Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

== Early modern period ==

=== Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation ===
[[File:Persecution of Christians with scenes of martyrdom behind. E Wellcome V0033268.jpg|thumb|''Persecution of the Servants of Christ'' by [[Maerten de Vos]] and [[engraved]] by [[Hieronymus Wierix]] ([[Wellcome Library]]). An illustration of the prophecy of persecution made during the [[Sermon on the Mount]] according to the ''[[Gospel of Luke]]''.{{Break}}"But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake."<ref>{{Bibleverse|Luke|21:12|KJV}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|({{Langx|grc-x-koine|πρὸ δὲ τούτων πάντων ἐπιβαλοῦσιν ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν καὶ διώξουσιν, παραδιδόντες εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς καὶ φυλακάς, ἀπαγομένους ἐπὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ ἡγεμόνας ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματός μου·}})}}]]
{{Main|European wars of religion|Reformation|Counter-Reformation}}

The [[Protestant]] Reformation and the [[Roman Catholic]] Counter-Reformation provoked a number of persecutions of Christians by other Christians and the [[European wars of religion]], including the [[Eighty Years' War]], the [[French Wars of Religion]], the [[Thirty Years' War]], the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], the [[Savoyard–Waldensian wars]], and the [[Toggenburg War]]. There were false allegations of [[witchcraft]] and numerous [[witch trials in the early modern period]].

===China===
[[File:Martyrerp 2.jpg|thumb|An 1858 illustration from the French newspaper, ''Le Monde Illustré'', of the torture and execution of Father [[Auguste Chapdelaine]], a French missionary in China, by slow slicing (''[[lingchi]]'').]]
Beginning in the late 17th century and for at least a century, Christianity was banned in China by the [[Kangxi Emperor]] of the [[Qing dynasty]] after [[Pope Clement XI]] forbade [[Catholic Church in China|Chinese Catholics]] from [[Veneration|venerating]] their relatives, [[Confucius]], the [[Buddha]] or [[Guanyin]].<ref name=Ye_Xiaowen>{{cite web|url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/45466.htm |title=China's Religions Retrospect and Prospect | author= Ye Xiaowen | place= Hong Kong|date= 19 February 2001 |publisher=China Internet Information Center |access-date=29 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=14 May 2018|title=Christianity and Empire: The Catholic Mission in Late Imperial China|doi=10.1017/stc.2018.1 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-church-history/article/abs/christianity-and-empire-the-catholic-mission-in-late-imperial-china/2B3485994A654C67CA80D0C5F8DAFFEE|last1=Hsia |first1=R. Po-Chia |journal=Studies in Church History |volume=54 |pages=208–224 |s2cid=165314911 }}{{Retrieved|access-date=2023-02-14}}</ref>

The [[Boxer Rebellion#Massacre of missionaries and Chinese Christians|Boxer rebellion]] targeted foreign and [[Chinese Christians]]. Beginning in 1899, Boxers spread violence across [[Shandong]] and the [[North China Plain]], attacking or murdering Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians. They decided the "primary devils" were the Christian missionaries, and the "secondary devils" were the Chinese converts to Christianity. Both had to recant or be driven out or killed.<ref>{{cite book|author=Victor Purcell|title=The Boxer Uprising: A Background Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2MeUoD9G9xAC&pg=PA125|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=125|isbn=9780521148122}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Diana Preston|title=The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900|url=https://archive.org/details/boxerrebelliondr00dian|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Walker|page=[https://archive.org/details/boxerrebelliondr00dian/page/25 25]|isbn=9780802713612}}</ref> Boxers burned Christian churches, killed Chinese Christians and intimidated Chinese officials who stood in their way. Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic missionaries and their Chinese parishioners were massacred throughout northern China, some by Boxers and others by government troops and authorities. [[Yuxian (Qing dynasty)|Yuxian]] implemented a brutal anti-foreign and anti-Christian policy. The [[Baptist Missionary Society]], based in England, opened its mission in Shanxi in 1877. In 1900 all its missionaries there were killed, along with all 120 converts.<ref>{{ cite book | author=R. G. Tiedemann | title=Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century | date=2009 | page= 125 | publisher= M.E. Sharpe | isbn =9780765640017 }}</ref> By the summer's end, more foreigners and as many as 2,000 Chinese Christians had been put to death in the province. Journalist and historical writer Nat Brandt has called the massacre of Christians in Shanxi "the greatest single tragedy in the history of Christian evangelicalism."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brandt|first=Nat|url=http://archive.org/details/massacreinshansi00bran|title=Massacre in Shansi|date=1994|publisher=Syracuse University Press|url-access= registration |isbn=978-0-8156-0282-8 | page= xiii}}</ref> During the Boxer Rebellion as a whole, a total of 136 Protestant missionaries and 53 children were killed, and 47 Catholic priests and nuns, 30,000 Chinese Catholics, 2,000 Chinese Protestants, and 200 to 400 of the 700 Russian Orthodox Christians in Beijing were estimated to have been killed. Collectively, the Protestant dead were called the [[China Martyrs of 1900]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Larry Clinton |date=2009 |title=William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion: Heroism, Hubris, and the "Ideal Missionary" |place= Jefferson, NC |publisher= McFarland |page=184 |isbn=9780786453382}}</ref>

