"The Alevis, a heterodox Islamic group in modern Turkey, have no church, no established doctrine and no shared liturgy. Instead, their religion has developed in rural Anatolia through hereditary holy figures who transmitted esoteric religious thought through music, poetry and collective rituals." "Using ethnographic material gained over a period of five years residence in Turkey, David Shankland shows how social change in the rural, hierarchical, rather closed Alevi communities is leading to the emergence of a unique secularist Islamic tradition. By including much contrasting information about the way the Alevi communities differ from the Sunni, their orthodox counterparts, this work is able to offer original insights into the wider processes of social change that are transforming Turkish society as a whole."--Jacket.