vi. ottoman macedonia (late 14th – late 17th century)€¦ ·  · 2010-03-22vi. ottoman...

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VI. Ottoman Macedonia (late 14th – late 17th century) by Phokion Kotzageorgis 1. The Ottoman conquest The Ottoman period in Macedonia begins with the region’s conquest in the late 14th cen- tury. 1 The Ottoman victory against the combined Serb forces at Çirmen in Evros in 1371 was the turning point that permitted the victors to proceed with ease towards the west and, around a decade later, to cross the river Nestos and enter the geographic region of Mace- donia. 1383 marked their first great victory in Macedonia, the fall of the important administrative centre of Serres. 2 By the end of the century all the strategically important Macedonian cities had been occupied (Veroia, Monastir, Vodena, Thessaloniki). 3 The process by which the city of Thessaloniki was captured was somewhat different than for the others: it was initially given to the Ottomans in 1387 – after a siege of four years – and re- mained autonomous for a period. In 1394 it was fully incorporated into the Ottoman state, only to return to Byzantine hands in 1403 with the agreement they made with the Otto- mans, drawn up after the (temporary) collapse of the Ottoman state. 4 In 1423 the Byzantine governor of the city, Andronikos Palaiologos, handed it over to the Venetians, and the en- suing Venetian period in Thessaloniki lasted for seven years. On 29 March 1430, the Ottoman regiments under Murad II raided and occupied the city, incorporating it fully into their state. 5 Ioannis Anagnostis, eyewitness to Thessaloniki’s fall, described the moment at which the Ottomans entered the city: 6 Because in those parts they found a number of our people, pluckier than the others and with large stones, they threw them down, along with the stairways, and killed many of them. Since it happened that way and they were all angry (because they believed that the shame would not be little if we defeated them), they thought upon it more carefully and so leaned a stairway up against Trigo- nio, where there was the corner of a tower and no one could prevent he who tried to climb up, and it happened that there was not a soul. One of the other in- fantrymen showed courage, grabbed his sword with his teeth and, preferring death to life as long as he could gain glory for his manliness, climbed up to the castle with as much bravery as one could say, without any of those who were inside yet guarding another place, so the enemy would not climb up, getting a whiff of him. Because, then, he found a Venetian who had just been wounded and was dying right on the ramparts, he cut off his head and threw it in among the Turks, and made it seem that he had just taken that place and that they had all abandoned the castles without turning back. It was then the 29th of March, and 6938 (1430) was beginning. Encouraging, then, every infantryman, he called out for them to come up quickly and check that no one was inside. They again immediately put up all the stairways that they could and all ran with shouts and banging of tabors to climb up them, because this creates a great fear in wars. The fall was followed by the fleeing or slaughter of the city’s few residents, and it was thus almost desolated after the fall. Settling it with a population was one of the main concerns of the new master. The forced migration of a thousand Yürük families (Asia Minor nomads of

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Page 1: VI. Ottoman Macedonia (late 14th – late 17th century)€¦ ·  · 2010-03-22VI. Ottoman Macedonia (late 14th – late 17th century) ... After the consolidation of Ottoman power

VI. Ottoman Macedonia (late 14th – late 17th century)

by Phokion Kotzageorgis

1. The Ottoman conquest The Ottoman period in Macedonia begins with the region’s conquest in the late 14th cen-tury.1 The Ottoman victory against the combined Serb forces at Çirmen in Evros in 1371 was the turning point that permitted the victors to proceed with ease towards the west and, around a decade later, to cross the river Nestos and enter the geographic region of Mace-donia. 1383 marked their first great victory in Macedonia, the fall of the important administrative centre of Serres.2 By the end of the century all the strategically important Macedonian cities had been occupied (Veroia, Monastir, Vodena, Thessaloniki).3 The process by which the city of Thessaloniki was captured was somewhat different than for the others: it was initially given to the Ottomans in 1387 – after a siege of four years – and re-mained autonomous for a period. In 1394 it was fully incorporated into the Ottoman state, only to return to Byzantine hands in 1403 with the agreement they made with the Otto-mans, drawn up after the (temporary) collapse of the Ottoman state.4 In 1423 the Byzantine governor of the city, Andronikos Palaiologos, handed it over to the Venetians, and the en-suing Venetian period in Thessaloniki lasted for seven years. On 29 March 1430, the Ottoman regiments under Murad II raided and occupied the city, incorporating it fully into their state.5 Ioannis Anagnostis, eyewitness to Thessaloniki’s fall, described the moment at which the Ottomans entered the city:6

Because in those parts they found a number of our people, pluckier than the others and with large stones, they threw them down, along with the stairways, and killed many of them. Since it happened that way and they were all angry (because they believed that the shame would not be little if we defeated them), they thought upon it more carefully and so leaned a stairway up against Trigo-nio, where there was the corner of a tower and no one could prevent he who tried to climb up, and it happened that there was not a soul. One of the other in-fantrymen showed courage, grabbed his sword with his teeth and, preferring death to life as long as he could gain glory for his manliness, climbed up to the castle with as much bravery as one could say, without any of those who were inside yet guarding another place, so the enemy would not climb up, getting a whiff of him. Because, then, he found a Venetian who had just been wounded and was dying right on the ramparts, he cut off his head and threw it in among the Turks, and made it seem that he had just taken that place and that they had all abandoned the castles without turning back. It was then the 29th of March, and 6938 (1430) was beginning. Encouraging, then, every infantryman, he called out for them to come up quickly and check that no one was inside. They again immediately put up all the stairways that they could and all ran with shouts and banging of tabors to climb up them, because this creates a great fear in wars.

The fall was followed by the fleeing or slaughter of the city’s few residents, and it was thus almost desolated after the fall. Settling it with a population was one of the main concerns of the new master. The forced migration of a thousand Yürük families (Asia Minor nomads of

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130 OTTOMAN MACEDONIA (LATE 14TH – LATE 17TH CENTURY)

Turkic origin) from nearby Yiannitsa (Yenice-i Vardar) as well as a thousand Salonican families, which had scattered around the surrounding area or had been caught prisoner, constituted the city’s population base during the Ottoman period.7

2. Administrative organisation Ottoman Macedonia was one of the so-called central provinces of the Ottoman state. It should be noted, however, that prior to the 19th century, ‘Macedonia’ did not exist as an autonomous and unified Ottoman province during any earlier period of the ‘Tourkokratia’. We should have this constantly in mind when studying this earlier period. In other words, until the 19th century, we cannot delineate either precise or relative geographic boundaries for the region of Macedonia. The Ottoman state’s approach to it was quite different.

