#ottoman cyprus

[archiveofcyp]

A black-and-white photograph of three Cypriot men taken in the Public Garden in Nicosia. The man on the left is Mehmet Mıstık, who was born in 1896. He wears a fez, a western-style jacket (sakgo/divişli sakgo), traditional vraga trousers, and a sash (hacı şalı guşak), which was likely brought back from pilgrimage to Mecca. The man in the middle standing on the stool has a trimmed moustache, wears a fez, and a western-styled three-piece suit with a kerchief around his neck in place of a tie, a silver or gold cord (sırmalı), and a ring on his left hand. The man on the right is Mustafa Mıstık (1892-1951), who was a butcher. Instead of a fez, he is wearing a headscarf (tsemberi/çember) with ornamental lace. He also wears a sash (hacı şalı guşak), an embroidered shirt (gömlek), black vraga, and detailed carnation (garifallo/garanfil) stockings.

📸 source: Aziz Damdelen Public Garden, Epicho (Abohor), Mesaoria, Nicosia District. Ali Mehter in the The Aziz Damdelen Collection Kioneli (Gönneli). Source information provided by Euphrosyne Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou and Aziz Damdelen - ‘Turkish Cypriot dress: The Aziz Damdelen Collection’. https://moufflon.com.cy/product/turkish-cypriot-dress-the-aziz-damdelen-collection/.

Disclaimer: Please note no copyright infringement intended, and I do not own nor claim to own any of the original images or information unless otherwise stated.

[ekute-ile]

Book 35, 2022: 'Ottoman Odyssey' by Alev Scott.

Ottoman empire. Travels through a lost empire. Historical trace. Diaspora. Collective history. Shared language. Turkey. Cyprus. Greece. Lebanon. Syria. Bosnia. Armenia. Palestine.

Weltanschauung!

[kyreniacommentator]

1st August Communal Resistance Day celebrated in the TRNC

1st August Communal Resistance Day celebrated in the TRNC 1st August “Communal Resistance Day”, which marks the 48th anniversary of the establishment of the Cyprus Turkish Security Forces Command (GKK), the 66th anniversary of the establishment of Turkish Cypriot Resistance Organization (TMT) and the 453rd anniversary of the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans, was celebrated with various events…

[walkswithmycamera]

CYPRUS: Through the Buffer Zone.

Cyprus, Nicosia - Ledra Street on foot, through the crossing point via the buffer zone into the northern Turkish third of the island.

A short photo video below contains a link to the whole album on Flickr

The building architecture in Lefkosa on both sides of the division, which runs right through the capital city of Nicosia is fabulous and it's always been a favourite area of ours.

Two firm favourite places we often visited on the days we went into the north, were Bandabulya Market (all under cover) and Buyuk Han - formerly an Ottoman travellers inn.

[petermorwood]

How on earth did these goats get there?

*****

In reality the goats are lying on their sides on rocky ground, looking up at a crane-mounted camera. The photograph was taken some years ago, part of a series reconstructing Central European folk customs and traditions which have fallen from favour or are now prohibited.

This old-fashioned rural blood-sport was originally practiced in parts of Anatolia, Turkey, where the game was called keçi fırlatmak, and also in the Carpathian Alps of Romania, possibly imported during the Ottoman conquest. The name there was aruncarea caprei.

*****

The goats would have been coated in a strong adhesive traditionally distilled from pine resin.(represented pictorially here by darker patches of dye on the flanks) and were then thrown upwards towards a cliff or rock-face with makeshift catapults, often a primitive form of counterweight trebuchet assembled from wooden beams and weighted with rocks.

The game ended when the glue dried and lost adhesion, and the goats fell to their deaths. They were then cooked and eaten, their meat being valued like that of Spanish fighting bulls.

The meat of the last goat to fall (başarılı keçi or cea mai durabilă capră) was prized as a special delicacy and selected cuts from the legs of this particular “winner” goat were often smoked and dried into a kind of jerky.

*****

In his “Grandes Histoires Vraies d'un Voyageur le 1er Avril” (pub. Mensonges & Faussetés, Paris, 1871) French folk-historian, anthropologist and retired cavalry general Gilles-Etienne Gérârd wrote about witnessing a festival near Sighișoara, Transylvania, in 1868.

There he claims to have seen catapults improvised from jeunes arbres, très élastiques et souples - “very springy and flexible young trees” - which were drawn back with ropes and then released.

Bets were placed before the throw, and marks given afterwards, according to what way up the goats adhered and for how long. The reconstruction, with both goats upright, facing outward and still in place, shows what would have been a potential high score.

The practice has been officially banned in both countries since the late 1940s, but supposedly still occurred in more isolated areas up to the end of the 20th century. Wooden beams from which the catapults were constructed could easily be disguised as barn-rafters etc., and of course flexible trees were, and are, just trees.

*****

Gérârd’s book incorrectly calls the goat jerky “pastrami”, to which he gives the meaning "meat of preservation".

