This is the follow-up volume of the Catalogue du fonds ottoman des
archives du monastère de Saint-Jean à Patmos. Les vingt-deux premiers
dossiers published in 2011 by Nicolas Vatin, Gilles Veinstein and
Elizabeth Zachariadou. Presented here are the dossiers 21-38 which
include documents from as early as 1531 and as late as March 1911
(towards the very end of Ottoman rule in the Archipelago). This wide
chronological span is coupled by an extensive geographical range: The
Ottoman documentation kept in the archives of the monastery of St John
the Theologian on Patmos reaches from the coasts of Algiers and Tunisia
to the Crimea and the Sea of Asov. It also covers a wide range of
subjects (from ‘apostasy’ to ‘violence’), among them maritime trade,
seafaring, piracy and shipwreck; fields and field produce; churches and
church repair; inheritance issues and the establishment of Christian
pious foundations; various forms of tax collecting across the
Archipelago; but also evidence of oppression and injustice. Not all the
hardship and injustice resulted from Ottoman rule; on the contrary,
tensions and rivalries between monastic and lay bodies constituted an
important factor throughout, as did disputes between and within local
Greek families. The need to look for Ottoman justice and officialdom in
far-away Kos (there never was a Muslim judge installed permanently on
Patmos) constitutes an administrative ‘abnormality’ which has
undoubtedly contributed significantly to the uniqueness of the Patmian
experience throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule.
Ursinus
Catalogue of the Ottoman Holdings of St John's Monastery in Patmos, Part Two: Dossiers 21-38 jetzt bestellen!