As with the other Balkan regions of the Empire, the classic model of administrative organisation, founded on the timar system, was applied in the wider Macedonian geo-graphical area. In the 15th century, then, the region was divided into the following military-administrative areas, known as sancaks: a) Pasha (with its capital initially at Adrianople (Edirne) and, from the early 16th century, at Sofia), b) Kjustendil, and c) Ochrid. In the mid-16th century the huge sancak of Pasha was divided into smaller ones, including Thes-saloniki and Skopje from the geographical region of Macedonia. In other words, during the 15th century, the greater part of today’s Greek Macedonia belonged to the original sancak of Pasha, today’s Bulgaria to Kjustendil, and today’s former Yugoslav Republic of Mace-donia to Ochrid. Sections of the sancak of Pasha were incorporated into the sancak of Thessaloniki, whilst sections of that of Ochrid were incorporated into the sancak of Skopje. This administrative change increased the role of the two cities, which were also the capitals of the new sancaks. These sancaks, along with others in the Balkans, comprised sections of the general military administration of Europe (Rumeli beylerbeyli!i). Each sancak was di-vided into kazas (smaller provinces, over which the kadi, a religious judge, had jurisdiction). The extent of the kazas and the sancaks was not stable throughout the first three centuries of the Ottoman period, even more so when the number of kazas that each sancak had was changed: new ones appeared, old ones were abolished, others divided in two. These changes were frequent, and difficult to place chronologically.8

Inclusion in the timar system did not have consequences simply on the administra-tion, but also (mainly) on taxation. All sources of income within a region were divided among the soldiers and cavalry of the Ottoman army (sipahi) as payment for their military services on the field of battle; each income unit was a timar. Another portion of income was given to high-ranking local officers, such as, for example, the military governors; these were the zeamet. Another portion was held for the Imperial treasury, or for members of the Imperial family (the hass). Finally, a significant portion of the income of Macedonia went to the vakifs (charitable Muslim foundations), which had been founded in the Balkans mainly during the phase of Ottoman expansion.9

For the 15th century, we know that the right to claim income taxes in the timar form had also been given to Christian military officials of the pre-Ottoman period, who in this way were able to maintain their high social status under the new regime. Thus, in a register of voynuks (Christian military bands, such as the Armatoloi) from the mid-15th century, from the area of Prespes, we read the following interesting entry:10

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 131 Voynuk: Nikolaos son of Do!ik. Auxiliary soldiers: Because Ginis, Milan and Dimitris were sons of sipahi of old, they have been registered [now also] as voynuks and their ownership of the fields, vineyards and properties [that they owned] has been [recognised] to them. This took place at the beginning of the month of Muharram in the year 858 [1-10.1.1454] in Adrianople.

In addition to providing evidence for the recognition of private property to Christians of military rank, the above extract also gives us a picture of the region’s national language groups, as we can see in the names of the individual voynuks: Slav, Greek and Albanian speakers are found side by side. One product of the passage of time is that Christian timar disappear from our sources after the early 16th century, as a result of their having been Is-lamicised.11

As such, in the early years after the Ottoman conquest, Macedonia itself was granted no special privileges or particular administrative status. Its different regions were incorpo-rated into the classic timar system, divided at first into three and subsequently five sancaks. Its early conquest and geographical position near the Ottoman capital were responsible to a great degree to its not being recognised any special privileges, as happened with other Greek regions (in particular the islands of the Aegean).

3. Revolutionary movements in Macedonia After the consolidation of Ottoman power in the central Balkans (first half 15th century), the area of Macedonia was no longer a field for significant military movements, nor of po-litical actions during the whole of the period in question. The settlement of numerous Yürük in the Macedonian fields and other Muslim populations in the large urban centres of Macedonia changed the region’s demographic profile. This, in combination with Mace-donia’s proximity to the Ottoman capital, was enough to prevent, or at least not to favour, the rise of revolutionary movements.12 Only in the fourth decade of the 16th century (spe-cifically 1534), in response to the efforts of the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V in the eastern Mediterranean, was an effort to approach him by two notables of Thessaloniki, Alexakis and Doukas Palaiologos, in collaboration with the city’s Metropolitan Ioasaph. made. The effort came to nothing. Yet, despite their ultimate failure, the plans put forward by the two Thessalonikans were discussed by the Austrians and the Venetians in 1538, as was the pos-sibility of a Venetian landing in the city.

The naval battle of Nafpaktos, or Lepanto, (1571) and the wholesale Ottoman defeat mobilised many Christian populations in the Balkans against the rulers. As such, for the fifty years following the battle, the peninsula was in a state of commotion from various revolutionary movements. One significant attempt at revolution appears to have been the plan submitted to Pope Pius V in 1572 by the Bishop of Grevena Timotheos. The Orthodox cleric proposed that military bands from Central and West Macedonia gather in the plain of Thessaloniki, and advance towards Constantinople. The desire of the inhabitants of West Macedonia for rebellion, as Timotheos argued, can also be seen in the anti-Turkish activi-ties in the same era of a number of Christian notables from Argyrokastro, with the participation of clerics from West and North Macedonia. The Ottoman authorities were, however, informed immediately of these movements, and they were stamped out at their inception. Even so, the ringleaders continued to send out memoranda, mainly to the Kings of Spain.

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The Spaniards not only did not reject these movements, but they even incited or at the least encouraged them. The numerous pirate raids by western ships along the coast of Ma-cedonia – aided by the monks of Mount Athos – had as their intention to keep the area in a state of revolutionary fervour. The pleas of Mount Athos monks towards Spain are well known, but the Ottoman authorities, however, learnt of them in time, and imposed punish-ments on some of the monasteries. The peninsula of Mount Athos took a lead role in these revolutionary actions for the following reasons:13 a) since the beginning of Ottoman rule it had enjoyed a privileged tax status, which foresaw that there would be no representative of Ottoman power in the peninsula (at least until the late 16th century); b) its mountainous and inaccessible territory prevented it from coming under the control of the local monastery troops, which were dotted along the peninsula; c) the monasteries were fortified with tall towers, built already since the last years of Byzantium, which made them impenetrable for-tresses, or at least very difficult to capture; d) finally, the peninsula’s coastal position in an area where piracy flourished made Mount Athos particularly prone to pirate raids, but also open to western ships bent on revolutionary activity.

In general, however, the few raids of the Spanish fleet along the Macedonian coasts were always followed by Turkish reprisals against the Christian population. As such, we know of many Macedonians (clerics, monks and notables) who fled to the West, obviously to escape from these reprisals. Examples include the Thessalonikans Nikolaos and Dimit-rios Palaiologos and Dimos son of Panayiotis, who in the last years of the 16th and opening years of the 17th century fled to southern Italy. Macedonian fugitives, agents, merchants, clerics, scholars, mercenaries and even adventurers were the people who approached the Spanish monarchs in search of their support for a possible revolution in the wider region. The monks of the Mount Athos monastery of Esphigmenou were in danger in around 1600 of being punished by the Ottoman authorities for having offered their services to Spanish boats. Of interest is the fact that the anti-Turkish plans and movements in Macedonia where included or linked with wider revolutionary plans throughout the Greek peninsula. For ex-ample, one revolutionary movement observed in Pieria in 1612 – which likely had as a consequence the slaughter of the inhabitants of Kitros and the fleeing of the local Bishop – is connected in Spanish and Greek sources with the well-known revolution of Dionysios Philosophos or Skylosophos in Thessaly and Epirus (1601 and 1611). A typical example of the general climate of revolutionary fervour is that of the self-proclaimed ‘Sultan’ Yahya (1585-1649), who presented himself as the son of Sultan Mehmet III and a Greek woman, Eleni Komnini from Serres. His activities are dated to the fourth quarter of the 17th century in north-west Macedonia. His purpose was to rouse the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs and Al-banians into action, as he noted in a memorandum to the Pope in 1639-1640. His effort, more buccaneering in inspiration, came to no consequence.14

The most serious attempt at revolution in the period in question - that of the Arch-bishop of Ohrid, Athanasios Rizeas the Peloponnesian - was in fact centred upon Macedonia. The cleric’s first contacts with representatives of the Spanish government had taken place in 1601, and he himself attempted to distinguish his position and his plans from the movement of Dionysios Skyosophos that had broken out in Thessaly in that same year. He made sure to secure the active support of Spain and the Pope, producing a specific cam-paign plan (1612). According to this plan, the western powers would disembark initially at Preveza, from whence they would proceed towards West Macedonia, where around 12,000 armed locals would be waiting for them to rouse the region. Athanasios had the active sup-port of clerics from the ‘Diocese’ of the Archbishopric of Ohrid (the Metropolitan of Kastoria Metrophanes and the Bishop of Prespes Zacharias Tsingaras were among the

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 133 movement’s most fervent supporters). The rather exaggerated number of armed rebels pro-posed by Athanasios can partly be explained by the general revolutionary fervour in north-west Macedonia at the time, which centred upon the activities of a number of Macedonian Klephts. What was different about this plan was that Athanasios had collaborated with other Greeks from Epirus, the Mani, Thessaly and Cyprus to persuade the Pope, the Span-iards and the Venetians to give practical support to a general uprising in the Greek peninsula. The proposals of the would-be rebels towards the western courts were backed up by the argument that they had the collaboration even of Ottoman officials, such as the Pa-sha of Ioannina Osman and the Pasha of Veroia Recep, in addition to that of the Christians. But, the Pope was hesitant and unwilling to mobilise the weak Italian states, whilst from the third decade of the 17th century the Spaniards did not at all favour such movements in the Greek East. And so this well-designed plan was never put into action.

