The history and role of Cyprus in the Greek state

[tchaiku]

Modern Greek identity in Cyprus developed and was created in the same way and manner it developed in mainland Greece or Crete. As I have posted elsewhere on this forum, nations are socially constructed communities imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of those groups. In Benedict Anderson's book, Imagined Communities, the concept is explained in depth. (See http://www.freeinquiry.gr for more info.)

In terms of your question about the Cypriot "dialect" of Greek - may I share with you the following (also posted elsewhere on this forum, and taken from freeinquiry.gr as well):

Yet, until now we thought that the population of the islands has never changed since ancient times and that even the dialects are directly related to ancient dialects.

But historical data can’t be denied that although the islanders boast that they are purebred descendants of the ancient Greeks (though in ancient times the intermarriage was not something unknown), the island populations have undergone significant racial changes even a few centuries ago.


May I suggest the following threads:

The Real Ethnic Composition of Modern Greece

http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17&page=36

Concerning the non-Greek origin and history of Asia Minor

http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6955

Here are some additional specific literary historical testimonies and sources which certify us of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual character of Cyprus through the centuries.

[SIZE="3"]0) The Jews lived well in Cyprus during the Roman rule. During this period, Christianity was preached in Cyprus among the Jews at an early date, St Paul being the first, and Barnabas, a native of Cyprus, the second. They attempted to convert the Jews to Christianity under the ideas of Jesus. Under the leadership of Artemion, the Cypriot Jews participated in the great rebellion against the Romans ruled by Trajan in 117 AD. and they are reported by Dio Cassius to have massacred 240,000 Greeks.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4825-cyprus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Cyprus

1) In 578 AD, 10000 Armenians moved to Cyprus for colonization purposes, given that the island was almost deserted at this time. ("History of the Greek nation," ed "Publishing Athens", Vol. H, pp. 183-4).

"Thus", says Evagrius, "land, which had been previously untilled, was everywhere restored to cultivation. Numerous armies also were raised from among them that fought resolutely and courageously against the other nations. At the same time every household was completely furnished with domestics, on account of the easy rate at which slaves were procured". (Quote from P. Charanis)

2) A History of Cyprus, Volume 1 By George Hill. Page 261: "...certainly there was a coast-guard of Albanians in Cyprus under Venetian rule.." --> In the footnote of the same page, we read the following: "The Albanians formed a race apart, until they disappeared in the sixteenth century".

3) The Quarterly Review By John Murray.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=uerETBdWx4sC&pg=PA429&dq=john+murray+italian+negroes+cyprus&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Page 429:

"...in the plains and the cities the present people of Cyprus are a race so mixed of Italian, Tatar, Syrian, and even Negro elements, as to have become a caput mortuum, whence no facts of ethnological value can be extracted." We also read on the same page: "In the Carpasian promontory of the north-east dwells a race fairer and stronger than the mass of the Cyprians, a race supposed to be of Teutonic blood."

4) More Armenians arrived during the reign of Armenian-descended Emperor Heraclius (610-641). Source: The Armenians of Cyprus book, page 10.

Link:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=6jH4Xy4KFrYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Armenians+Cyprus&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY5YjH7JPOAhVC1oMKHcEODhoQ6AEIJjAB#v=onepage&q=Armenians%20Cyprus&f=false

Page 11 of the same book: "Emperor John II Comnenus moved the entire population of the Armenian city of Tell Hamdun to Cyprus. When Isaac Comnenus was self-declared 'Emperor of Cyprus' in 1185 and married the daughter of the Armenian prince Thoros II, he brought with him Armenian nobles and warriors...".

Futhermore, on page 12 of this book we read: "...about 30000 Armenian refugees found shelter in Cyprus.." and "A new wave of Armenians arrived in 1335 and 1346 to escape the Mamluk attack." Additionally, on the same page 12: "In 1403, 30000 Armenians fled to Cyprus, while in 1421 the entire population of the Sehoun region was transferred here. In 1441 the authorities of Famagusta encouraged Armenians and Syrians from Cilicia and Syria to settle here."

Still on page 12: "Armenian was one of the eleven official languages of the Kingdom of Cyprus, and one of the five official languages during the Venetian Era."

Moving to page 13: "...about 40000 Ottoman Armenian craftsmen were recruited .. , and many of the ones who survived settled in Cyprus".

