Alevism: History, Religion, and Transformation

Dear Colleagues,

Alevism, often understood in close relation to Bektashism, has long occupied an ambivalent position within the religious, political, and cultural landscapes of the Middle East and Europe. Situated at the intersection of Islamic traditions, local ritual practices, and modern regimes of governance, Alevism offers a particularly productive site for examining how religion has been historically constituted and practiced, as well as how it has dynamically responded to processes such as nation-building, secularization, migration, and identity politics in the modern period. Accordingly, this Special Issue invites interdisciplinary contributions that approach Alevism not as a static tradition but as a historically situated and dynamically evolving religious formation.

The Issue seeks to explore how Alevi communities have experienced religion, politics, and culture across different historical moments and social contexts. It aims to examine the ways in which Alevi beliefs, rituals, institutions, and cultural forms have been constructed over time and reconfigured through encounters with imperial and modern state structures, legal regimes, cultural policies, and public discourses in both Turkey and Europe. In a broader analytical and conceptual framework, the Special Issue views Alevism as a critical lens for rethinking questions of religious diversity, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, religion and modernity, minority incorporation, and the negotiation of tradition and change.

Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes and questions:

• How did late medieval and early modern formations—such as the Ottoman–Safavid rivalry, the Qızılbaş movement, the Bektashi Sufi order, and Sunni–Shiʿi sectarian conflicts—shape the historical positioning of Alevi communities and their religious practices?
• In what ways were Alevi beliefs, rituals, and socioreligious institutions configured in relation to imperial governance, persecution, accommodation, and boundary-making in the Ottoman period?
• How did processes of centralization, nationalism, and secular reform from the late Ottoman era through the Republican period reshape Alevi theology, ritual life, and institutional trajectories?
• In what ways have ritual, theology, and religious authority been transformed through modern processes of institutionalization, mediation, heritage-making, and public visibility?
• How have migration and diaspora contexts—particularly in Europe—reconfigured Alevi religious life, organizational forms, memory practices, and modes of identity articulation across generations?
• What roles have music, ritual performance, narrative, and material culture played in shaping and mediating Alevi religious and cultural life across traditional, modern, and transnational contexts?
• How do contemporary debates around recognition, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, heritage, gender, and political representation intersect with religious practice and institutional life among Alevi communities today?

The Special Issue welcomes contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including religious studies, anthropology, sociology, history, ethnomusicology, folklore studies, political science, and migration studies. Both historical and ethnographic approaches are encouraged, as are comparative, transregional, and theoretically engaged perspectives. By bringing together diverse methodological and conceptual approaches, the issue aims to foster dialogue across fields and to situate Alevism within broader scholarly debates on religion, identity, authority, and transformation in modern and transnational contexts.

Prior to submitting a full manuscript, interested authors are requested to submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Abstracts should be sent to the Guest Editor, Assistant Professor Rıza Yıldırım (riza.yildirim@univie.ac.at), or to the Assistant Editor Ms. Evelyn Zeng (evelyn.zeng@mdpi.com) of Religions by 15 June 2026. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor to assess their suitability for the Special Issue. All full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Dr. Rıza Yildirim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Alevism
• Bektashism
• Qizilbash
• Islamic sectarianism
• nation-building
• religious minority
• migration