The rise in the 17th century of the Austrians as the Ottomans’ main rivals on the northern borders of the Empire revived the hopes of the Macedonians for revolutionary ac-tion. The Austrians were nearer and more directly interested in the central Balkans. Yet, the Venetians still had an interest in the Greek East, maintaining a climate of fervour in various parts of the Greek peninsula. The Macedonians attempted to use the two powers in their interests, in order to create a general revolutionary movement in the region. The two wars between Venice and Turkey during this century were a good starting point. Yet, the suc-cesses of the Venetians against the Turks in the Cretan War (1645-1669) in the north Aegean did not reach the Macedonian coasts. Venetian efforts on the coasts of Kavala, Kassandra and Thassos during the second war (1684-1699) were more pirate-like in nature, their purpose being to cut off communication between Thessaloniki and Adrianople. Even so, and perhaps thanks to Venetian successes in the Peloponnese, in 1687 certain Thessalo-nikan notables asked Francesco Morosini, the capitan general of the Venetian fleet, to disembark a section of his fleet at Thessaloniki with the aim of transferring troops to the Macedonian interior and inciting a rebellion throughout the region. The appearance of a Venetian squadron in the port of Thessaloniki (May 1688) had no real consequence as the city’s Ottoman authorities had been warned in time, putting the movement down at its in-ception. In contrast with the Venetians, the Austrians, despite all their intents and proclamations for rebellion in the northern Balkan peninsula, had no known contacts with the Macedonians in the 17th century, even during the last war of 1684-1699.

Looking at the revolutionary movements in Macedonia up until the end of the 17th century as a whole, we can say that they were spread along two main axes: north-west Ma-cedonia and Thessaloniki along with its wider coastal region. The first axis arose due to its proximity with the West and its mountainous terrain, ideal for armed bands with an anti-establishment inclination. The second axis arose thanks to Thessaloniki, an urban centre with residents who had a highly developed political consciousness and a tradition of auton-omy from as early as the Byzantine period. This meant they were better able to devise plans or to have contacts with the West so as to create revolutionary cores within their own re-gions. Mount Athos, again, enjoyed a special status, and the coasts of Cassandra and Thasos, with their intense – often localised – pirate activity, supplied human resources that were ready to fight, and that were both less willing to subject to Ottoman power and more easily usable by the western powers.

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4. Klephts and Armatoloi in Macedonia A critical factor in maintaining a revolutionary climate on Macedonian territory, in addition to the population groups described above, were the Klephtarmatoloi.15 We know just as much about these armed Ottoman-era groups in Macedonia during the 15th-16th century as we do for the rest of the Greek peninsula, i.e. very little. The mountain massifs of the Pin-dus range to the west of Mount Olympus, with Hassia to the south were, since the 15th century at least, an area that bred bandit groups. For this reason, the Ottoman authorities rushed to arm teams of Armatoloi (groups of local militia) to control the area, in particular the mountain passes, so as to facilitate the passage of people and goods from Central Ma-cedonia towards Epirus and Thessaloniki, and to secure public order. It is even argued, although without sufficient evidence, that the second Armatolik (the area of an armatolos’s control) in the Greek peninsula was founded at Olympus at the end of the 15th century. By the end of the 16th century, when Sultan Suleyman I had re-organised all the empire’s Ar-matoliks, five Armatoliks had been created in Macedonia: at Veroia, Servia, Elassona, Grevena and Milia.16 We should assume that the members of these armed groups were among those local residents who were ready to fight as part of the various revolutionary plans drawn up in the period that followed the naval battle of Nafpaktos. One vague refer-ence to the existence of Klephts at Olympus during the mid-16th century in the Vita of St Dionysius of Olympus confirms the role played by this southerly mountain massif in the development of Klephtarmatolismos.17 On the whole, however, we do not have any real positive information for the activities of either Klephts or Armatoloi in Macedonia until the end of the 16th century.

Our information increases during the 17th century, thanks to a great extent to Otto-man documents kept in the court archives of Veroia and Monastir,18 and also to the ever-increasing unruliness in the Macedonian countryside, which spread also to the Armatoloi bands from the mid-century onwards.19 The first document to make a clear reference to the Armatoloi is dated to 1627 and concerns the arrest of a Christian Klepht-bandit by Christian Armatoloi, his appearance at the religious court and his sentencing. We read the Ottoman court document in translation:20

The Armatoloi of Veroia, Kokkinos and Doukas, Georgios and others, present-ing the named Prodromos under tribute, resident of the village Grammatikos and the kaza Ostrovos, testified the following: the said Prodromos for many years and with many criminals like him coming from the villages, carried out a number of robberies and murders and ravaged properties. We have already ar-rested him in Naousa and request that his case be examined and justice done. When questioned, the said Prodromos confessed unprovoked and voluntarily that indeed during the summer he circulated around the mountains with other robbers and they carried out many robberies and murders and plundered many items and food. For this he was handed over to the Veroia police, so that justice will be done, recording this event hereunto. Mid Shaban of the year 1036 [27.4-6.5.1627].

From this date on, there survives a series of documents in the archives concerning the ac-tivities of various Christian bandits around Veroia and the area of north-west Macedonia in general.21 Because the information that we have for these groups is drawn exclusively from Ottoman sources, we cannot be certain about the nature of their bandit activity. The Otto-man authorities saw these people as common criminals and robbers. As such, it is very

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 135 difficult to discern any national liberation movements or at least anti-Turkish sentiment be-hind these activities. Even more so, considering that these groups often also committed crimes against Christian residents. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the bandits listed in the Ottoman archives for the 17th century are Christians (Greeks, Slavs, Albani-ans) is of interest, without this meaning that no Muslim bandits were also occasionally listed. We can see the extent that the phenomenon of banditry took in Macedonia from an order of the Governor General of Rumeli, sent to the kadis of Ohrid, Monastir, Prilep, Flo-rina, Ostrovo, Edessa and Yiannitsa in 1682.22 According to this:

The rea’yas of the peripheries of Ochrid, Monastir, Skopje, Kjustendil, Trikala and Thessaloniki, having secretly plotted together, formed a bandit gang of be-tween fifteen and twenty and thirty men, and, having publicly demonstrating revolutionary tendencies, they moved around the above peripheries, sometimes on foot and sometimes on horseback, killing many Muslims and rea’yas of the town markets and villages and pillaging their property. In addition, the gang attacks the passers by on the public roads, robs the caravans and the public money and commits homicide. When their arrest was attempted, using gunshots as a sign, the rea’yas in your kazas sought to protect them, hiding them and supplying them with the necessary food and drink.

The order of the general director was clear: … gather the aforementioned soldiers, chief Armatoloi, the reinforcements and all the rea’yas of the mountain passes and start, before the vegetation begins to grow in the mountains, and go around the mountains, the ravines, the fields and the generally suspect places, to uncover the traces of these profligates, punish-ing them according to the law… so that the rea’yas and non-rea’yas can have peace and all can have their contentment back. If in the future you are slow or negligent and the bandits are able to step foot in those places or are heard of somewhere near them or after their arrest supporters appear saying ‘he is my rea’ya or my wage labourer or my subashi or my man’, you should know that the relevant punishment shall be imposed on them… 23 Rabi’ul-Akhar 1093 [1.5.1682].