5) Turkish Cypriots were the majority of the population between 1777 and 1800. In terms of numbers, in 1777 there were only 37000 Greeks and 47000 Turks. In 1800, there were 30524 Greeks and 67000 Turks.

Well that is amazing research I should probably add two or more 'points' to the collection.

[Carlin]

Well that is amazing research I should probably add two or more 'points' to the collection.

Thanks. Go for it!

[Carlin]

ALBANIANS IN CYPRUS

1) A History of Cyprus, Volume 2, By George Hill.

URL:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=SnCWSuZ-58oC&pg=PA10&dq=Lusignan+Description+Cyprus+Albanians&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjvdz5vIbZAhWmzIMKHeqRCKMQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=Lusignan%20Description%20Cyprus%20Albanians&f=false

Page 10:
- "Another class in a different category from those already described, were the 'White Venetians' - native Greeks or Syrians who enjoyed the rights of Venetian nationality."

Pages 10 and 11:
- "The Albanians, who are generally mentioned by the writers who describe the various classes of the population, were comparatively late comers..."
- "It is unlikely that the Albanians were introduced before the fifteenth century, when they were imported to stiffen the coastguard service..."

2) Sources for the History of Cyprus: Lusignan's chorography and brief ... Paul W. Wallace, Andreas G. Orphanides, State University of New York at Albany. Institute of Cypriot Studies - 1990 - Snippet view

URL:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&ei=DfRzWq_WNsGQsAWkoZeYBw&q=Lusignan+Description+Cyprus+Albanians&oq=Lusignan+Description+Cyprus+Albanians&gs_l=psy-ab.3...6081.7232.0.7392.10.10.0.0.0.0.82.674.10.10.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.a9GGxni36CY

- "The Albanians are people who came from Albania in order to protect the island from the pirates, and they are paid. Many of them have children and grandchildren and they live in the villages. All those who are paid to perform such tasks are not allowed to keep fields to be cultivated because they are soldiers. But the ones who are not paid have their fruits from their fields like the Lefteri do, and they divide them into five parts, or even more, according to the laws of the different villages."

3) The Armenian Review - Page 404 1974 - Snippet view

URL:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&ei=DfRzWq_WNsGQsAWkoZeYBw&q=Lusignan+Description+Cyprus+Albanians&oq=Lusignan+Description+Cyprus+Albanians&gs_l=psy-ab.3...6081.7232.0.7392.10.10.0.0.0.0.82.674.10.10.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.a9GGxni36CY

- "Martin Kruzius, (1526-1607), an author who was well familiar with Greek, states that the following 5 languages were spoken in Cyprus: Greek, Chaldean, Armenian, Albanian and Italian. Another writer, who lived in 1537-1590, Stephen Lusignan, says that the following 12 languages were spoken in Cyprus, during his day: Latin, Italian, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Jacobine, Maronine, Assyrian, Indian, Georgian, Albanian and Arabian. (See "Description de toute l'isle de Cypre et des roys ..."

4) A Short History of Cyprus: With Special Reference to Those Events in ... Philip Newman - 1940 - Snippet view

URL:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Lusignan+Description+Cyprus+Albanians&tbm=bks&ei=FvRzWuPaCaaZjwTqo6KYCg&start=10&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=893&dpr=1

- "The Albanians were the descendants of soldiers who had been brought from Albania to Cyprus for the defence of the island. They had settled in Cyprus and intermarried with the Cypriots. Their descendants still called themselves Albanians, drew pay, and carried arms, though in reality they had become peasants rather than soldiers. They were no longer of any military value, and were, under the Lusignans, deprived of their pay and military status."

5) A Journey of the Vocal Iso(n), By Eno Koço - Page 153

URL:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=d5_zBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA153&dq=Cypriot+saints+Albanians+Machaira&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6_fLPw4bZAhUK8IMKHfusAcEQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Cypriot%20saints%20Albanians%20Machaira&f=false

- "the Cypriotic Albanians are mentioned in all chronicles and in the relations of Venetian functionaries"
- "many of the Cypriot saints, whose liturgical offices have reached us, were former Albanians (Machaira XVI, 1881)..."

PLAGUE

One of the great disasters regularly striking Cyprus from the mid-13th century onward through the end of the 17th was plague. George Hill paid careful attention to such occurences. In the period before the Ottoman conquest, he mentions plague in 1268, 1349, 1362-1363, 1392-1393, 1410, 1419, 1420, 1422, 1438, 1470, 1494, 1505, and 1533. Michael Dols lists several of those and an additional one in 1460. Although all estimates of mortality are conjectural, the Black Death which reached Cyprus in 1348 is considered the most severe.

