Although Greece currently is, and has historically been, a Christian Orthodox country, Jewish and Muslim communities have existed within its borders for centuries. Scholars have written extensively about Greek conversions to Islam during the Ottoman occupation, but the same level of study has not been given to Muslims who converted to Christianity. Although not common, it did happen, especially during and after the Revolution of 1821.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Why would a Muslim, living in a Greek village, voluntarily change religions? “Muslim converts to Christianity were ready to compromise their Islamic faith in exchange for security, social status, and well-being in the changed political and social environment created by Greek nationalism, with a view to advancing their professional opportunities and material interests in the new state.”[1]
Abandoning their faith and adopting a new identity, some converts retained their names; others either took the name, or were given the nickname, of Neofotistos (Νεοφώτιστος), loosely translated as “new light.” Converts, particularly females, who were ostracized by their families found safety through conversion and marriage, and easily assimilated into village life.
In his essay, Neophotisti and Apostates: Greece and Conversion in the Nineteenth Century,[2] Evdoxios Doxiadis, through his study of notarial and court records, found that “their [Muslim converts] numbers may have been more significant than previously thought.” He writes, “although the evidence presented here is sporadic, it is also indicative of a noteworthy presence of converts, and especially female converts, in the early decades of the modern Greek state and their integration into Greek society as wives and property owners.”
In 2014, historian Giannis Michalakakos gave me a copy of the Periodical Study of the Society of Lakonian Studies, Volume 9. Comprised of essays and documents retrieved from the Venetian Archives (Archivio di Stato), it includes a “list of Turks who became Christians, with their women and children, who are inhabitants of the respective places of the province of Mystras.”[3] The document is dated 1689, and the statistical information was obtained during the Second Venetian rule in the Peloponnese. The villages listed in the document are: Mystras, Agios Ioannis Sparta, Sklavochori, Arkasa, Lopesi, Floka, Kastri and Voaria.
In my ancestral village of Agios Ioannis Sparta, the following converts from Islam to Christianity are named:
Theodoris Bettiafaci, age 40 years
Giannoula, his wife
Panagiota, his daughter
Giannoula, his other daughter
Ilias Papoutsis, age 45 years
Kanella, his wife
Panagiota, his daughter, age 18 years
Ilias Papoutsis, age 45 years
Kanella, his wife
Panagiota, his daughter, age 18 years
Nikolaos, his son, age 11 years
Panagiotis Zalamachera, age 32 years
Panoria, his wife
Baroloni, his son
Ilias Chortatzis, age 20 years
Pagona, his wife
Panagiotis, his son
Giannis Krevelis, age 30 years
Pagona, his wife
Garoufalia, his daughter
Panagiota, his other daughter
Giannis Tsakalis, age 45 years
Maroula, his wife
Kontylo, his daughter
Dimitrios Karas, age 40 years
Panagiota, his wife
Panagiotis Vlachakis, age 28 years
Venetia, his wife
Giannakis Staveris, age 32 years
Paraskevi, his wife
Giorgios, his adopted son
Panagiotis Thereianos, age 39 years
Panoria, his wife
Maria, his daughter
Venetsiana, his sister
Giannis, his son
Dimitrios, his other son
The female, Kanella Achmetitsa
Dominikos, her son
The female, Maroulla Paina
The female, Maroula Koutsevaina
The female, Maria Katanaina
Widow Magio (Maro) Karamenmetaina
Nikolaos, her son
Alexandros Mpanamakis, age 25 years
Chrysafo, his wife
Giorgios Kazakis, age 30 years
Isabeta, his wife
The majority of these surnames are Greek, leading me to wonder if the Muslim convert was the wife who took a Greek given name after marriage. Unfortunately, the document does not provide further details. I find it interesting that none of the names are “Neofotistos;” however, I have found that name many times in the Μιτρόον Αρρένον (Male Register) and Δημοτολόγιον Κοινότητος (Dimotologion Koinotitos) documents from the Archives of Sparta, which were created in the mid-late 1800s.
“The idea that Greece emerged [from the Revolution] as a solidly homogenous Christian state is rarely challenged,” Doxiadis concludes.[4] Yet the records prove that a rich kaleidoscope of ethnicities have melded over the centuries to forge the modern Greek people of today.
[1] Katsikas, Stefanos and Dimitriadis, Sakis, *Muslim Converts to Orthodox Christianity during the Greek War of Independence, 1821–1832,” European History Quarterly, Vol 51, Issue 3, 2021, page(s): 299-323. SAGE Publications: 07/01/2021. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02656914211025378
[2] Doxiadis, E. (2022). Neophotistoi and Apostates: Greece and Conversion in the Nineteenth Century. Historein, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.12681/historein.24980. paragraphs 16 and 19.
[3] Lakonian Studies, Periodical Study of the Society of Lakonian Studies, Volume 9, page 272. Athens: 1988. Mystras, 20 September 1689, Document Number 21
[4] Doxiadis, paragraph 34.
Spartan Roots (Σπαρτιατικές Ρίζες) 