The general lack of public order allowed even the Armataloi to behave in an indiscriminate manner towards the local inhabitants of north-west Macedonia and to impede safe passage of merchants from those parts. As a result, it became very difficult to distinguish between the activities of the Armatoloi and those of the Klephts. With a firman of 1699, however, The Sultan decided to replace the Christian Armatoloi with Muslim ones.23 It is possible that the turmoil of the closing years of the century was intensified by the revolutionary mo-bilisation inspired by the Austro-Turkish war and the Venetian-Turkish war. Until now, however, no documented evidence has been traced to connect the two events. Yet, as we can conclude from the early-18th-century documents, these measures did not achieve the desired outcome either. The Muslim Albanians who had been called upon to replace the local Christians in the Armatoloi bands proved to be even worse. And so the central authorities soon decided to replace them and to bring back the Christian Armatoloi.24

In conclusion, it appears that to a great degree the actions of the Klephts was concen-trated in the large mountain massifs of west, north-west and south Macedonia, and was brought on by taxation and other similar transgressions by the local Ottoman authorities. There were also cases where the cause was far less noble (profiting through robbery),

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whilst it is difficult to distinguish national or social motives within the documents that we are so far aware of at any rate. The increase in bandit activity during the 17th century arose from the continuing decline of central power and the inability of local power to impose or-der. We could, then, argue with certainty that the roots of Klephtarmatolismos, which played an important role in the revolution of 1821, can be traced to the 17th century. The presence of Klephts and Armatoloi in particular in Macedonia is documented for the 15th and 16th century, but the characteristics of these groups were different from those of the 17th century onwards. It is from this century (in particular from its second half) that the two groups became less and less distinct, due to the frequent slippage between the role of a Klepht and that of an Armatolos, and vice versa. This created a unified local military class that acquired an anti-establishment character and towards the end of the 18th century, given the general ideological developments of the day, a national mantle.

5. Communal tradition The failures of the revolutionary movements and the doubtful character of bandit activity in Macedonia did not prevent its inhabitants from rallying together and forming communal bodies to represent them to the Ottoman authority. Indeed, this was also the wish of the conqueror, for the better control of the conquered. We have very little information for the communities in Macedonia during the period under question, and what we have is essen-tially comprised of scattered details on three cities, Thessaloniki, Serres and Veroia. For the first two cities, there is reference to the existence of a body of archontes (aristocrats) from the very early years after the Ottoman conquest, which represented the Christians of the cities to the local Ottoman authorities and also tried cases between Christians.25 For Thes-saloniki, we know that these archontes had negotiated, as representatives of the (Christian) population of the city the terms of its surrender during the first Ottoman conquest in 1387.26 Other archontes were sent to Venice by the city’s Christian population, during the period of Venetian rule (1426), to negotiate a series of city-related issues, such as its supplies, fortifi-cations, trade, etc.27 This body of archontes was comprised of twelve members, as we can see from the answers the Venetian Senate sent in response to the demands of the Thessalo-nikans (1426):28

… your there located [Venetian] governors have the right to gather freely at the same place with the twelve representatives of the city and whatever is decided by majority for the good and the benefit of the said city to be done… among the privileges awarded there is also this, that they can elect twelve nobles for the Council, but these must understand the customs of the country and the way to salvage the city …

The archontes also had judicial responsibilities and a close collaboration with the local Metropolitan. A document of the Archbishop of Thessaloniki Maximos (of the year 1502), concerning a monastery of Mount Athos, includes a memory of this twelve-member senate: the signatories are comprised of seven clerics and five laymen.29 After this period, our in-formation on communal organisation in Thessaloniki peters out, to reappear again in the 18th century.

The situation at Serres does not appear to have been so different. The existence of a community organ is testified for in judicial decisions of the local church already from 1387 and 1388, only four and five years respectively after the Ottoman conquest of the city. The interesting thing in these cases is that, in addition to clerics and laymen, a representative of

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 137 the Ottoman authorities also sat on the Metropolitan court, an indication of the control that the conqueror wanted to impose from the beginning on the Christian population and its rep-resentative organs.30 In another act of the Metropolitan of Serres from 1393, the Ottoman representative is absent, whilst the signatories are comprised of seven clerics and five lay people. Again, a clear reference to a body of archontes in the city (the archontes of the pol-ity).31

We find the same memory of a twelve-member body in Serres at the beginning of the 17th century (1613). After a meeting of all the Christian residents of Serres, it was decided that twelve good men and one from each city guild, with exclusive tax and financial re-sponsibilities, should be elected:32

…with the will of all they chose and voted upon twelve men just and good and virtuous and God-fearing and they picked from every one man who was the most just and good and virtuous and set them with God and with their soul to judge and to maintain the public exits to the castle and the city of Serres...

In the period of two and more centuries that had passed between the two references, it ap-pears that the character of local administration had changed: from judicial responsibilities, the body had acquired responsibilities mainly related to taxation.

In Veroia, the presence of a communal organisation is testified to in 17th-century Ot-toman sources. The organisation of the Christian residents of the city into a body with a head (koca, bashi, kahya) is placed in around the mid-17th century, when new taxes had been imposed upon the city. The picture given of the responsibilities of the Christian com-munity is that this was essentially a tax collecting mechanism and, secondly a ‘policing’ mechanism, in the sense of maintaining order in the Christian neighbourhoods and the Christian population in general.33

From this we can come to some general conclusions. From the beginning of the Ot-toman period, communal organisation in Macedonia can be seen in certain urban centres. It appears that in these examples we have a simple continuation of the community institutions that existed in the Byzantine period. The fluctuating political situation during the period of transition between Byzantine and Ottoman power led to the communal body taking certain political initiatives. Judicial authority was from the beginning practised by the communities always in conjunction with the local church. The traces of the Macedonian community ap-pear once more at the beginning of the 17th century. This was a particular chronological moment of significance for all the Greek communities of the Ottoman era. The broadening of the system of farming out the collection of public revenues (iltizam) played a decisive role by giving the communities responsibilities for taxation.34 The payment of the total amount of the Ottoman public tax owed by the Christians of a city was now the responsibil-ity of the community organs, and these were now also officially recognised. The appointment of a salaried community representative (kahya) to the Ottoman authorities in-dicates the institutional recognition of the community by the state.35

6. Population The best reading of the role that one region can play within a multiethnic empire depends upon a knowledge of the population groups that reside within that particular area. In con-trast perhaps with political history – understood as a totality of political and military events – Macedonia is of exceptional interest for its demographic history during the Ottoman pe-

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riod. Despite the fact that research is only at its beginning and it is only in the past few years that scholarly attention has been paid to the sources of this period, some initial con-clusions can be ascertained in relation to the population of Macedonia in the period under study. It should first be noted that the main ethnocultural groups that we find in the Otto-man Balkans appear primarily in Macedonia. Thus, Greeks, Vlachs, Slavs, Albanians, Jews, Yürük, other Muslims and Gypsies (Christians and Muslims) make up the main eth-nocultural groups of Macedonia.