The Muslim unit [[Kansu Braves]] which was serving in the Chinese army attacked Christians.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CBOpWiyl4NsC&pg=PA172|title=A traveller's history of China|author=Stephen G. Haw|author-link=Stephen G. Haw|year=2003|publisher=Interlink Books|page=172|isbn=1-56656-486-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tvZwAAAAMAAJ&q=muslim+baron+von+ketteler|title=The modern history of China|author=Henry McAleavy|author-link=Henry McAleavy|year=1967|publisher=Praeger|page=165|isbn=9780297176619}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcdkmohiuuQC&pg=PA80|title=The Atlantic monthly, Volume 113 By Making of America Project|author=Sterling Making of America Project|year=1914|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Co.|page=80}}</ref>

During the [[Northern Expedition]], the [[Kuomintang]] incited [[Xenophobia|anti-foreign]], [[anti-Western sentiment]]. Portraits of [[Sun Yat-sen]] replaced the crucifix in several churches, KMT posters proclaimed that "Jesus Christ is dead. Why not worship something alive such as [[Nationalism]]?" Foreign missionaries were attacked and anti-foreign riots broke out.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkREps9oGR4C&q=emocracy+absolutely+impossible|title=Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost|author=Jonathan Fenby|year=2005|publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers|page=126|isbn=0-7867-1484-0}}</ref> In 1926, Muslim General [[Bai Chongxi]] attempted to drive out foreigners in [[Guangxi]], attacking American, European, and other foreigners and missionaries, and generally making the province unsafe for foreigners. Westerners fled from the province, and some Chinese Christians were also attacked as imperialist agents.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCA9AAAAIAAJ&q=muslim|title=Region and nation: the Kwangsi clique in Chinese politics, 1925–1937|author=Diana Lary|year=1974|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=99|isbn=0-521-20204-3}}</ref>

From 1894 to 1938, many [[Uyghurs|Uighur]] Muslims converted to Christianity. They were killed, tortured and jailed.<ref>Missionary Review of the World; 1878-1939. Princeton Press. 1939. p. 130. vol.62.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Claydon|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gV32uPMChgAC&pg=PA385|title=A New Vision, a New Heart, a Renewed Call|date=2005|publisher=William Carey Library|isbn=978-0-87808-363-3|page=385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Uhalley|first1=Stephen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iPnqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA274|title=China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future|last2=Wu|first2=Xiaoxin|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-47501-9|page=274}}</ref> Christian missionaries were expelled.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Forbes|first=Andrew D. W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAs9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA84|title=Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949|date=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-25514-1| pages=84, 87}}</ref>

===French Revolution===
{{Main|Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution|Revolt in the Vendée}}
[[File:MassacrePrincessLamballe.jpg|thumb|upright=1.24|[[September massacres]], 1792]]
The Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution is a conventional description of a campaign, conducted by various [[Robespierre]]-era governments of France beginning with the start of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789, to eliminate any symbol that might be associated with the past, especially the [[Monarchy of France|monarchy]].

