Writing Religion

The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-19-023409-6
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 346 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 590 g

Reihe: AAR Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion

In the late 1980s, the Alevis, at that time thought to be largely assimilated into the secular Turkish mainstream, began to assert their difference as they never had before. The question of Alevism's origins and its relation to Islam and to Turkish culture became a highly contested issue. According to the dominant understanding, Alevism is part of the Islamic tradition, although located on its margins. It is further assumed that Alevism is intrinsically related to Anatolian and Turkish culture, carrying an ancient Turkish heritage, leading back into pre-Islamic Central Asian Turkish pasts.

Dressler argues that this knowledge about the Alevis-their demarcation as "heterodox" but Muslim and their status as carriers of Turkish culture-is in fact of rather recent origins. It was formulated within the complex historical dynamics of the late Ottoman Empire and the first years of the Turkish Republic in the context of Turkish nation-building and its goal of ethno-religious homogeneity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dressler, Markus

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Über Autor(innen)

Markus Dressler is currently Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Göttingen.