Based on his study of sources, Hill says: "It was said to have carried off half to two thirds of the population. As we have already seen, the mortality caused by the plague was given in 1351 as a reason for stopping the preaching in Cyprus of the Crusade against the Turks."

Dols says, "The Black Death struck Cyprus in 1348 and was particularly devastating, according to Latin and Arabic sources."

In 1505, according to a letter from the Venetian governor (luogo tenente) of Cyprus, Piero Balbi, plague killed more than a quarter of the citizens of Girniye (Zerines).

According to the English traveler George Sandys (1615) Cyprus "is in the Sommer exceeding hot, and unhealthy; & annoyed with serpents." while the French consul at Aleppo (1623-1625), whose sphere of authority included Cyprus stated: "Cyprus is completely abandoned on account of the plague, which has made the island deserted."

One of the most severe plagues was in 1692, when some sources report that 2/3 of the population died.

URL:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=5UMTCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christians+and+Muslims+in+Ottoman+Cyprus+and+the+Mediterranean+World,+1571-1640&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5p_3u5uPVAhUB7oMKHS_cBE4Q6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=Christians%20and%20Muslims%20in%20Ottoman%20Cyprus%20and%20the%20Mediterranean%20World%2C%201571-1640&f=false

[Carlin]

1) Public opinion: "Do you identify as Cypriot, Greek, or Greek Cypriot?"

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB78fSjtPt4

2) I haven't had the time to read through it all but adding this here:

CONSTRUCTING AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NARRATIVE: THE HELLENIZATION OF CYPRUS, by Natasha (Anastasia) Leriou

URL:

https://web.stanford.edu/dept/archaeology/journal/newdraft/leriou/paper.pdf

This paper focuses on an archaeological narrative that has received plenty of criticism lately and is regarded by some scholars as a series of factoids: the Mycenaean colonization and subsequent hellenization of Cyprus during the transitional period from the latest phase of the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. After a brief presentation of the current version of the narrative and the methodological problems associated with it, the discussion will go back in time to the first half of the 19th century, when the earliest academic references to the colonization theory were made. By following the narrative’s gradual development until the present day, I will attempt to elucidate the reasons and circumstances, academic and other, that led historians and archaeologists to build and subsequently adopt this narrative, which besides its many problems, is still widely accepted.

The article is broken down into the following headings/topics:

I. THE MYCENAEAN COLONIZATION OF CYPRUS NARRATIVE: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION
II. THE MYCENAEAN COLONIZATION OF CYPRUS NARRATIVE: THE PROBLEMS
III. THE MYCENAEAN COLONIZATION OF CYPRUS NARRATIVE: HOW IT WAS CONSTRUCTED
a. The earliest References to the Mycenaean Colonization of Cyprus: the Foundation Myths
b. Nineteenth Century Historians and the Foundation Myths
c. The Beginnings of Archaeological Research in Cyprus
d. Identification of Aegean Cultural Elements within the Cypriot Context
e. Sir John L. Myres/ the First “Scientific” Classification of Cypriot Antiquities
f. British Colonialism and Hellenized Cyprus
g. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition
h. New Discoveries: Sinda and Enkomi/ the Identification of Locally Produced “Mycenaean IIIC:1b” Ware in Cypriot Contexts
i. Vassos Karageorghis
CONCLUSIONS-EPILOGUE

[Carlin]

The Hellenization of Cyprus in the Late Cypriot III and Beyond: Detecting Migrations in the Archaeological Record, by Robert Jennings

Senior Honors Thesis
Department of Anthropology
University at Albany, SUNY

Excerpts:

- At the height of the Late Bronze Age in the 14th century BC, the island of Cyprus (under the name Alashiya) was thoroughly integrated into the wider Near Eastern world (Knapp 2008:307ff.). Its kings exchanged letters with those of Egypt, Ugarit, and the Hittites, and it was a major source of copper for those states. While its international diplomatic correspondence was conducted in Akkadian, the lingua franca of the day, the language actually spoken by the island’s populace, and written with what is known as the Cypro-Minoan syllabary, remains undeciphered.

