Crypto-Christianity and Religious Hybridisation in the Ottoman Balkans: a Case Study (1599–1622)

Silvia Notarfonso

doi:10.18778/2084-140X.10.09

Authors

Silvia Notarfonso Eötvös Loránd University; University of Macerata https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2055-4919

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.10.09

Keywords:

Ottoman Balkans, Catholic missionaries, crypto-Christianity, Catholic confessionalisation

Abstract

In this paper I intend to address the issue of crypto-Catholicism in the early Ottoman Balkans, a complex phenomenon which has drawn historians’ attention over the decades. More specifically, I will attempt to define and clarify the difficult and unresolved issue, taking into account the characteristics of the Balkans where many religious and social groups co-existed. That produced interaction and enmeshment between the various religions and, as a result, identities developed specific distinctive traits and often overlapped.

Within that unique Balkan environment – a real confessional melting pot – crypto-Christianity naturally arose. Crypto-Catholics or Orthodoxies, living under Ottoman rule, publicly decided to embrace the Islamic religion but secretly identified themselves as Christians. I have set out to investigate this phenomenon by considering letters and reports produced by Catholic missions involved in the Balkan peninsula.

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