Iranian non-Muslim communities are instances of Fredrik Barth’s ethnic groups (10-11). They live in separate geographic communities, have their own languages, were forced to follow specific dress codes, and created a community of ‘us’ in comparison to the Muslim ‘them’. At the same time, the boundaries between these groups were blurred and negotiable. Group boundaries could be crossed by interfaith marriages, economic interactions, or notably religious conversions. Apart from religious spiritual motivations, some individuals converted to other religions, voluntarily or by force, for economic, cultural, or political reasons. However, this was not a simple transition from one religious community to another. The converts normally kept their previous rituals, family ties, and languages; but were banned from their former community’s institutions. On the other hand, in the new group, they were welcomed and awarded with certain privileges; but could not completely integrate. For example, titles such as ‘Jewish-Baha’is’—for those Jews converting to the Baha’i Faith—indicated the Jewish community could not totally let their former members leave. They might change their religion, but were still Jews by blood. At the same time, this indicated that the Baha’is might not have let them totally integrate. Labels like ‘Jadid al-Islam’, or ‘New Muslim’ for converts to Islam differentiated them from the ‘old’ or ‘original’ Muslims. This paper studies Iranian non-Muslim conversions to Islam or other faiths, during the mid 19th and early 20th centuries, as a means of social mobility. It addresses the topic in two main ways: discussing the reasons one might convert voluntarily or by force; and the ways each community treated its dissidents or new members. Employing “social identity theory” (Tajfel and Turner 7-20), the article argues that converts did not lose their old religious affiliation by gaining a new one; instead, they lived with fluid multiple identities in Iranian society. Drawing on existing literature, this paper introduces an array of primary sources, including petitions, state reports, missionary and diplomatic dispatches from British, French and Iranian archives. The outcome of the paper contributes to an understanding of the impacts of religion on social mobility, interaction and integration of ethnic groups in Iran, and –in a broader comparative perspective –in the Middle East.

Enslaved and emancipated Africans in the Ottoman Empire embodied two forms of ‘border crossing’: physically, from sub-Saharan Africa into Ottoman lands, and legally, from enslaved to free. This paper aims to explore the second form; the exact moment when emancipation is made official through state intervention. It argues that the inscription of freed Africans in state documents recorded important information on their lives, and created an opportunity for their ‘voices’ to be heard. Despite being officially prohibited in 1857, the African slave trade in the Ottoman Empire reached its climax in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. By that time, Ottoman and British diplomats had developed bureaucratic procedures to track, record, and register, and care for emancipated Africans. This new state emancipation process existed in parallel with traditional private/religious methods. This paper draws on a 30 January 1902 report sent from the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire to his superiors in London describing the latest Ottoman measures against the African slave trade. Contained in this report are 3 hitherto unknown lists naming all manumitted Africans in Istanbul over the last 7 years. These lists, copied from Ottoman Ministry of Police (Zabtiye Nezareti) records, contain details on 223 Africans and represent the most extensive source of their kind. This paper will first overview the state-led emancipation process that developed in the nineteenth century, drawing examples from Ottoman azatnames (emancipation papers). Then, it will examine the list contents, including gender ratios, naming practices, ethnic origins, professions of former owners, while also accounting for the irregular, such as “Ho?-kadem and her son Hikmet.” After, it will reflect on the inscription of non-traditional slave names such as Amber, Sumbul Calfa, and Cevher A?a to suggest that the registration process was a potential site of ‘agency’ where Africans could (re)inscribe a name of choice. And therefore, providing a rare instance where freed Africans ‘speak’ through state documents. This paper brings Ottoman world source materials together with theories on naming practices during enslavement and emancipation outlined by Patterson (1982). It therefore contributes to the historiography of subalterns in the late Ottoman empire and on African slavery more generally as well.

US-led political reconstruction in Afghanistan--namely the introduction of a constitutional democracy and the establishment of a multi-ethnic state--has led to the politicization of ethnicity in national politics. Despite this, the literature on identity in Afghanistan remains silent not only on impacts of this politicization in everyday life, but also on the functioning of contemporary ethnicity, more generally. As such, this paper explores the impacts of post-2001 political reconstruction upon ethnicity and interethnic relations in the Bamyan Valley. Methodologically, this is achieved by drawing on Afghan scholarly literature relating to identity and ethnographic research conducted in Bamyan from 2010-12. The paper also applies a progressive constructionist theorization of ethnicity--Rogers Brubaker's conceptualization of ethnicity as operating through 'categories' not 'groups'--to the Afghan context. Such a framing of ethnicity allows for the scope of inquiry to be expanded: moving beyond analysis of ethno-nationalist politics to that of everyday experience. Utilizing this approach, the paper draws on two case studies; one investigating Iranian-sponsored promotion of Ashura and associated Shi'i mourning rituals, and another exploring violence and changing interethnic marriage patterns in Bamyan. These cases demonstrate the use of ethnic identity for political ends and illustrate changing relations between Bamyani Hazarahs, Tajiks and Saadat. The paper concludes that political reconstruction in Afghanistan has resulted in major shifts in the control of productive resources (i.e. political appointments, access to health and education services, and control of land, the marketplace and trade) in Bamyan. As a result, Hazarahs are benefiting from improved status and shifting power relations. This shift, in turn, is manifest in changing interethnic relations including the utilization of Ashura to promote sectarian sentiment and tensions between Hazarahs and Tajiks. And, increasing elopement and retaliatory violence as contestation of ethnic identity between Hazarahs and Saadat. More broadly, these conclusions contribute to a more detailed understanding of the impacts of political reconstruction in Afghanistan and talk to prospects of national integration. They also indicate entry points for mitigating patterns of interethnic violence and outline insights for peacebuilding policy.