Religion mattered at a deep level, which must help to explain why none of these people went over to Islam; but in most cases it did not direct their lives, nor did it prevent some of them from cultivating their connection with a powerful relative who was a Muslim convert. Whilst the fact that they were Catholics from one of Christendom’s frontier zones may have given them an enhanced sense of their Catholicism, the fact that they were Albanians, connected by language, blood and history to Ottoman subjects and Ottoman territory, gave them an ability to see things also from something more like an Ottoman perspective . Noel Malcolm
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The role of religion in the lives of the Albanians who converted to Islam, or who never converted, is not easy to determine. A number of studies have examined this issue. However, one study of Albanian converts to Islam has suggested that religion mattered at a deep level. This is certainly true of the early converts to Islam, whose children are often extremely religious, but I have struggled to find any evidence that religion had an overall influence on their lives.

The only exception seems to be the case of Faik Bey, whose father had been a Christian and who was thus able to marry a Christian. But even here there is no clear evidence that religious differences were part of his decision to convert to Islam.

Source: Agents Of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits And Spies In The Sixteenthcentury Mediterranean World

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