View PDF version of this page

ENGEL. We may see Cyprianos' account of Cyprus under the Ottoman flag summarised and. supplemented in the last section (pp. 768—773) of the first volarne of Kypi-os, Eine Monographie, von Willi. H. Engel. Berlin, bei G. Reimer, 1841, a weighty but irritating book, which has no table of contents, no head-lines, •and only one meagre index of names of persons. While Engel was still writing, the Sublime Porte was preparing a fresh surprise for the long-suffering Cypriots. Lord Malmeebury (Memoirs, i. 125) under date of October 5, 1840, writes: "It is reported that the tenuti offered by the Sultan to the leaders of JTehemet Ali are as follows:—To Soliman Pasha ί Colonel Selves) and his son the island of Cyprus for inheritance as a Pashalik ; to Mahmoud Pasha the Pashalik of Tripoli...but that they have all refused, and acquainted Mehemet with the proposals made to them." «t, Suleiman Pasha was one Octave Joseph Anthelme Sèves, a Frenchman of obscure origin, who was born about April 1. I7S7. and died March 12, I860. There îs a life of him by A. Vingtrinier, Svo, Paris, 18S6. CYPRUS UNDER TURKISH RULE, The island, after its capture, was administered in all respects as a Turkish province. It was divided into sixteen Qaziliqs, and the Chief Judge or Molla had his seat in Nicosia. Cyprus forms liy itself a Pashaliq, but is under the special charge of the Qapudan Pasha. "When the Turks took ihe island it was so thinly peopled that 80,000 males only were found who paid the Kharaj, and in Mariti's day, 1760, these had dwindled to 12,000. For a long succession of years it was governed by a Pasha. The revenues of the island, whose dedication to Mecca and Medina by the Circassian Sultana was one of the pretexts of the war, and which the Jew Miquez hoped to secure for himself, were assigned for the maintenance of the Grand Yazir, though in later times diverted in great part to the use of the Valide Sultan for the time being; so that the island of Aphrodite, which had been given by Roman Emperors as pin-money to the Egyptian Queens Arsinoe and Cleopatra, again fell as an appanage to women. We ought to mention a remarkable, or rather curious, fancy of Carlo Emmanuele I., Duke of Savoy, who in 1601 took it into his head to renew his old claims to the Cyprian crown. His son, Vittore Amadeo I., also styled himself King of Cyprus. To this end Carlo Emmanuele entered into relations with the Christian Cypriots, but hesitated about taking any decisive step. It was an easy matter for the Turks to put down a movement so inspired, and the Archbishop of Nicosia, who was taking the chief part in it, took flight. In 1630 Henri, Due de Rohan, made to the Sultan the remarkable proposal to buy the island, and set up in it a kingdom which should be a refuge for all persecuted Protestants. Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople, took especial interest in the matter, and the Porte was not indisposed to cede him the country for a capital sum of 200,000 dollars, and a yearly tribute of 30,000. Into such straite was the island fallen, that even the maintenance of a Pasha's establishment was already too sore a tax. There are however many reasons for doubting the truth of these stories. But the Patriarch's zeal in the matter cost him in 163S his life. In 1720 Cyprus ceased to be a separate government, and was handed over to the Grand Vazir. He had married the Sultan's daughter, and it was given to her as her dowry. In 1745 it was again raised to a government, And granted to the Master of the Horse, Abdullah Bey, a Pasha of three tails, on condition of putting the fortresses and feudal cavalry on a war footing. The Grand Vazir was otherwise indemnified for the 122,000 piastres which he drew yearly from Cyprus as pocket-money. This arrangement lasted until 174S, when it was again declared a crown-colony, and assigned to the Grand Vazir. This officer let the country to »ELAROIERE. ENGEL. 461

View PDF version of this page