The program included the following policies:<ref>Latreille, A. FRENCH REVOLUTION, New Catholic Encyclopedia v. 5, pp. 972–973 (Second Ed. 2002 Thompson/Gale) {{ISBN|0-7876-4004-2}}</ref><ref>Spielvogel, Jackson [https://books.google.com/books?id=ni4PSpOxb6MC Western Civilization: Combined Volume] p. 549, 2005
Thomson Wadsworth</ref><ref name="google">{{Cite book |last1=Tallett |first1=Frank | chapter= Dechristianizing France: The year II and the revolutionary experience | pages=1–28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aL4lsWdd-rAC |title=Religion, Society and Politics in France Since 1789 |editor1-last= Tallett | editor1-first= Frank | editor2-last=Atkin |editor2-first=Nicholas |date=1991 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-85285-057-9}}</ref>{{rp|1}}
* the deportation of clergy and the condemnation of many of them to death,
* the closing, [[desecration]] and pillaging of churches, removal of the word "saint" from street names and other acts to banish Christian culture from the public sphere
* removal of statues, plates, and other iconography from places of worship
* destruction of crosses, bells and other external signs of worship
* the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, including the [[Cult of Reason]] and subsequently the [[Cult of the Supreme Being]],
* the large-scale destruction of religious monuments,
* the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education,
* forced marriages of the clergy,
* forced abjuration of priesthood, and
* the enactment of a law on 21 October 1793 making all nonjuring priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight.
[[File:Fusillades de Nantes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.24|Mass shootings at Nantes, 1793]]
The climax was reached with the celebration of the Goddess "Reason" in [[Notre-Dame de Paris]], the Parisian cathedral, on 10 November.

Under threat of death, imprisonment, military conscription or loss of income, about 20,000 constitutional priests were forced to abdicate or hand over their letters of ordination and 6,000&nbsp;– 9,000 were coerced to marry, many ceasing their ministerial duties.<ref name="google"/>{{rp|10}} Some of those who abdicated covertly ministered to the people.<ref name="google" />{{rp|10}} By the end of the decade, approximately 30,000 priests were forced to leave France, and thousands who did not leave were executed.<ref>{{ cite book | last= Lewis | first= Gwynne | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VjXHmc6Z5ZcC&dq=dechristianisation+of+france+during+the+french+revolution&pg=PA45 | title= The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate | page=96 | date= 1993 | publisher=Routledge | isbn = 0-415-05466-4}}</ref> Most of France was left without the services of a priest, deprived of the [[sacraments]] and any nonjuring priest faced the [[guillotine]] or deportation to [[French Guiana]].<ref name="google"/>{{rp|11}}

The March 1793 conscription requiring [[Vendée|Vendeans]] to fill their district's quota of 300,000 enraged the populace, who took up arms as "The Catholic Army", "Royal" being added later, and fought for "above all the reopening of their parish churches with their former priests."<ref name="Jones-52-53">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=buHXFDFdeoQC|title=Resisting Rebellion|isbn=9780813191706 |last1=Joes |first1=Anthony James |date=2006 | publisher= University Press of Kentucky | pages= 52–53 }}</ref> 
 
With these [[Mass murder|massacres]] came formal orders for forced evacuation; also, a '[[scorched earth]]' policy was initiated: farms were destroyed, crops and forests burned and villages razed. There were many reported atrocities and a campaign of mass killing universally targeted at residents of the [[Vendée]] regardless of combatant status, political affiliation, age or gender.<ref>{{cite web|year=2006|title=Jones, Adam Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction|url=http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_origins.pdf|publisher=Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishers Forthcoming|page=7|access-date=27 October 2008|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010110108/http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_origins.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> By July 1796, the estimated Vendean dead numbered between 117,000 and 500,000, out of a population of around 800,000.<ref>{{cite web|title=Three State and Counterrevolution in France by Charles Tilly|url=http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft2h4nb1h9&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e1419&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol|access-date=29 June 2011|publisher=cdlib.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Furlaud|first1=Alice|date=9 July 1989|title=Vive la Contre-Revolution!|work=The New York Times|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=950DE1DC123AF93AA35754C0A96F948260}}</ref><ref>{{Cite periodical |last=McPhee| first= Peter|url=https://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/mcphee3.html | title= Review of Reynald Secher, A French Genocide: The Vendée |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420184315/http://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/mcphee3.html|archive-date=20 April 2012| magazine= H-France Review | volume=4 | date=March 2004 |number= 26}}</ref>

===Japan===
{{Main|Martyrs of Japan}}
[[File:Martyrdom-of-Nagasaki-Painting-1622.png|thumb|The Christian martyrs of the 1622&nbsp;[[Great Genna Martyrdom]]. 17th-century Japanese painting.]]
[[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] assumed control over Japan in 1600. Like [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], he disliked Christian activities in Japan. The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] finally decided to ban Catholicism in 1614, and in the mid-17th century it demanded the expulsion of all European missionaries and the execution of all converts. This marked the end of open Christianity in Japan.<ref name="Mullins">{{cite journal|last=Mullins|first=Mark R.|year=1990|title=Japanese Pentecostalism and the World of the Dead: a Study of Cultural Adaptation in Iesu no Mitama Kyokai|journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies|volume=17|issue=4|pages=353–374|doi=10.18874/jjrs.17.4.1990.353-374|doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Shimabara Rebellion]], led by a young [[Kirishitan|Japanese Christian]] boy named [[Amakusa Shirō|Amakusa Shirō Tokisada]], took place in 1637. After the [[Hara Castle]] fell, the shogunate's forces beheaded an estimated 37,000 rebels and sympathizers. Amakusa Shirō's severed head was taken to [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] for public display, and the entire complex at Hara Castle was burned to the ground and buried together with the bodies of all the dead.<ref>Naramoto, p. 401.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Many of the Christians in Japan continued for two centuries to maintain their religion as [[Kakure Kirishitan]], or hidden Christians, without any priests or pastors. Some of those who were killed for their Faith are venerated as the [[Martyrs of Japan]].

