For a very long time, scholars within Turkish and Byzantine studies did not profit much from each other’s research or primary sources, in part due to a language barrier. When sources were finally compared, we learned of interesting phenomena such as the occurrence of interreligious marriages, and the complexity and fluidity of identity, as testified by the existence of Turcophone Christians (karamanlidhes) and Hellopohone Muslims (giritli). In this book, Michel Balivet, professor at the University of Provence, offers a comprehensive study of Turco-Greek relations from the Byzantine period and through the Seljuk and Ottoman eras, drawing on his twenty years of research in the field. Although the Byzantine Empire was chronologically followed by the Ottoman Empire as a hegemonic political power, he shows that the cultural Byzantine influence did not disappear overnight. This book demonstrates that rather than being passive neighbours for nine centuries, Greeks and Turks were involved in an active exchange. Numerous dimensions of this contact, from linguistic exchange to philosophical encounters and mystical contact, are explored in this excellent book.