Province Of The Kapudan Pasha

The Eyalet of the Archipelago ( ota, ایالت جزایر بحر سفید, ''Eyālet-i Cezāyir-i Baḥr-i Sefīd'', "Eyalet of the Islands of the White Sea") was a first-level province (eyalet) of the Ottoman Empire. From its inception until the Tanzimat reforms of the mid-19th century, it was under the personal control of the Kapudan Pasha, the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman Navy.

History

During the early period of the Ottoman Empire, the commander of the Ottoman fleet (the ''Derya Begi'', "Bey of the Sea") also held the governorship of the ''sanjak'' of Gallipoli, which was the principal Ottoman naval base until the construction of the Imperial Arsenal under Sultan Selim I (reigned 1512–20). His province also included the isolated ''kazas'' of Galata and Izmit.

In 1533/4, the corsair captain Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had taken over Algeria, submitted to the authority of Sultan Suleyman I (r. 1520–66). His province was expanded by the addition of the ''sanjaks'' of Kocaeli, Suğla, and Biga from the Eyalet of Anatolia, and of the ''sanjaks'' of Inebahti (Naupaktos), Ağriboz (Euboea), Karli-eli ( Aetolia-Acarnania), Mezistre (Mystras), and Midilli ( Lesbos) from the Eyalet of Rumelia, thus forming the Eyalet of the Archipelago. After Hayreddin's death, the province remained the domain of the Kapudan Pasha, the new title of the commander-in-chief of the navy, a position of great power and prestige: its holder was a vizier of three horsetails and a member of the Imperial Council. As a token of this, the title of the local sub-provincial governors was not ''sanjak-bey'' but ''derya-bey''. Although the Kapudan Pashas resided in the Imperial Arsenal, Gallipoli remained the official capital (''pasha-sanjak'') until the 18th century.

After Hayreddin's death in 1546, the ''sanjak'' of Rodos (Rhodes) also became part of the Eyalet of the Archipelago, and in 1617/8 the ''sanjaks'' of Sakız (Chios), Nakşa ( Naxos) and Andıra ( Andros) were added to it. Algeria became ''de facto'' independent of Ottoman control after 1642, and in ca. 1670 Cyprus was added to the eyalet. It was detached in 1703 as the personal fief (''hass'') of the Grand Vizier, but returned to the eyalet in 1784. Under Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, the ''sanjaks'' of Mezistre and Karli-eli were detached and incorporated in the new Eyalet of the Morea. Alone among the major Aegean islands, Crete, although conquered from the Republic of Venice in 1645–69, was never subordinated to the Eyalet of the Archipelago. From 1701–1821, the office of the Dragoman of the Fleet, entrusted to a Phanariote Greek, served as intermediary between the Kapudan Pasha and the autonomous communities of the Aegean islands. In this area, the Dragoman of the Fleet enjoyed considerable authority.

By the early 19th century, the eyalet was reduced to the ''sanjaks'' of Biga (now the ''pasha-sanjak'', its centre was moved to Kale-i Sultaniye in 1855), Gelibolu, Rodos, Sakız, Midilli, Limni ( Lemnos) and Cyprus..Sanjak of Gelibolu became part of Edirne Eyalet in 1846. As part of the Tanzimat reforms, its ties to the Kapudan Pasha were severed in 1849, and it became the Vilayet of the Archipelago after 1867. Sanjak of Biga was part of Hüdavendigâr Eyalet between 1 January 1847 and 31 December 1868 and 1 January 1872 and 1873 before reverting to this province during periods of 1869-1871 and 1873-1877. Sanjak of Biga broken ties with her after transferring to Şehremaneti (Its centre was Istanbul in 1877. The island of Samos (Turkish Sisam), which was an autonomous principality since 1832, continued to be counted as a ''sanjak'' of the eyalet until 1867. Cyprus was lost to British control in 1878, and the remainder of the vilayet was dissolved after the eastern Aegean islands were conquered by the Italians during the Italo-Turkish War (1911–12) and the Greeks in the First Balkan War (1912–13).

Including Crete, its reported area in the 19th century was and its population around 700,000.
The Popular Encyclopedia; or, Conversations Lexicon
'' Revised ed. Vol. VI, pp. 698 & 701. Blackie & Son (London), 1862. Accessed 10 September 2011.

Other names

The eyalet's English names are the Province of the Islands or of the Archipelago. Because it was commanded by the Kapudan Pasha, the head of the Ottoman navy, it was also known as the Province of the Kapudan Pasha ( ota, Kapudanlık-ı Derya, "Captaincy of the Sea").

Dejezayr-Bahr-i-Rum

The Ottoman 'Vilâyet Djezayr Bahr-i-Sefid' for the islands was derived from an old Arabic name 'Djezayr-Bahr-i-Rum' (جزائر بحر الروم), Province of Djezayrs or Dschesair, the Province of the Islands of the Archipelago, the Province of the Islands of the White Sea,Süssheim, K.
AĶ DEŇIZ
" ''Encyclopaedia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography, and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples.'' E.J. Brill and Luzac & Co. (Leiden), 1938. Accessed 10 September 2011. and the Eyalet of the Mediterranean Islands.Greene, Molly.
A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean
', p. 22. Princeton University Press (Princeton), 2002. Accessed 10 September 2011.

Administrative divisions

See also

* List of Kapudan Pashas
* List of Ottoman admirals
* The Eyalet of the Western Archipelago (Algiers), also held by the Kapudan Pashas
* The Byzantine naval themes: Cibyrrhaeot, Aegean Sea, and Samos

Sources

External links

{{coord missing, Cyprus

Archipelago
Archipelago
History of the Aegean Sea
Ottoman Navy
Ottoman Cyprus
Ottoman Greece
1533 establishments in the Ottoman Empire
1864 disestablishments in the Ottoman Empire