Starting from the Muslims, we should note the great wave of Yürük settlers to Mace-donia already from the end of the 14th century, which continued until the early 16th century. This population group in fact formed a special category among the Yürük of the Balkans, and was called the ‘Selânik Yürükleri’. It settled in Central and West Macedonia, more specifically in the Thessaloniki plain and the region of Kozani. The Yürük had their own form of military organisation of households (ocak) and formed their own villages. We do not know the total number of their population. By the late 17th century, the specific Yürük form of social organisation had declined, and they themselves had taken on the char-acteristics of a settled rural population and been incorporated into the general settlement network of the region.36

The main Muslim population group of Macedonia was constituted of an urban popu-lation, and was thus essentially based in the Macedonian cities. The general policy of the Ottoman state was to restore those cities that had been destroyed economically and demog-raphically by the various wars and to create new ones. As well as the Yürük, then, who were settled in the countryside, the state brought in many Muslims, mainly urban profes-sionals, to people the cities or to reinforce the demography of the newly-founded ones. In addition to Yiannitsa (Yenice-i Vardar), founded by the conqueror of Macedonia Gazi Evrenos in the last quarter of the 14th century and which generally maintained its Muslim character until liberation, we note a gradual increase of Muslims in the large Macedonian cities (Thessaloniki, Skopje, Serres) during the 15th and throughout the whole of the 16th century. According to one study of the demographic situation in the Macedonian cities, by the end of the 16th century, out of a total of 26 cities, 18 had a Muslim majority.37 A sec-tion of this population, the extent of which we cannot fully determine, had been converted to Islam. The same study argues that one-third of the Muslim population of Macedonian cities were converts.38 If this figure is true, then we must assume that far more had been Islamised in Macedonia in the first two Ottoman centuries than is usually believed. Islami-sation continued during the next two centuries, of course, but the details we have are fragmentary and cannot properly be counted. Finally, another section of the Muslim popu-lation included the military garrisons and administration staff, who represented a sizeable demographic group, particularly in Macedonia with its large administrative centres. Aside from the cities and areas where the Yürük had settled, there do not appear to have been large Muslim populations in other parts of the Macedonian countryside during the period in question.

The Christians were clearly the largest group in the total population of Macedonia. The types of sources available to us (Ottoman land registers) do not allow us to make fur-ther distinctions as to the different ethnocultural characteristics of the Christians of the region, since the only distinction that is made in these sources is between Muslims and non-Muslims (with the exception of the Jews). From the names of the residents, which are not always a secure factor for categorising according to ethnocultural group, we can conclude that Greek-speakers, Slav-speakers and Vlach-speakers formed the overwhelming majority

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 139 of the Christian population, without it being possible to give proportions for each group, nor to locate them within a particular geographic zone. The 15th and 16th centuries, too long ago for national contestations, give perhaps the opposite picture to that which we have become accustomed when looking at maps of the 19th century: a great scattering of the ethnocultural groups, without a clear picture of geographical determination.39 Generally speaking, and with the danger of oversimplifying the situation, we can say that Greek-speaking Christians were located mainly in the large urban centres, whilst Slav-speakers were to be found mainly in the countryside. Outside of north and north-west Macedonia, Slav-speakers were located in specific enclaves. We thus have a significantly large congre-gation of Slav-speakers in the region of Strymon and north-east Chalkidiki. Finally, we can locate Vlach-speakers in the mountain massifs of west and north-west Macedonia. The great scattering of these populations throughout the whole of the Greek peninsula had not yet begun. This can be cautiously traced to the 17th century, when there was substantial over-population in the mountain regions, which subsequently dispersed to the countryside or to distant geographic parts.

The Jews are an easily distinguishable population group in the Ottoman registers, and today we can also locate them geographically and trace their demographic evolution. As is well known, Jews came to the Ottoman Empire in waves from Spain, Portugal and South-ern Italy after 1492, expelled by the Catholic monarchs. These were the Sephardim. A smaller group, the Ashkenazi, came from Hungary and other northern countries. To these we should add the local Jews, the Romaniots, who had been settled in these lands since Roman times. Thessaloniki received the greatest proportion of the Jews from Iberia, dou-bling its population and strengthening its economy during the 16th century.40 Other Macedonian cities received larger or smaller percentages of Jews (Monastir, Skopje, Serres, Kavala). Jews were located exclusively in the cities, where they engaged in specific eco-nomic activities (textiles, banking). Finally, a small number of Gypsies is observed in Macedonia, as in every other area of the Ottoman Empire. There is no information or data for the places where these gypsy populations settled, and we can only note that they lived not only in the countryside but also in large cities, such as Monastir, where there was a sig-nificant population.

We can gain a general picture of the demographic situation of Macedonia from the tax register compiled for the whole of the Ottoman Empire in the 1520s. The picture of the tax-paying population of the three Macedonian sancaks of Pasha, Kjustendil and Ohrid, which comprised the geographical area of Macedonia (and, of course, other areas, mainly in Thrace) was as follows:41 Christians 1,000,000, Muslims 300,000 and Jews 10,000. To these figures we should add a further 10% to the Muslim population, comprised of the members of the garrisons and other administrative or religious employees who were not subject to taxation. Tables 1 and 2 show the population of the ten largest cities of Mace-donia during the 15th and 16th centuries, indicating the demographic changes observable in each city as well as for the total of the largest cities.42

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Table 1. Population of Macedonian cities during the 15th century

City 1421-1455 1455-1467 1478-1481 C M Total C M Total C M Total

Thessaloniki 4623 3513 8136 Skopje 1329 2064 3393 1383 2664 4047 Serres 2681 2182 4863 1265 1960 3225 1339 2558 3897

Kastoria 3196 88 3284 Monastir 695 1112 1807 1035 1592 2627

Zichna 1644 128 1772 2139 132 2271 Prilep 1581 40 1621 1373 84 1457 1652 588 2240

Sidrekapsi 1489 81 1570 Ostrovo 1437 72 1509

Sidirokastro 579 100 679 750 322 1072 800 614 1414

Table 2. Population of Macedonian cities in the 16th century

CITY <1512 1519 1528-1530 <1550 1567-1580 C M Total C M J Total C M J Total C M J Total C M J Total Thessaloniki43 6351 7111 13462 5303 5778 13502 24583 4264 5141 10580 19985 3223 5128 11732 20083

Skopje 1170 2586 3756 894 2697 53 3644 888 4312 134 5334 2290 6274 212 8776 Serres44 2777 4102 7106 2549 3039 275 5863 1675 2890 269 4834 1504 3616 263 5383 Veroia 2972 977 3949 3176 881 4057 3181 1207 4388 2718 1326 30 4074

Kastoria 3524 309 3833 3227 395 41 3663 2791 336 51 3178 2907 676 3583 Servia 3069 232 3301 3391 370 3761 3810 339 4149 2726 600 56 3382

Stip 1412 821 60 2293 1250 586 152 1988 1199 1049 164 2412 1104 1831 123 3058 Strumtsa 1176 1099 2275 2083 888 2971 1081 1795 12 2888

Prilep 2026 875 2901 2018 771 2789 1438 1180 2618 Melnik 3521 80 3601 2388 56 2444 2469 56 2525

Source: !. Stojanovski, Gradovite na Makedonija od Krajot na XIV do XVII vek, (Skopje, 1981), pp. 65-72; I. Kolovos, ‘Horikoi kai monachoi stin othomaniki Halkidiki, 15os-16os aiones. Opseis tis oikonomikis kai koinonikis zois stin ypaithro kai i moni Xiropotamou’ (‘Vil-lagers and monks in Ottoman Chalkidiki, 15th-16th centuries. Aspects of economic and social life in the countryside and Xeropotamou Monastery’), unpublished PhD thesis, vol. A, (Thessa-loniki, 2000), p. 32; E. Balta, Les vakifs de Serres, pp. 251-273.

