Explaining historical identities through the values of the present can lead to misleading judgments. The Turkish terms Yunan and Rum, the name Hellene, and the English designation Greek are sometimes treated as interchangeable as a result of such judgments. Yet each of these words bears the traces of historical relationships that emerged during different periods in the Aegean, Anatolia, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean. In Modern Greek, a Greek calls himself Έλληνα

What makes a person Turkish or Greek? Is it the land where they were born? The language they speak? The religion they practice? The state of which they are a citizen? Or the community to which they feel they belong? From today's perspective, many people might regard these as questions with straightforward answers. Yet, for many people living during the final century of the Ottoman Empire, categories such as territory, language, religion, citizenship, and communal belonging we