Christianity was later allowed during the [[Meiji era]]. The [[Meiji Constitution]] of 1890 introduced [[separation of church and state]] and permitted freedom of religion.

===Kingdom of Mysore===
{{See also|Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam}}
[[File:JamalabadFortPassage.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Jamalabad|Jamalabad fort]] route. Mangalorean Catholics had traveled through this route on their way to [[Seringapatam]].]]

Muslim [[Tipu Sultan]], the ruler of the [[Kingdom of Mysore]], took action against the [[Mangalorean Catholic]] community from [[Mangalore]] and the [[South Canara]] district on the southwestern coast of India. Tipu was widely reputed to be anti-Christian. He took Mangalorean Catholics into captivity at [[Seringapatam]] on 24 February 1784 and released them on 4 May 1799.<ref name="dajser">{{cite web |url=http://www.daijiworld.com/chan/achievers_view.asp?a_id=28 |title=Deportation & The Konkani Christian Captivity at Srirangapatna (1784 Feb. 24th Ash Wednesday) |publisher=[[Daiji World|Daijiworld Media Pvt Ltd Mangalore]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080129233351/http://www.daijiworld.com/chan/achievers_view.asp?a_id=28 |archive-date=29 January 2008 | author1= Jerald Sequeira }}</ref>

Soon after the [[Treaty of Mangalore]] in 1784, Tipu gained control of Canara.<ref>{{harvnb|Forrest|1887|pp=314–316}}</ref> He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates,<ref>{{harvnb|The Gentleman's Magazine|1833|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CnSrSlq_ckcC 388]}}</ref> and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the [[Jamalabad|Jamalabad fort]] route.<ref name="dm">{{cite web
|url=http://www.dioceseofmangalore.org/history.asp
|title= Christianity in Mangalore
|publisher=[[Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore|Diocese of Mangalore]]|url-status=usurped
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080622155343/http://www.dioceseofmangalore.org/history.asp |archive-date = 22 June 2008}}</ref> There were no priests among the captives. Together with Fr. Miranda, all the 21 arrested priests were issued orders of expulsion to Goa, fined 20,000,000 (2 lakh) rupees<!--Use western numbering first-->, and threatened death by hanging if they ever returned.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} Tipu ordered the destruction of 27 Catholic churches.

According to [[Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet|Thomas Munro]], a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, around 60,000 of them,<ref name="bow2">{{harvnb|Bowring|1997|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jrL3wXQ2-rYC 126]|Ref=bow}}</ref> nearly 92&nbsp;percent of the entire Mangalorean Catholic community, were captured. 7,000 escaped. Observer [[Francis Buchanan-Hamilton|Francis Buchanan]] reports that 70,000 were captured, from a population of 80,000, with 10,000 escaping. They were forced to climb nearly {{convert|4000|ft|m}} through the jungles of the [[Western Ghats|Western Ghat]] mountain ranges. It was {{convert|210|mi|km}} from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks. According to British Government records, 20,000&nbsp; of them died on the march to Seringapatam. According to [[James Scurry]], a British officer, who was held captive along with Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000&nbsp;of them were forcibly converted to Islam. The young women and girls were forcibly made wives of the Muslims living there and later distributed and sold in prostitution.{{sfn|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=103}} The young men who offered resistance were disfigured by cutting their noses, upper lips, and ears.{{sfn|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=104}}

