A social anthropologist, David Shankland has become an expert in Turkey through two years of field work followed by three years directing the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. Shankland is particularly interested in religion and politics in modern Turkey and the country’s Alevi community. This collection of essays comprises Shankland’s gound-breaking work on these subjects during the 1990s and 2000s. Turkish area studies and the works of other social anthropologists, such as Ernest Gellner and Paul Stirling, have influenced Shankland’s approach. The collection should be of interest to sociologists and anthropologists studying Turkey as well as those seeking a better understanding of the Alevis in modern Turkey.