Proceedings
Statistical data on the protestant community in the Ottoman Empire (1850-1899): The case of Albania
Authors
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Bertina SalliuInstitute for Albanian and Protestant Studies
Synopsis
The 19th century marked the beginning of American and British Pro-testant missions penetrating Albanian lands and the wider Ottoman Empire. Since then, the British Bible Society and the American Board of Commissioners have sent missionaries to these areas. The headquarters of the British Bible Society’s mission to the Ottoman Empire was in Istanbul. As a result, a new community of Protestants began to crystallize. The first conversion of the population to the Protestant faith is observed to have occurred in the second half of the 19th century. This article aims to highlight the statistical data obtained from Ottoman documents proving the exis-tence of this religious community. For a long time in Albanian historiography, four nations have been claimed to be present among Albanians in the 19th century, with studies in this field developed in recent years. This study aims to bring data from Ottoman annual reports and population registers to discuss the existence of the Protestant community in a multinational empire. Protestant missionaries had an important role and spiritually influenced the indigenous population by promoting faith and reawakening national consciousness. The transformation of populations was rapid in the Eastern regions of the Ottoman Empire. Concerning peripheral are-as such as Albanian lands, some scarce data have been found on the main provin-ces located in these lands. The drafting of this study relied on Ottoman documents and sources translated by Turkish authors, as well as Albanian, English, and Turkish monographs and articles from various authors.
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2025 Idefe Publications
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Publication Information
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Publication TypeChapter
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Volume
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Pages3-16
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PublishedJune 7, 2025
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Series
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Series PositionProceedings 03
Bela, B. (Ed.). (2025). Statistical data on the protestant community in the Ottoman Empire (1850-1899): The case of Albania. In 2nd Balkan Studies Congress Proceedings: Vol. Proceedings 03 (pp. 3-16). Idefe Publications. https://doi.org/10.5331/