Cretan Muslims

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Cretan Turks
)

Cretan Muslims
Τουρκοκρητικοί
Giritli Türkler
Cretan Muslims in their traditional costume; 19th-20th century
Total population
est. 450,000 (1971 estimate)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Turkey200,000 (1971)[1]
 Egypt100,000 (1971)[1]
 Libya100,000 (1971)[1]
Other countries (Lebanon, Syria etc.)50,000 (1971)[1]
Languages
Cretan Greek, Turkish, Arabic
Religion
Sunni Islam

The Cretan Muslims (

Dodecanese Islands under Italian administration (part of Greece since World War II), Syria (notably in the village of Al-Hamidiyah), Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, and Egypt, as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora
.

Cretan Muslims were descendants of

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, parts of western North Macedonia, and Bulgaria;[8] perhaps even a uniquely high rate of conversions rather than immigrants.[9] The Greek Muslims of Crete continued to speak Cretan Greek.[10] Intermarriage and conversion to Islam produced a group of people called Turkocretans; ethnically Greek but converted (or feigning conversion) to Islam for various practical reasons. European travellers' accounts note that the 'Turks' of Crete were mostly not of Turkic origin, but were Cretan converts from Orthodoxy."[11][12]

Sectarian violence during the 19th century caused many Muslims to leave Crete, especially during the

declaration of union with Greece in 1908.[14]: 87  Finally, after the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 and the Turkish War of Independence, the remaining Muslims of Crete were compulsorily exchanged for the Greek Christians of Anatolia under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne
(1923).

At all periods, most Cretan Muslims were Greek-speaking,

Bektashi—sensibility".[15] Today, the highest number of the Turkocretan descendants can be found in Ayvalık.[16] Those who left Crete in the late 19th and early 20th centuries settled largely along Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coast. Alongside Ayvalık and Cunda Island, they settled in İzmir, Çukurova, Bodrum, Side, Mudanya, Adana and Mersin.[17]

History

Starting in 1645, the

until 1715
). Crete remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1897.

The fall of Crete was not accompanied by an influx of Muslims. At the same time, many Cretans converted to Islam – more than in any other part of the Greek world. Various explanations have been given for this, including the disruption of war, the possibility of receiving a

Latin-Orthodox dissension, avoidance of the head-tax (cizye) on non-Muslims, the increased social mobility of Muslims, and the opportunity that Muslims had of joining the paid militia (which the Cretans also aspired to under Venetian rule).[18]

It is difficult to estimate the proportion which became Muslim, as Ottoman cizye tax records count only Christians: estimates range from 30 to 40%

Monofatsi
.

Year[20] 1821 1832 1858 1881 1900 1910 1920 1928
Muslims 47% 43% 22% 26% 11% 8% 7% 0%

People who claim descent from Cretan Muslims are still found in several Muslim countries today, and principally in Turkey.

Between 1821 and 1828, during the Greek War of Independence, the island was the scene of repeated hostilities. Most Muslims were driven into the large fortified towns on the north coast and both the Muslim and Christian populations of the island suffered severe losses, due to conflicts, plague or famine. In the 1830s, Crete was an impoverished and backward island.

Since the Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II, had no army of his own available, he was forced to seek the aid of his rebellious vassal and rival, Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt, who sent troops to the island. Starting in 1832, the island was administered for two decades by Mustafa Naili Pasha, whose rule attempted to create a synthesis between the Muslim landowners and the emergent Christian commercial classes. His rule was generally cautious, pro-British, and he tried harder to win the support of the Christians (having married the daughter of a priest and allowed her to remain Christian) than the Muslims. In 1834, however, a Cretan committee had already been founded in Athens to work for the union of the island with Greece.

In 1840, Egypt was forced by

Palmerston to return Crete to direct Ottoman rule. Mustafa Naili Pasha angled unsuccessfully to become a semi-independent prince but the Cretans rose up against him, once more driving the Muslims temporarily into siege in the towns. An Anglo-Ottoman naval operation restored control in the island and Mustafa Naili Pasha was confirmed as its governor, though under command from Istanbul
. He remained in Crete until 1851 when he was summoned to the capital, where at a relatively advanced age he pursued a successful career.