The overwhelming Christian majority should be calculated as being much lower to-wards the end of the 16th and in particular throughout the 17th century, mainly due to Islamisation and population movements. On the latter, there are no secure data from the pe-riod. From the firman of 1605 we can conclude that a large number of people from Agrapha (Central Greece) had settled in Thessaloniki.45 The editor of the data has characterised this population as not permanently settled. If we are to judge from the level of tax that this group paid, then we can conclude that in population terms it was around the same as the city’s other Christian groups. This movement was part of the basic migration movement that scholars have identified in relation to Macedonia.46 According to this view, the Chris-tians who had sought refuge in the mountains in fear of the Turks in the 14th and 15th centuries had begun in the 16th, and continuing in the 17th, to descend to the plains. This movement is interpreted both in terms of over-population in the mountain regions, making it difficult to sustain so many inhabitants, as well as to the peace and security that had grown in the region.

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 141 The 17th century is generally considered to be one of demographic crisis throughout

the whole of the Ottoman Empire.47 Due, however, to a lack of successive numerical data, we cannot come to a conclusion as to the extent of the crisis suffered – if this was the case – by the population of Macedonia. Thanks to two 17th-century Ottoman travellers, Evliya Çelebi and Katip Çelebi (Hajji Khalifa) we have some clues as to the population of certain Macedonian cities. The population in these sources is given as ‘hearths’, a demographic size for which, however, it cannot be calculated how many people it represents. Even so, the numbers that these sources give, in particular for the 18th-century population of the cit-ies, indicates a factor of two people per ‘hearth’. The demographic picture that we had for the largest urban centres at the end of the 16th century continued to hold for this century too: the same cities that had been the largest in the previous century continued to be so in this one. Moreover, and in contrast with the theory of a demographic crisis, we note a popu-lation increase in the region of 50%, primarily in the largest Macedonian cities. The population of Thessaloniki, for example, doubled in relation to that of the 16th century, al-most reaching 18th-century levels. The same was true for Skopje, Veroia, Serres and Monastir, the largest cities of Macedonia. It has been argued that the region of Monastir witnessed a population decline in around the mid-17th century, whilst the following forty years marked a period of population growth.48 If the figures are correct, then we should as-sume an intense urbanisation – also the case in the late 16th century – mainly towards the largest cities. In contrast, there was population flux in the smaller cities. A number of them lost population or declined, whilst others appeared or grew for various reasons. It appears, however, that the main urban network of Macedonia had already been formed by the end of the 16th century. The following table shows the number of ‘hearths’ in the ten largest Ma-cedonian cities, based on the two Ottoman travellers.

Table 3. Macedonian cities in the 17th century

Source: A. Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, pp. 201-248, based on the two Ottoman trav-ellers. C = Christians, M = Muslims, J = Jews.

7. Conclusion The picture presented of Macedonia in the Ottoman period, until at least the second half of the 17th century, focuses particularly on its population, and therefore on its political situa-tion. The fact that it was one of the central provinces of the Ottoman state, and one of the first areas of the Greek peninsula to be incorporated into the Empire meant that control of

City Population Religion Thessaloniki 33,000 (C, M, J)

Skopje 10,060 (C, M, J) Veroia 4,000 (C, M, J) Serres 4,000 (C, M, J)

Monastir 3,000 (C, M, J) Kastoria 2,500 (C, M, J)

Strumnitsa 2,040 (C, M) Servia 1,800 (C, M, J)

Yiannitsa 1,500 (C, M) Florina 1,500 (C, M)

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its central authorities was far more effective than in other provinces of the Greek peninsula or the Balkans in general. The presence of a significant Muslim population throughout this period, as well as strong military forces, made the growth of any form of revolutionary movement difficult, whilst the quick and subsequently slow distancing of the region from the borders of the Empire did not favour the manifestation of political or military activities. The mountain massifs of Pindus to the west of Macedonia on the one hand helped the growth of Klephtarmatolism, whilst on the other they cut it off from parts of Epirus that were more ‘favourable’ for the revolutionary plans of the West. The sea was the main, and from one perspective, the safest, mode of communication with the ‘outside’ world. This situation also discouraged the development of a communal life able to rally the non-Muslim populations. As such, from a political perspective, the history of Macedonia during this pe-riod seemed ‘flat’ in relation to that of other Ottoman provinces in the Greek peninsula. It is not by chance that, in ethnocultural terms, it was the zone in which the biggest role was played by Muslims. The 18th century, with the great turmoil it brought for the whole of Ot-toman society, would also attempt, though not always with much success, to overtun the pre-existing situation in this Ottoman province too.

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Select Bibliography 1. V. Dimitriades, ‘I anaptyxi tis koinotikis organosis ton horion tis Makedonias kai i foro-

logiki politiki tou othomanikou kratous’ [‘The development of community organisation of the villages of Macedonia and the tax policy of the Ottoman state’], I diachroniki poreia tou koinotismou sti Makedonia, [The diachronic path of communalism in Mace-donia], Thessaloniki 1991, pp. 307-320.

2. E. Gara, ‘In Search of Communities in Seventeenth Century Ottoman Sources: The Case of the Kara Ferye District’, Turcica, 30 (1998), pp. 135-162.

3. I.K. Hassiotis, ‘Antitourkikes kiniseis stin proepanastatiki Makedonia’ [‘Anti-Turkish movements in pre-revolutionary Macedonia’] in I. Koliopoulos and I.K. Hassiotis (eds), Modern and contemporary Macedonia, pp. 436-457.

4. I. Kolovos, ‘Horikoi kai monachoi stin othomaniki Halkidiki, 15os-16os aiones. Opseis tis oikonomikis kai koinonikis zois stin ypaithro kai i moni Xirpotamou’ [‘Villagers and monks in Ottoman Halkidiki, 15th-16th centuries. Aspects of economic and social life in the countryside and Xiropotamos Monastery’], unpublished PhD thesis, vol. A, Thes-saloniki 2000.

5. A. Matkovski, Turski izvori za ajdutstvoto i aramistvoto vo Makedonija, vol. 1 (1620-1650), vol. 2 (1650-1700), Skopje 1961.

6. !. McGowan, Economic Life in Ottoman Europe. Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for Land, 1600-1800, Cambridge 1981.

7. K. Mertzios, Mnimeia makedonikis istorias [Monuments of Macedonian history], Thes-saloniki 1947.

8. P. Odorico, Mémoire d’ une voix perdue. Le cartulaire de la métropole de Serres, 17e-19e siècles, Paris 1994.

9. I.D. Psaras, ‘I Othomaniki kataktisi tis Makedonias’ [‘The Ottoman conquest of Mace-donia’], in I. Koliopoulos and I.K. Hassiotis (eds), I neoteri kai synchroni Makedonia. Oikonomia – Koinonia – Politismos [Modern and contemporary Macedonia. Economy – Society – Culture], Thessaloniki n.d. [1991], pp. 34-43.

10. ". Sokoloski, ‘Apercu sur l’ evolution de certaines villes plus importantes de la partie meridionale des Balkans au XVe et au XVIe siècles’, Bulletin de l’ Association Interna-tionale d’ Etudes du Sud-Est Europeen 12/1 (1974), pp. 81-89.

11. N. Svoronos, ‘Administrative, social and economic developments’, in M.V. Sakellariou (ed.) Macedonia. 4000 years of Greek history and Civilisation, Athens 1982, pp. 354-385.

12. K. Stathopoulou-Asdracha, ‘Oi tourkikes katalipseis tis Veroias (14os, 15os ai.) kai ta pronomia mias christianikis oikogeneias’ [‘The Turkish conquests of Veroia (14th, 15th c.) and the privileges of one Christian family’], Epitheorisi Technis, 20 (1965), pp. 152-157.

13. #. Stojanovski, ‘Administrativno – Teritorijalnata Podelja na Makedonija pod Osman-liskata Vlast do Krajot na XVII vek’, Glasnik za Institut za Nacionalna Istorija, 17/2 (1973), pp. 129-145.