[[File:James Scurry.jpg|thumb|left|The British officer [[James Scurry]], who was detained a prisoner for 10 years by Tipu Sultan along with the Mangalorean Catholics]]
Tipu Sultan's invasion of the [[Malabar Coast]] had an adverse impact on the [[Saint Thomas Christian]] community of the Malabar coast. Many churches in Malabar and [[Cochin]] were damaged. The old Syrian Nasrani seminary at Angamaly which had been the center of Catholic religious education for several centuries was razed to the ground by Tipu's soldiers. Many centuries-old religious manuscripts were lost forever. The church was later relocated to Kottayam where it still exists to this date. The Mor Sabor church at Akaparambu and the Martha Mariam Church attached to the seminary were destroyed as well. Tipu's army set fire to the church at Palayoor and attacked the Ollur Church in 1790. Furthernmore, the Arthat church and the Ambazhakkad seminary was also destroyed. Over the course of this invasion, many Saint Thomas Christians were killed or forcibly converted to Islam. Most of the coconut, arecanut, pepper and cashew plantations held by the Saint Thomas Christian farmers were also indiscriminately destroyed by the invading army. As a result, when Tipu's army invaded Guruvayur and adjacent areas, the Syrian Christian community fled Calicut and small towns like Arthat to new centres like Kunnamkulam, Chalakudi, Ennakadu, Cheppadu, Kannankode, [[Mavelikkara]], etc. where there were already Christians. They were given refuge by Sakthan Tamburan, the ruler of Cochin and Karthika Thirunal, the ruler of Travancore, who gave them lands, plantations and encouraged their businesses. Colonel Macqulay, the British resident of Travancore also helped them.<ref name= Bernard >K.L. Bernard, ''Kerala History '', p. 79</ref>

Tipu's persecution of Christians also extended to captured British soldiers. For instance, there were a significant amount of forced conversions of British captives between 1780 and 1784. Following their disastrous defeat at the [[battle of Pollilur]], 7,000 British men along with an unknown number of women were held captive by Tipu in the fortress of Seringapatnam. Of these, over 300 were circumcised and given Muslim names and clothes, and several British regimental drummer boys were made to wear ''[[ghagra cholis]]'' and entertain the court as ''nautch'' girls or dancing girls.<ref>William Dalrymple ''White Mughals'' (2006) p. 28</ref> According to James Scurry, who had been jailed, he gained an inability to use western cutlery, a change in his preferred clothing, a darker skin tone, and having ""broken and confused" English that no longer had "all its vernacular idiom".<ref name=Colleycount>{{cite news|last=Colley|first=Linda|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/nov/09/featuresreviews.guardianreview5|title=Your country needs you. And your beard|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=2002-11-09|access-date=2025-05-13}}</ref> Scurry had a confinement period of 10 years.<ref name=Colleycount/>

=== Ottoman Empire ===
{{Main|Christianity in the Ottoman Empire}}
Historian Warren Treadgold gives a summary on the historical background highlighting the cumulative effects of the relentless Turkish Muslim depredations against the Byzantine Empire in its Anatolian heartland by the late 14th century:<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYbnr5XVbzUC|title=A History of the Byzantine State and Society|pages=813–814|isbn=9780804726306 |last1=Treadgold |first1=Warren T. |date=October 1997 |publisher=Stanford University Press }}</ref>
{{blockquote|As the Turks raided and conquered, they enslaved many Christians, selling some in other Muslim regions and hindering the rest from practicing their faith. Conversions [to islam], Turkish migration, and Greek outmigration increasingly endangered the Greek minority in central Asia Minor. When the Turks overran Western Anatolia, they occupied the countryside first, driving the Greeks into the cities, or away to Europe, or the islands. By the time the Anatolian cities fell, the land around them was already largely Turkish [and Islamic].}}

In accordance with the traditional custom which was practiced at the time, Sultan [[Mehmed II]] allowed his troops and his entourage to engage in unbridled pillaging and looting in the city of [[Constantinople]] for three full days shortly after [[Fall of Constantinople|it was captured]]. Once the three days passed, he claimed its remaining contents for himself.<ref name="Runciman 1965">{{Cite book|last=Runciman|first=Steven|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAzntP0lg58C|title=The Fall of Constantinople 1453|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1965|isbn=978-0-521-39832-9|pages=145–148|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Nicol|first=Donald MacGillivray|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LpBsQgAACAAJ|title=The End of the Byzantine Empire|publisher=Edward Arnold|year=1979|isbn=978-0-7131-6250-9|location=London|page=88|language=en|author-link=Donald Nicol}}</ref> However, at the end of the first day, he proclaimed that the looting should cease because he felt profound sadness when he toured the looted and enslaved city.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Inalcik|first=Halil|year=1969|title=The Policy of Mehmed II toward the Greek Population of Istanbul and the Byzantine Buildings of the City|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers|volume=23/24|pages=229–249|doi=10.2307/1291293|jstor=1291293|issn=0070-7546}}</ref><ref name="Runciman 1965" /> Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage and looting and specifically became its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures and valuables of the city.<ref name="Nicol_a_2">Nicol. ''The End of the Byzantine Empire'', p. 90.</ref> Shortly after the defence<!--Br. Eng spllg--> of the [[Walls of Constantinople]] collapsed and the Ottoman troops entered the city victoriously, the pillagers and looters made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors before storming in.<ref name="Runciman 1965" />

