Entangled Confessionalizations?: Dialogic Perspectives on the Politics of Piety and Community Building in the Ottoman Empire, 15th18th Centuries

Open Access Published by Gorgias Press 2022

Entangled Confessionalizations?

Dialogic Perspectives on the Politics of Piety and Community Building in the Ottoman Empire, 15th18th Centuries

Edited by: Tijana Krstić and Derin Terzioğlu

Volume 15 in the series The Modern Muslim World

https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463243586

Overview
Contents

About this book

Historians of the early modern Ottoman Empire have long been pointing out that in the early sixteenth century the religious outlook of the sultans and the imperially sponsored hierarchy of religious scholars underwent a shift: while heretofore they had been largely unconcerned with defining, observing or enforcing a Sunni ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘orthopraxy’, they now became increasingly invested in precisely such a project. How did the understanding of what constituted a Sunni orthodoxy and orthopraxy evolve across the spectrum of Ottoman society between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries and how did it affect various Ottoman communities? Was it by chance or perhaps due to similar social and political processes that the growing polarization between Sunnism and Shi‘ism, as well as contemporaneous building of Ottoman and Safavid empires, precisely coincided with the Catholic-Protestant (and later Calvinist) polarization and the rise of confessional states in Europe? Were these contemporaneous projects of defining correct belief and/or practice in some sort of dialogue, and is this dialogue traceable in the sources left by various individuals and communities living in or passing through Ottoman domains between c. 1500 and c. 1750? The present volume explores these questions and early modern Muslim, Jewish and Christian discourses on communal belonging, ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘orthopraxy’ through the framework of a shared ‘confessional age’, thus obviating the top-down model of inter-confessional relations in which Christians and Jews are always seen solely as Ottoman subjects. It offers a unique perspective on Ottoman society and early modern politics of piety by approaching empire’s religious groups not as homogenous blocks of ‘Muslims’, ‘Jews’ and ‘Christians’ but rather highlighting intra-communal diversity. By adopting a wider Eurasian perspective, contributors explore the repercussions of the developments within various Ottoman communities as far afield as the Safavid Empire, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, and Europe, and vice versa. The papers focus on specific people who disseminated ideas about ritual and creedal normativity and social clusters through which such ideas spread. At the same time, they also explore the limits of such normative discourses and their agents, as well as the role of alternative ideas about confessional and communal belonging informed by various forms of ambiguity.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
TABLE OF CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
1. INTRODUCTION Tijana Krstić Open Access Download PDF	1
PART I: ENTANGLED CONFESSIONALIZATIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
2. CAN WE SPEAK OF ‘CONFESSIONALIZATION’ BEYOND THE REFORMATION? OTTOMAN COMMUNITIES, POLITICS OF PIETY, AND EMPIRE-BUILDING IN AN EARLY MODERN EURASIAN PERSPECTIVE Tijana Krstić Open Access Download PDF	25
PART II: VISIONS AND REALITIES OF COMMUNAL AUTHORITY
3. TWO VISIONS OF RABBINIC AUTHORITY AND THEIR OTTOMAN CONTEXT: THE LEGAL WORLDVIEWS OF JOSEPH CARO (D. 1575) AND JOSEPH SAMBARI (D. C. 1703) Roni Weinstein and Guy Burak Open Access Download PDF	117
4. GRIGOR DARANAŁCʿI: AN ARMENIAN CHRONICLER OF EARLY MODERN MASS MOBILITY Henry Shapiro Open Access Download PDF	139
