Böcker av Stefanos (Associate Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies and Assistant Instructional Professor Katsikas

Proselytes of a New Nation analyzes questions such as: Why did many Muslims convert to Greek Orthodoxy? What did conversion mean to the converts? What were their economic, social, and professional profiles? And how did conversion affect the converts' relationships with Muslim relatives in Greece and the Ottoman Empire?Stefanos Katsikas maintains that in the era of nationalism-when Sharia law and the Ottoman legal system could keep converts from inheriting family property; when converts were regarded as either "traitors" or "heroes"-conversion more drastically affected the social fabric of communities and more often led to violence and conflict.

Drawing from a wide range of archival and secondary Greek, Bulgarian, Ottoman, and Turkish sources, Islam and Nationalism in Modern Greece, 1821-1940 explores the way in which the Muslim populations of Greece were ruled by state authorities from the time of Greece''s political emancipation from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s until the country''s entrance into the Second World War, in October 1940. The book examines how state rule influenced the development ofthe Muslim population''s collective identity as a minority and affected Muslim relations with the Greek authorities and Orthodox Christians. Greece was the first country in the Balkans to become an independent state and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. Greece''s ruling framework and many state administrative measures and patterns would serve as templates in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus). Muslim religious officials were empowered with authority which they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of the Islamic law (Sharia) were incorporated into thestate legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. Religion remained a defining element in the political, social, and cultural life of the post-Ottoman Balkans; Stefanos Katsikas explores the role religious nationalism and public institutions have played in the development andpreservation of religious and ethnic identity. Religion remains a key element of individual and collective identity but only as long as there are strong institutions and the political framework to support and maintain religious diversity.