Islam in the Balkans: Globalization, Europeanization, Localization.

AuthorBeilinson, Orel
PositionBook review

Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia By Ines Asceric-Todd Leiden: Brill, 2015, 198 pages, $145, ISBN: 9789004288447

The Revival of Islam in the Balkans: From Identity to Religiosity Edited by Olivier Roy and Arolda Elbasani New York, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015, 257 pages, $110, ISBN: 9781137517838

Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism By Ina Merdjanova New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 216 pages, $85, ISBN 9780199964031

Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (Volume 6) Edited by Jorgen Nielsen, Samim Akgonul, Ahmet Alibasic and Egdunas Racius Leiden: Brill, 2014, 648 pages, $285, ISBN: 9789004277540

The study of European Islam is now experiencing an unprecedented revival. While most of its attention is dedicated to Islam as a minority in 'Christian' Europe, countries such as Bosnia and Albania have not lost their importance in Westerner's eyes, much of it due to the region's political upheavals, fueled by the ever-lurking danger of terrorism, both in the Balkans and by people of the Balkans abroad. Three of the four books reviewed here discuss Southeastern Europe, and the fourth one is a collection of papers covering the entire spectrum of European Islam.

In Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia, Ines Asceric-Todd returns to post-medieval Bosnia to trace the impact of Sufism in the Islamization (a term she rightfully prefers over conversion to Islam) of the region. Even though the role of the warrior-dervishes in the Islamization or Ottomanization of these provinces is a relatively well-researched phenomenon, this book presents a nuanced argument that successfully challenges the traditional explanations hitherto posed. In her introduction, the author outlines the extant historiographical approaches to the role of dervishes in the Ottoman expansion, and to Bosnia's conversion to Islam, showing how their insufficient explanations demand a thorough investigation of the role of the dervish tekke in filling the functions that the weak religious institutions failed to fulfill (partly due to their flight to Austria). In eleven chapters, Asceric-Todd carefully analyzes myriad primary sources (written mainly in Turkish and Arabic) and secondary sources (in both local and European languages).

The picture she paints is very complex. More than just warriors or missionaries, the dervishes, Asceric-Todd argues, were also craftsmen whose lodges were centers of urbanity. Their projects were sometimes independent of the state and at other times backed, if not initiated, by officials who were dervishes themselves or who served as patrons to the lodges. This led, first of all, to the creation of urban settlements (in addition to the conversion of medieval settlements into cities) based on the lodges, with Sarajevo being the best example. But it was not only about founding towns: Asceric-Todd ascribes the development of the esnafs, which she translates as trade-guilds, to the dervishes. In this part of her study, she relies on the Futuvvetname (known in Arabic as Kitab al-Futuwwa). These were Islamic codes of behavior--some might say of chivalry in order to extend the equivalency to the medieval West--grounded in Sufi teachings. The basic rules of the guilds were based on the akhi corporations (dervish orders and brotherhoods), and membership in a guild was closely linked to membership in such a corporation. These esnafs filled more than just economic functions in Bosnian society: they were "a social framework within which [its members] lived their life" and provided "a rich social calendar for the entire population" (p. 181). Using Ottoman records such as defters, the author shows that conversion to Islam was usually linked to the opening...

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