The Crypto-Christians of Trebizond

While the number of crypto-Christians among the heterodox tribes of Asia Minor has probably been considerably exaggerated, it cannot be denied that crypto-Christians exist or that cases of forced conversion affecting large sections of the population can be cited. But under the Ottoman Turks at least there is very little historical evidence for conversion on a large scale in Asia Minor.Exceptionally in the district of Trebizond we have both a credible legend of conversion and an existent population, outwardly Mahommedan, which seems in some cases to retain something from the more ancient faith and in others to practise it in secret. Of the first category may be cited certain villages in the district of Rizeh, which, though Mahommedan by profession, preserve some memories of the rite of baptism and speak, not Turkish, but Armenian.Crypto-Christians proper, belonging to the Greek rite and Greek by speech, also existed till recent years in the neighbourhood of Trebizond: they were known generally as ‘Stavriotae,’ from a village Stavra in the ecclesiastical district of Gumush-khane. They are said at one time to have numbered 20,000 in the vilayets of Sivas, Angora, and Trebizond: now all have returned to the open profession of their faith.