Publications of Krstic, T.

Illuminated by the Light of Islam and the Glory of the Ottoman Sultanate : Self-Narratives of Conversion to Islam in the Age of Confessionalization

The article explores the narratives of conversion to Islam written by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ottoman subjects Murad B. Abdullah and Mehmed, a former Orthodox Christian student of theology and philosophy. The author notes that their narratives were polemical, didactic and written in support of the Ottoman sovereign. She argues that these narratives were a manifestation of the Ottoman participation in the Age of Confessionalization, the era when confessional communities such as Lutheran, Calvinist and reformed Catholic were established. Moreover, she ascertains that Ottoman narratives of conversion emerged partly as a result of a trans-regional confessional polarization between Ottomans and other dynasts such as Habsburgs and Safavids.