Religious tensions erupted on the island between Muslims and Christians and the Christian populations of Crete revolted twice against Ottoman rule (in 1866 and in 1897). In the

uprising of 1866, the rebels initially managed to gain control of most of the hinterland although as always the four fortified towns of the north coast and the southern town of Ierapetra remained in Ottoman hands. The Ottoman approach to the "Cretan question" was that, if Crete was lost, the next line of defense would have to be the Dardanelles, as indeed it was the case later. The Ottoman Grand Vizier, Mehmed Emin Aali Pasha arrived in the island in October 1867 and set in progress a low profile district-by-district reconquest of the island followed by the erection of blockhouses or local fortresses across the whole of it. More importantly, he designed an Organic Law which gave the Cretan Christians equal (in practice, because of their superior numbers, majority) control of local administration. At the time of the Congress of Berlin in the summer of 1878, there was a further uprising, which was speedily halted through the adaptation of the Organic Law into a constitutional settlement known as the Pact of Halepa
.

Crete became a semi-independent parliamentary state within the Ottoman Empire under a Greek Orthodox Governor. A number of the senior "Christian Pashas" including

Abdulhamid II used the occasion for ruling the island by martial law. This action led to international sympathy for the Cretan Christians and to a loss of any remaining acquiescence among them for continued Ottoman rule. When a small insurgency began in September 1895, it quickly spiralled out of control and by the summer of 1896, the Ottoman forces had lost military control over most of the island. A new insurrection that began in 1897 led to a war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. The Great Powers dispatched a multinational naval force, the International Squadron, to Crete in February 1897, and by late March 1897 it brought Cretan insurgent and Greek Army operations against the Ottomans in Crete to a halt by forcing the Greek Army to abandon the island, bombarding insurgent forces, placing sailors and marines ashore, and instituting a blockade of Crete and key ports in Greece.[21] Meanwhile, the International Squadron's senior admirals formed an "Admirals Council" that temporarily governed Crete pending a resolution of the Cretan uprising, and the Admirals Council eventually decided that Crete should become an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire.[22] After a violent riot by Cretan Muslims against Cretan Christians and British occupation forces on 6 September 1898 (25 August according to the Julian calendar then in use on Crete, which was 12 days behind the modern Gregorian calendar during the 19th century), the Admirals Council ordered all Ottoman forces to leave Crete, and the last of them were evacuated on 6 November 1898. The 21 December 1898 (9 December according to the Julian calendar) arrival of Prince George of Greece and Denmark as the first High commissioner of an autonomous Cretan State, although still under the suzerainty of the Sultan, effectively detached Crete from the Ottoman Empire.[23]

The island's Muslim population dropped dramatically because of these changes, with many emigrating to other parts of the Ottoman Empire.

until recently.

Culture

Literature

Turks in Crete produced a varied literary output, leading one researcher to define a "Cretan School" which counts twenty-one poets who evolved within Ottoman

Divan poetry or Turkish folk literature traditions, especially in the 18th century[25]
Personal, mystical, fantastic themes abound in the works of these men of letters, reflecting the dynamism of the cultural life in the island.

A taste and echo of this tradition can be perceived in the verses below by Giritli Sırrı Pasha (1844–1895);

Fidânsın nev-nihâl-i hüsn ü ânsın âfet-i cânsın
Gül âşık bülbül âşıkdır sana, bir özge cânânsın[26]

which were certainly addressed to his wife, the poet-composer

Turkish Classical Music
.

Recently, a number of books written by descendants of Cretan Muslims in the form of novelized family souvenirs with scenes set in Crete and Anatolia have seen the day in Turkey's book market. Saba Altınsay's "Kritimu" and Ahmet Yorulmaz's trilogy were the first to set the example in this move. There has even been family souvenirs written by the Cretan Muslim writer Mustafa Olpak, whose biographies in retrospect from the shores of Istanbul, Crete and Kenya follow his grandfathers who were initially brought to the Ottoman Empire as slaves to Crete. (see below: Further reading).

