Mostafa Minawi
“The View from the Wings: A History of the Transformation of a 19th Century Ottoman Province as Seen through the Records of the Maronite Community of Cyprus
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Abstract
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In the 19th century, the small but historically significant Maronite community in Cyprus was caught in the cross-currents of both local politics (Ottoman-Greek) and larger imperial competition (Ottoman, British, French) for dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Overshadowed by the modern Greek-Turkish conflict and confessional and sectarian associations with the political conflict in neighboring Lebanon, the Maronite community of Cyprus has been virtually ignored in Mediterranean and Ottoman studies. This community, which traces its origins back to migrations from Syria beginning in the ninth century, has survived and maintained its identity through Arab, French, Venetian, Ottoman, and British rule. Yet, until the mid-nineteenth century, as Catholics, the Maronites were perceived by both the state and local officials (mostly incorporated Greek Orthodox authorities) as a foreign “other” with cultural and religious ties to the Latin world, the mantle of which was inherited by France in nineteenth century Eastern Mediterranean. The survival of this community under unfavorable, and at times hostile, conditions raises a number of questions about the relationship of a “non-recognized” community, or in Ottoman terms “non-millet”, within an empire that was increasingly forced to deal with the religious and ethnic elements of Ottoman society. Using previously untapped archival and Maronite records, I will investigate the nature of the interaction between the local non-Muslim Cypriot population at large and the Maronite community in particular with the Ottoman state apparatus, in light of direct political French and British involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean. This study allows for a reexamination of assumptions about subject-state relationships in the Ottoman Empire during the transitional period beginning with the state-initiated reform program known as the Tanzimat in 1839, and extending to the period of British rule starting in 1878.
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