Throughout the period of the [[siege of Constantinople]], the worshippers who were trapped in the city participated in the [[Divine Liturgy]] and they also recited the Prayer of the Hours at the [[Hagia Sophia]] and the church formed a safe-haven and a refuge for many of those worshippers who were unable to contribute to the city's defence<!--Br. Eng spllg-->, which comprised women, children, elderly, the sick and the wounded.<ref name="Runciman_2.5">Runciman. ''The Fall of Constantinople'', pp. 133–34.</ref><ref name="Nicol_b_1">{{ cite book | isbn =9780521439916 | last= Nicol | first=Donald M. | title=The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261–1453| place= Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press| date= 1972 | page= 389}}</ref> Being trapped in the church, the many congregants and yet more refugees inside became spoils-of-war to be divided amongst the triumphant invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, with the helpless occupants who sought shelter within the church being enslaved.<ref name="Nicol_a_2" /> While most of the elderly and the infirm/wounded and sick were killed, and the remainder (mainly teenage males and young boys) were chained up and sold into slavery.<ref name="Runciman 1965" />

The women of Constantinople also suffered from rape at the hands of Ottoman forces.<ref name="hRhtW">{{Cite magazine |last=Smith |first=Cyril J. |year=1974 |title=History of Rape and Rape Laws |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/wolj60&div=31&id=&page= |magazine=Women Law Journal |issue=60 |page=188 |access-date=12 October 2020 |archive-date=26 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426103547/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals%2Fwolj60&div=31&id=&page= |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Barbaro, "all through the day the Turks made a great slaughter of Christians through the city". According to historian [[Philip Mansel]], widespread persecution of the city's civilian inhabitants took place, resulting in thousands of murders and rapes, and 30,000 civilians being enslaved or forcibly deported.<ref name="iK51W">{{cite book |last1=Mansel |first1=Philip |title=Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453–1924 |chapter-url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/constantinople.htm |date= 1995 | publisher= St. Martin's Press | via=The Washington Post |access-date=7 August 2020 |archive-date=24 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724153239/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/constantinople.htm |url-status=live |chapter=One: The Conqueror}}</ref><ref name="Crowley2009">{{cite book |author=Roger Crowley|title=Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftOp1cR7VK8C&pg=PT226|date=6 August 2009|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-25079-0|page=226|quote=The vast majority of the ordinary citizens - about 30,000 - were marched off to the slave markets of Edirne, Bursa and Ankara.}}</ref><ref name="Akbar2002">{{cite book |author=M.J Akbar|title=The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam and Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d_iBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|date=3 May 2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-45259-0|page=86|quote=Some 30,000 Christians were either enslaved or sold.}}</ref><ref name="Bradbury1992">{{cite book|author=Jim Bradbury|title=The Medieval Siege|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVCRpsfwkiUC&pg=PA322|year=1992|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=978-0-85115-312-4|page=322}}</ref> [[George Sphrantzes]] says that people of both genders were raped inside [[Hagia Sophia]].<ref>Preface to the ''Chronicle''; translated by [[Marios Philippides]], ''The Fall of the Byzantine Empire: A Chronicle by George Sphrantzes, 1401–1477'' (Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1980), p. 21</ref>

Since the time of the [[Great Turkish War|Austro-Turkish war (1683–1699)]], relations between Muslims and Christians who lived in the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire gradually deteriorated {{vague|date=January 2018}} and this deterioration in interfaith relations occasionally resulted in calls for the expulsion or extermination of local Christian communities by some Muslim religious leaders. As a result of Ottoman [[oppression]], the destruction of Churches and Monasteries, and violence against the non-Muslim civilian population, [[Serbs|Serbian]] Christians and their church leaders, headed by Serbian Patriarch [[Arsenije III Čarnojević|Arsenije III]], sided with the Austrians in 1689 and again in 1737 under Serbian Patriarch [[Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta|Arsenije IV]]. In the following punitive campaigns, Ottoman forces conducted systematic atrocities against the Christian population in the Serbian regions, resulted in the [[Great Migrations of the Serbs]].{{sfn|Pavlowitch|2002|pp=19–20}}