While pastrami may be a printing error for the Turkish word bastırma or the Romanian pastramă, both meaning “preserved meat”, at least one reviewer claims that Gérârd misunderstood his guide-translator, who would have been working from rural dialect to formal Romanian to scholarly French.

Since this jerky was considered a good-luck food for shepherds, mountaineers, steeplejacks and others whose work involved a risk of falling, Gérârd's assumption seems a reasonable one.

However, several critical comments on that review have dismissed its conclusion, claiming "no translator could be so clumsy", but in its defence, other comments point out confusion between slang usage in the same language.

One cites American and British English, noting that even before differences in spelling (tire / tyre, kerb / curb etc.) "guns" can mean biceps or firearms, "flat" can mean a deflated wheel or a place to live, "ass" can mean buttocks or donkey and adds, with undisguised relish, some of the more embarrassing examples.

This comment concludes that since the errors "usually make sense in context", Gérârd's misapprehension is entitled to the same respect.

*****

The good-luck aspect of the meat apparently extended to work which involved "falling safely", since its last known use was believed to be in ration packs issued to the 1. Hava İndirme Tugayı (1st Airborne Brigade) of the Turkish Army, immediately before the invasion of Cyprus in July 1974.

Nothing more recent has been officially recorded, because the presence of cameras near military bases or possible - and of course illegal - contests is strongly (sometimes forcefully) discouraged, and the sport’s very existence is increasingly dismissed as an urban or more correctly rural legend.

The official line taken by both Anatolian and Carpathian authorities is that it was only ever a joke played on tourists, similar to the Australian “Drop-bear”, the Scottish “Wild Haggis” and the North American “Jackalope”.

They dismiss the evidence of Gérârd’s personal observation as “a wild fable to encourage sales of his book”, “a city-dweller’s misinterpretation of country practices”, or even “the deliberate deception of a gullible foreigner by humorous peasants”.

And as for those paratroop ration packs, Turkish involvement in Cyprus is still such a delicate subject that the standard response remains “no comment”.

[whencyclopedia]

The Ottoman Sultanate (1299-1922 as an empire; 1922-1924 as caliphate only), also referred to as the Ottoman Empire, written in Turkish as Osmanlı Devleti, was a Turkic imperial state that was conceived by and named after Osman (l. 1258-1326), an Anatolian chieftain. At its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, the empire controlled vast stretches including Anatolia, southwestern Europe, mainland Greece, the Balkans, parts of northern Iraq, Azerbaijan, Syria, Palestine, parts of the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and parts of the North African strip, in addition to the major Mediterranean islands of Rhodes, Cyprus, and Crete. Renowned the strongest military superpower of its time, the empire stagnated and faced prolonged decline from the late 16th century CE onwards until it was replaced by the modern Republic of Turkey after the First World War (1914-1918).

[perrysoup]

Jewish State Ideas BEFORE Palestine

CRITICAL PREAMBLE: It is important to keep in mind that the idea of building a Jewish State is Zionist. It does not reflect the views of Judaism as a whole, and any antisemetic actions will result in blocking and banning. It is critical now more than ever that we recognize that there is a different. Your issues in Palestine are with ZIONISM, not Judaism. Do NOT associate them as the same. Doing so is a common Zionist tactic to make comments or opinions against Israel be rebutted that it is antisemetic purely because it comments on actions by Israel and their Zionist government and military.

Again, Zionism and Judaism are NOT one in the same, and should not be treated that way.

Anywho, timeline time!

1820 - Ararat City - Grand Island Niagara River in Western New York. Considered a precursor to Zionism as known today.

1902 - Leaugue of Eastern European States - "would entail the establishment of a buffer state (Pufferstaat) within the Jewish Pale of Settlement of Russia, composed of the former Polish provinces annexed by Russia."

Date Unsure - Herzl Plan - "The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes." His proposed location? Cyprus 1903 - British Uganda Program - Rejected after (shocker) there were lions in Africa. Also "it was populated by a large number of Maasai people, who did not seem at all amenable to an influx of people coming from Europe." fuckin wonder why. Note that some Zionists were concerned it would "make it more difficult to establish a Jewish state in Palestine in Ottoman Syria, particularly the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem" 1928 - Jewish Autonomous Oblast in USSR - Proposed by Russia specifcally to prevent a State of Israel AND done because it viewed Judaism as a threat to the state. "In that sense, it was also a response to two supposed threats to the Soviet state: Judaism, which ran counter to official state policy of atheism; and Zionism, the creation of the modern State of Israel, which countered Soviet views of nationalism. Yiddish, rather than Hebrew, would be the national language, and a new socialist literature and arts would replace religion as the primary expression of culture." Also included the idea of a JSR in Crimea or "part of Ukraine, however these were rejected because of fears of antagonizing non-Jews in those regions."

1940 - British Guiana - "the British Government decided that "the problem is at present too problematical to admit of the adoption of a definite policy and must be left for the decision of some future Government in years to come""

The Madagascar Plan and the Italian East Africa plans were both efforts by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to "solve Jewish problem" (YES THIS IS BAD). "Jews from Europe and Palestine would be resettled to the north-west Ethiopian districts of Gojjam and Begemder, along with the Beta Israel community."

