Greek Muslims - Cretan Muslims

Cretan Turks (Turkish: Girit Türkleri, Greek: Τουρκοκρητικοί) or Cretan Muslims (Turkish: Girit Müslümanları) cover Muslims who arrived in Turkey after or slightly before the start of the Greek rule in Crete in 1908 and especially in the framework of the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations and have settled on the coastline stretching from the Çanakkale to İskenderun. Today, only elderly women may be found to be fluent in Cretan Greek and only estimates can be made regarding their number. They often name the language as Cretan (Kritika (Κρητικά) or Giritçe) instead of Greek. The Cretan "Turk" (i.e., Greek Muslim) are Sunnis of the (Hanafi) rite with a highly influential Bektashi minority that helped shape the folk Islam and religious tolerance of the entire community. Significant numbers of Cretan Muslims were re-settled in other Ottoman controlled areas around the eastern Mediterranean by the Ottomans following the re-conquest of Crete by the Kingdom of Greece in 1898. Most ended up in coastal Syria and Lebanon, particularly the town of Al-Hamidiyah, in Syria, (named after the Ottoman sultan who settled them there), and Tripoli in Lebanon where many continue to speak Greek as their mother tongue. Others were resettled in Ottoman Libya especially in the east side cities like Susa and Benghazi, where they are distinguishable by their Greek surnames. Many of the older members of this community still speak Cretan Greek in their homes.