The Orthodox Notables of Istanbul in the Early Modern Period
A Discussion of Methodology and Sources
In the light of new trajectories in Ottoman studies, historiography on the Greek Orthodox experience under Ottoman rule is also enhanced by novel perspectives and sources. As part of the formation and transformation of urban communities in early modern imperial İstanbul, the Phanariots emerged as the most outstanding actors of the Orthodox networks by the eighteenth-century. To comprehend the earlier process of the formation of the Phanariot milieu in the wider imperial context, a reinterpretation of Greek accounts and an investigation of Ottoman documentation offer new perspectives, especially in relation to the nature of Orthodox communities of İstanbul, the establishment of networks and the channels of integration into administrative mechanisms. In this long-term quest, the Ottoman estate inventory registers present new insights to comprehend the particularities of the prominent Orthodox individuals in İstanbul. The estate inventories, widely used especially by researchers of Ottoman economics, consumption, and material culture, also include registers of Orthodox figures who were related to the imperial administration. Besides the rich information they provide on the material possessions, family members and credit relations of their owners, the sources also have certain limitations that require a closer dialogue with complementary sources. In her lecture she wishes to present my ongoing research on the Orthodox notables of early modern İstanbul and to open my sources and methodology to discussion.
Elif Bayraktar Tellan is a historian of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on the Orthodox communities and institutions in the early modern period. She received her BA from the Philosophy Department of Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. In 2005 and 2011, she completed her MA and PhD degrees at the History Department of Bilkent University, Ankara. Her PhD research has been funded by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey), American Research Institute in Turkey, and Turkish Cultural Foundation. She is a faculty member of the History Department at İstanbul Medeniyet University. She has so far published mainly on the history of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the eighteenth century, Orthodox monasteries of the Ottoman Empire, the Orthodox Church of Ottoman Cyprus and Crete, the Orthodox-Catholic interaction on Ottoman lands and the Orthodox notables of İstanbul.