5. CONFESSION-BUILDING AND AUTHORITY: THE GREAT CHURCH AND THE OTTOMAN STATE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Eleni Gara and Ovidiu Olar Open Access Download PDF	159
6. WHOSE REALM, HIS BISHOP: ORTHODOX PATRIARCH’S FLOCK BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Vera Tchentsova Open Access Download PDF	215
7. SHEIKH ÜL-ISLAM FEYZULLAH EFENDI AND THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCH AWETIKʿ: A CASE OF ENTANGLED CONFESSIONAL DISCIPLINING? Cesare Santus Open Access Download PDF	233
PART III: VARIETIES OF TEXTUAL COMMUNITIES IN THE OTTOMAN ARENA OF CONFESSIONAL POLARIZATION
8. KABBALISTIC FRATERNITIES OF OTTOMAN GALILEE AND THEIR CENTRAL EUROPEAN MEMBERS, FUNDERS, AND SUCCESSORS Carsten Wilke Open Access Download PDF	255
9. THE COMMANDMENT (BUYRUK): AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SACRED TEXTS OF THE KIZILBASH-ALEVI COMMUNITY Riza Yildirim Open Access Download PDF	285
10. THE ABDALS OF RUM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETING MUSLIM CONFESSIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE EARLY MODERN EASTERN BALKANS Nikolay Antov Open Access Download PDF	313
11. ORTHODOX MARTYRDOM AND CONFESSIONALIZATION IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, LATE FIFTEENTH–MID-SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES Yorgos Tzedopoulos Open Access Download PDF	335
12. CATHOLIC CONFESSIONAL LITERATURE IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST? A VIEW FROM ROME, DIYARBAKIR, AND MOUNT LEBANON, CA. 1674 John-Paul A. Ghobrial Open Access Download PDF	383
PART IV: POLEMICAL ENCOUNTERS IN AN INTER-IMPERIAL PERSPECTIVE
13. MASJED-E JAMEʿ-YE ʿABBASI: A TWELVER SHI‘ITE CONGREGATIONAL MOSQUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DEBATE ON THE FRIDAY PRAYER IN THE SAFAVID WORLD Damla Gürkan-Anar Open Access Download PDF	401
14. ON THE MARGINS OF EMPIRE: CONFESSIONALIZATION AND THE EAST SYRIAN SCHISM OF 15521 Lucy Parker Open Access Download PDF	429
15. FROM DOCTRINAL PERSUASION TO ECONOMIC THREATS: PAOLO PIROMALLI’S MISSIONARY WORK AMONG THE ARMENIANS AND HIS CONVERSION STRATEGIES1 Paolo Lucca Open Access Download PDF	451
16. INTRA-ARMENIAN POLEMICS AND CONFESSION-BUILDING IN OTTOMAN CONSTANTINOPLE: THE CASE OF GĒORG MXLAYIM ŌŁLI (1681/85–1758) Anna Ohanjanyan Open Access Download PDF	489
17. ORTHODOX CONFESSION-BUILDING AND THE GREEK CHURCH BETWEEN PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM: THE MISSION OF MARQUIS NOINTEL TO THE LEVANT (1670–1673) Margarita Voulgaropoulou Open Access Download PDF	521
PART V: CONTEXTUAL LIMITS OF CONFESSIONAL AMBIGUITIES
18. CONFESSIONAL AMBIGUITY IN THE AGE OF CONFESSION-BUILDING: PHILO-ALIDISM, SUFISM AND SUNNI ISLAM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1400–1700 Derin Terzioğlu Open Access Download PDF	563
19. GRAND VIZIER KOCA SINAN PASHA AND THE OTTOMAN NON-MUSLIMS Nenad Filipović Open Access Download PDF	625
20. ON THE LEGAL STATUS OF YEZIDIS: LAW, GEOGRAPHY AND CONFESSION-BUILDING IN EARLY MODERN KURDISTAN (SIXTEENTHEIGHTEENTH CENTURIES) Yavuz Aykan Open Access Download PDF	673
21. BROKERING TRIDENTINE MARRIAGE REFORMS AND LEGAL PLURALISM IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NORTHERN OTTOMAN RUMELI Emese Muntán Open Access Download PDF	701
22. SHI‘ITE-IRANIAN PILGRIMS AND SAFAVID AGENTS IN HOLY SITES UNDER OTTOMAN RULE, 1690–1710 Selim Güngörürler Open Access Download PDF	725
Afterword: Entangled Confessionalizations—A European Perspective Alexander Schunka Open Access Download PDF	745
Index Open Access Download PDF	763

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Gorgias Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 812
Keywords: Turkey & Ottoman Empire; History; Middle East

eBook

Published: May 2, 2022
ISBN: 9781463243586