Phanariots

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Phanarion quarter, the historical centre of the Greek community of Constantinople in Ottoman times
, ca. 1900
Another view of the Phanarion quarter, ca. 1900. In the forefront: the Bulgarian Orthodox Church of St. Stephen; atop the hill: the Phanar Greek Orthodox College.

Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots (

Voivode of Wallachia, Grand Dragoman of the Porte and Grand Dragoman of the Fleet. Despite their cosmopolitanism and often-Western education, the Phanariots were aware of their Greek ancestry and culture; according to Nicholas Mavrocordatos' Philotheou Parerga, "We are a race completely Hellenic".[3]

They emerged as a class of wealthy Greek merchants (of mostly noble

hierarchs
(including the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople).

Overview

Many members of Phanariot families (who had acquired great wealth and influence during the 17th century) occupied high

Porte) and foreign embassies due to the Greeks' higher level of education than the general Ottoman population.[4] With the church dignitaries, local notables from the provinces and the large Greek merchant class, Phanariots represented the better-educated members of Greek society during Ottoman rule until the 1821 start of the Greek War of Independence. During the war, Phanariots influenced decisions by the Greek National Assembly (the representative body of Greek revolutionaries, which met six times between 1821 and 1829).[4][5] Between 1711–1716 and 1821, a number of Phanariots were appointed Hospodars (voivodes or princes) in the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) (usually as a promotion from the offices of Dragoman of the Fleet and Dragoman of the Porte); the period is known as the Phanariot epoch in Romanian history.[1]

Ottoman Empire

After the

Mehmet II deported the city's Christian population, leaving only the Jewish inhabitants of Balat,[6] repopulating the city with Christians and Muslims from throughout the whole empire and the newly conquered territories.[6] Phanar was repopulated with Greeks from Mouchlion in the Peloponnese and, after 1461, with citizens of the Empire of Trebizond.[7]

The roots of Greek ascendancy can be traced to the Ottoman need for skilled, educated negotiators as their empire declined and they relied on treaties rather than force.[1] During the 17th century, the Ottomans began having problems in foreign relations and difficulty dictating terms to their neighbours; for the first time, the Porte needed to participate in diplomatic negotiations.

With the Ottomans traditionally ignoring Western European languages and cultures, officials were at a loss.[8] The Porte assigned those tasks to the Greeks, who had a long mercantile and educational tradition and the necessary skills. The Phanariots and other Greek as well as Hellenized families primarily from Constantinople, occupied high posts as secretaries and interpreters for Ottoman officials.[9]

Diplomats and patriarchs

As a result of Phanariot and ecclesiastical administration, the Greeks expanded their influence in the 18th-century empire while retaining their

Eyalet of Bosnia; Serbs tended to occupy high military positions.[8]

A Slavic presence in Ottoman administration gradually became hazardous for its rulers, since the Slavs tended to support Habsburg armies during the Great Turkish War. By the 17th century the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople was the religious and administrative ruler of the empire's Orthodox subjects, regardless of ethnic background. All formerly-independent Orthodox patriarchates, including the Serbian Patriarchate renewed in 1557, came under the authority of the Greek Orthodox Church.[9] Most of the Greek patriarchs were drawn from the Phanariots.

Two Greek social groups emerged, challenging the leadership of the Greek Church:

Byzantine aristocratic origin, who acquired economic and political influence and were later known as Phanariots, settled in extreme northwestern Constantinople (which had become central to Greek interests after the establishment of the patriarch's headquarters in 1461, shortly after Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque).[11]

Double-headed eagle on a building
Emblem of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople

Patriarchate

After the 1453 fall of Constantinople, when the

Byzantine Emperor for subjugated Christians, he recognized the Ecumenical Patriarch as the religious and national leader (ethnarch) of the Greeks and other ethnic groups in the Greek Orthodox Millet.[12] The Patriarchate had primary importance, occupying this key role for Christians of the Empire because the Ottomans did not legally distinguish between nationality and religion and considered the empire's Orthodox Christians a single entity.[13]

The position of the Patriarchate in the Ottoman state encouraged Greek renaissance projects centering on the resurrection and revitalization of the Byzantine Empire. The Patriarch and his church dignitaries constituted the first centre of power for the Greeks in the Ottoman state, which infiltrated Ottoman structures and attracted the former Byzantine nobility.[13]

Merchant middle class

Bearded man in a robe
Engraving of Greek merchant by Cesare Vecellio (16th century)

The wealth of the extensive Greek merchant class provided the material basis for the intellectual revival featured in Greek life for more than half a century before 1821. Greek merchants endowed libraries and schools. On the eve of the Greek War of Independence, the three most important centres of Greek learning (schools-cum-universities) were in the commercial centres of

Muscovy.[15]

Civil servants

During the 18th century, the Phanariots were a hereditary clerical−aristocratic group who managed the affairs of the patriarchate and the dominant political power of the Ottoman Greek community. They became a significant political factor in the empire and, as diplomatic agents, played a role in the affairs of Great Britain, France and the Russian Empire.[16]

