Honored by the Glory of Islam. Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe

introduction 13

Theorizing Religious Conversion: Connecting Conversion

of Self, Others, and Sacred Space

Although this book is based on a detailed investigation of the reign of one

Ottoman sultan, I also adopt an interpretive stance worth considering for the

study of religious conversion in other times and places. I take an integrated

approach to conversion, linking conversion of self, others, and space, and in-

clude the dimension of power and the context of war and conquest. This is one

of the few works that examines the intricacies of religious change in its indi-

vidual (personal) and social and political (public) aspects and places it in his-

torical context. I argue that conversion is a decision or experience followed by

a gradually unfolding, dynamic process through which an individual embarks

on religious transformation.^9 This can entail an intensifi cation of belief and

practice of one’s own religion, moving from one level of observation to another,

or exchanging the beliefs and practices in which one was raised for those of

another religious tradition. In both cases, a person becomes someone else be-

cause his or her internal mind-set and/or external actions are transformed. In

the case of intensifi cation, where one formally did not give other than cursory

thought or attention to the theology of one’s faith or engage in or keep whole-

heartedly to its requirements, one devotes one’s mind and body fully to un-

derstanding and embracing the religion. Whereas some scholars still posit an

artifi cial distinction between “exterior” and “interior” conversion, I argue that

conversion has an internal component entailing belief and an external compo-

nent involving behavior, leading to the creation of a new self-identity and new

way of life. In Sunni Islamic law, faith has three elements: internal conviction,

verbal affi rmation, and the performance of works; the fi rst is the internal com-

ponent of conversion, the latter two the external elements.^10

The internal component includes a change in worldview, a turning toward

a new axis or set of ideals that motivate converts to transform themselves and

their environment. Converts reject or denounce their past and former beliefs

and practices, or indifference in the case of revivalists, labeling them wrong

when compared with a different future on the path of the new, conceived as

being right.^11 The convert accepts a new reference point for his or her identity,

a new foundation of salvifi c power, and commits to a new moral authority.^12

Whereas the internal component demands a change in consciousness,

the external requires commitments to another salvifi c community, devotion

to piety or the new religion, which entails changing the way the individual

behaves and the adoption of a new social identity. The external sign of trans-

formation is important for the individual, the religious community he or she