1989 - Plans for the West Bank - Contemplation of a Second Jewish State - "Israeli settlers in the West Bank have mulled declaring independence as the State of Judea should Israel ever withdraw from the West Bank. In January 1989, several hundred activists met and announced their intention to create such a state in the event of Israeli withdrawal."

So yea, don't tell me about "homeland" when there were a shit ton of other ideas accepted within the Zionist ideal prior to SETTLING on Palestine. It's "homeland" cause that's where the British Empire could throw Israel. Not because they though it was the "right thing to do" or whatever thing Zionists claim now a days.

[scotianostra]

On September 2nd 1854 the pioneer of modern urban sociology, Patrick Geddes, was born in Ballater.

Geddes is regarded as the founding father of town planning. Although he was trained as a biologist, he applied biological knowledge to striving to create an ideal environment for human existence. The author of City Development and Cities in Evolution, Geddes was greatly troubled by the plight of refugees of the war between Armenians and the Ottoman Empire in 1896. His response was to travel to Cyprus, helping the displaced people to resettle there in small agricultural and industrial units.

Read more at the short article on Geddes here http://www.lothianlife.co.uk/2007/02/think-global-act-local/

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Countries that are no more: Republic of Venice (697AD-1797AD)

The first in a series I hope to feature on providing high level overviews of countries that existed and were influential to history or obscure and lost to most memory in time. The first up is the Republic of Venice.

Name: Serenisma Republega de Venesia (Venetian). In English this translates to the state's official name The Most Serene Republic of Venice. Also referred to as the Venetian Republic, Republic of Venice or just Venice.

Language: The official languages were the Romance languages of Latin, Venetian & later Italian. The regional dialect of Vulgar Latin in Northeastern Italy known as Veneto was the original language of Venice. This evolved in Venetian which was attested to as a distinct language as early as the 13th century AD. Venetian became the official language and lingua franca of the everyday Venetians and across parts of the Mediterranean although Latin would still be used in official documents and religious functions. Overtime, modern Italian was spoken in Venice though the Venetian language remains technically a separate language in Italy's Veneto region and the surrounding areas to this day.

Minority languages across the republic's territory included various Romance languages such as Lombard, Friulian, Ladin, Dalmatian and non-romance languages such as Albanian, Greek & Serbo-Croatian.

Territory: The republic was centered on the city of Venice founded in the Venetian lagoon on the north end of the Adriatic Sea to the northeast coast of the Italian peninsula. It also included the surrounding regions of mainland northeast Italy in the regions of Veneto and Friuli and parts of Lombardy. This became known as the terraferma or the mainland holdings of the republic. It also possessed overseas holdings in modern day Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece & Cyprus.

Symbols & Mottos: The main symbol of Venice was its flag which had the famed Winged Lion of St. Mark. This represented the republic's patron saint, St. Mark. Mark the Evangelist after whom the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament in the Bible is named. Mark's body and holy relics were taken by Venice and said to be housed in the Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica) in Venice itself. Variations of this flag differed during times of peace & war. During peace the winged lion is seen holding an open book and during war flags depicted the lion with its paw upon a bible and an upright sword held in another paw.

The republic's motto in Latin was "Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus" or in English "Peace be to you Mark, my evangelist."

Religion: Roman Catholicism was the official religion of the state but Venice did have minorities of Eastern Orthodox & Protestant (usually foreign) Christian denominations at times in its territory and it also had small populations of Jews and Muslims to be found in Greek and Albanian territories during the wars with the Ottoman Empire.

Currency: Venetian ducat and later the Venetian lira.

Population: Though population varied overtime for the republic due to a variety of factors such as war & changing territory and disease & its subsequent effects. There was rough population recorded of 2.3 million people across all of its holdings in the mid sixteenth century (circa 1550-1560). The vast majority of its population was found in the terraferma of northern Italy and the city of Venice itself with its concentrated population on the islands within the Venetian Lagoon. The Greek island of Crete and the island of (Greek speaking) Cyprus were the most populous overseas possessions of the republic's territory. The rest of the population was found its various holdings in the Balkans mostly along the Adriatic coastline.

Government: The republic followed a complex mixed model of government. Essentially it could be characterized as a mixed parliamentary constitutional republic with a mercantile oligarchy ruling over it in practice. It had no formal written constitution, and this led to a degree of evolution without exactly defined roles often in reaction to happenings in its history. The resulting government became more complex overtime as institutions became increasingly fragmented in their size, scope and duties, some almost obsolete but still retained and others not fully defined. Yet, the republic managed to function quite well for most of its history. It incorporated elements of oligarchy, monarchy & limited democracy.

It's head of state and government was known as the Doge which is akin to the term of Duke. Though this similarity of name ends there. The Doge was neither similar to a duke in the modern sense nor was it meant as a hereditary position. The doge was rather a lifetime appointment much like the Pope for the Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore, doges were elected by the ruling elite of Venice, namely its wealthy oligarchy merchant class. The doge didn't have well defined & precise powers throughout the republic's 1,100-year history. It varied from great autocracy in the early parts of the republic to increasing regulation and restriction by the late 13th century onward. Though the doge always maintained a symbolic and ceremonial role throughout the republic's history. Some doges were forcibly removed from power and post-1268 until a new doge could be elected, the republic's rule transferred to the most senior ducal counsellor with the style of "vicedoge". After a doge's death following a commission was formed to study the doge's life and review it for moral and ethical transgressions and placed judgment upon him posthumously. If the commission found the deceased doge to have transgressed, his estate could be found liable and subject to fines. The doge was given plenty of ceremonial roles such as heading the symbolic marriage of Venice to the sea by casting a marriage ring into the sea from the doge's barge (similar to a royal yacht). Additionally, the doge was treated in foreign relations akin to a prince. It's titles and styles include "My Lord the Doge", "Most Serene Prince" and "His Serenity". The doge resided in the ducal palace (Palazzo Ducale) or Doge's Palace on the lagoonfront in Venice next St. Mark's Basilica and St. Mark's Square.

While the doge remained the symbolic and nominal head of the government, the oligarchy remained supreme overall. The supreme political organ was the 480-member Great Council. This assembly elected many of the office holders within the republic (including the doge) and the various senior councils tasked with administration, passing laws and judicial oversight. The Great Council's membership post 1297 was restricted to an inheritance by members of the patrician elite of the city of Venice's most noble families recorded in the famed Golden Book. This was divided between the old houses of the republic's earliest days and newer mercantile families if their fortunes should attain them property ownership and wealth. These families usually ranged between 20-30 total. They were socially forbidden from marrying outside their class & usually intermarried for political and economic reasons. Their economic concerns were chief to the whole of the republic and most centered on Eurasian & African trade throughout the Mediterranean Sea's basin. Members of these families served in the military and eventually rose to prominent positions of administration throughout the republic.

The Great Council overtime circumscribed the doge's power by creating councils devoted to oversight of the doge or executive and administrative functions (similar to modern executive cabinets or departments) whereas the doge became more and more a ceremonial role. The also created a senate which handled daily legislation. They also created a Council of Ten set to have authority over all government action. Other bodies were formed from this Great Council and others overtime. This resulted in intricate and overlapping yet separate bodies which found themselves subject to limitations with various checks on virtually each other's power. Essentially running as committees or sub-committees with checks on another committee's powers. These bodies weren't always completely defined in their scope and overtime their complexity led to battles to limit other's power (with limited success) along with gradual obsolescence and sometimes slow grinding administration.

Military: The military of Venice consisted of a relatively small army and a powerful navy. The famed Venetian Arsenal in Venice proper was essentially a complex of armories and shipyards to build and arm Venice's navy. The arsenal in Venice has the capacity to mass produce ships and weapons in the Middle Ages, centuries before the Industrial Revolution allowed for modern mass production in economic and military applications. Venice's military was designed towards protecting it possessions both in Italy and its overseas territories. The primary concern was to secure Venice's trade routes to the rest of Europe as well as Asia & Africa. It faced opponents' overtime ranging from the Franks, the Byzantine Empire, Bulgarians to other Italian city-states, France, Austria, the Ottoman Empire and Barbary Corsairs along with European pirates in the Adriatic and Mediterranean. It played key roles as a naval transport in other powers including throughout the Crusades. It also played a key role in the infamous Fourth Crusade which culminated in the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 AD, an event which fractured the Byzantine Empire into a half-century of civil war between successor states before a weakened revival in the mid 13th century. The Byzantine Empire would linger until the 15th century when the Ottoman Empire finally conquered its last remaining portions. Many attribute this loss to in part to its weakness still resulting from that 1204 sack lead by Venice. The Venetian military would exist until the republic's end when The French Republic's Army of Italy under Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the republic, a conquest in which the Venetians surrendered without a proper fight.

Economy: Venice's economy was based largely in trade. Namely control over the salt trade. Venice was to control salt (preservative of food) production and trade throughout the Mediterranean. It also traded in commodities associated with the salt trade routes to Eurasia and Africa. These commodities could include other foodstuffs (grains, meats & cheeses), textiles & glassware among other items.

Lifespan: 697AD-1797AD. Though the exact founding of Venice itself hasn't been determined. It is traditionally said to have taken place in the year 421 AD. At a time when Roman citizens in northeast Italy were escaping waves of Germanic & Hunnic barbarian invasions that contributed to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The going theory is that these Romans evaded barbarian attacks by building their homes in the Venetian Lagoon by hammering wood stakes to form a foundation which sunk into the muddy shallows and petrified. Upon which they built their homes and created a cityscape marked by streets and canals interlaced. Venice remained a community of fishermen and merchants and was nominally under the control of the surviving Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire). It avoided barbarians overrunning the land but also was removed enough from Constantinople that it was relatively autonomous and became strategically important as a port. Other islands in the lagoon also banded together with Venice in a loose confederation of sorts by the 6th and 7th centuries which increased economic productivity and security for the city. The first doge was said to have been elected in 697 AD under the name Paolo Lucio Anafesto, though there is dispute about his historicity. Anafesto supposedly ruled until 717 AD. This is traditionally regarded as the foundation of the Republic of Venice.