The Phanariots competed for the most important administrative offices in the Ottoman administration; these included collecting imperial taxes, monopolies on commerce, working under contract in a number of enterprises, supplying the court and ruling the Danubian Principalities. They engaged in private trade, controlling the crucial wheat trade on the Black Sea. The Phanariots expanded their commercial activities into the Kingdom of Hungary and then to the other Central European states. Their activities intensified their contacts with Western nations, and they became familiar with Western languages and cultures.[11]

Before the beginning of the

armatoloi).[17]

Danubian principalities

Engraving of a bearded man wearing a hat
Constantine Mavrocordatos, engraving from 1763

A Greek presence had established itself in both Danubian Principalities of

1848 Wallachian revolution
.)

Phanariot attention focused on occupying the most favorable offices the empire could offer non-Muslims and the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which were still relatively rich and—more importantly—autonomous (despite having to pay tribute as vassal states). Many Greeks had found favorable conditions there for commercial activities, in comparison with the Ottoman Empire, and an opportunity for political power; they entered Wallachian and Moldavian boyar nobility by marriage.

Reigns of local princes were not excluded on principle. Several

Ghicas
penetrated the Phanar nucleus to increase their chances of occupying the thrones and maintain their positions.

Most sources agree that 1711 was when the gradual erosion of traditional institutions reached its zenith, but characteristics ascribed to the Phanariot era had made themselves felt long before it.

Cantacuzino in Moldavia and George Ducas (a prince of Greek origin) in Wallachia, both in 1673, were forced to surrender their family members as hostages in Constantinople. The traditional elective system in the principalities, resulting in long periods of political disorder, was dominated by a small number of ambitious families who competed violently for the two thrones and monopolized land ownership.[19]

1711–1715

lithograph by Amedeo Preziosi

A change in policy was indicated by the fact that autonomous Wallachia and Moldavia had entered a period of skirmishes with the Ottomans, due to the insubordination of local princes associated with the rise of

Eastern Orthodox state. This became obvious with Mihai Racoviță's second rule in Moldavia, when the prince plotted with Peter to have Ottoman rule overthrown. His replacement, Nicholas Mavrocordatos, was the first official Phanariot in his second reign in Moldavia and replaced Ștefan Cantacuzino
in Wallachia as the first Phanariot ruler of that country.

A crucial moment was the

Russo−Turkish War of 1710−1713, when Dimitrie Cantemir sided with Russia and agreed to Russian tutelage of his country. After Russia experienced a major defeat and Cantemir went into exile, the Ottomans took charge of the succession to the throne of Moldavia. This was followed by similar measures in Wallachia, prompted by Ștefan Cantacuzino's alliance with Habsburg commander Prince Eugene of Savoy in the closing stages of the Great Turkish War
.

Rulers and retinues

k.u.k.
troops approach / 9 Nov[ember] 1789".

The person raised to the office of prince was usually the chief dragoman of the Porte, well-versed in contemporary politics and Ottoman statecraft. The new prince, who obtained his office in exchange for a generous bribe, proceeded to the country he was selected to govern (whose language he usually did not know). When the new princes were appointed, they were escorted to Iași or Bucharest by retinues composed of their families, favourites and creditors (from whom they had borrowed the bribes). The prince and his appointees counted on recouping these in as short a time as possible, amassing an amount sufficient to live on after their brief time in office.

Thirty-one princes, from eleven families, ruled the two principalities during the Phanariot epoch. When the choice became limited to a few families due to princely disloyalty to the Porte, rulers would be moved from one principality to the other; the prince of Wallachia (the richer of the two principalities) would pay to avert his transfer to Iaşi, and the prince of Moldavia would bribe supporters in Constantinople to appoint him to Wallachia. Constantine Mavrocordatos ruled a total of ten times in Moldavia and Wallachia. The debt was owed to several creditors, rather than to the Sultan; the central institutions of the Ottoman Empire generally seemed determined to maintain their rule over the principalities and not exploit them irrationally. In an early example, Ahmed III paid part of Nicholas Mavrocordatos' sum.

Administration and boyars

Alexander Mourousis welcoming the British ambassador in Curtea Nouă

The Phanariot epoch was initially characterized by fiscal policies driven by Ottoman needs and the ambitions of some hospodars, who (mindful of their fragile status) sought to pay back their creditors and increase their wealth while in a position of power. To make the reigns lucrative while raising funds to satisfy the needs of the Porte, princes channeled their energies into taxing the inhabitants into destitution. The most odious taxes (such as the văcărit first imposed by Iancu Sasul in the 1580s), mistakenly identified with the Phanariots in modern Romanian historiography, were much older.

The mismanagement of many Phanariot rulers contrasts with the achievements and projects of others, such as Constantine Mavrocordatos (who abolished

legal code, met stiff boyar
resistance.