- Until relatively recently, it was taken for granted by scholars that the Greek identity of large parts of the island of Cyprus began around 1200 BC with the migrations of the Sea Peoples. In recent years, however, this consensus has come under increasing scrutiny; at least one scholar has referred to it as a “factoid.” (Leriou 2005:3) The details under question include the process by which the material culture of Cyprus became increasingly Aegeanized over time, as well as the roughly contemporary Aegeanization of the material culture of Philistia in Palestine; Susan Sherratt in particular (1991; 1998) has argued that in both Cyprus and Philistia increased trade and other indigenous sociopolitical processes can explain the shift in material culture much more adequately than a mass migration. Other scholars have followed suit in arguing that the main wave of Aegean migration should in fact be traced to the Late Cypriot IIIB, some 75-100 years later (Coldstream 1994; Catling 1994).

- In short, the evidence for an Aegean presence on Cyprus beginning around 1200 BC is ambiguous. The majority of the ceramic evidence is more indicative of increased trade than mass migration; however, certain evidence like cultic features, fibulae and loomweights indicates that there was some Aegean presence on the island, certainly after the destructions and perhaps even before in the form of merchants who settled there (and who were likely intimately linked with the trading processes leading to the material culture’s Aegeanization). However, the Aegeanization of Cyprus is not to be looked at in a vacuum. Roughly contemporary to the wave of destructions in Cyprus is a similar wave of destructions on the Levantine coast, and the subsequent occupation of a large swath of southern Palestine by people using an Aegean-inspired material culture. These newcomers, the Philistines, are explicitly mentioned by Rameses III in his description of the battle against the Sea Peoples, and have traditionally been seen as part of the same wave of migrations that resulted in the Aegeanization of Cyprus. Thus, we cannot understand what was going on in Cyprus at this time without also understanding events in Palestine, and it is to this region that we now turn.

- Evidence for the fusion of Greek and pre-Greek elements into a single culture appears at Tomb 49 at the necropolis of Palaepaphos-Skales. This tomb is the richest chamber tomb at the site, and contains the earliest written evidence for the Greek language in Cyprus: a bronze obelos (spit), inscribed with in the native Cypriot script with the word Opheltau—the genitive form of the Greek name Opheltes (the writing on the spit thus meaning “belonging to Opheltes”). Most of the bronze vessels in this tomb, however, are of purely Near Eastern and Cypriot derivation (Negbi 1998:88-90). Thus we seem to have here a wealthy warrior with a Greek name buried with largely non-Greek artifacts; a similar situation of fusion appears to present with the cremation burial in the traditional Cypriot at Kourion-Kaloriziki mentioned above.

- Overall, the evidence for an infusion of Aegean migrants in the Late Cypriot IIIB and Cypro-Geometric IA is quite strong. The introduction of Aegean-inspired chamber tombs and cremation dates to this period, and the continued use of Cypriot shaft graves at the known Eteocypriot center of Amathus seems to confirm the chamber tombs’ association with Aegean migrants. The introduction of Aegean-style fibulae confirms that the migrants included women and children as well as men. While there is no massive ceramic displacement in this period (indeed the Proto-White Painted tradition represents continuity), there is some limited evidence of locally made Aegean pottery. Thus it seems that the migrants did indeed come, but they came in small numbers, and almost immediately started using the local pottery (which in superficial appearance was already much like their own). The imposition of the migrants’ language on most of the island’s inhabitants indicates that they quickly became politically dominant. Evidence from both Cyprus and Greece indicates that the migrants were primarily bands of piratical warriors.

- The Aegean settlement of Cyprus was a complex process that cannot be attributed to a single event. Cyprus and the Aegean were well connected by the ceramics and metals trade throughout the Late Bronze Age; it is thus more likely than not that Aegean merchants would have settled on the island in small numbers.

- Greek migrants seem to have taken control of most of the Cypriot cities as a warrior elite, with their language gradually coming to predominate throughout the island while the material culture remained predominantly native.

- Overall, the Aegean penetration of Cyprus can best be characterized as a series of movements by Aegean freebooters to a known region where they established themselves a warrior aristocracy. Over time, their language and facets of their culture (including certain of their mortuary practices, their tradition of epic poetry and their self-identification as Greeks) were adopted by the native population, to the point where in the Classical period, with a few exceptions (Amathus, Kition, and perhaps the populace at Idalion), the identity of the island was primarily Greek.


