Islands of the Ottoman Empire

Princeton Papers, 2017

Turkish Historical Review, 2020

Turkish Historical Review, 2011

This article studies the 1804 revolt in Cyprus and its repression. The protagonists of this revolt reveal a particularly complex situation in an area of the Ottoman periphery such as Cyprus at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By codifying the realities revealed to us by this revolt we can remark the existence and parallel action of three different Ottoman authorities in Cyprus during this period. The relation of these three authorities is complicated. Competition between them to expand their responsibilities is constant, as well as their forced collaboration in an effort to maintain order on the island. With regard to their power and importance this is even more difficult since during this period the tenure of an official in Ottoman Cyprus could be short (muhassıl), longer (divan tercümanı), or even permanent (archbishop of Cyprus). The questions that the analysis of this revolt tries to answer are many: who are the Ottoman authorities in Cyprus at the beginning of the ninet...

Contributing to the discussions on the reconfigurations of wealth and power in the Ottoman Empire between the mid-eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, this article considers the cases of three provincial notables in a provincial setting: Hadjiyorgakis Kornesios, dragoman of Cyprus; the muhassıl (tax-farming governor) Hacı Abdülbaki Ağa; and the Armenian consular dragoman-cum-merchant Sarkis. Seeking analytical categories that move beyond a rigid center/province dichotomy,this article makes an initial attempt towards articulating an alternative scheme for understanding imperial space, and move beyond a spatial imagination confined to conventional administrative organization. Utilizing the Braudelian concept of ‘miniature continents’ allows an envisioning of the Cypriot insularity that sheds light on the nature of economic relations, modes of production, and patterns of concentration of the rural surplus. The three local intermediaries examined here are ideal case studies that can facilitate, or indeed instigate, this sort of inquiry.

Ο Νέος Ελληνισμός, οι κόσμοι του και ο κόσμος: αφιέρωμα στην Όλγα Κατσιαρδή-Hering, 2021

The paper explores the frontier between the Ottoman territories and the Venetian islands in the Ionian Sea between the late fifteenth and the late seventeenth century. The paper focuses on the fortress of Aya Mavra, which became the Ottoman military stronghold in the “Wild West” of their provinces, and the island of Lefkada. Following the historiography of the frontiers and the borderlands, the paper aims both at describing the military character of the Ottoman-Venetian frontier and at analyzing its permeability. In this context, islands like Lefkada, became border(is)lands, within the larger and more complex historical maritime frontiers.

Contributing to the discussions on the reconfigurations of wealth and power in the Ottoman Empire between the mid-eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, this article considers the cases of three provincial notables in a provincial setting: Hadjiyorgakis Kornesios, dragoman of Cyprus; the muhassıl (tax-farming governor) Hacı Abdülbaki Ağa; and the Armenian consular dragoman-cum-merchant Sarkis. Seeking analytical categories that move beyond a rigid center/province dichotomy, this article makes an initial attempt towards articulating an alternative scheme for understanding imperial space, and move beyond a spatial imagination confined to conventional administrative organization. Utilizing the Braudelian concept of ‘miniature continents’ allows an envisioning of the Cypriot insularity that sheds light on the nature of economic relations, modes of production, and patterns of concentration of the rural surplus. The three local intermediaries examined here are ideal case studies that can facilitate, or indeed instigate, this sort of inquiry. Öz 18. yüzyıl ortalarından 19. yüzyıl ortalarına kadarki dönemde Osmanlı taşra-sındaki servet ve iktidarın yeniden dağıtılmasına ilişkin tartışmalara katkı yapmayı amaçlayan bu makalede, üç mahalli seçkin üzerine odaklanılmaktadır: Kıbrıs tercü-manı Hadjiyorgakis Kornesios (Acı Yorgaki), muhassıl Hacı Abdülbaki Ağa, Ermeni asıllı tüccar ve aynı zamanda elçilik tercümanlığı yapan Sarkis. Çalışmada, katı bir merkez-çevre ikileminin ötesine geçen analitik kategoriler aranmış, imparatorluk coğrafyasını daha iyi anlamak ve şimdiye kadar daha çok idari teşkilat üzerinden tanımlanan mekânsal tahayyülün ötesine geçmek için alternatif bir yaklaşım denen-miştir. Braudel'in " minyatür kıtalar " kavramı kullanılarak Kıbrıs'taki yalıtılmış mekân olgusunu tasavvur etmek mümkün olmuş, bu sayede daha genel bağlamda ekonomik ilişkilerin doğası, üretim biçimleri ve taşradaki artıdeğerin birikimi daha iyi anlaşı-labilmiştir. Burada incelenen üç yerel aracı, bu türden bir yaklaşımı araştırmacı için kolaylaştıran ve hatta teşvik eden ideal vakalar sunmuşlardır. This article examines three provincial intermediaries in Cyprus during the closing decades of the eighteenth century. It considers these cases as examples of some of the groups of Ottoman subjects who came to benefit in more ways than one from the redistribution of wealth and power in the Ottoman Empire during the period between 1750 and 1850. In this era, Ottoman imperial governance

2022

Examining the century-long period of the incorporation of Cyprus into the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the conquest of 1571, the article identifies the multiple processes that characterised the Ottomanisation of the island. It examines specific instances of turmoil due to the transitional nature of a period characterised by reconfigurations and realignments. Conceptualising Cyprus as a 'contact zone', the article demonstrates that developments observed on the island are reflections of larger processes that were under way on a Mediterranean scale. Finally, the article proposes the notion of insularity as an alternative means to envision historical space, in order to go beyond a state-centric spatial imagination. Traditional Ottomanist historiography views the incorporation of new provinces as a state-driven process according to which societies and economies of newly-conquered provinces were streamlined and absorbed into a centralised, uniform, and 'classical' administrative organisation. This process is known as the 'Ottoman methods of conquest' (İnalcık 1954). While in many ways this concept was particularly useful, recent scholarship has cast serious doubts on the key assumptions associated with the 'classical age' of the Ottoman Empire as an ideal, centralised state, and the consequent periods as its opposite

The Historical Review/La Revue Historique, 2013