The focus of such rules was often the improvement of state structure against conservative wishes. Contemporary documents indicate that, despite the change in leadership and boyar complaints, about 80 percent of those seated in the Divan (an institution roughly equivalent to the estates of the realm) were members of local families.[20] This made endemic the social and economic issues of previous periods, since the inner circle of boyars blocked initiatives (such as Alexander Ypsilantis') and obtained, extended and preserved tax exemptions.[21]

Russian influence

The Phanariots copied Russian and Habsburg institutions; during the mid-18th century they made noble rank dependent on state service, as

Austrian gold currency) in Wallachia and to 3,100 in Moldavia.[22]

Alexander Mourousis

Immediately afterward, Russia forcefully used its new prerogative. The deposition of

Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich
swiftly reinstated Ypsilantis during his military expedition to Wallachia.

Such gestures began a period of effective Russian supervision, culminating with the

sudit status to merchants competing with local guilds. Nicholas I of Russia pressured Wallachia and Moldavia into granting constitutions (in 1831 and 1832, respectively) to weaken native rulers.[23]

The

capitulations" which either principality would have signed with the Ottomans, demanding that rights guaranteed through them be restored.[24] They viewed reform attempts by princes as illegitimate; in alternative proposals (usually in the form of constitutional projects), the boyars expressed desire for an aristocratic republic.[25]

Greek War of Independence and legacy

Alexandros Ypsilantis (1792–1828), prince of the Danubian Principalities, senior Imperial Russian cavalry officer during the Napoleonic Wars and leader of the Filiki Eteria, commanded the Greek Revolution in Wallachia
and planned a pan-Balkan uprising.

The active part taken by Greek princes in revolts after 1820 and the disorder provoked by the

Russo−Turkish War
and the subsequent period of Russian influence.

Most Phanariots were patrons of

Habsburg Europe.[1] Many of the Phanariot princes were capable, farsighted rulers. As prince of Wallachia in 1746 and Moldavia in 1749, Constantine Mavrocordatos abolished serfdom and Alexander Ypsilantis of Wallachia (reigned 1774–1782) initiated extensive administrative and legal reforms. Ipsilanti's reign coincided with subtle shifts in economic and social life and the emergence of spiritual and intellectual aspirations which pointed to the West and reform.[28]

Condemnation of the Phanariots is a focus of

Communist Romania) and agents of brutal, opportunistic change (as in Mihai Eminescu
's Scrisoarea a III-a).

Extant Phanariot families

Shield, cape, two crowns and a motto
Ghica family coat of arms
Alexander I of Greece
Photograph of a seated man with a monocle
Maurice Paléologue (1859–1944), diplomat, historian and essayist
Shield surrounded by two lions
Rosetti family coat of arms
Black-and-white portrait of a bearded man
Grigorios Ypsilantis (1835–1886), Greek diplomat

Here is a non-exhaustive list of Phanariot families:

Extinct Phanariot families

19th-century portrait of the Phanariot Greek Mavrocordatos family.[30]
  • Aristarchis
  • Ballasakis
  • Cananos
  • Caryophyles
  • Dimakis
  • Eupragiotes
  • Iancoleos (della Rocca)
  • Moronas
  • Negris
  • Paladas, from Crete
  • Plaginos
  • Rizos Neroulos
  • Ramadan
  • Souldjaroglou
  • Tzoukes

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Phanariotes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 346.
  2. ^ The names Fener and Φανάρι (Fanari) derive from the Greek nautical word meaning "Lighthouse" (literary "lantern" or "lamp")
    "Τριανταφυλλίδης On line Dictionary". Φανάρι (ναυτ.). Retrieved October 7, 2006.
  3. ^ Mavrocordatos Nicholaos, Philotheou Parerga, J.Bouchard, 1989, p.178, citation: Γένος μεν ημίν των άγαν Ελλήνων
  4. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica, The Phanariots, 2008, O.Ed.
  5. ^ a b c Paparregopoulus, Eb, p. 108.
  6. ^ a b Mamboury (1953), p. 98
  7. ^ Mamboury (1953), p. 99
  8. ^ a b Stavrianos, p. 270
  9. ^ a b Hobsbawm pp. 181–85.
  10. ^ Svoronos, p. 87
  11. ^ a b Svoronos, p. 88.
  12. ^ Glenny, p. 195.
  13. ^ a b Svoronos, p. 83.
  14. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Greek history, The mercantile middle class, 2008 ed.
  15. ^ Steven Runciman. The Great Church in Captivity. Cambridge University Press, 1988, page 197.
  16. ^ Svoronos, p. 89.
  17. ^ Svoronos, p. 91.
  18. ^ See the historiographical discussion in Drace-Francis, The Making of Modern Romanian Culture, p. 26, note 6.
  19. ^ Djuvara, pp. 123, 125–26.
  20. ^ Djuvara, p.124
  21. ^ Djuvara, p.69
  22. ^ Berza
  23. ^ A History of the Balkans 1804–1945, p. 47
  24. ^ Djuvara, p. 123
  25. ^ Djuvara, p. 319
  26. ISBN 1-84511-066-8
  27. ^ Djuvara, p.89
  28. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica,History of Romania, Romania Between Turkey and Austria,2008, O.Ed.
  29. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Vacarescu family, 2008, O.Ed.
  30. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mavrocordato" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 917. the name of a family of Phanariot Greeks, distinguished in the history of Turkey, Rumania and modern Greece

References

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