CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Kirgi, Salim Fikret |
|---|---|
| Title | The Belief in Vampire-like Supernatural Creatures in the Ottoman Empire and the Official Ottoman Response in the 17th-century |
| Summary | This thesis argues that the early modern belief in vampire-like supernatural creatures was not a Balkan-Orthodox peculiarity; instead it was a shared cultural phenomenon among followers of different religions around the Black Sea Basin and the northeastern parts of the Mediterranean. The primary source of this research is the seventeenth-century Islamic catechism that explains how to exterminate vampire-like revenants in detail. The extermination methods in the catechism, namely exhumation, decapitation, and corpse burning, are similar to both their contemporaries and modern-fictional ways of killing the undead. More importantly, the specific part of the book is a continuation of the contested convention among Ottoman scholars and jurists, which I call the official Ottoman response to vampirism. As the dominant political power in the given regions during most of the early modern period, the Ottoman Empire was arguably the center of belief in vampire-like supernatural beings. |
| Supervisor | Krstic, Tijana |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/kirgi_salim.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University