Abstract: “Orthodox Christians and Muslims of Cappadocia: Intercommunal Relations in an Ottoman Rural Context (1839-1923)”

Aude Aylin de Tapia, Doctoral Candidate
at the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University, and the Centre d'études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centre-asiatiques at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2016

This study explores the relations between Orthodox Christians (Rums) and Muslims from the beginning of the Tanzimat (1839) to the Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey (1923). Focusing on the Turkish- and Greek-speaking Christian communities living in the villages and towns of the region of Cappadocia in the heart of Anatolia (i.e., the countryside surrounding the towns of Kayseri, Niğde, Nevşehir, and Aksaray) as well as on their interactions with Muslim populations that share the same settlements or live in neighboring villages. It asks how, in a rural context, forms of individual, communal, and collective identification were locally negotiated by ordinary people, at a time when nationalisms transformed and apparently strengthened identities based primarily on religious affiliation. The ways to share space, to organize economic networks, or to negotiate matrimonial strategies, religious conversions, worship places, and ritual practices are explored to ask if interactions may belong to a collective identity that transcends boundaries between religious groups.