Render unto the Sultan : power, authority, and the Greek Orthodox Church in the early Ottoman centuries / Tom Papademetriou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Papademetriou, Tom, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orthodox Eastern Church--History.

Orthodox Eastern Church.

Orthodoxos Ekklēsia tēs Hellados.

History.

Orthodoxos Ekklēsia tēs Hellados--History.

Religion.

Turkey--History--Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918.

Turkey.

Turkey--Economic conditions--1288-1918.

Economic conditions.

Turkey--Religion--Economic aspects.

Turkey--Foreign relations--Greece.

International relations.

Greece.

Greece--Foreign relations--Turkey.

Diplomatic relations.

Economic history.

Religion--Economic aspects.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

vii, 256 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

The received wisdom about the nature of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Ottoman Empire is that Sultan Mehmed II re-established the Patriarchate of Constantinople as both a political and a religious authority to govern the post-Byzantine Greek community. However, relations between the Church hierarchy and Ottoman masters extend further back in history, and closer scrutiny of these relations reveals that the Church hierarchy in Anatolia had long experience dealing with Turkish emirs by focusing on economic arrangements. Decried as scandalous, these arrangements became the modus vivendi for bishops in the Turkish emirates. Primarily concerned with the economic arrangements between the Ottoman state and the institution of the Greek Orthodox Church from the mid-fifteenth to the sixteenth century, Render unto the Sultan argues that the Ottoman state considered the Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy primarily as tax farmers (mültezim) for cash income derived from the church's widespread holdings. The Ottoman state granted individuals the right to take their positions as hierarchs in return for yearly payments to the state. Relying on members of the Greek economic elite (archons) to purchase the ecclesiastical tax farm (iltizam), hierarchical positions became subject to the same forces of competition that other Ottoman administrative offices faced. This led to colorful episodes and multiple challenges to ecclesiastical authority throughout Ottoman lands. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Theoretical and Historical Background

Introduction 3

1 The Millet System Revisited 19

2 Istimalet, Ottoman Methods of Conquest, and the Greek Orthodox Church 63

II The Patriarchal Tax Farm

3 The All-Holy Tax Farmer: The Istanbul Rum Patrigi as Mültezim 107

4 Ottoman Tax Farming and the Greek Orthodox Church 139

III Contested Power and Authority

5 Competition and Corruption: Sultan, Patriarch, and Greek Elite 179

6 Conclusion: Continuity Beyond the Sixteenth Century 214.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780198717898

019871789X

OCLC:

903631789