Music

A study by one Greek researcher counts six Cretan Muslims who engaged themselves into music in Cretan Greek dialect.[27] The Cretans brought the musical tradition they shared with the Cretan Christians to Turkey with them:

One of the significant aspects of Giritli culture is that this Islamic—often Bektashi—sensibility is expressed through the Greek language. [There has been] some confusion about their cultural identity, and an assumption is often made that their music was somehow more "Turkish" than "Cretan". In my view this assumption is quite wrong....[15]

But certain instruments were more often used by Christians: there are few cases of Muslim

better source needed
]

Cretan Muslim popular culture in Turkey

Nuances may be observed among the waves of immigrations from Crete and the respective behavioral patterns. At the end of the 19th century Muslims fled reprisal to take refuge in the present-day territory of Turkey or beyond (see

population exchange
is the final chapter among the root causes that shaped these nuances.

Among contributions made by Cretan Muslims to the Turkish culture in general, the first to be mentioned should be their particular culinary traditions based on consumption at high-levels of

viniculture. In the field of maritime industries, the pioneer of gulet boats construction that became a vast industry in Bodrum in our day, Ziya Güvendiren was a Cretan Muslim, as are many of his former apprentices who themselves have become master shipbuilders and who are based in Bodrum or Güllük
today.

An overall pattern of investing in expertise and success remains remarkable among Cretan Muslims, as attested by the notable names below. However, with sex roles and social change starting out from different grounds for Cretan Muslims,[29] the adaptation to the "fatherland"[30] did not always take place without pain, including that of being subjected to slurs as in other cases involving immigration of people.[31] According to Peter Loizos, they were often relegated to the poorest land:

They were briefly feted on arrival, as 'Turks' 'returning' to the Turkish heartland... like the Asia Minor Christians seeking to settle on land in northern Greece, the Muslim refugees found that local people, sometimes government officials, had already occupied the best land and housing.[32]

The same author depicts a picture where they did not share the "Ottoman perceptions of certain crafts and trades as being of low status",[32] so more entrepreneurial opportunities were open to them. Like others who did not speak Turkish, they suffered during the "Citizens Speak Turkish!" campaign which started in 1928. "Arabs, Circassians, Cretan Muslims, and Kurds in the country were being targeted for not speaking Turkish. In Mersin, for instance, 'Kurds, Cretans, Arabs and Syrians' were being fined for speaking languages other than Turkish.".[33] In the summary translation of a book on Bodrum made by Loizos, it is stated that, even as late as 1967, the Cretans and the 'local Turks' did not mix in some towns; they continued to speak Greek and mostly married other Cretans.[34]

Diaspora in Lebanon and Syria

As of 2006 there were about 7,000 Greek speakers living in

Al Hamidiyah, Syria,[35] the majority of them Muslims of Cretan origin. Records suggest that the community left Crete between 1866 and 1897, on the outbreak of the last Cretan uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which ended the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.[35] Sultan Abdul Hamid II provided Cretan Muslim families who fled the island with refuge on the Levantine
coast. The new settlement was named Hamidiye after the sultan.

Many Cretan Muslims of Lebanon somewhat managed to preserve their identity and language. Unlike neighboring communities, they are monogamous and consider divorce a disgrace. Their community was close-knit and entirely endogamous until the Lebanese Civil War, when many of them were forced to migrate and the community was dispersed.[35]

Cretan Muslims constitute 60% of

Al Hamidiyah's population. The community is very much concerned with maintaining its culture. The knowledge of the spoken Greek language is remarkably good and their contact with their historical homeland has been possible by means of satellite television and relatives.[35]

