The arsenite schism and the Babai rebellion: two case studies in center-periphery relations

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1819761 (Table of Contents)

This thesis aims to present an analysis of the interaction between Christians and Muslims in the west of Asia Minor at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th centuries after two religious-social movements in the Byzantine and the Rum Seljuk Empires, the Arsenite Schism and the Babai Rebellion. After the unsuccessful rebellion of the Babais, antinomian dervishes who had migrated to the west of Asia Minor because of a heavy oppression as well as inquisition by the state and had a different religious belief apart from the mainstream religious understanding of the center initiated missionary activities in the regions along the Byzantine border. Accordingly, these dervishes had joined the military activities of the Turcoman chieftains against the Byzantines and interacted with the local Christian population and religious figures. As a result of this religious interaction, messianic and ascetic beliefs were increasingly present among the Greek-speaking population as well as spiritual leaders of western Anatolia. Since such interfaith and crosscultural interaction had a considerable impact on the course of all these events, this thesis focuses on them to create a better understanding of the appearance of the Hesychasm in the Byzantine spiritual environment in the later period.