The Persian term for nation originally designated a religious community.

Evidence

The word mellat, which in Persian as in Arabic and Turkish had referred traditionally to a religious community, came to be used in the Western sense of the term to designate a “nation” or “nation-state.” — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1666

Categorization

• DEFINE: Etymology showing that ‘millet’/‘mellat’ shifted from religious-community to nation meaning — directly relevant to the reader’s Ottoman millet-system hypothesis.
• QUESTION: The reader’s hypothesis hinges on whether the shift of mellat from religious community to nation preserved a latent religion-as-identity logic; this etymology is evidence worth chasing further.
• XREF: Connects to the Ottoman millet system literature the reader is seeking on religion as racial surrogate. — connects to: Religion-based identity in Islam predates Western secular nationhood. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1393; Religion most often defines civilizations and can override shared ethnicity and language.; Religion rather than nationality has been the primary basis of identity in Islam (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Middle Eastern national identity derives from religious communality rather than ethnicity #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3470
• Religion rather than nationality has been the primary basis of identity in Islam #corroborates (0.90)
• Pre-modern Muslim identity centered on religion rather than geography or nation #corroborates (0.90)
• Religion-based identity in Islam predates Western secular nationhood. #corroborates (0.85) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1393
• Religion most often defines civilizations and can override shared ethnicity and language. #corroborates (0.75)