Venice's third doge was Orso Ipato who reigned from 726-737 and he is the first undisputed historically recorded doge whose existence was confirmed. Orso also known as Ursus was known to strengthen the city's navy and army to protect it from the Lombard Germanic invaders who had overrun and ruled Italy by that time. Though nominally part of the Byzantine Empire, by 803, the Byzantine Emperors are said to have recognized Venice's de-facto independence. Though this view is disputed somewhat, it nevertheless remained virtually independent until its collapse in 1797.

Venice also partook in the slave trade of non-Christian European populations from Eastern Europe and transferred them to North Africa, selling them to the Arab and Berber (Moors) of the Islamic world.

As the 9th century progressed, the Venetian navy secured the Adriatic and various trade routes by defeating Slavic and Muslim pirates in the region. The Venetians also went onto battle the Normans who settled in southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century.

Venice provided naval transports for Crusaders from Western Europe starting with the successful First Crusade.

The High Middle Ages (1000AD-1350AD) saw the wealth and expansion Venice increase dramatically. However, over this period Venice gradually came into mixed relations with its former ruler the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire endured corruption, civil war and foreign invasion which saw it alternate between periods of waning power and restored power. Venice provided the Byzantines with an increased naval force when needed and many trading commodities. In exchange for this, Venice was granted trading rights within Byzantine territory and a place within the "Latin Quarter" for Western Europeans in Constantinople. The Byzantine populace though calling themselves "Romans" having taken on the political & cultural institutions of the Roman Empire which lived on in the East long after the Western half's collapse, were in fact mostly Greek by ethnicity, language and culture. Their religion was the Eastern Orthodox or Greek Orthodox branch of Christianity which was often at odds with Roman Catholics of Western Europe. Resentment at the religious and cultural differences along with the economic displacement the Venetians and other Italian merchants from Genoa & Pisa had caused in Constantinople's maritime & financial sectors contributed to the 1182 "Massacre of the Latins" in which the Byzantine Greek majority of the city rioted and slaughtered much of the 60,000 mostly Italian Catholics living within the city. Thousands were also sold into slavery to the Anatolian Seljuk Turks.

This event lingered in Venice's memory as its trade in the city was reduced for awhile. Though trade resumed between the Byzantines and the West again shortly thereafter, the event soured the perception of the Greeks to Western Europeans. This along with a subsequent power struggle for the throne of the Eastern Roman Emperor fell into Venice & Western Crusader's hands in 1202. Looking to originally ferry Western Crusaders to the Levant against the Islamic Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt & Syria. Events transpired that devolved into Venice conspiring under its doge Enrico Dandalo along with other Western leaders and a Byzantine claimant to the throne that resulted in the first successful sacking of Constantinople in 1204. The city was ransacked, some Greek citizens murdered by the Crusaders & classical works of art destroyed or looted (most famously the four bronze horses of St. Marks in Venice) and politically, the Byzantine Empire would be temporarily fractured between competing Greek dynasties while the Crusaders along with Venice created the short-lived Latin Empire, which controlled Constantinople and its environs while Venice also acquired Greek territories which it was to hold for centuries. Venice also came into conflict with the Second Bulgarian Empire at this time as its support of the Latin Empire of Constantinople encroached on the Bulgarian's land. Eventually by the mid 13th century the Latin Empire (never fully stable) collapsed, and the Byzantine Empire was restored until the mid-15th century but forever weakened as a result of the 1204 sacking of its capital.

Venice reached trade deals with the Mongol Empire in 1221. As the century wore on, it also engaged its rival in Western Italy Genoa in some warfare.

The 14th century is generally regarded as Venice at its peak as it faced down Genoa in a number of battles and came to be the most dominant trading power in the Mediterranean, though it was impacted by the Black Death plague. Nevertheless, into the 15th and even 16th centuries, it partook in a number of wars which saw it gain territory on the Italian mainland, establishing its terraferma domain.

By the 16th late 15th and into the 16th century new threats had emerged such as the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 is seen as the end of the Middle Ages as the last political vestiges of the Roman Empire vanished from the world stage. However, a number of Byzantine Greeks escaped on Italian ships during the conquest of the city and others escaped Greece in subsequent years. These refugees brought with them artistic and cultural heritages that reemphasized the classical forms of Ancient Greece and Rome and lead to the Italian Rennaisance in art & other forms of culture. Ideas which emphasized humanism and spread to elsewhere in Europe overtime.