==== Ottoman Albania and Kosovo ====
{{main|Islamization of Albania}}

Before the late 16th century, Albania's population remained overwhelmingly [[Christianity in Albania|Christian]], despite the fact that it was under Ottoman rule, unlike the more diverse populations of other regions of the [[Ottoman Empire]], such as Bosnia, Bulgaria and [[Northern Greece]],<ref name="MinkovDemographics">{{cite book|author=Anton Minkov|title=Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: ''Kisve Bahası'' Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670–1730|publisher= Brill |series=The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage, Volume: 30 | date= 2004 | isbn = 978-90-47-40277-0 |pages=41–42 | doi =10.1163/9789047402770_008 |s2cid=243354675 }}</ref> the mountainous Albania was a frequent site of revolts against Ottoman rule, often at an enormous human cost, such as the destruction of entire villages.<ref>Zhelyazkova, Antonina. ‘'Albanian Identities'’. pp. 15–16, 19.</ref> In response, the Ottomans abandoned their usual policy of tolerating Christians in favor of a policy which was aimed at reducing the size of Albania's Christian population through [[Islamization]], beginning in the restive Christian regions of Reka and Elbasan in 1570.<ref>Zhelyazkova, Antonina. ‘'Albanian Identities'’. Sofia, 2000: International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations. pp. 15–16</ref>

The pressures which resulted from this campaign included particularly harsh economic conditions which were imposed on Albania's Christian population; while earlier taxes on the Christians were around 45 ''[[akçe]]s'' a year, by the middle of the 17th century the rate had been multiplied by 27 to 780 ''akçes'' a year. Albanian elders often opted to save their clans and villages from hunger and economic ruin by advocating village-wide and region-wide conversions to Islam, with many individuals frequently continuing to practice Christianity in private.<ref>{{cite web |last= Zhelyazkova |first = Antonina |url=http://pdc.ceu.hu/archive/00003852/01/Albanian_Identities.pdf | title= Albanian Identities| date= 2000 | publisher=International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relation| quote=If the tax levied on the Christians in the Albanian communities in the 16th century amounted to about 45 akçes, in the middle of the 17th century it ran up to 780 akçes a year. In order to save the clans from hunger and ruin, the Albanian elders advised the people in the villages to adopt Islam...Nevertheless, the willingness of the Gegs to support the campaigns of the Catholic West against the Empire, did not abate.... men in Albania, Christians, but also Muslims, were ready to take up arms, given the smallest help from the Catholic West.... the complex dual religious identity of the Albanians become clear. Emblematic is the case of the Crypto-Christians inhabiting the inaccessible geographical area...}}</ref>

