For over a thousand years the Laz were a Christian people, part of the Orthodox world of the eastern Black Sea. Today almost all Laz in Turkey are Sunni Muslims. The passage between these two worlds is one of the deepest transformations in the history of Lazistan.

From Christianity to Islam

The Laz had been Christian since late antiquity. After the Ottoman conquest of the eastern Black Sea in the 15th and 16th centuries, Islam gradually spread among them. The shift was not sudden: conversion unfolded over generations, gaining pace in the 16th and 17th centuries as Ottoman institutions, mosques and religious schools took root in the region.

A gradual, lasting change

By the modern era the Laz had become overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, and are today often noted for a devout attachment to the faith. As in many converted regions, older customs did not vanish entirely: pre-Islamic and Christian-era folk beliefs survived quietly, woven into local tradition and the seasonal life of the mountains.

Faith and identity today

Islam is now an inseparable part of Laz identity, yet the memory of the earlier Christian centuries remains visible in place names, ruined churches and the deep historical ties between the Laz and the wider Caucasus. For the religious life of the Laz today, see our Religion page.

Learn more: Laz people on Wikipedia.

Image: a historic wooden Black Sea mosque (Gogceli, Samsun), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).