Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives (Transactions

by Elisabeth Özdalga (Editor), Catharina Raudvere

In the rising momentum for new and reformulated cultural identities, the Turkish Alevi have also emerged on the scene, demanding due recognition. In this process a number of dramatic events have served as important milestones: the clashes between Sunni and Alevi in Kahramanmaras in 1979 and Corum in 1980, the incendiarism in Sivas in 1992, and the riots in Istanbul (Gaziosmanpasa) in 1995. Less evocative, but in the long run more significant, has been the rising interest in Alevi folklore and religious practices. Questions have also arisen as to what this branch of Islamic heterodoxy represents in terms of old and new identities. In this book, these questions are addressed by some of the most prominent scholars in the field.

Bektashi--kızılbaş : historical bipartition and its consequences / Irène Mélikoff --
On Bektashism in Bosnia / Erik Cornell --
Anthropology and ethnicity : the place of ethnography in the new Alevi movement / David Shankland --
Academic and journalistic publications on the Alevi and Bektashi of Turkey / Karin Vorhoff --
The function of Alevi-Bektashi theology in modern Turkey / Faruk Bilici --
Political Alevism versus political Sunnism : convergences and divergences / Ruşen Çakır --
Development and reformulation of a returnee identity as Alevi / Helga Rittersberger-Tiliç --
Alevi revivalism in Turkey / Reha Çamuroğlu --
State-community relations in the restructuring of Alevism / Fuat Bozkurt --
Ottoman modernisation and sabetaism / İlber Ortaylı --
A critical survey on Ahl-e Haqq studies in Europe and Iran / Jean During --
Taqīya or civil religion? Druze religious specialists in the framework of the Lebanese confessional state / Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen --
The Druze religious will as a political instrument / Aharon Layish --
Alevis in Turkey--Alawites in Syria : similarities and differences / Marianne Aringberg-Laanatza --
The gnosis of mountaineers and townspeople. The religion of the Syrian Alawites, or the Nuṣairīs / Tord Olsson --
Urban visions and religious communities : access and visibility / Catharina Raudvere --
Epilogue : the scripturalization of Ali-oriented religions / Tord Olsson.

Genres: Islam

Paperback

First published January 1, 1998