 Later,
Anatolia became the centre of religious schisms which
characterised the early centuries of Christianity, in
particular the great theological debate on the relation
between the components of the Trinity and on incarnation.
Before adopting Islam, Turks living in central Asia, their
original habitat, followed shamanism. This religion conceived
the universe in three layers: the sky, the earth and the
underground world. Mountains were venerated because they
touched the sky, as were wells because they were linked
to the underground world. Turks also had totemic beliefs;
one of their myths considered the wolf to be the forefather
of the race. Shamanism was a mixture of religion and magic
in which the ‘Shaman’ a priest or magician would
fall into a trance before reaching the sky or plunging
into the underground for a specific purpose such as predicting
the future. The shaman was also the master of fire since
his trance was compared to the intensity of a flame. The
Turks encountered Islam on the frontiers of Central Asia
and espoused the religion in the tenth century. This religious
shift was done willingly and the Turks therefore never
had the feeling of submission. At the extremity of the
of the Caliphs, the Arab frontier warriors had preserved
the simplicity, the zeal and the spontaneity of original
Islam, which in later years disappeared with the decay
of Islam’s theocratic and state structures.
Istanbul
is home to innumerable places of worship of all denominations,
including orthodox churches, both ancient and new, (above).
Pope Jean Paul II visited Turkey in the early 1980s,
(below).
 The Turks adopted the
untainted religious tradition from these warriors and
continued, for many centuries to come, to profess a
fait rich with devotion and sincerity. Islam spread
among the Turks through the teachings of dervishes,
ascetics and wandering mystics, most of them Turkish.
The first Islamic Turkish sovereign was Mahmut of Gazne,
who invaded northern India at the head of a Turkish
army. Sometime later, the Seljuks seized the Near East
and Turkish rule extended to Anatolia. Gazis, dervishes
and nomads planed the traditions of Islamic civilisation
and administration wherever they stopped. Once it had
consolidated its power, the Ottoman Empire, taking over
from the Seljuks, dedicated itself to the enhancement
of the Islamic faith and values.
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