Notable people

Greek descent in Crete.[36]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ .
  2. .
  3. ^ . The island in question [Crete] was home to Cretan Muslims, descendants of ethnic Greeks who had converted to Islam after the Ottoman conquest in the seventeenth century. Although the language of administration and prestige was Ottoman Turkish, Cretan Muslims used Greek to express their Bektashi Islamic sentiment. After all, Islam in Crete was profoundly influenced by the Bektahi Sufi Order. Although they identified as Greek Muslims, Christian Greeks described them as Turkocretans since they had "betrayed" the Greek Orthodox Church. Some Cretan Muslims reportedly described themselves as "Turco-Romnoi," which means "European Turks," treating the term "Turk" as synonymous with "Muslim," or "Turkish Greeks," namely, Muslim Greeks or Greek Muslims.
  4. ^ Psaradaki, Eleni (30 August 2021). "Oral Memories and the Cretan Identity Of Cretan Turks in Bodrum, Turkey" (PDF). Stratejik ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi Türk-Yunan İlişkileri Özel Sayısı, C. 5. pp. 41–54. With the term "Cretan Turks" we refer to the descendants of Islamized Cretans during the occupation of the island of Crete by the Turks in 1669. A large number of Cretans (as it also happened generally in Greece) became Muslims in order to avoid the socioeconomic hardships of the Ottoman Occupation of Crete.
  5. ISSN 0035-8789
    . The Cretan "Turks" were not ethnically Turkish, or even Anatolian at all. They were Cretans whose ancestors had accepted Islam at some time after the Turkish conquest of the island in the middle of the seventeenth century.
  6. ^ Hyland, Tim (18 May 2020). "Uğur Z. Peçe Uncovers a Forgotten Part of the History of Crete". Lehigh University. Retrieved 17 April 2023. the people known as the Cretan Turks—a Muslim people of Greek descent—ended up relocating, permanently, to Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, Libya and the Balkans [...] Though the island was home to both Christians and Muslims, both groups were of Greek origin.
  7. , p. 118
  8. .
  9. ^ Demetres Tziovas, Greece and the Balkans: Identities, Perceptions and Cultural Encounters Since the Enlightenment; William Yale, The Near East: A modern history Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1958)
  10. ^ Barbara J. Hayden, The Settlement History of the Vrokastro Area and Related Studies, vol. 2 of Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete, p. 299
  11. ^ Balta, E., & Ölmez, M. (2011). Between religion and language: Turkish-speaking Christians, Jews and Greek-speaking Muslims and Catholics in the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul: Eren.
  12. Henry Noel Brailsford (full text[permanent dead link
    ]
    ), an eyewitness of the immediate aftermath, uses the term "wholesale massacre" to describe the events of 1897 in Crete.
  13. ^ .
    Quote, p. 87: "In the eve of the
    Greek Kingdom
    ."
    Quote, p. 88: "Some effort was made by Greece prior to the war to win Turcocretans to the idea of Greek government in
    [Turkish] organizations which includes the worst elements among Turcocretans and the Laz people
    (...) as disastrous and inexpedient" in the same source."
  14. ^ a b c Chris Williams, "The Cretan Muslims and the Music of Crete", in Dimitris Tziovas, ed., Greece and the Balkans: Identities, Perceptions, and Cultural Encounters since the Enlightenment
  15. ^ gazeteistanbul (21 February 2017). "Anneanne dili "Giritçe"". Gazete İstanbul (in Turkish). Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  16. ^ Tuncay Ercan Sepetcioglu (January 2021). "Cretan Turks at the End of the 19th Century: Migration and Settlement (19. Yüzyılda Girit Türkleri: Göç ve Yerleşim)" – via ResearchGate.
  17. ^ Greene, pp. 39–44
  18. ^ Greene, pp. 52–54
  19. ^ Macrakis, p. 51
  20. ^ McTiernan, pp. 13–23.
  21. ^ McTiernan, p. 28.
  22. ^ McTiernan, pp. 35–39.
  23. ^ "The Cretan Rebellion of 1897 and the Emigration of the Cretan Muslims — Refugee History". Refugeehistory.org. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  24. Hacı Bektash Veli and Turkish Culture Research Center. Archived from the original
