Interfaith Cultural Dialogue
The Ottoman millet system produced wonderful experiments in more harmonious relations between different religions.
The Ottoman state was not only composed of Muslims, but also of many Christian and Jewish groups and even some Zoroastrian (Magian) religions.
Interfaith coexistence
Before the advent of modernist nationalist ideas, Muslims, Christians, and Jews succeeded in coexisting in a more peaceful and productive atmosphere in the Ottoman era than was the case later in the twentieth century. We can argue that this heritage of mutual recognition among members of societies of different religions is due, at least in part, to the teachings of some
Turkish spiritual scholars such as Ahmet Yesavi (d. 1166 CE), Yunus Emre (d. 1321 CE), Haji Bayram al-Wali (15th century CE),
and Aq Shams al-Din (15th century CE), who was the sheikh of Mehmed II (Mehmed the Conqueror). At that very early stage, all these people of heart had the spirit and ideas of interreligious tolerance and, to some extent, interfaith dialogue.
