1. Introduction

The Aegean is a geographical unity, and the sea, which both unites and separates people or lands, is its main feature. The different scenery, the communication difficulties and the separate at times historical course of the islands are responsible for the creation of different cultural unities. This diversity can be seen in the way the Ottomans ruled, but also in the historical routes of the islands during the Ottoman Period.

2. Historical overview

2. 1. Eastern Aegean

The Ottomans have been present in the Aegean since the 14^th century. In 1354, they conquered Gallipolis, turning it into the headquarters of the Ottoman Navy, and from there they used to sail to make incursions in the islands. Nevertheless, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, they began to establish their domination in the Aegean following mostly two stages: initially, by forcing Latin dynasties that controlled the islands since the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders (1204) to pay tribute to the Sublime Porte, and later on by integrating the islands completely into the Ottoman control mechanism either conquering them or having them surrendered to them. In the meantime, the islands were faced with frequent incursions aiming at the increase of the tribute. The Gateluzzi had Lesvos under their control, paying a 3000-ducat tribute to Mehmed II (1451-1481), until the Ottoman army finally took over the island in 1462, after besieging its capital for a while. Likewise, Limnos was granted to a member of the same dynasty against tribute up to 1456, when Ottoman control was instantly established after its residents themselves demanded it. For a short while, Limnos was under Venetian control (1464-1479), but then became a part of the Ottoman dominion once again. In 1479, the island of Thasos, also controlled by the Gateluzzi, was integrated into the Ottoman Empire too, while the deserted island of Tenedos was fortified with a castle. Few years earlier, in 1470, during the Ottoman-Venetian war, the Ottomans took over Euboea, formerly under Venetian control.

Since 1346, Chios was controlled by the Genovese Mahona guild, which managed to keep it under its control paying a constantly increasing tribute up to 1566. That year, the Ottomans decided to take over the island in order to minimize the effect of the unsuccessful campaign of the previous year against Malta.

2. 2. Cyclades

Before Chios was taken over, Ottoman dominion had been officially established in the duchy of Naxos in 1540, which also interested the Venetians and included the Cyclades islands Ottomans and Venetians finally signed a treaty after decades of incursions. The climax of the Ottoman pressure came with Admiral of the Ottoman Empire Hayreddin Barbarossa’s incursions in 1537-1538, aiming at the total elimination of all western army traces in the Cyclades. The Crispo dynasty controlled the Cyclades for the Ottomans until 1566, when the islands were finally integrated into the empire and despite the privilege grant of the previous year. Until 1579, the duchy of Naxos had been granted to Jewish businessman Joseph Nazi, who commanded it by appointing a representative.

Since 1580, there was no longer a duchy and the Cyclades were fully integrated into the Ottoman administration. In 1538, Barbarossa also took over the Sporades, still under Venetian administration since 1453.

2. 3. Dodecanese, Samos, Crete

The Knights Hospitaller controlled the Dodecanese since 1309. From that year on and until 1522 when they were taken over by the Ottomans, the southeastern Aegean became a field of great battles, since the Knights’ stand on the tribute payment was uncompromising. During 1482-1495, no battle took place, since the Hospitallers had been involved in the captivity of Jem, brother of the sultan and rival for the throne. Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) finally took over Rhodes in 1522 and expanded Ottoman dominion to the rest of the Dodecanese islands, including Ikaria. Patmos seems to have had already accepted Ottoman control since 1453 (maybe earlier), paying tribute after a decision of the actual rulers of the island, namely the monks of the monastery of St. John the Theologian.

Finally, the Genovese of Chios took over Samos in 1346, while in 1475 the majority of its population moved to Chios since the Genovese were unable to protect residents from the constant incursions. After an unsuccessful attempt of the Ottomans to establish their dominion in 1479, the few residents of the island seem to have been paying an annual tribute to the Ottoman administration, until the Admiral of the Ottoman Empire was assigned with the colonization of the island and fully established Ottoman dominion in the 1570s.

The Ottomans completed their conquests in the Aegean by taking over the last Venetian dominions, namely Crete in 1669, after 24 years of battle, and Tinos in 1715.

3. 18th-20th century

The Ottomans continued ruling the Aegean with only a short break when during the Orloff Revolution (1770-1774) most of the islands were under Russian control. When the Greek Revolution of 1821 began, many islanders took participated, but not all of them with the same ardor. Tragic episodes, like the massacre of Chios in 1822 and of Kasos and Psara in 1824, marked the revolution on the islands, but did not have much of an effect. In 1832, only the Cyclades and Euboea were integrated into the Greek State, while the Dodecanese and the southern Aegean islands (Southern Sporades) were still a part of the Ottoman Empire. Samos was declared an independent hegemony and the rest of the islands were fully administered by the Ottomans. In 1913, the northern and eastern Aegean islands became a part of the Greek State, while the Dodecanese came under Italian dominion soon after 1911-1912. They were finally integrated into Greece in 1948.

