I have added two Balkan Peninsula maps to my research paper, both of which are from 1918. I think these maps are valuable in the perspective that they offer, both as visual representations of the region’s complexities and as displaying the “Othering” of Muslims. I was not expecting to find that Jovan Cvijic, one of the contributors to these maps, was an influential figure in his age. In “Ethnographic Map of the Balkan Peninsula,” I noticed that the term “Moslemized” was used to describe ethnicities such as Muslim Greeks and Macedonian Slavs, whereas with Christians the terms used were either “Greek-Orthodox” or “Catholic.” It was after the weekly internship meeting, where we discussed my research paper, that I realized the implication of this word –– Muslims are portrayed as passive, externally shaped by a religion “foreign” to Europe. And this notion becomes more unusual when we look at the religious description of Tatars and Turks: “Moslem” and “Greek-Orthodox.” It makes a lot of sense to think that the reason these two ethnic groups are not described as “Muslimized,” is because they are the Oriental “Other.” Since the other ethnic groups are Europeans, it would go against the belief that Europe is inherently Christian, and that others who believe in any other religion are either outsiders, i.e. non-European, or discriminated against, such as by anti-Semitism.
Even in the secular modern world, it surprises me to find that such presumptions are still prevalent, even if they are subtle. Islam is the religion of nearly 2 billion people on the Earth, and yet Muslims are still seen as Arab, Middle-Eastern, or non-European. I think one of the most significant things I have learned throughout my research is how basic the modern East-West conceptions are, despite the advancements in our understanding of cultural and religious practices in the world.
Author: Ayse Pirge