A failed Catholic rebellion in 1596 and the Albanian population's support of Austro-Hungary during the [[Great Turkish War]],<ref name="PahumiKosovoIslamization">{{ cite thesis | degree = Bachelor of Arts | work = Department of History| url= https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/55462 | first=Nevila | last= Pahumi | publisher= University of Michigan | date= 2007 | title= The Consolidation of Albanian Nationalism | page= 18 | hdl = 2027.42/55462| quote=The pasha of Ipek forcibly moved the Catholic inhabitants of northern Albania into the plains of southern Serbia after a failed Serb revolt forced many Serbs to flee to the Habsburg Empire in 1689. The transferred villagers were forced to convert to Islam.}}</ref> and its support of the Venetians in the 1644 Venetian-Ottoman War<ref name="Ramet210">{{harvnb|Ramet|1998|p=210}}: "Then, in 1644, war broke out between Venice and the Ottoman empire. At the urging of the clergy, many Albanian Catholics sided with Venice. The Ottomans responded to this by severely repressing them, which in turn drove many Catholics to embrace Islam (although a few of them elected to join the Orthodox Church)... Within the span of twenty-two years (1649–71) the number of Catholics in the diocese of Alessio fell by more than 50 percent, while in the diocese of Pulati (1634–71) the number of Catholics declined from more than 20,000 to just 4,045. In general, Albanian insurrections which occurred during the Ottoman-Venetian wars of 1644–69 resulted in stiff Ottoman reprisals against Catholics in northern Albania and significant acceleration of Islamization... In general, a pattern emerged. When the Ottoman empire was attacked by Catholic powers, local Catholics were pressured to convert, and when Orthodox Russia attacked the Ottoman empire, local Orthodox Christians were also pressured to change their faith. In some cases however, their Islamization was only superficial and as a result, many villages and some districts were still "crypto-Catholic" in the nineteenth century, despite their adoption of the externals of Islamic culture."</ref> as well as the [[Orlov Revolt]]<ref name="Ramet203">{{harvnb|Ramet|1998|p=203}}: "The Ottoman conquest between the end of the fourteenth century and the mid-fifteenth century introduced a third religion – Islam – but at first the Turks did not use force during their expansion, and it was only in the 1600s that large-scale conversion to Islam began – at first, it chiefly occurred among Albanian Catholics."; p.204. "The Orthodox community enjoyed broad toleration at the hands of the Sublime Porte until the late eighteenth century."; p. 204. "In the late eighteenth century Russian agents began stirring the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman empire against the Sublime Porte. In the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768–74 and 1787–91, Orthodox Albanians rose up against the Turks. In the course of the second revolt, the "New Academy" in Voskopoje was destroyed (1789), and at the end of the second Russo-Turkish war, more than a thousand Orthodox fled to Russia on Russian warships. In the aftermath of these revolts, the Porte now applied pressure in order to Islamize the Albanian Orthodox population, adding economic incentives in order to stimulate this process. In 1798, Ali Pasha of Janina led Ottoman forces against Christian believers who were assembled in their churches in order to celebrate Easter in the villages of Shen Vasil and Nivica e Bubarit. The bloodbath which was unleashed against these believers frightened Albanian Christians who lived in other districts and inspired a new wave of mass conversions to Islam."</ref><ref name="Skendi1013">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967a|pp=10–13}}.</ref><ref name="Skendi1956321323">{{harvnb|Skendi|1956|pp=321–323}}.</ref><ref name="Vickers16">{{harvnb|Vickers|2011|p=16}}.</ref><ref name="Koti1617">{{harvnb|Koti|2010|pp=16–17}}.</ref> were all factors which led to punitive measures in which outright force was accompanied by economic incentives depending on the region, and ended up forcing the conversion of large Christian populations to Islam in Albania. In the aftermath of the Great Turkish War, massive punitive measures were imposed on Kosovo's Catholic Albanian population and as a result of them, most members of it fled to Hungary and settled around [[Buda]], where most of them died of disease and starvation.<ref name="PahumiKosovoIslamization" /><ref name="MalcolmRaspasani">{{cite book|last=Malcolm|first=Noel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GGQ_AQAAIAAJ&q=Toma+Raspasani|title=Kosovo: a short history|publisher=Macmillan|year=1998|isbn=978-0-333-66612-8|page=162}}</ref>

After the Orthodox Serbian population's subsequent flight from Kosovo, the pasha of Ipek (Peja/Pec) forced Albanian Catholic mountaineers to repopulate Kosovo by deporting them to Kosovo, and also forced them adopt Islam.<ref name="PahumiKosovoIslamization" /><ref name="Koti1617" /> In the 17th and 18th centuries, South Albania also saw numerous instances of violence which was directed against those who remained Christian by local newly converted Muslims, ultimately resulting in many more conversions out of fear as well as flight to faraway lands by the Christian population.<ref name="Kallivretakis233">{{harvnb|Kallivretakis|2003|p=233}}.</ref><ref name="Hammond30">{{harvnb|Hammond|1967|p=30}}.</ref><ref name="Ramet203" /><ref name="Hammond197662">{{harvnb|Hammond|1976|p=62}}.</ref><ref name="Koukoudis2003">{{harvnb|Koukoudis|2003|pp=321–322}}. "Particularly interesting is the case of Vithkuq, south of Moschopolis... It may well have had Vlach inhabitants before 1769, though the Arvanites were certainly far more numerous, if not the largest population group. This is further supported by the linguistic identity of the refugees who fled Vithkuq and accompanied the waves of departing Vlachs..." p. 339. "As the same time as, or possibly shortly before or after, these events in Moschopolis, unruly Arnauts also attacked the smaller Vlach and Arvanitic communities round about. The Vlach inhabitants of Llengë, Niçë, Grabovë, Shipckë, and the Vlach villages on Grammos, such as Nikolicë, Linotopi, and Grammousta, and the inhabitants of Vithkuq and even the last Albanian speaking Christian villages on Opar found themselves at the mercy of the predatory Arnauts, whom no-one could withstand. For them too, the only solution was to flee... During this period, Vlach and Arvanite families from the surrounding ruined market towns and villages settled alongside the few Moscopolitans who had returned. Refugee families came from Dushar and other villages in Opar, from Vithkuq, Grabovë, Nikolicë, Niçë, and Llengë and from Kolonjë..."</ref>