The libraries of the self-governed neighborhood, established greater than 1,000 years in the past on northern Greece’s Athos peninsula, are a repository of uncommon, centuries-old works in a number of languages together with Greek, Russian and Romanian.
Many have been extensively studied, however not the Ottoman Turkish paperwork, merchandise of an occupying paperwork that dominated northern Greece from the late 14th century — properly earlier than the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, fell to the Ottomans in 1453 — till the early twentieth when the realm turned Greek once more.
Byzantine scholar Jannis Niehoff-Panagiotidis says it’s unimaginable to grasp Mount Athos’ economic system and society underneath Ottoman rule with out consulting these paperwork, which regulated the monks’ dealings with secular authorities.
“Ottoman was the official language of state,” he informed The Related Press from the library of the Pantokrator Monastery, one in every of 20 on the closely wooded peninsula.
Niehoff-Panagiotidis, a professor on the Free College of Berlin, stated the oldest of the roughly 25,000 Ottoman works discovered within the monastic libraries dates to 1374, or 1371. That’s older than any recognized on the earth, he stated, including that in Istanbul, because the Ottomans renamed Constantinople after they made the town their very own capital, the oldest archives solely return to the late fifteenth century.
“The primary paperwork that shed mild (on the primary interval of Ottoman historical past) are saved right here, on Mount Athos,” he stated, seated at a desk piled with paperwork and books. Others, the extra uncommon ones, are saved in massive picket drawers.
These embrace extremely ornate Sultans’ firmans — or decrees — deeds of possession and court docket choices.
“The overwhelming majority are authorized paperwork,” stated Anastasios Nikopoulos, a jurist and scientific collaborator of the Free College of Berlin who’s been working with Niehoff-Panagiotidis on the venture for the previous few months.
And the manuscripts inform a narrative at odds with the standard understanding in Greece of Ottoman depredations within the newly-conquered areas, by means of the confiscation of the Mount Athos monasteries’ wealthy actual property holdings. As an alternative, the brand new rulers took the neighborhood underneath their wing, preserved its autonomy and guarded it from exterior interference.
“The Sultans’ firmans we noticed within the tower … and the Ottoman state’s court docket choices present that the monks’ small democracy was capable of achieve the respect of all conquering powers,” Nikopoulos stated. “And that’s as a result of Mount Athos was seen as a cradle of peace, tradition … the place peoples and civilizations coexisted peacefully.”
Nikopoulos stated that one of many first actions of Murad II, the Ottoman ruler who conquered Thessaloniki — the closest metropolis to Mount Athos — was to attract up a authorized doc in 1430 defending the neighborhood.
“That claims loads. The Ottoman sultan himself ensured that the executive system of Mount Athos was preserved and safeguarded,” he stated.
Even earlier than that, Niehoff-Panagiotidis added, a sultan issued a mandate laying down strict punishment for intruders after a band of marauding troopers engaged in minor thieving from one of many monasteries.
“It’s unusual that the sultans saved Mount Athos, the final remnant of Byzantium, semi-independent and didn’t contact it,” he stated. “They didn’t even maintain troops right here. On the very most they’d have an area consultant who most likely stayed at (the neighborhood’s administrative heart, Karyes) and sipped tea.”
One other surprising revelation, Niehoff-Panagiotidis stated, was that for roughly the primary two centuries of Ottoman rule no effort was made to impose Islamic regulation on Mount Athos or close by elements of northern Greece.
“Mount Athos was one thing like a continuation of Byzantium,” he stated.
The neighborhood was first granted self-governance by means of a decree by Byzantine Emperor Basil II, in 883 AD. All through its historical past, ladies have been forbidden from getting into, a ban that also stands. This rule is named “avaton” and the researchers consider that it issues each type of exterior administrative or secular intervention that would have an effect on Mount Athos.
Father Theophilos, a Pantokrator monk who helps with the analysis, stated the paperwork present the far-flung affect of Mount Athos.
“Their research additionally illuminates examples of how individuals can stay with one another, ideas which are widespread to all humanity, the seeds of human rights and respect for them, democracy and the ideas of social coexistence,” he informed The Related Press.
The analysis venture is predicted to proceed for a number of months, even years.
“What might emerge in the long run I’ll be capable to say when we now have catalogued and digitized all of the paperwork,” Niehoff-Panagiotidis stated. “Proper now, no person is aware of what’s hidden right here. Maybe, even older paperwork.”
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