4. Ottoman administration

The Aegean Sea came within the competence of the Admiral (kapoudan pasha), whose headquarters were in Gallipolis. When Hayreddin Barbarossa, commander of independent Algeria, came under the commands of the Porte, the eyalet of the White Sea Islands was formed and it included the sanjaks of Gallipolis, Rhodes, Euboea and Lesvos. To the eyalet were added later the sanjaks of Kocaeli, Biga, and Sugla of Asia Minor, Nafpaktos, Karli-ili (Akarnania and a part of Aetolia) and Mystras, while in the 17^th century also Chios, Naxos and Andros were added. The eyalet’s administrative boarders changed several times until the 19^th century, including at times Cyprus as well, but never Crete. When the vilayet became the largest administrative unit in 1864, with the parallel abolition of the kapoudan pasha captaincy, the vilayet of the islands included only the sanjaks of Chios, Lesvos, Rhodes and Limnos, with Chios being its first capital and Rhodes being the next one.

Admiral of the Ottoman Empire was the eyalet beylerbeyi and his income came from the taxes of the region subject to his jurisdiction. Fromthe late 16^th century onwards, fiscal interests and administrative jurisdiction converged, and that was one of the main features of the Ottoman administration. The reason was that whoever was entitled to collecting taxes from the islands, e.g. the admiral, the public purse (miri), the sultan himself, his family members or officials and charity foundations, could rent their collection to a third person after a bidding. Thus, the main role several officers, beys, voyvodas, agas, mutessarifs or mutesellims had, was farming taxes and being subgovernors, but also having administrative jurisdiction, such as order keeping and mostly tax collection. Their service was also very short. Regarding islands subject straight to the kapoudan pasha, the dragoman of the Admiral, some Greek from the region of Phanari in Constantinople, played a great part from the early 18^th century on; he played an intermediary role between the people and the kapoudan pasha, for whom he also collected taxes.

The Ottoman administration was completed with the kadi, the Ottoman judge of the Islamic court, or the naip, the substitute kadi. The kadi was responsible for conformity to the laws and was the par excellence competent person for trying penal cases. At the same time, civil cases could also come under his jurisdiction as long as islanders would bring them to the Islamic court. Every case was tried according to the Islamic law and the secular Ottoman law (kanun). A significant parameter regarding the kadi’s presence was his being the intermediary between the islanders and the Porte, either by acquainting people with decrees of the sultan, or by acquainting central power with the people’s demands concerning tax burden or arbitrariness of local Ottoman officers. His presence on the islands though was not constant.

5. Privileges

Having already described the Ottoman administration system vaguely, studying different cases can bring out peculiarities but also common features. In 1567, one year after taking over Chios, Selim II (1566-1574) granted several privileges to the people of the island, consisting of moderate taxation by the payment of the poll tax and the land tax, exemption from children’s levy (child-recruitment), emergency taxes and custom duties on products coming from the Black Sea or headed towards it, unconfined transactions between merchants of Chios and those even of enemy states, freedom of worship and the renovation of the already existing temples, as well as prohibition of forced conversions to Islam and of mixed marriages unless the bride had converted voluntarily to Islam.

In 1580, sultan Mourad III (1574-1595), actually following the example of Chios, granted privileges to the Cycladic islands. After determining that the islands will be administered by the sanjak-bey and that there will also be a kadi present, the islanders ensured freedom of worship and church repairs, relief from emergency taxes and duty taxes on products used by the natives (silk and wine), while the payment of only the tithe and the poll tax was also determined. Jurisdiction of Christian-civic law-courts was also acknowledged (anyone who still wanted to turn to the Islamic court could not be hindered), while compulsory islamization, establishment of the janissary corps and the children’s levy were prohibited, as well as mixed marriages unless the bride had voluntarily went over to Islam. The right of the islanders to bequeath their property at will was established, while it was determined that creditors were not allowed to ask from the debtor for a raise of the rent on the mortgaged property. The privilege grants on the Cycladic islands were renewed twice in the 17^th century with the issue of a special sultan decree.

Although Chios and the Cyclades fall into the island group that the central authority itself granted privileges for, one could say that the privilege status quo on Samos and the Dodecanese derived from their vakif status quo. Particularly, after taking over Rhodes and annexing the Dodecanese, Suleyman the Magnificent founded Muslim charity foundations (vakif) in the city of Rhodes and its neighboring area. They were financed by the income deriving from the city of Rhodes as well as from neighboring islands Kalymnos, Leros, Chalki, Symi, Nisyros, Tilos, Archanghelos and Pserimos. Due to their vakif status quo, these islands were deemed free from all intervention and demands of other Ottoman officials, even that of the Admiral, and paid a lump sum to the vakif. It must also be noted that Patmos enjoyed privileges, deriving from its early acceptance of the Ottoman domination.

