Islam and Nationalism in Modern Greece focuses on the impact of nationalism upon the living conditions and legal status of Muslim communities after the Revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire. The book’s objective “is to take a step toward integrating the history of Islam and its followers into the history of modern Greek state, by examining ideas about the nation and about national policies from the nineteenth century to the interwar period” (xvii). Without such an approach, the author argues, “scholars fail to capture the nuances of state attitudes, policies, and perceptions in Greece with regard to its minority populations” (ix).
The book consists of a preface, seven chapters, and conclusions. The preface includes a five-page discussion of the most well-known theories about nationalism (e.g., by Gellner, Smith, Anderson). According to the author, although “ideas of nation and nationalism stand at the core of this book, the discussion avoids complicating the already complex historical circumstances with theoretical approaches to the questions of nationalism” (xi), adding that the analysis in the preface could assist the reader in the chapters to follow. While the main theories are indeed discussed in the preface, other options could have been selected in order to add value to this really interesting book. One such option could be to expand on these theories through a lengthier theoretical introduction that would include additional literature, such as that of Mart Bax (Reference Bax1987) who discusses the role of religion in state formation – an aspect of interest when it comes to Greece. Furthermore, despite the author’s argument on the avoidance of complication, incorporating some of these theoretical elements in the following chapters and/or in the conclusions would offer a higher theoretical synthesis.
Despite this, the book deals successfully with a great number of historical, archival, and literature sources in all the remaining chapters. Chapter 1 offers the background of the historical analysis, discussing the presence of Islam and Muslims in Southern Europe starting from the Byzantine Empire and continuing with the Ottoman Empire, while also explaining issues such as the Millet system and the Tanzimat reforms. Some of the subsections in this chapter (e.g., about Pax Ottomana) are only a few lines long, and probably they should have either been expanded or merged with others (3). Chapter 2 focuses on the Greek War of Independence discussing some taboo issues for the Greek public sphere and the Greek Educational System, which are of great value for the historical knowledge (e.g., the atrocities perpetrated against Muslims during that period). In chapter 3, the author discusses the process through which Greek nationalism emerged as well as the construction of the Greek national identity in which religion and the Orthodox Church played a crucial role. Chapter 4 brings to light the situation of Muslims during the period of 1832–1880, that is, after the recognition of Greece as an independent kingdom and until the country’s expansion with the annexation of Thessaly, in Central Greece, which is analyzed in chapter 5. Both of these chapters discuss topics such as the legal status of Muslims, their exodus from Greece due to the rise of nationalist ideas and policies, the issue of their properties, education and religious freedom, Greek-Ottoman relations and conflicts and their impact upon Muslims living in Greece. Similar issues are put under scrutiny in chapter 6 where the author presents the situation of Muslims in the so-called New Lands, which were annexed to Greece after the Balkan Wars. He also brings into the discussion the issues of Turkish and Albanian nationalism, which started to be on the rise during this period. The last chapter focuses on the interwar years (1923–1940), examining notably the impact of Greece’s defeat in Asia Minor upon Muslim populations in light of the Treaty of Lausanne, which was signed in 1923.
All seven chapters are well-structured and include very interesting and illuminating material from primary and secondary sources (e.g., Parliament discussions, articles in newspapers, letters, maps, and statistical data). The author manages to successfully navigate this material and offers to the reader an informed overview of the situation of Muslims during this period. Apart from the point made at the beginning regarding the theories of nationalism, a few secondary issues could be mentioned without consisting major drawbacks. At some point the words “Islamophobes” and “Islamophobic” are mentioned (162, 163). From the moment Islamophobia was not a topic of interest and an acknowledged concept during the period under analysis, an explanatory note about the notion and how it is used could be incorporated in the text. Also, when mentioning the establishment of the Independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1870 (95), the author could have added that the Orthodox Church of Greece was the first to declar a de facto independence from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1833, thus creating great tension with the Patriarchate until 1850 when its independence was officially recognized. Finally, in the conclusions (215), it is mentioned that in the pre-1821 period ordinary people started to identify with the ideas of the Enlightenment (independence, liberty, fraternity). Based on the historical evidence, the educational level of the vast majority of the Greek people was rather poor, so it was actually difficult to have such ideas diffused to large segments of the population. This seems to have been a privilege of the elites who could travel for business and education in Europe. Moreover, the Patriarchate of Constantinople had officially condemned such ideas through its encyclical letters and other texts before, during, and after the Revolution of 1821.
Overall, this well-documented book of Stefanos Katsikas deals with a very interesting but, at the same time, neglected issue in academia and the public sphere, offering new material and insights open to further analyses and elaboration. It is these kind of contributions that are necessary in order to better understand the historical past without ideological and nationalist blinders. This is why the book’s translation into Greek would be of great value. The book could be of equal interest for academics and graduate and post-graduate students from a variety of fields in social sciences and humanities but mostly for those in history, minority studies, human rights, and nationalism.
