This book offers rare insights into the cultural traditions that have shaped the Balkan region - from pagan times, through folk culture, the medieval Christian churches, the encounter between Christianity and Islam, up to the religious and national mythologies that have proved so destructive in the present day. With the Balkans a central focus of European concern at the beginning of the twenty-first century, this volume is a timely reminder of the complex cultural processes that continue to affect the modern world.

List of Illustrations Foreword Notes on the Contributors List of Maps Introduction and General Bibliography: Christianity and Islam in the Balkans; M.Heppell & H.Norris PART I: LAYERS OF BELIEF, BLURRED BOUNDARIES Prolegomenon to Religion in the Balkans; J.Nandris Folk Tales from the Bible and Koran; F.Badalanova Art and Doctrine in the First Bulgarian Kingdom; A.Moussakova Dualist Heresy in the Latin Empire of Constantinople; B.Hamilton The Religious Situation of the Hungarian Kingdom in the 13th and 14th Centuries; I.A.Pop Crypto-Christiantiy and Religious Amphibianism; N.Malcolm PART II: ORTHODOXY The Chilandariou Icon 'She Who Has Three Hands'; V.Jankovic Hesychasm in the Balkans; M.Heppell PART III: ISLAM Islam in the Balkans: The Bosnian Case; A.Lopasic Muslim Communities in Romania; J.Scarce The Bektashis in the Balkans; J.Norton PART IV: RELIGION, POLITICS, NATIONAL MYTHOLOGIES Religion, Irreligion and Nationalism in the Diaries of the Bulgarian Exarch Yosif; F.A.K.Yasamee Sharpened Minds: Religious and Mythological Factors in the Creation of National Identities in Bosnia-Herzegovina; M.Velikonja Appendix: Report of a Meeting of Religious Leaders, Kosovo, March 1999 Index

FLORENTINA BADALANOVA Research Associate, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
BERNARD HAMILTON Professor Emeritus of Crusading History, University of Nottingham
VLADETA JANKOVIC Professor of Classical Literature, University of Belgrade
ALEXANDER LOPASIC previously Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Reading
NOEL MALCOLM previously Foreign Editor of the Spectator
ELISSAVETA MOUSSAKOVA Head of Department of Manuscripts and Old Printed Books, National Library, Sofia
JOHN NANDRIS previously Senior Lecturer in European Prehistory, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
JOHN D. NORTON Director, Centre for Turkish Studies, University of Durham
IOAN-AUREL POP Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
JENNIFER SCARCE Curator of Middle Eastern Culture, National Museums of Scotland
MITJA VELIKONJA Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana
F.A.K. YASAMEE Senior Lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Manchester