introduction to the Sources,

Cambridge University Press, 2004, p.7 85 meen, Fatouh Ahmed, Byzantine Influences on Early Ottoman Architecture of Greece, Phd Thesis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 2010, pp. 230-234. http://thesis.ekt.gr/thesisBookReader/id/20731#page/1/mode/2up

64

columns and windows, Byzantine influences are obvious, whereas the mihrab

has been influenced by the apse of the Byzantine churches. The domes of

some Ottoman mosques in Greece, supported by windowed drums, and the

plan of their prayer halls are similar to the octagonal Byzantine churches, the

island category. In general, the use of Byzantine spolia in the Ottoman

mosques in Greece, with the most characteristic being the byzantine capitals,

illustrates the permanence of Byzantine practices in the early Ottoman

mosques.86

The difference between the cross-in-square (byzantine)

and the quatrefoil (ottoman)

Figure 2. Source: meen, Fatouh, Ahmed, Byzantine Influences in Early Ottoman Architecture of Greece, PhD Thesis, Athens 2010.

86 Ibid p 234

65

Undoubtedly, the influence from Byzantine architecture is a product of a

wider historical background. The Ottoman regime in its formative years was

cultivated and developed in the late-Roman, Byzantine Christian environment

of the Balkans. After the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire, the cultural

Byzantine influence did not fade away immediately. Even though both

Muslims and Christians considered it a catastrophic event that would

anticipate the end of time, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople also

triggered the politics of religious mixture from various districts. For instance, in

his letter to Sultan Mehmet II from Rome, in July 1453, the Byzantine

philosopher and scholar George of Trebizond requested the sultan to unite

humanity in a single religion and thus realise the political harmony of the

world, as Alexander the Great did. This was a unique Byzantine manuscript

that regarded Christianity and Islam as equals, recognising the divine origin

of the Qur'an and the authenticity of Muhammad's prophetic mission."87

Dissatisfied with developments in the Christian community and the collapse of

Orthodox-Catholic unification in face of the Ottoman threat, George of

Trebizond asked the sultan to embrace Christianity in order to become an

open-minded leader destined to outfox all of his Roman, Byzantine, and

Turkish predecessors. According to George of Trebizond, that would not

constitute betrayal to the sultan's ancestral practices, since the discrepancies

between Christians and Muslims are based less on the faith per se than on

mutual ignorance, arrogance, and capacity for quarrel.

87 Hibetullah, B. ibrahim, Sa'atname, 3b. Princeton Collection of Islamic Manuscripts,

Ottoman Turkish Texts.

66

Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror expressed a considerable interest in the

practices of his Byzantine predecessors, and the conquest of Constantinople

initiated a new phase in his relationship with both his Christian and Muslim

subjects. shortly after the conquest, he chose Gennadius Scholarius, the

champion of the anti-Latin party within the Byzantine ecclesiastical society, as

the first Orthodox Christian Patriarch of Ottoman Constantinople.88 The sultan

invited Gennadius Scholarius to prepare a Confession of the Christian faith,

which was translated into Turkish in 1455-56.89 Another prestigious Byzantine

intellectual, George Amiroutzes, the Greek philosopher and imperial

administrator at the Empire of Trebizond (a Byzantine descendant state that

was captured by the Ottomans in 1461), also confirmed Mehmets interest in

Christian traditions and even documented his alleged conversations with the

sultan on this subject in 1463-65. Although they were edited and adjusted, the

sultan's questions to Amiroutzes still prove his genuine and strong interest in

Christian faith. He felt obliged to protect his Christian subjects and became

heir of their cultural and political traditions90. Apart from religious polemics,

Mehmed II demanded an inspection of Byzantine monuments in

Constantinople and patronised several translations from Greek.91

88 Ibid., 6b-7a. 89 Yazma bagislar, Suleymaniye Library 3693. 90 Mesih Pasa, Suleymaniye Library, 109. 91 Serez, Suleymaniye Library, 1634. This copy was donated by two women, Ayse b.

