The Vilayet of the Archipelago ( ota, ولايت جزائر بحر سفيد, ;"Vilayet of the Islands of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

") was a first-level administrative division (

vilayet A vilayet ( ota, , "province"), also known by various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated ...

) of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

extant from 1867 to 1912–13, including, at its maximum extent, the Ottoman Aegean islands,

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

and the

Dardanelles Strait The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont ( ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, it reportedly had an area of , while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 325,866.Asia
by A. H. Keane, page 459 The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.

History

It was established in 1867 as the successor of the homonymous "

Eyalet of the Archipelago 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 ...

", which was established in 1533. Until 1876/7, when it was transferred to the Istanbul Vilayet, the ''

sanjak Sanjaks (liwāʾ) (plural form: alwiyāʾ) * Armenian: նահանգ (''nahang''; meaning "province") * Bulgarian: окръг (''okrǔg''; meaning "county", "province", or "region") * el, Διοίκησις (''dioikēsis'', meaning "province" ...

'' (sub-province) of

Biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest par ...

was the capital (''pasha-sanjak''), with the seat of the governor at Kale-i Sultaniye, while the other ''sanjaks'' were those of Rodos (Rhodes), Midilli (Lesbos), Sakiz (Chios), Limni (Lemnos), and Kıbrıs (Cyprus). Vilayet of the Archipelago (1881) Boundaries and Ethnic Makeup

Vilayet of the Archipelago (1881) Boundaries and Ethnic Makeup

, which had been ruled as an independent

mutasarrifate Mutasarrif or mutesarrif ( ota, متصرّف, tr, mutasarrıf) was the title used in the Ottoman Empire and places like post-Ottoman Iraq for the governor of an administrative district. The Ottoman rank of mutasarrif was established as part of a ...

under the direct jurisdiction of the Porte since 1861, was included in the vilayet in April 1868, only to be made a separate mutasarrifate again after 1870. In 1878, Cyprus

came A came is a divider bar used between small pieces of glass to make a larger glazing panel. There are two kinds of came: the H-shaped sections that hold two pieces together and the U-shaped sections that are used for the borders. Cames are mostl ...

under

British rule The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...

. After the separation of Biga, Rhodes became ''pasha-sanjak'', then Chios in 1880, and then Rhodes again in 1888. The Dodecanese islands were occupied by

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

during the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War ( tr, Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War", it, Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result o ...

of 1911–12, and the remaining islands of the eastern Aegean were captured by Greece during the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

(1912–13), leading to the vilayet's dissolution. Of the Aegean islands,

Imbros Imbros or İmroz Adası, officially Gökçeada (lit. ''Heavenly Island'') since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1 ...

and Tenedos remained finally under Turkish rule according to the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), while the Dodecanese passed to Greece after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Administrative divisions

Sanjak Sanjaks (liwāʾ) (plural form: alwiyāʾ) * Armenian: նահանգ (''nahang''; meaning "province") * Bulgarian: окръг (''okrǔg''; meaning "county", "province", or "region") * el, Διοίκησις (''dioikēsis'', meaning "province" ...

s'' until 1876: # Sanjak of Biga (''pasha-sanjak'') # Sanjak of Rhodes # Sanjak of Midilli # Sanjak of Sakiz # Sanjak of Lemnos # Sanjak of Cyprus

References

External links

* {{Dodecanese Islands

Archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

History of the Aegean Sea Ottoman Cyprus History of Çanakkale Province History of Rhodes History of the Dodecanese 1867 establishments in the Ottoman Empire 1913 disestablishments in the Ottoman Empire