    on 30 January 2008. Retrieved 30 April 2007. (abstract also in English) Aside from those cited in the article, the principal men of letters considered to compose the "Cretan school" are; 1. Ahmed Hikmetî Efendi (also called Bî-namaz Ahmed Efendi) (? – 1727), 2. Ahmed Bedrî Efendi (? – 1761), 3. Lebib Efendi (? – 1768), 4. Ahmed Cezbî Efendi (? – 1781), 5. Aziz Ali Efendi (? – 1798), 6. İbrahim Hıfzî Efendi (? – ?), 7. Mustafa Mazlum Fehmî Pasha (1812–1861), 8. İbrahim Fehim Bey (1813–1861), 9. Yahya Kâmi Efendi (? – ?), 10. Ahmed İzzet Bey (? – 1861), 11. Mazlum Mustafa Pasha (? – 1861), 12. Ahmed Muhtar Efendi (1847–1910), 13. Ali İffet Efendi (1869–1941).
  25. ^ Summary translation: A slender sapling you are, freshly shooting beauty and grace you are, an affection for one's mind you are! The rose is in love with you, the nightingale is in love you. An uncommon beloved one you are! (note that "fidân" can mean "sapling" as a noun and "slender" as an adjective, and "âfet" has more than one meaning as its English equivalent "affection".)
  26. Rethimno. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  27. ^ "A Greek point of view on Cretan Turks". Cretan-music.gr. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  28. S2CID 144517389
    .
  29. ^ M. Ragip Zik. "Giritli Mübadillerde Kimlik Oluşumu ve Toplumsal Hafıza" (in Turkish). Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul. Archived from the original on 11 March 2005. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  30. , p. 187;
  31. ^ , p. 133-5
  32. ^ a b c d Greek-Speaking Enclaves of Lebanon and Syria by Roula Tsokalidou. Proceedings II Simposio Internacional Bilingüismo. Retrieved 4 December 2006
  33. ^ . RESMI, AHMAD Ottoman statesman and historian. Ahmad b. Ibrahim, known as Resmi, belonged to Rethymo (turk. Resmo; hence his epithet) in Crete and was of Greek descent (cf. J. v. Hammer, GOR, viii. 202). He was born in III (1700) and came in 1146 (1733) to Stambul where he was educated, married a daughter of the Ke is Efendi
  34. ^ "Tuerkische Botschafter in Berlin" (in German). Turkish Embassy, Berlin. Archived from the original on 2 June 2001.
  35. . Ahmed Resmi Efendi (1700–1783). Der osmanische Staatsmann und Geschichtsschreiber griechischer Herkunft. Translation "Ahmed Resmi Efendi (1700–1783). The Ottoman statesman and historian of Greek origin"
  36. ^ European studies review (1977). European studies review, Volumes 7–8. Sage Publications. p. 170. Resmi Ahmad (−83) was originally of Greek descent. He entered Ottoman service in 1733 and after holding a number of posts in local administration, was sent on missions to Vienna (1758) and Berlin (1763–4). He later held a number of important offices in central government. In addition, Resmi Ahmad was a contemporary historian of some distinction.
  37. . Ahmad b. Ibrahim, known as Resmi came from Rethymno (Turk. Resmo; hence his epithet?) in Crete and was of Greek descent (cf. Hammer- Purgstall, viii, 202). He was born in 1112/ 1700 and came in 1 146/1733 to Istanbul
  38. ^ "Salih Zeki". Anopolis72000.blogspot.com. 19 September 2009.
  39. ^ "Interview with Ayşe Cebesoy Sarıalp, Ali Fuat Pasha's niece". Aksiyon.com.tr. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011.
  40. ^ Yeni Giritliler Archived 19 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine Article on the rising interest in Cretan heritage (in Turkish)
  41. ^ "Arınç Ahmediye köyünde çocuklarla Rumca konuştu" [Arınç spoke Greek with the children in the village of Ahmediye]. Milliyet (in Turkish). Turkey. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  42. ^ Bülent Arınç anadili Rumca konuşurken [Bülent Arınç talking to native speakers of Greek] (video) (in Turkish and Greek). You Tube. 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2015.[dead YouTube link]
  43. ^ "Greece angered over Turkish Deputy PM's Hagia Sophia remarks". Hurriyet Daily News. Turkey. 19 November 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2015.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links