Cretan Muslims
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| est. 200,000-300,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Libya • Lebanon • Syria • Turkey | |
| Languages | |
| Arabic (Levantine and Maghrebi variant), Cretan Greek, Turkish | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam and Alevi Islam |
The Cretan Turks (Greek Τουρκοκρητικοί or Τουρκοκρήτες, Tourkokritikí or Tourkokrítes, Turkish Giritli, Girit Türkleri, or Giritli Türkler), Muslim-Cretans or Cretan Muslims were the Muslim inhabitants of the Greek island of Crete (until 1923) and now their descendants, who settled principally in Turkey, the Dodecanese Islands under Italian administration (now part of Greece after World War 2), Syria (notably in the village of Al-Hamidiyah), Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, and Egypt, as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora.
Cretan Muslims were of mainly Greek origin, with in certain cases some Turkish ancestry through intermarriage with the small number of Turks who settled on Ottoman Crete. Many Cretan Greeks had converted to Islam in the wake of the Ottoman conquest of Crete. This high rate of local conversions to Islam was similar to that in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, parts of western Greek Macedonia, and Bulgaria; perhaps even a uniquely high rate of conversions rather than immigrants.
The Greek Muslims of Crete continued to speak Cretan Greek. However, the Christian Greek population of Crete called them "Turks" as a synonym for "Muslim", since the Cretan Muslims had abandoned their allegiance to the Christian Orthodox church. They were often called "Turkocretans"; "among the Christian population, intermarriage and conversion to Islam produced a group of people called Turkocretans; ethnically Cretan but converted (or feigning conversion) to Islam for various practical reasons. European travellers' accounts note that the 'Turks' of Crete were mostly not of Turkic origin, but were Cretan converts from Orthodoxy." They also referred to themselves as "Turco-Romnoi" ("Turkish Rum" or "Turkish Greeks")
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