Dr. Gökçen Beyinli-Dinç

My project examines how “superstition” was influential in shaping Alevi-Muslim difference in the Republic of Turkey from 1923 to 1966. In recent years, “superstition'” has been the subject of critical research as a “third category” alongside religion and secularism, particularly in relation to the modernity experience of East Asian countries. Although "superstition" (hurafe) has also become a disciplinary category of exclusion in modern Turkey, not enough attention has been paid to its role in the historical transformation of the country. Despite the bulk of studies on Alevis, the crucial changes during this period, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, have not received much academic attention. I argue that Alevis could have become an essential part of the country's “legitimate religion”, but secular and “superstition” policies, more than religious ones, were crucial in winning the “battle of superstition” against Alevis. Inspired by Josephson-Storm's "Superstition, Secularism and Religion Trinary", I aim to extend the religious dimensions of Turkish secularism, which Markus Dressler has framed as a "religio-secular continuum", to include "superstition". In other words, I argue that the analysis of the construction of "Islamic orthodoxy" as "Sunni-Hanefi Islam" requires a new investigation into the history of Turkey with "superstition" as an analytical category and "secularity" as a concept situated within the framework of the "superstitious-religious-secular continuum". I draw on a wide range of archival sources, including previously untapped documents from the internal archives of the Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) and books written by Alevis themselves, which have been heavily criticised by Islamist circles. The study consists of the following parts:

• Superstition as a discourse governing the boundaries between the secular, Islam and Alevism

• The cultural inclusion of Alevis during the period of strict religious control (1923-1946)

• Western research on the “revival of Islam” in Turkey and the manipulation of religious freedom (1950s)

• A genealogical analysis of the exclusion of Alevis by focusing on two periods of sudden change (1947-9 and 1957-9)