Likewise, Samos enjoyed a “free” vakif status quo, since it had been turned into a vakif by the Admiral of the Ottoman Empire, who was assigned to colonize it in the late 16^th century and acquired the ownership of the island. Especially in Samos the settlement for the Moslems was forbidden.

The aforementioned examples are evident of the Ottoman policy in the Aegean that aimed at quick restoration of economical activities and, when needed, at the increase of the population. Especially during the first period of the Ottoman domination (15^th-16^th century), grant of privileges or occasional adoption of a lenient policy on the part of the Porte was a part of the assimilative Ottoman policy towards subjugated populations. The example of Thasos is a representative one: a law collection of 1521 concerning the island reports that the people wouldn’t have to pay irregular taxes because they lived on an island.

6. Communal institutions and commercial activities

The aforementioned Ottoman policy contributed to the development of the communal system on the islands and the relatively independent administration of internal affairs by the islanders. Nevertheless, we have to underline two parameters: a) the extent of independence was proportional to the Ottoman presence on the island and b) communal institutions were developed according to local customs and there were thus significant differentiations. Most Cycladic islands, as well as smaller islands of the Dodecanese (e.g. Symi), are typical examples of island societies, in which self-government regarding internal affairs was constant during the Ottoman Period; contributory to that was the meager Ottoman presence and the privilege grants. Therefore, the representatives or notables, whose number varied usually from one to three, elected by local and tax-paying residents of the islands, were their communal rulers. They played an intermediary role between the people and the kapoudan pasha or the Porte, levying taxes per village and per household according to the taxable capacity of the people, and also collecting and handing the sums to their beneficiaries or their representatives. At the same time, they were the ones negotiating with the Porte the tax share for every island, which most times was a lump sum. Besides, the representatives or notable often assumed collecting the tax as tax-renters, acting as private or deputy of the community. Within these terms, the voyvodas-subgovernors were often Greek residents of the island, who assumed tax farming or acted as representatives (vekil) of the tax-renters.

Otherwise, communal rulers played the part of an arbiter settling differences amongst islanders not relevant with criminal law, as well as that of the keeper of moral values. Since the Ottoman army was absent from smaller islands, performance of police duties by Greeks, called zabits. Generally, communal rulers owed to allow all questioning movements against Ottoman authority.

On islands dominated by Ottoman presence, as indicated by the constant presence of a kadi, an administrator and a garrison, as well as by Muslim residents, communal rulers also played an intermediary role. Full self-government was not possible though. Such were the cases of the northeastern Aegean islands, Rhodes, Kos, Andros and Naxos.

Apart from communal rulers, religious officials were also at the top of the social ladder and, in many cases (e.g. Patmos, Serifos, Samos, Rhodes and Kos), they had the biggest share in managing internal affairs, at least up until the mid-18^th century, when economic growth and the formation of a proto-bourgeoisie minimized their significance. Besides, the church was the most important –or at least one of the most important– landholders on these islands, and thus controlled a significant part of commercial activities. Matters connected to the church (e.g. marriages, divorces, dowries) were actually arranged by the “Bishop’s Court”, which communal rulers and the island bishop took part in, while the frequent dispute amongst communal, church and Islamic courts over the expansion of their jurisdiction has also been noticed.

These islands’ economy was rural, assisted by stock farming, fishing and sponge-fishing. Cereal production was a constant for commercial activities. The volume of production varied though, and thus, also the extent to which local needs were satisfied. Products were imported from other islands or Asia Minor in case of insufficient production. In many cases though, the insufficient of the production was fabricated, since they often exported cereal illegally to Western countries and made up for the deficit by importing from the opposite coast, making a profit thus from the price imbalance.

Otherwise, local economies soon displayed a more outgoing behavior and every island exported –legally now– certain agricultural products: e.g. oil from Lesvos, wine from Samos, fruit and raisin from Rhodes and Kos, and silk from Chios. Smaller or less fertile islands, like the Cyclades or the Dodecanese, turned to trade and seafaring since early times, while they also undertook handicraft activities that marked their local economies (e.g. pottery). In the 19^th century, islands that were still under Ottoman rule engaged in industrial activities, such as oil-industry and soap-trade on Lesvos or tanning and winemaking on Samos.

Trade relations with Asia Minor characterized the eastern Aegean islands economy. Apart from importing cereal and thus covering actual or virtual needs of the islanders, Asia Minor also received inhabitants from neighboring islands taking to the opposite coast to work as seasonal workers in the field (usually as harvesters) or in their craft (e.g. construction workers). During the 18^th and mostly the 19^th century, there was a permanent wave of migration to Asia Minor, and in particular Smyrna, caused by people’s need to find a way out because of the population surplus of that time and because of epidemics striking the islands such as that of Lesvos back then, in 1832.