While there was a cultural flourishing in Venice and elsewhere due to the Rennaisance. There was also the first signs of economic and political decline as well from the 16th century onwards. The Ottoman dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean meant the traditional trade routes to the East were cut off by an often-hostile Muslim power. Additionally, other maritime powers in the West namely Spain & Portugal had recently begun exploring the continents of South & North America and in time France, England & the Netherlands would join in them. This decline in Eastern trade and the newfound trade routes dominated by other European states in the Americas and Asia (by way of rounding Africa) would render trade with Venice gradually obsolete. Venice would still maintain what trade it could in the Mediterranean, but it also focused on production and placed increasing importance on its Italian mainland possessions rather than just its declining position overseas in Greek territories, including the loss of Cyprus to the Ottomans in 1571. Though the Venetian navy with other Christian powers won the notable naval victory against the Ottomans in 1570 at Lepanto.

It was also involved in the Italian Wars between various rival city states and the power struggle between the Papacy, France and the Hapsburg realms of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain.

Other factors that impacted the declining trade in the 17th century included an inability to keep up in the textile trade elsewhere in Europe, closure of the spice trade to all but the Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French and English and the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) which impacted Venice's trade partners.

Ongoing wars including a 21-year siege of Crete by the Ottomans saw further losses. Although Venice partook in the Holy League headed by the Holy Roman Empire (under Hapsburg Austria) which saw some minor temporary gains from the Ottomans in southern Greece before losing them again in the early 18th century.

War and loss of overseas territories along with a stagnant economy was slightly offset by a somewhat strong position in northern Italy. Nevertheless, its maritime fleet was reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory and it found itself sandwiched still between Austria and France. Over the rest of the 18th century, economic stagnation and social stratification remained prevalent while Venice remained in a quiet peace. However, the French Revolution reignited war in Italy and while Venice remained neutral, it would soon get caught up in events.

The Austrians and the Piedmontese (Italian) allies were beaten by the French Republic's Army of Italy headed by an up-and-coming general named Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte and the French army crossed the borders of northern Italy into Venetian neutral territory to pursue the Austrians. Eventually half of Venice's territory was occupied by France and the remainder of the mainland was occupied by Austria. By secret treaty the French and Austrians were to divide the territory between themselves (Venice was consulted in the matter). Bonaparte gave orders to Venetian doge Ludovico Manin to surrender the city to French occupation to which he abdicated his power. The republic's Major Council met one last time to officially declare an end to republic on May 12th, 1797, after 1,100 years. Venice was placed under a provisional government and ironically the French looted Venice stripping it of artworks to grace the Louvre Museum in Paris along with the Arc d'Triomphe, taking the famed four bronze horses of St. Mark's to adorn the triumphal arch in Paris, the very same horses Venice had confiscated from Constantinople in 1204. It was a symbolic end to the republic, the irony of which did not escape commentators at the time. Following Napoleonic France's final defeat in 1815 the horses were returned to Venice and St. Mark's where they remain today. Venice itself was given over to the Austrian Empire.

The Republic of Venice has a historical legacy in terms of its economic accomplishments through control of trade and its innovative mass production of ships, armaments & trade commodities. It also holds a political legacy worthy of study given it was a unique and enduring polity for 1,100 years. One that maintained a complex and at times chaotic form of government that still managed to function and endure for centuries.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

hello! i hope you’re having a wonderful day 💕 i wanted to ask if you know of, or have any literature or book recommendations that surround Ottoman Era Greece, The Revolution or the 19th century? i’ve been trying to find stuff but all that comes up is greek myth retellings it’s rather annoying 😭. if they have an english translated version that would also be superb! fiction or nonfiction i don’t mind, i’m just super keen to read and learn more about that era of Greek history many seem to overlook. Thank you so much! btw i love your blog so much.

Hello! Very sorry for being late to answer this but I was gathering books. While I have read historical articles and texts on the Revolution and the Ottoman period, they were in Greek. I will list here books I found in English, mostly by foreign authors. I checked them and they seem mostly fine (I usually try to avoid those with specific western agendas in the descriptions, and generally I am trying to show the most objective works. Please make sure to read more than one, so you can see multiple perspectives. I'm sure there will be biases here and there xD

Historical Books

Stories Of The Greek Nation - In Today's Language: (14th and 15th Volumes) - Paparrigopoulos Konstantinos (Also published by National Geographic in 2004)

The Greek world under Ottoman and Western Domination: 15th-19th centuries - Kitromelides Paschalis

Greece, The Hidden Centuries. Turkish Rule From The Fall Of Constantinople To Greek Independence - Brewer David

The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1453 to 1768: The Ottoman Empire - Molly Greene

Viewing The Morea: Land And People In The Late Medieval Peloponnese

Ottoman Cyprus: A Collection of Studies on History and Culture (Near and Middle East Monographs) - Matthias Kappler, Eftihios Gavriel

Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine - Michelle U. Campos

Crypto Christianity And Crypto Christians In the Southern Balkans, Asia Minor and Cyprus - Athanasios Dimitrios (Protopresbyter)

Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700–1950 - Julia Phillips Cohen and Sarah Abrevaya Stein

A Jewish Voice From Ottoman Salonica: The Ladino Memoir Of Sa'adi Besalel A-Levi - Halevi Saadi Ben Betsanel

