Ottoman Yoke

EVANGELOS KATAFYLIS

The Ottoman Yoke signifies the political and religious subordination of the Greek

Christians to Islam after the fall of Constanti­nople in 1453 and the abolition of the Byzantine Empire. The Yoke is seen as having started to lift after the revolutionary declara­tion of Greek independence from the Turks in 1821. Though many parts of the Orthodox world (such as Egypt and Anatolia) never regained any form of political independence, other conquered Orthodox nations (espe­cially in the Balkans) followed the Greek example soon after. After the fall of Constan­tinople the Orthodox Church was the only institution that continued the religious legacy of Byzantium, preserving and organizing Christianity throughout the sultan’s extensive dominions. The conqueror, Sultan Mehmet II, recognized the Greek patriarch as the legal head of the Orthodox Christian community (ethnarch), and designated him supreme religious leader of all his Orthodox subjects (dhimmi) among whom he included non- Chalcedonian and non-Greek Orthodox too; allowing them freedom of worship under Ottoman protection provided the taxes of a subject nation were paid. Mehmet first appointed Gennadios Scholarios to take over the patriarchal office, giving to him and his successors full jurisdiction over the education of all the Orthodox Christians across the Ottoman Empire. The Orthodox Church was, at that time, the only organized institution which could represent Christians in their dealings with the Ottoman administration (Porte Sub­lime), and apart from the church, the Orthodox Christian population had no centrally surviving institutions.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries the Ottoman sultans succeeded in making Constantinople the center of their empire. It became a vibrant city, retaining Greek as the diplomatic language of the empire. When the empire became less tolerant of its Greek subjects, they were often forced to adopt a new way of life, for the sake of their survival. Accordingly, this period saw the progressive Islamicization of the

Christians, the phenomenon of crypto- Christianism, the recruitment of underage Christian children (devsirme) for the sul­tan’s personal guard, the prohibition of the erection of churches (and often of their repair), the seizure and destruction of what church property remained after the conquest, the obstruction of Christian wor­ship, the compulsory enlistment in the navy for Greeks, the growth of piracy and law­lessness against Christian merchants who were regarded as an easy target, and an oppressive poll tax (harag) which was given to the patriarchate to enforce, thereby earning him unpopularity. This system of the patriarch acting as empire-wide ethnarch led to the rise of the so-called Phanariots, members of prominent Greek families in Constantinople who, from the second half of the 16th century until the 18th century, offered their services as drag­omans (translators, or agents) to the Otto­man government, and thereby often commandeered leading political and eccle­siastic posts in all the Christian territories across Ottoman dominions.

The regime under which Christian sub­jects were living after the conquest was a harsh one, punctuated by many examples of captivities and persecutions, one that has been globally designated by the dramatic word Yoke, a term meaning “Slavery.” Living under such conditions, many Greek Christians of the Turkish mainland emi­grated to safer places in southern Italy, around the Danube, to Russia, Venice, or the Venetian colonies in Greece. Despite the migration, the spirit of Greek Orthodox culture continued to exist, with many emi­nent scholars of this time active on main­land Greece. The Greek Orthodox College, established in 1454 by Gennadios Scho- larios, played an important role in con­tinuing Orthodox Christian culture under the Yoke. In Crete and on Mount Athos, Greek letters and iconic painting also flourished. The migrations were a demographic shift which significantly contributed to a wide dissemination of Greek culture and language in Orthodox lands, resulting in the establishment of schools and the publication of many books.

From the beginning of the 18th century the decline of Ottoman power in the face of European advances became increasingly evi­dent. It led to a widespread sense among the Orthodox of the Ottoman domains that cer­tain instances of independence could be achieved: something that became realized with the 1821 declaration of Greek indepen­dence. This led to rapid economic and cul­tural developments among the Greek and other newly independent Orthodox nations in the 19th century and beyond.

SEE ALSO: Constantinople, Patriarchate of; Mount Athos; Romania, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; Scholarios, George (Gennadios) (ca. 1403–1472)

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Chasiotes, I. (2001) Μεταξύ Οθωμανικής κυριαρχίας και Ευρωπαϊκής πρόσκλησης: Ο ελληνικός κόσμος στα χρόνια της Τουρκοκρατίας [Between Ottoman Domination and European Challenge: The Greek World in the Years of the Ottoman Yoke]. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press.

Metallenos, G. (1998) Τουρκοκρατία: Οι Έλληνες στην Οθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία [Ottoman Yoke: The Greeks in Ottoman Empire]. Athens: Akritas.

Vakalopoulos, A. (2001) Ιστορία του νέου Ελληνισμού [History of Modern Greece]. Thessaloniki: Hyrodotos.

Zakythinos, D. (1957) Τουρκοκρατία: εισαγωγή εις την νεωτέραν ιστορίαν του ελληνισμού [Ottoman Yoke: Introduction to Modern History of Hellenism]. Athens.