Contemporary Alevi and Bektashi Religiosity in Turkey and the Balkans - Traditional Forms and Postmodern Expressions
Contemporary Alevi and Bektashi Religiosity in Turkey and the Balkans - Traditional Forms and Postmodern Expressions

Author(s): Yuri Stoyanov
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Post-secularism; Heresy; Heterodoxy; Islam; Christianity; Orthodoxy; South-East Europe/Balkans; Ottoman Empire; Alevism; Bektāşīsm; Sufism; Syncretism; Religious Conversion; Slavonic Cultures
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author will be examining the different varieties and expressional forms of the contemporary Alevi/Bektāşī religious identity in modern Turkey and the Balkan countries, with an overview of its historical development spanning from pre-Islamic Central-Asian and neighbouring Christian influences to the XIX and early XX century Ottoman and subsequent Balkan Slavic nation-building policies. With a reference to a vast theoretical and research background, it also sheds light on the syncretic and heterogeneous nature of Bektashi identity and also the contemporary identities of both the Bektashi diaspora and the population of the aforementioned regions. From a theoretical standpoint, the paper also points out the significance of some newly conducted interdisciplinary research that specially focuses on the Anatolian and Balkan communities. Finally, it is noteworthy that, due to modernization processes and urban migrations, a rise of secular, ”progressive“ and left-leaning elements withing these communities has been noticed since the ’60s and ’70s. Such views are sometimes seen as opposed to religious traditionalism of the Bektashi, and sometimes complementary to this groups universalist values.

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