Kadir and Hatice b. Orner Kara batak. Also see Yazma bagislar 3398, a manuscript from the vakif. There is a copy in the Oriental Collection in the National Library in Sofia (number 499). This copy belonged to Hatice Hatun, the daughter of El-Hac Hasan Gaferalla, the imam of Samokov, Bulgaria.

67

The descriptions of the iconic image of Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror

confirm the intention of the Ottomans to become the political and cultural

successors of their Byzantine predecessors.

Sultan Mehmet II the conqueror enters Constantinople Dressed as a Byzantine

Emperor. By Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (18451902). Source: Wikipedia

Commons.

69

CHAPTER FIVE

The reuse of sacred places

The reuse of sacred places has also left traces of the interaction between

Islam and Christianity in the Balkans and on the special identity of Islam in the

region. This phenomenon is quite common in the better documented

transferred religious groups and at first glance, appears to be the last trace

and the most concrete evidence of previous Christian activity. So, can we,

due to lack of other evidence, consider Christians frequentation of a Muslim

sanctuary as proof that the specific holy place was originally Christian?

Frederic Hasluck, at the beginning of the 20th century, states that an orthodox

Christian farmer, in theory, considers the Muslim religion as impure, while the

Turk has no such prejudice against Christianity; despite being Sunni and

scholar, he considers it rather imperfect than bad in itself. In addition, he

regards it as being founded on an earlier revelation than Islam, and dissolute,

regarding the worship of idols92. An apparent expression of this approach is

the fact that, in the re-conquered countries, a mosque is hardly ever occupied

as a church by the Orthodox, except if it has been (or is thought to have been)

a church.

92Hasluck, Frederick William, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, edited by Margaret

Hasluck, Oxford University Press, 1929, p. 70

70

However, Hasluck mentions if we think about the popular Christian

attitude towards Moslem saints, in the frequentation of Mohammedan

sanctuaries by Christians, we will realise that it is almost the same as the

Mohammedan attitude towards Christian saints.93

The existence of Islamic motifs in Christian icons, in several Greek

regions, confirms the Haslucks belief. In the 7th Meeting of Byzantinologists

of Greece and Cyprus, held in Komotini, 20-23 September 2007, it was said,

among others, that, in the Islamic kind rounded and sharp-tipped arches, the

icons of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as seen in Western art, and the icon

of the descent into Hades, as seen in the northern dance of Voutsa monastery

in Ioannina (1680) are placed one above the other. Another product from this

mixture and interaction with the Ottoman art are the spruce-shaped decorative

edges of domes, wrapped with covers or objects like the hemicycle and the

spear on the culmination of the domes (alem)94.

The conversion of churches to mosques occurred mostly out of need,

though encouraging somehow the religious exchanges. As Heath Lowry

states, after the Balkans had been fully integrated into the rising empire during

the second half of the 14th century, Muslim Ottoman officers, soldiers and

93 Ibid 94 Sixth Meeting of Byzantine experts, 20-23 of September 2007, Komotini. Announcement

title: Ottoman decorative motifs in the post-Byzantine monumental painting of Epirus in the 16th and 17th century. http://christosmerantzas.blogspot.gr/p/ottoman-decorative-motifs.html :

16 17 , Z , 20-23 2007, .

71

civilians settled in the abandoned walled cities, while many countrymen and

cattle farmers migrated from Anatolia to settle in any available land. At the

same time, a proportion of the Christian population chose to convert to Islam,

since the Muslim identity offered the citizen special privileges and an

opportunity for advancement in the Ottoman system. Therefore, there was a

sudden and constantly increasing need for many mosques, in order to fulfil

the religious needs of the increasing Islamic populations.

Except for the overwhelming need for more mosques for the rapidly

growing Muslim community, which began in the second half of the 15th

century, there were some other various factors which accelerated this

transformation.

In Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, Hasluck thoroughly explored

these phenomena and attempted to find their background. The first group of

Muslim immigrants was probably linked to the conquest of Granada in 1492

by the Spaniards and the destruction of the last Caliphate on Spanish soil. A

wave of Arab refugees flooded the Muslim lands afterwards, along with,

thousands of Jews before the forceful Spanish Catholicism. These immigrants

found a new home in every part of the Turkish Empire, but they also conveyed

their implacable hatred of anything Christian to their fellow Muslims.

72

This policy of reusing the same buildings is known in all civilisations and it

is a typical strategy of many conquerors, including the Ottomans. The

architectural history of the core of central sites in the old world cities, like

Athens for instance, draw a magnificent example of the historical continuity of

these sites. One of the most representative examples is the Parthenon.

The Ottomans continued using sacred Greek sites, in order to satisfy their

own religious needs. Their activity in this domain can be divided into two main

categories:

a) Reuse of an existing building with or without limited alterations or

additions.

b) Reuse of the site of a ruined building.

Reuse of an existing building

The Ottomans could reuse Christian churches only in cities which they had

occupied. In cities which had surrendered by a treaty or had capitulated

voluntarily with a covenant, Christians could keep both their fortune and their

churches. The most famous covenant of the conquered cities is the Pact of

Umar (Al-Unda al-Omariyya), which was signed in 638 AD between the

Caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, after

the Siege of Jerusalem, in order to establish the rights and impose the

73

obligations of all non-Muslims in Palestine, Christians and Jews, People of

the Book.

The Ottomans obeyed these rules in the Balkanian cities which had

surrendered to them. For instance, Sinan Pasha, senior governor of the

Ottoman territories in Europe, signed with the military and political authorities

of Ioannina, a treaty known as the Decree of Sinan, which meant the

submission of Ioannina to the Ottomans in exchange for some privileges.

According to the terms of this decree of 1430, no church was to be converted

into a mosque; Muslims were not allowed to erect a mesjid (small mosques)

and were prohibited from living inside the citadel. In Athens, the Conqueror,

the Sultan Muhammad II visited the city twice, in 1458 and in 1460; during his

first visit, he gave the inhabitants of Athens certain privileges95. It is

remarkable that, to the best of our knowledge, these rules were violated only

in one case: when the octagon building of the Horologion of Andronikos, the

so-called Tower of the Winds of Athens, was converted96 into the tekke of

Braimi. The details of this conversion remain unknown.

On the other hand, the conqueror had at his disposal all churches of the

cities which had been forcefully captured. Ibn Al-Kaim (1292-1350), a

95 Kourouniotis, Konstantinos, - Sotiriou, Georgios, Inventory of Monuments of Greece,

Greek Ministry of Education, 1927, p.18. , . .

. . , Y , 18. 96 It had been previously converted to a church

74

theologian (ulema) commented on this approach;97 he said that the Imam

(meaning, the conqueror) must do what is best for Muslims, even if this

means taking churches from Christians or demolishing them; this might

happen if Muslims are too many and Christians are few in number. However,

if there are many Christians and need their churches, Muslims should leave

the churches for Christians.

In general, the Ottomans in the Balkans, when they controlled a city by

force, they immediately converted the largest church into a mosque98, as a

symbol of victory, but they left the second largest church to Christians for their

services. If there was only one church in the city, Christians were allowed to

build a new church for themselves.

Reuse of the existing site of a ruined building

Most of the early Ottoman religious structures in the Balkans replaced

existing buildings; therefore, the Ottoman religious buildings were not the first

ones on those locations. In fact, it is rather difficult to imagine that these

strategic and important sites of the plurality of the early Ottoman structures,

which dominate the view of the city, were unoccupied until the Ottomans built

their constructions. 97 Al-Jawziyyah, Ibn Qayyim, vol. I. pp 222-225, vol. 3, pp. 1200-1210 98 The church of Agia Paraskeui, which means Holy Friday, was frequently converted

into a Friday mosque.

75

It is remarkable that the Ottomans generally maintained the old use of

each location99. Bakirzis became aware of this phenomenon in Thrace: In

this respect it is illuminating that many of the places of the