14. #. Stojanovski, Gradovite na Makedonija od Krajot na XIV do XVII vek, Skopje 1981. 15. G. Tsaras, I teleftaia alosi tis Thessalonikis (1430). Ta keimena metaphrasmena me

eisagogiko simeioman kai scholia [The last fall of Thessaloniki. The texts translated with introduction and commentary], Thessaloniki 1985.

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16. A. Vakalopoulos, ‘Zur Frage der zweiten Einnahme Thessalonikis durch die Türken’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 61 (1968), pp. 285-290.

17. A. Vakalopoulos, Istoria tis Makedonias, 1354-1833 [History of Macedonia], Thessa-loniki 1988, 2nd edition.

18. A. Vakalopoulos, ‘Domi kai synthesi ton koinotikon symvoulion dyo makedonikon po-leon, tis Thessalonikis kai ton Serron, epi Tourkokratias os ta mesa tou 19ou aiona,’ [‘Structure and composition of the community councils of two Macedonian cities, Thessaloniki and Serres, during the period of Turkish rule until the mid-19th century’], Thessaloniki History Centre, I diachroniki poreia tou koinotismou sti Makedonia, [The diachronic path of communalism in Macedonia], Thessaloniki 1991, pp. 193-212.

19. I.K. Vasdravellis, Istorika Archeia Makedonias A: Archeion Thessalonikis, 1695-1912 [Historical Archives of Macedonia A: Thessaloniki Archive], Thessaloniki 1952.

20. I.K. Vasdravellis, Istorika Archeia Makedonias. B: Archeion Veroias-Naousas, 1598-1886) [Historical Archives of Macedonia B; Veroia and Naousa Archives], Thessalo-niki 1954.

21. I.K. Vasdravelis, Armatoloi kai klephtes eis tin Makedonian [Armatoloi and Klephts in Macedonia], Thessaloniki 2nd edition, 1970.

22. M. Vasich, ‘The Martoloses in Macedonia’, Macedonian Review, 7/1 (1977), pp. 30-41. 23. S. Vryonis Jr, ‘The Ottoman Conquest of Thessaloniki in 1430’, in A. Bryer and H.

Lowry (ed.), Continuity and Change in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman Society, Birmingham and Washington D.C. 1984, pp. 281-321.

Notes 1. The basic study on the Ottoman period remains that of A. Vakalopoulos, Istoria tis

Makedonias, 1354-1833 [History of Macedonia], Thessaloniki 1988, 2nd edition. A very good article, with an emphasis on social and economic history is that of N. Svoro-nos ‘Administrative, social and economic developments’, in M.V. Sakkellariou (ed.) Macedonia. 4000 years of Greek history and Civilisation, Athens 1982, pp. 354-385. For the early Ottoman period in Macedonia, see I.D. Psaras, ‘I Othomaniki kataktisi tis Makedonias’ [‘The Ottoman conquest of Macedonia’], in I. Koliopoulos and I.K. Ha-siotis (eds), I neoteri kai synchroni Makedonia. Oikonomia – Koinonia – Politismos, [Modern and contemporary Macedonia. Economy – Society – Culture], Thessaloniki, n.d. [1991], pp. 34-43.

2. This had been preceded a year earlier by the capture of Byzantine Christoupolis (mod-ern Kavala), on which see now P. Katsoni, ‘Othomanikes kataktiseis sti Vyzantini Makedonia. I periptosi tis Christoupolis (Kavala) [‘Ottoman conquests in Byzantine Macedonia. The case of Christoupolis (Kavala)’], Byzantina, 23 (2002-2003), pp. 181-208.

3. The precise dates at which these cities of Macedonia fell into the hands of the Otto-mans, as of the other late-14th-century conquests in general, are still open to question. This is due to the lack of clear evidence. The Ottoman sources are to a large extent un-reliable, whilst the Byzantine sources do not always give the dates or the manner of conquest of the various regions. The Vrachea Chronikia [Short Chronicles] are the main source for determining the date at which different areas of the Greek peninsula were conquered. See. P. Schreiner, Die byzantinische Kleinchroniken, vols I-III, Vienna 1983. For an example of the many conquests of Macedonian cities and the questioning of the sources of the era, see K. Stathopoulou-Asdracha, ‘Oi tourkikes katalipseis tis Veroias (14os, 15os ai.) kai ta pronomia mias christianikis oikogeneias’ [‘The Turkish

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conquests of Veroia (14th-15th century) and the privileges of one Christian family’], Epitheorisi Technis, 20 (1965), pp. 152-157.

4. On the differing views as to whether the city was captured in 1391 or 1394, as well as for the first years of Turkish rule in Thessaloniki, until the early 15th century, see A. Vakalopoulos, ‘Oi dimosievmenes omilies tou archiepiskopou Thessalonikis Isidorou os istoriki pigi gia tin gnosi tis protis Tourkokratias sti Thessaloniki (1387-1403)’ [‘The published speeches of Isidoros, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, as a historical source for the first Turkish period in Thessaloniki’], Makedonia, 4 (1955-1960), pp. 20-34, and ‘Zur Frage der zweiten Einnahme Thessalonikis durch die Türken’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 61 (1968), pp. 285-290.

5. On the various conquests of Thessaloniki, see Psaras, ‘The Ottoman conquest’, pp. 36-39, with a comprehensive bibliography. On the Venetian period specifically, see K. Mertzios, Mnimeia makedonikis istorias [Monuments of Macedonian history], Thessa-loniki 1947, pp. 30-99, with rich archive material from Venice for this period.

6. G. Tsaras, I teleftaia alosi tis Thessalonikis (1430). Ta keimena metaphrasmena me eisagogiko simeioman kai scholia [The last fall of Thessaloniki. The texts translated with introduction and commentary], Thessaloniki 1985, pp. 54-55.

7. For the general events in the Ottoman conquest of Macedonia until the final fall of Thessaloniki, see Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, pp. 34-93. On the fall of Thes-saloniki and the first years after its conquest, see S. Vryonis Jr’s analytical article ‘The Ottoman Conquest of Thessaloniki in 1430’, A. Bryer and H. Lowry (eds), Continuity and Change in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman Society, Birmingham and Washing-ton D.C. 1984, pp. 281-321.

8. The basic study on the administrative organisation of Macedonia until the end of the 17th century is the article by !. Stojanovski, ‘Administrativno – Teritorijalnata Podelja na Makedonija pod Osmanliskata Vlast do Krajot na XVII vek’, Glasnik za Institut za Nacionalna Istorija, 17/2 (1973), pp. 129-145.

9. From the rich bibliography on vakifs in the Ottoman Empire, see on Macedonia in par-ticular T.M. Gökbilgin, XV-XVI. Asırlarda Edirne ve Pa!a Livası Vakıflar -Mülker-Mukataalar, Istanbul 1952, E. Balta, Les vakifs de Serres et de sa region XVe et XVIe s.). Un premier inventaire, Athens 1995; V. Demetriades, ‘Vakifs along the Via Eg-natia’, in E.A. Zachariadou (ed.), The Via Egnatia under Ottoman Rule (1380-1699), Rethymno 1996, pp. 85-95.

10. H. Inalcık, ‘Stefan Du"an’dan Osmanlı #mperatorlu$una. XV. Asırda Rumeli’de Hıristiyan Sipahiler ve Menseleri’, H. Inalcık, Fatih Devri Üzerinde Tetkikler ve Vesi-kalar, I, Ankara 1995, 3rd edition, p. 174.

11. For the Christian timars in the Balkans during the 15th century, see H. Inalcık’s basic article, ‘Stefan Du"an’dan’, pp. 137-184.

