Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim

This is a book that needed to be written. The specific cultural and religious characteristics of Kurdish Alevi societies, and particularly that of the Dersim area, fully deserve to be the focus of a separate monograph. A very welcome addition to the literature on Alevism and on Near Eastern minority religions generally. -- Philip Kreyenbroek, University of Göttingen
This first book in English dedicated to the Kurdish Alevis is a significant contribution to scholarship. Based on archival and field studies, it offers precious insights into a little known culture, whose knowledge is however required for a critical understanding of modern Turkey and today’s cultural-religious struggles in the Levant. Side by side with Armenians, Dersim's Alevis practiced for centuries their religion and social organization at the margins of Ottoman and Turkish society. -- Hans-Lukas Kieser, University of Newcastle
The present volume constitutes an excellent analytical introduction to the studies of the Kurdish Alevis in Turkey, who evolve in a historical and sociological continuum with the Arab and Turkish Alevis, but as an ethnically and confessionally subordinated group, face a quite unique destiny. Gezik, Gültekin and their authors also offer an insightful reading of the socio-anthropological structures, religious beliefs and hierarchies, and the fate of the Alevi Kurds, namely those of Dersim, under the Hamidian (1876-1908), Unionist (1908-1918), Kemalist (1919-1945), and post-Kemalist regimes. -- Hamit Bozarslan, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The modern history of Dersim offers unique insights into the complex dynamics that marked the often violent transition from Empire to nation-state in a widely neglected region of Turkey. With its majority Alevi and Kurdish population, and a strong Armenian legacy it provides a unique laboratory for inquiries in some of the least researched aspects of post-genocidal Turkey and its traumata on the one side, as well as its fascinating religious and socio-cultural landscapes beyond the Sunni-Turkish majority on the other. This is a very valuable collection that will help chart out new paths of inquiry into the edges of Turkish society. -- Markus Dressler, Leipzig University
This collection of well-researched contributions on the belief system, social organization and history of the Kurdish Alevis, by scholars originating from the communities concerned, is the first book-length treatment of its subject in English. It brings out clearly the distinctiveness of this religious formation and the tormented history of the communities’ encounters with the state. Especially the analysis of core beliefs and myths and of the complex structure of religious and political authority are of great interest. -- Martin van Bruinessen, Department of Religious Studies, Utrecht University and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore