Festivities of Curfew

The Ottoman Empire was a dynastic state, as were its counterparts in Europe and Asia in the early modern period. In order to explain the characteristics of this dynastic governance model, it is essential to focus on how the Ottoman ‘state’ mechanism functioned. One of the prominent aspects of the dynastic state was the integration of politics in household units (For the Ottoman household system Cf.: Gürkan 2015; Kunt 1974; 1975; 1978; 1983; 1995; 2007; 2011; 2012). Direct or indirect connection of people to these households was the main condition of legitimacy. Thus, the redistribution and succession strategies had a centralized importance in dynastic states. Since being a member of the dynasty was a given category, the state could be reduced to the house of the dynasty at the micro levels. This house transcended those living in it, and in order to sustain the continuity of the house, there was a need to create a ritual showing ‘the loyalty to the dynastic household’. This loyalty was the dominant factor in ensuring the continuity of the house, in other words, the ‘state’, and therefore, the succession strategies in dynastic states had a key importance.

The Conquering Pashas Reward Themselves

Since the beginning of the Ottoman state, Ottoman sultans used to award state (miri) lands to certain individuals in full property (mülk). Full property landowners had the right to exploit their lands as they liked. Immediately after the conquest of Crete, in 1645, some of the villages on the island were awarded as full properties to the Ottoman generals leading the expedition on the island. The Ottoman surveys register a total of 19 villages held in full property across Ottoman Crete: Two villages in the district of Chania were granted in full property to Murad Paşa and one in the district of Rethymno to the Grand Vizier Fazıl Ahmed Paşa. The latter had also secured for himself a total of 16 villages held in full property in the district of Candia. This article has followed in detail the registration of these villages in the Ottoman surveys of 1650, 1670 and 1704, comparing their demographic and economic structures to the data concerning other villages in the same sources, belonging to the state or to pious foundations.

The last Venetian-Byzantine Trade Agreement and Mehmed II’s First Peace Agreement with Venice

The goal of this article is to compare two inter-state commercial charters as the title suggests, a chrysobull by the Byzantine emperor John VIII and a document signed by Mehmed the Conqueror. The Ottoman Empire at that time was expanding at the expense of the Venetian thalassocracy, and particularly Byzantium. Venice, in its turn, was deriving more trade privileges from the dying Byzantine Empire. The emphasis in the article will be put on the similarities between the documents proving the continuity in the various spheres of international politics in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.

An Ottoman Register of Venetian Candia

The paper is a preliminary study of the register Tapu Tahrir 798 located in the Ottoman Archives (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi) in Istanbul. In 1669 it surveys the newly conquered town of Candia (Crete) in great detail, from quarter to quarter and from building to building. The register provides rich information for the Venetian Candia, since it includes the public buildings of the town that passed to the Ottomans, as well as the names of the previous owners of the town dwellings, who had evacuated the town after its surrender, and the names of the current owners. Thus, this source provides us with the tools to study the spatial transformation of the town during the transition from the Venetian to the Ottoman rule, the settlement patterns of the religious and social groups, and the social use of space. A full study of the register is under way by the author and a team of experts, within a research program of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, FO.R.T.H. (Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes).

Osmanlı Egemenliği’nin İlk Yıllarında Resmo Bağları

Being an important stop of the Levant trade of the Serenissima, Crete was a strategic place for the trade of wine across the Mediterranean. While the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries were the golden age of Cretan viniculture, when Crete passed from the Venetian to the Ottoman rule, the agricultural economy and the export potential of the island witnessed a significant transformation and the production of wine began to decline. According to previous studies wine was replaced by olive oil and soap. However, recent research has shown that this was a change which had begun already under the Venetian rule. During the Ottoman rule, the vineyards of Crete and wine production continued, although somehow limited. In this article the Ottoman legislation concerning viniculture in Crete after the Ottoman conquest will be presented.

The Earliest Records of Income and Expenses of the Sultan

This paper presents in a chronological order some Venetian sources (primarily, but not only) containing data about the Ottoman state, governance, income and army. This information is analyzed and presented in the form of tables, which give us different types of revenues and expenses. It is unique for the 15th century and can be compared partially only with the contemporary ottoman written documentation. Presented here is the data from the works of Laonicos Chalkokondyles, and manuscripts of Iacopo Promontorio de Campis, a Venetian anonymous author from 1490, the Venetian Relazione by Alvise Sagondino from 1496 and other diplomatic reports from the first decades of the 16th century. The report of Felix Petantius from 1502 to the Hungarian king has been added to other Venetian texts, because it was edited in a different manuscript version and presented to Venice.

Venedik Konsolosu Bernardo Caprara'nın Larnaka'da Deniz Ticari Taşımacılığına Dair Bazı Gözlemleri (1774-1775)

In the 18th century, Larnaca, the main international port of Cyprus, enjoyed a very vivid commercial life. The island’s rich sources and its geographical position made Cyprus a center of attraction in the Levant and during this period, an important number of ships visited the island. This article offers a portrait of the commercial and transportational activities in Larnaca based on the Venetian registers of 1774/75 located in the ASV, prepared by Bernardo Caprara, the island’s Venetian Consul. The analysis of the registers will bring to light the Western participation in the commercial life of the Levant; the port’s potential; the distribution of the flags of the ships that docked in the port; and the types of ships that were used by foreign states. Special interest will be given to the products which were imported and exported from the port of Larnaca.

A Culture of Trust

The aim of this paper is to study the presence of Ottoman merchants in Venice in the Modern Age. The Ottoman shipping partnership as well as the Venetiancommendawere based on themudarebe(classical Islamic shipping partnership) and several examples of this kind of partnerships may be found even between Christians and Muslims. Notarial deeds were above all proxies and often give information on merchants, their number and even their private life. Some of them were agents but there were also family companies and Ottoman grandees who were involved in international trade. Communities of merchants both in Istanbul and in Venice were also sometimes created. Last but not least, these sources contain also some examples of insurance made by Muslims to protect their goods. In general in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman merchants who traded in Venice were not alone, but they could refer to a real commercial network. Ancient historiographical theories say that in the Modern Age Ottoman Muslims were not interested in international trade and that they left it completely in Christian and Jewish hands, however documents tell us a completely different story, a story of contacts, exchanges, and even confidence and friendship.