Conversion of War Captives in the Ottoman Lands During the Eighteenth Century: Rules, Applications and Abuses

This article focuses on the issue of conversion among war captives in the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth century and examines the release process of captives in relation to religious conversion. Starting from the Treaty of Carlowitz, the article first discusses the changes in the release process of captives based on treaties. Since conversions were considered as exceptional cases in which the converted captives were excluded from release, methods and procedures to detect conversion, as well as manipulative and pragmatic practices in the application of conversions, are studied in detail. Hence the issue of whether conversions were made voluntarily or by force is evaluated with examples. Finally the study focuses on the issue of conversion among child captives.