The History of Greece under Ottoman and Venetian Domination - George Finlay

Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece Devin E. Naar Stanford University Press

The Genocide Of The Ottoman Greeks - Studies On The State-Sponsored Campaign Of Extermination Of The Christians Of Asia Minor (1912-1922) And Its Aftermath: History, Law, Memory

The Greek Revolution

Ioannis Makrygiannis Memoirs (Makrygiannis is a Revolution Hero) Theodorou Kolokotroni Memoirs (Memoirs – Court Case) (Kolokotronis is a Revolution Hero)

Deligiannis: Memoirs - Deligiannis Kanellos (Deligiannis is a Revolution Hero)

The Greek Revolution - A Critical Dictionary - Kitromilides Paschalis, Tsoukalas Constantinos

Collective works: Stories Of The Greek Nation (Sixteenth Volume): Contemporary Hellenism From 1941 To The End Of The Century . (Publisher: Athens Publishing House)

Poems

The Cretan - Dionysios Solomos

The Free Besieged - Dionysios Solomos

Works by Rigas Feraios

Fiction

Imaret - In The Shadow Of The Clock - Yiannis Kalpouzos

Niove's Children - Tasos Athanasiades

Number 31328 - Elias Venezis (A true story in a literary style)

Bloodied Earth – Dido Sotiriou

Ottoman Odyssey: Travels Through A Lost Empire by Alev Scott

Please suggest more books if you have something in mind!

[archiveofcyp]

Ottoman-era oil portrait of a lady found at the Ethnological Museum’s House of Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios in Nicosia. This is an oil on wood portrait, found on a grandfather clock’s wooden case. The clock was made by British clockmaker Isaac Rogers, and was previously owned by Michael de Vezin, the English Consul to Aleppo and Cyprus. 

The lady’s dress resembles a caftan dress worn during Ottoman rule called ‘anteri/entari’ which is characterized by the long, oval neckline and a light chemise underneath. The style of this outfit is similar to the ‘sayia/üç etek’, a staple of Cypriot traditional dress. She also wears a long robe lined with fur called a tzouppe/cübbe. The style of the headdress and jewellery indicate her higher social status. 

Image source: Department of Antiquities in Cyprus.

Source information provided by Euphrosyne Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou’s research on 18th and 19th century Cypriot dress and the House of the Dragoman of Cyprus Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios. 

https://books.openedition.org/pur/99860?lang=en

https://www.boccf.org/publications-holder/Guides-to-Archaeological-Sites-and-Monuments/The-House-of-the-Dragoman-of-Cyprus-Hadjigeorgakis-Kornessios/

[usafphantom2]

The flight deck of HMS Eagle photographed in the Gulf of Aden during the British withdrawal from the Aden colony, November 1967.

Image: IWM (HU 106844) <1/2>

@IWM via X

A Short History Of The Aden Emergency

In 1839 Britain captured the town of Aden (now part of Yemen) in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.

Like the later seizure of Cyprus (1878) and of Egypt (1882), the occupation of Aden was a strategic rather than commercial undertaking, guarding the lines of communication with India. With British Somaliland on the ‘horn of Africa’, Aden provided control of the entrance to the Red Sea.

Following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Britain established protectorates in the hinterland of South Arabia to act as a buffer against the Ottomans who occupied Yemen. In 1937 Aden became a Crown Colony.

Following her humiliation in the Suez Crisis of 1956, Britain granted independence in February 1959 to the Federation of South Arabia, which was formed from the Aden colony and the surrounding protectorates, in order to stabilise the region, which had been dogged by years of unrest fuelled by Arab nationalism and anti-colonialism.

Having replaced Cyprus as the base of Middle East Land Forces, Aden was of even greater strategic importance to Britain, maintaining with Far East Land Forces in Singapore its global presence. In 1962 the British government announced that a permanent British garrison would be maintained in Aden. Yet in 1967, the British were forced to withdraw from the colony.

Aircraft include De Haviland Sea Vixen FAW.2s of 899 Naval Air Squadron and Blackburn Bucaneer S.1 and S.2s of 800 Naval Air Squadron. HMS Albion, HMS Fearless and HMS Auriga are visible behind.

[itstokkii]

Me again, hi! Once again your Turkey headcanons are SPECTACULAR. As the resident Italian I just want to throw my 2 cents in since there was talk of Turkey’s relationships with other countries. Turkey and Veneziano go way back, since The Venetian republic and the Ottoman Empire flip flopped between being excellent trade partners and having brutal wars over territory for like 300 years, and the ratio of battles won and lost by the both of them is pretty even honestly! (Poor Cyprus in particular got real sick of their shit real fast. Cyprus was a Venetian territory for a very long time and it was a territory commonly fought over.)

