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42 | 2026
Alevi Pasts Contested

Neglected Narratives and New Methodologies
Passés alévis contestés : récits négligés et nouvelles méthodologies
Edited by Markus Dressler and Hege Markussen
Historical inscription on the village fountain, Ocak Köyü, 2009
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Credits: Janina Karolewski

Over recent decades, Alevi Studies has emerged as an interdisciplinary field drawing on history, anthropology, sociology, political science, and religious studies. While this institutional and scholarly consolidation marks significant progress, key aspects of Alevi history remain contested, particularly interpretations shaped by early 20th-century nation-building paradigms. Dominant binaries such as rural vs. urban, oral vs. written, isolation vs. agency, and folklore vs. lived religion, have structured both academic and public understandings of Alevism.This special issue, Alevi Pasts Contested: Neglected Narratives and New Methodologies critically examines these frameworks with a focus on historiography and methodology. It aims to address persistent gaps in the historical record of Anatolian Alevi communities and to rethink how such gaps can be studied. The contributions engage diverse sources, including archival documents, oral traditions, poetic texts, and ritual practices, highlighting the productive interplay between written and embodied forms of knowledge.

The articles revisit established narratives of marginalization, rurality, and persecution in Ottoman and modern contexts, while introducing innovative methodological perspectives. These include analyses of cultural memory in Alevi poetry, the ritual production of historical consciousness, and ethnohistorical reconstructions of community formation. Together, they propose more nuanced and dynamic understandings of Alevi pasts and emphasize the entanglement of scholarly and emic narratives. By doing so, the volume advances critical debates on knowledge production and opens new directions for the study of Alevism as a historical and lived tradition.


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