Communautés religieuses et étatisation Religious Community and Modern Statehood

The conference aims to explore various aspects of the communal organization in the Ottoman Empire for regions such as Asia Minor, Middle East and the Balkans, and to present the changes that occurred within the religious communities during the 19th century and particularly during the period from Tanzimat reforms until the First World War. Key questions in relation to the modernization process of the Ottoman state and the functioning of religious communities, are a) how does the Sublime Porte understand the process of structuring a modern state with respect to religious communities, b) who is responsible for the modern institutions: the state or the religious communities, c) what is the reaction of the religious communities regarding the modernization process d) why and in what way the religious communities are changing on the light of this process