I like to think that they get along really well these days, but sometimes still have their little competitive spats. Not quite on the France and England level, but sometimes they do argue just for fun and bring up battles each of them lost lol. Also I read that the Ottomans were so obsessed with Venetian silk that the republic had to actually put a limit on how much they could buy. And Coffee came to Venice via trade with the Ottomans! So I like to think that coffee dates are a common occurrence between the two of them.

hi again!! yeah I actually was going to mention turkey and italy and the both of them scrapping over cyprus lol since i recently read about it! im glad you mentioned it in detail though especially since im not italian! since i do remember reading about a specific territory in cyprus that held out as venetian until the 1700s but i can't quite remember...

cyprus: can yall stop arguing over who gets custody of me

and then eventually trnc happens lol, poor cyprus can't take a break 😔

i relished the 2 secs of interaction turkey had with italy because i really do want to see turkey interact with all the countries around the Mediterranean!

im still on the fence on whether turkey can take coffee without sugar or not, but coffee dates between italy and turkey would happen! If they're in turkey they'd order baklava, and if they're in italy they'd order tiramisu or panna cotta! they'd talk about all sorts of things(like how the economy and climate is doing 😔)

they're like the perfect coffee and dessert duo now that I think about it,

I'm really glad you talked abt turkey and vene because it's so interesting to hear about other countries and their relationships!

[thinkingimages]

Συμμετοχή του ΛτΕ στον εορτασμό στο Παναθηναϊκό Στάδιο, στις 7 Ιουλίου 1946, για την απόδοση των Δωδεκανήσων στην Ελλάδα. ΦΑΛΕ 12105

(Under the Article 14 of the Italian peace treaty negotiated in Paris between July 29-October 5, 1946, Italy officially transferred ownership of the Dodecanese to Greece. Great Britain annexed Cyprus in November 1914, after the Ottoman Empire had cast its lot with the Central Powers in the 1914-18 war.)

[whencyclopedia]

War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia

This comprehensive encyclopedia is edited by the acclaimed historian Richard Hall and covers the general topic of war in the Balkans during the past two centuries. Some 60 leading scholars contributed well-examined snippets on the war in the Balkans culminating in a volume that is an excellent reference for a wide range of curious researchers.

Richard C. Hall's timely encyclopedia can help reporters and scholars investigate beyond a headline. The book features informative and expertly written essays with suggestions for further reading. As a leading scholar of Balkan history, Hall, Professor of History at Georgia Southwestern State University who has written multiple books on this topic, is an ideal editor for a work of such monumental scope ranging from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and beyond.

To produce nearly 240 entries covering 200 years requires assembling a team of researchers, which is precisely what this work achieved. Altogether, 62 expert contributors wrote entries spanning five categories: Events, Individuals, Organizations, Places, and Treaties.

The most impressive category of contributions is “Events," with 132 topics compromising 56% of all entries. Each war in the Balkans has many entries, and the encyclopedia dedicates five entries to the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 alone. For these wars, there are separate “Causes” and “Consequences” essays that carefully consider the complex, intertwined factors leading to and resulting from the various Balkan conflicts. The "Events" category contains interesting and rather specific topics not commonly found elsewhere, such as a focus on the “Cold War in the Balkans” and “Ottoman Counterinsurgency Operations in the Balkans and Crete.” The scope of this category is so wide-ranging that it even includes entries covering the roles of Italy and Germany in the Balkans during the two World Wars.

The second category, “Individuals," is smaller, compromising only 24% of the total entries. This section includes an impressive array of people ranging from Ottoman Sultans to modern military leaders and politicians. Nonetheless, with only 56 entries on protagonists of Balkan conflicts, there is a little room for expansion and more coverage, especially with Greek leaders. For instance, figures such as Theodoros Kolokotronis and George Papadopoulos could have been fitting additions to the book's theme. Regardless, most major Balkan individuals are present with each entry on them following the customary high quality.

The remaining three categories — "Organizations," "Places," and "Treaties" — are understandably shorter in length. The category “Organizations” has 32 entries covering 14% of the total contributions. Topics such as the Balkan League, Black Hand, Kosovo Liberation Army, and UNPROFOR were not surprising inclusions. Yet, more concise topics like “Partisans in Albania” or “NATO in the Balkans” were surprising inclusions in a work of this kind. Once more, Greek topics could have been expanded to include groups such as the Philiki Eteria (Society of Friends) or IDEA (Ieros Desmos Ellinon Axiomatikon, or Holy Alliance of Greek Military Officers). The "Places" category could be expanded beyond its current 12 entries by including Cyprus. “Treaties," compromising only 1% of the entries with only 4 topics, could have been a more expansive, general category that included topics like Greater Serbia, Megali Idea, religion, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and drug trafficking among other issues so intertwined with the war in the Balkans.

Richard Hall’s War in the Balkans is a wonderful addition to the ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Reference collection as its high-quality, accessible, and fascinating articles along with numerous illustrations and maps make the book a must-have for scholars and history enthusiasts alike. In today's digital era, this volume might be dismissed in favor of Wikipedia or other online sources. However, the depth of analysis achieved, along with the detailed and concise topics, is not easily found in traditional encyclopedias. This encyclopedia also offers much more than what students have grown accustomed to in the age before the internet. War in the Balkans is one of those books that hardly sits on a shelf for long.

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