Contested Conversions to Islam. Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

Description

This work explores how Ottoman Muslims and Christians understood the phenomenon of conversion to Islam from the 15th to the 17th centuries, when the Ottoman Empire was at the height of its power and conversions to Islam peaked. Introduction : turning "Rumi" : conversion to Islam, fashioning of the Ottoman imperial ideology, and interconfessional relations in the early modern Mediterranean context -- Muslims through narratives : textual repertoires of fifteenth-century Ottoman Islam and formation of the Ottoman interpretative communities -- Toward an Ottoman Rumi identity : the polemical arena of syncretism and the debate on the place of converts in fifteenth-century Ottoman polity -- In expectation of the Messiah : interimperial rivalry, apocalypse, and conversion in sixteenth-century Muslim polemical narratives -- Illuminated by the light of Islam and the glory of the Ottoman Sultanate : self-narratives of conversion to Islam in the age of confessionalization -- Between the turban and the papal tiara : Orthodox Christian neomartyrs and their impresarios in the age of confessionalization -- Everyday communal politics of coexistence and Orthodox Christian martyrdom : a dialogue of sources and gender regimes in the age of confessionalization -- Conclusion : conversion and confessionalization in the Ottoman Empire: considerations for future research.