12. The supposed revolutionary activity argued for by Vakalopoulos (History of Mace-donia, pp. 110-111) in the region of Veroia (1444) is not supported in the sources; see I.K. Hassiotis, ‘Antitourkikes kiniseis stin proepanastatiki Makedonia’ [‘Anti-Turkish movements in pre-revolutionary Macedonia’] in I. Koliopoulos and I.K. Hassiotis (eds), Modern and contemporary Macedonia, p. 454 n. 2. See this article also for the reasons why significant revolutionary movements were not witnessed in Macedonia, pp. 451-453. The following section is based on this article, which gives a more complete picture of the revolutionary movements in the area on the basis of unpublished archival sources.

13. From the rich bibliography on Mount Athos, see G. Alexandros Lavriotis, To Agion Oros meta tin othomaniki kataktisin [Mount Athos after the Ottoman conquest], reprint from vol. 32 of the Epetiridos tis Etaireias Vyzantinon Spoudon, Athens 1963.

14. On the activities of ‘Sultan’ Yahya see S. Papadopoulos, I kinisi tou douka Never Karolou Gonzaga gia tin apeleftherosi to valkanikon laon (1603-1625) [The movement of the Duke of Nevers, Carlo Gonzaga for the liberation of the Balkan peoples], Thessa-loniki 1966, pp. 220-230.

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146 OTTOMAN MACEDONIA (LATE 14TH – LATE 17TH CENTURY)

15. The main works on this subject are: I.K. Vasdravelis, Armatoloi kai klephtes eis tin

Makedonian [Armatoloi and Klephts in Macedonia], Thessaloniki 2nd edition, 1970; A. Matkovski, Turski izvori za ajdutstvoto i aramistvoto vo Makedonija, vol. 1 (1620-1650) and vol. 2 (1650-1700), Skopje 1961; and M. Vasich, ‘The Martoloses in Mace-donia’, Macedonian Review, 7/1 (1977), pp. 30-41.

16. Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, pp. 118-119. 17. Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, p. 118. 18. For these developments see Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, pp. 190-197 and 251-

257, and Vasdravellis, Armatoloi and Klephts, pp. 32-39. 19. M. Vasich, ‘The Martoloses in Macedonia’, pp. 34-37. 20. I.K. Vasdravellis, Istorika Archeia Makedonias. B: Archeion Veroias-Naousas, 1598-

1886) [Historical Archives of Macedonia B; Veroia and Naousa Archives], Thessalo-niki 1954, p. 10 (no. 11).

21. See, for example, Vasdravellis, Veroia and Naousa Archives, nos. 12, 15, 16 (1627), 38 (1646), 52 (1667), 53 (1668), 56, 57 (1669), 60-62, 67 (1670), 72, 76 (1671), 81-86, 88 (1672-73), 93-96 (1681), 98-99 (1682), 102 (1683), 104, 106 (1684), 109-110 (1685), 122 (1686) and 134-135 (1699).

22. Vasdravellis, Veroia and Naousa Archives, no. 99. 23. Vasdravellis, Veroia and Naousa Archives, nos.134-135. 24. Vasdravellis, Veroia and Naousa Archives, nos. 137-138 (1704) and 142 (1708). 25. Evidence on the communities of Thessaloniki and Serres collected in A. Vakalopoulos,

‘Domi kai synthesi ton koinotikon symvoulion dyo makedonikon poleon, tis Thessalo-nikis kai ton Serron, epi Tourkokratias os ta mesa tou 19ou aiona,’ [‘Structure and composition of the community councils of two Macedonian cities, Thessaloniki and Serres, during the period of Turkish rule until the mid-19th century’], Thessaloniki His-tory Centre, I diachroniki poreia tou koinotismou sti Makedonia [The diachronic path of communalism in Macedonia], Thessaloniki 1991, pp. 193-212.

26. Vakalopoulos, ‘Structure and composition’, pp. 200-203. 27. E.A. Zachariadou, ‘Ephemeres apopeires gia aftodioikisi stis ellinikes poleis kata ton

XIIII kai XV aiona,’ [‘Ephemeral efforts at self-government in the Greek cities during the 14th and 15th century’], Ariadne, 5 (1989), pp. 347-349.

28. Mertzios, Monuments, p. 54. 29. N. Oikonomides, Actes de Dionysiou, Paris 1968, pp. 192-193 (no. 41); Vakalopoulos,

History of Macedonia, pp. 69-70 and 75-76. 30. Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, p. 39. 31. J. Lefort, Actes d’ Esphigmenou, Paris 1973, pp. 175-177 (no. 30). 32. P. Odorico, Memoire d’ une voix perdue. Le cartulaire de la metropole de Serres, 17e-

19e siecles, Paris 1994, p. 47. 33. E. Gara, ‘In Search of Communities in Seventeenth Century Ottoman Sources: The

Case of the Kara Ferye District’, Turcica, 30 (1998), pp. 135-162. 34. V. Dimitriades, ‘I anaptyxi tis koinotikis organosis ton horion tis Makedonias kai i foro-

logiki politiki tou othomanikou kratous’ [‘The development of community organisation of the villages of Macedonia and the tax policy of the Ottoman state’], The diachronic path, pp. 307-320.

35. In Veroia we know of the existence of just such a post since 1620 (E. Gara, ‘In Search of Communities’, pp. 144-145).

36. V. Dimitriades, ‘Forologikes katigories ton horion tis Thessalonikis kata tin Tourkokra-tia’ [‘Taxation categories of the villages of Thessaloniki during the Turkish period’], Makedonika, 20 (1980), pp. 401-406; T.M. Gokbilgin, Rumeli’de Yürükler, Tatarlar ve Evlad-i Fatihan, Istanbul 1952, pp. 74-78.

37. !. Sokoloski, ‘Apercu sur l’ evolution de certaines villes plus importantes de la partie meridionale des Balkans au XVe et au XVIe siecles’, Bulletin de l’ Association Interna-tionale d’ Etudes du Sud-Est Europeen, 12/1 (1974), pp. 83-84.

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PHOKION KOTZAGEORGIS 147 38. !. Sokoloski ‘Apercu’, p. 88. The same trend is noticed among the urban population of

all the Balkan cities around this time. See N. Todorov, The Balkan City, 1400-1900, Washington 1983, pp. 78-100.

39. This subject is perhaps the least researched for the early Ottoman period in Macedonia. 40. Jews constituted over half of the population of Thessaloniki until the end of the 16th

century. See Table 2 below. 41. O.L. Barkan, ‘Essai sur les donnees statistiques des registres de recensement dans l’

empire ottoman aux XVe et XVIe siecles’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 1 (1958), p. 32, Table 6. The data provided in this table have been repro-duced in many studies.

42. Ottoman tax registers give the populations according to tax base. Extrapolating absolute figures of individuals entails many dangers in terms of how precise they may be. Here we have used the following criteria: a) each tax base with a married head equates to four individuals; b) each tax base with a widow as its head equates to three individuals; c) each tax base with an unmarried man equates to one individual. The calculations were made on the basis of these factors. Since there is no agreement among scholars on the use of these factors, the figures given in the tables are indicative and suggest only demographic trends, without them having an absolute value.

43. To these figures we should also add at least 3,031 Jews, as this register is not complete as regards the Jews.

44. 227 Jews are included in the final total. 45. I.K. Vasdravellis, Istorika Archeia Makedonias A: Archeion Thessalonikis, 1695-1912

[Historical Archives of Macedonia A: Thessaloniki Archive], Thessaloniki 1952, p. 4 (no. 1).

46. Vakalopoulos, History of Macedonia, pp. 139-145. 47. ". McGowan, Economic Life in Ottoman Europe. Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for

Land, 1600-1800, Cambridge 1981, pp. 86-87. 48. McGowan, Economic Life, pp. 131-134.