The Island of Andros under Ottoman Rule

Scholarly Supervision: Elias Kolovos

Collaborating Institution: Kaireios Library of Andros

Research Assistant: Giorgos Vidras, MA in Ottoman History, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete (in collaboration with the IMS/FORTH)

The aim of the project was to study the economic and social history of the island of Andros under Ottoman administration (1538/1579-1821), in the light of the information provided by the Ottoman documents preserved on the island and by archive material from the Basbakanlik Ottoman Archive in Istanbul. The ultimate goal of the project was to contribute to a wider study of the Aegean island societies under Ottoman rule.

The project started in 2002 with the preliminary classification of the Ottoman documents in the Kaireios Library, following an invitation by its late director, Dimitrios Polemis.
The main product of the project was a monograph including summaries (in Greek) of the Ottoman documents of the Kaireios Library:

• E. Kolovos, Η νησιωτική κοινωνία της Άνδρου στο οθωμανικό πλαίσιο: Πρώτη προσέγγιση με βάση τα οθωμανικά έγγραφα της Καϊρείου Βιβλιοθήκης Άνδρου (1579-1821) [The Insular Society of Andros in the Ottoman Context: A First Approach Based on the Ottoman Documents of the Kaireios Library of Andros (1579-1821)], Andros: Kaireios Library 2006.

[Book Reviews: Μνήμων 28 (2006/2007), 313-317 (Dimitris Dimitropoulos); Τα Ιστορικά, 23/45 (December 2006), 505-511 (Sia Anagnostopoulou); newspaper Η Θεσσαλία, 22/10/2006 (Kostas D. Patrikos).]

At the same time, the facsimiles, the transcriptions and short summaries in English of the Ottoman documents have been entered in a database, which is available on the Internet as an appendix to the abovementioned publication:
http://androsdocs.ims.forth.gr.
The database offers direct access to Ottomanists and students of Ottoman history to the language of the sources and the possibility to cross-check the facsimiles of the original documents, as well as the possibility to search particular words and phrases in the documents. At the same time, the database digitalises rare Ottoman archival material.The database has been indexed by the Portal of Primary European Historical Resources: http://primary-sources.eui.eu (European University Institute, Florence), which indexes digital repositories of primary sources concerning the history of Europe.
In a second phase of the project, the pages of the Ottoman census record of 1670/71, preserved at the Prime Ministerial Ottoman Archive of Istanbul, were published with detailed commentary and analytical data on the topography, names, economy, and society of Andros in the second half of the 17th century:

• E. Kolovos, ὃπου ἦν κῆπος: Η μεσογειακή νησιωτική οικονομία της Άνδρου σύμφωνα με το οθωμανικό κτηματολόγιο του 1670 ["There was a garden..." The Economy of the Mediterranean Island of Andros according to the Ottoman Land and Property Survey of 1670], Herakleion: Crete University Press and Kaireios Library 2017.

Deliverables

• E. Kolovos, ὃπου ἦν κῆπος: Η μεσογειακή νησιωτική οικονομία της Άνδρου σύμφωνα με το οθωμανικό κτηματολόγιο του 1670 ["There was a garden..." The Economy of the Mediterranean Island of Andros according to the Ottoman Land and Property Survey of 1670], Herakleion: Crete University Press and Kaireios Library 2017.
• E. Kolovos, «Οι Στενιές στα τέλη του 17^ου αιώνα», in D. I. Kyrtatas, Ο Πύργος του Μπίστη (Μουβελά) στις Στενιές Άνδρου: Ιστορία και αρχιτεκτονικά χαρακτηριστικά, Athens: Gutenberg 2016, 13-33.
• E. Kolovos, «Πότε και πώς οι Άνδριοι «επήραν το νησί της Άντρος» από τους Τούρκους», D. I. Kyrtatas (ed.), Ο Δημήτρης Ι. Πολέμης και η ιστορία της Άνδρου, Andros: Kaireios Library 2016, 57-66.
• E. Kolovos, «Πίσω στα τεφτέρια; Οικονομικά μεγέθη και κοινωνική δομή στην Άνδρο του 17^ου αιώνα με βάση το Οθωμανικό Κτηματολόγιο: Τρόποι ανάλυσης, μεθοδολογικά προβλήματα και ιστοριογραφικά ζητήματα», in S. Petmezas, Tz. Harlaftis, A. Lymperatos, K. Papakonstantinou (eds), Θεωρητικές αναζητήσεις και εμπειρικές έρευνες. Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου Οικονομικής και Κοινωνικής Ιστορίας, Ρέθυμνο 10-13.12.2008, Athens: University of Crete - Alexandria 2012, 73-102.
• E. Kolovos, "Ottoman Documents from the Aegean Island of Andros: Provincial Administration, Adaptation and Limitations in the Case of an Island Society (late 16^th- early 19^th century)", Documents de travail du CETOBAC No 1 (Janvier 2010): Les archives de l'insularité ottomane, sous la direction de Nicolas Vatin et Gilles Veinstein (http://cetobac.ehess.fr/docannexe.php?id=390), 24-27.
• E. Kolovos, «Insularity and Society in the Ottoman Context: The Case of the Aegean Island of Andros (Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries)», Turcica 39 (2007), 49-122.
• E. Kolovos, "Beyond 'Classical' Ottoman Defterology: A Preliminary Assessment of the Tahrir Registers of 1670/71 concerning Crete and the Aegean Islands", in E. Kolovos, Ph. Kotzageorgis, S. Laiou, M. Sariyannis (eds), The Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, the Gre ek Lands: Toward a Social and Economic History; Studies in Honor of John C. Alexander, Κωνσταντινούπολη, Isis Press, 2007.
• http://androsdocs.ims.forth.gr
• E. Kolovos, Η νησιωτική κοινωνία της Άνδρου στο οθωμανικό πλαίσιο: Πρώτη προσέγγιση με βάση τα οθωμανικά έγγραφα της Καϊρείου Βιβλιοθήκης Άνδρου (1579-1821) [The Insular Society of Andros in the Ottoman Context: A First Approach Based on the Ottoman Documents of the Kaireios Library of Andros (1579-1821)], Andros: Kaireios Library 2006.
• E. Kolovos, «Ραγιάδες και Φράγκοι στην Πύλη του σουλτάνου: Η κοινωνία της Ανδρου το 1564 και η οθωμανική κεντρική διοίκηση», Άγκυρα 2 (2004), 55-88.
• E. Kolovos, « Les documents ottomans de la bibliothèque Kaireios d'Andros (Grèce) », Turcica 35 (2003), 317-321.

Within the framework of the same project a master's thesis has been prepared under the supervision of the scholarly supervisor:

• G. Vidras, «Η αγροτική οικονομία και κοινωνία της Σύρου μέσα από τις οθωμανικές φορολογικές καταστιχώσεις του 1670/71», Master's Thesis, Post-Graduate Programme in Turkish Studies, University of Crete / FORTH, Rethymno 2008.