Thematic issue: The understanding of light in the religious traditions of the 14th and 15th century Balkans - Introduction

This thematic issue, titled ‘The Understanding of Light in the Religious Traditions of the 14th and 15th Century Balkans’, focuses primarily on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and examines two major mystical traditions: Hesychasm, which originated on Mount Athos and spread into medieval Serbia and Bulgaria, and Bektashi Sufism, which accompanied the Ottoman army and first took root in Albania, North Macedonia, and Kosovo. However, there remains a notable imbalance in research coverage: the Orthodox tradition—deeply embedded within the Byzantine imperial framework—has been far more thoroughly documented, whereas Islam entered the Balkans mainly as the faith of soldiers and conquerors. The Ottoman westward expansion, along with the fall of Byzantium and Serbia, facilitated the migration of Orthodox monasticism to the west, bringing with it a rich cultural and educational legacy. At the same time, this period witnessed the establishment of Islamic schools in the central Balkans and the flourishing of Islamic intellectual and cultural life in these newly incorporated territories.