URL - Excavations indicate ancient city near Larnaca Salt Lake was destroyed by catastrophe

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/12/16/excavations-indicate-ancient-city-near-larnaca-salt-lake-was-destroyed-by-catastrophe/

- The evidence is gradually building to support a theory for a conflict, possibly an invasion of sorts, as other places in Cyprus from this period seem to show similar destruction, eg Salamis/Engkomi, which might upset the factoid of the alleged peaceful "Mycenaeisation" of the Island already questioned by some Academics such as Leriou. Robert Jennings in his Thesis 'The Hellenization of Cyprus in the Late Cypriot III and Beyond: Detecting Migrations in the Archaeological Record" theorises a conquest event and the imposition of Greek language by possibly Doric invaders rather than Mycenaeans, as this was all after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation, by some years : The stories of Trojan heroes bring Greekness to the island are plainly later invention as the Trojan war was possibly 150 years earlier.

- If you read both Leriou and Jennings. Until the bronze collapse, Cyprus was otherwise very much a part of the near Eastern World of Hittite Anatolia, Ugarit and Egypt, all of which were significantly closer and probably more significant than the Aegean/Mycenaean based centers, which were quite some days sail away. I suggest you look closely at Jenning in particular.

Interestingly who ever came did not bring Linear B with them but again had to borrow a local script, which was adapted to fit Greek, just had happened a few hundred years earlier with Linear A being adapted to form Linear B.

[Carlin]

"In this case I would prefer to see in this military colony of Cyprus a mixture of Goths and Albanians. The Goth element, doubtless very small, was early absorbed by the natives, while the Albanians, more numerous, persisted forming a race apart until the sixteenth century, the time of their disappearance from Cyprus."

URL:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=DHxneFwWawQC&pg=RA1-PA410&dq=chypre+albanais&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL59jh0IbZAhVBXq0KHU8zCj0Q6AEIRzAG#v=onepage&q=chypre%20albanais&f=false

[tchaiku]

There is no accurate information as to the number of Armenians living in Cyprus during the Byzantine Era. Although during the early Frankish Era there were tens of thousands of Armenians living in Cyprus (mainly in Nicosia and Famagusta - where in the latter they numbered around 1,500 souls in 1360), by the late Frankish Era and certainly during the Venetian Era, the number of Armenians in Cyprus dwindled - for a number of reasons: this was due to the tyrannical rule of the Venetian administration, combined with the adverse natural conditions (which affected all Cypriots), as well as the Hellenisation of the various minorities of the island. In fact, the 1572 survey of population and property of Nicosia after the Ottoman conquest, under beylerbey Sinan Pasha, recorded 90-95 local Armenians in Nicosia, out of about 1,100 inhabitants - all with completely Hellenised names.

[tchaiku]

Modern Greek identity in Cyprus developed and was created in the same way and manner it developed in mainland Greece or Crete.

I have never found any drastic change in the populace of Crete, regarding historical events. It is generally believed that Cretans can make a big claim to ancient Greece.

[Carlin]

I have never found any drastic change in the populace of Crete, regarding historical events. It is generally believed that Cretans can make a big claim to ancient Greece.

0) The Making of the Cretan Landscape - By Oliver Rackham, Jennifer Moody

https://books.google.ca/books?id=k4dHmA9jq4wC&pg=RA2-PA109&lpg=RA2-PA109&dq=Vlachs+Crete&source=bl&ots=GfuyhaIBRb&sig=X4GKjblwiTx67stF1YZhqUWOG44&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6qbrLwcPLAhXquIMKHYZ4DqoQ6AEIMjAD#v=onepage&q=Vlachs%20Crete&f=false

- Crete might seem to have escaped through being an island, but place-names and surnames show that some Slavs and Albanians settled here.
- The medieval Venetians were among the chief colonisers of Crete: they settled their own merchants and nobles, introduced slaves and prisoners-of-war. African slaves continued to be imported until 1859.
- Cretans are descended, to varying degrees, from Albanians, Argives, Armenians, Bulgars, Dorians, Eteocretans, French, Germans, Hebrews, Minoans, Negroes, Pelasgians, Romans, Saracens, Serbs, Spaniards, Spartans, Tartars, Turks, Venetians and Vlachs.

1) The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, edited by Angeliki E. Laiou, Roy P. Mottahedeh.

Page 204, footnote 42: Some 2,000 Armenians were settled in Crete in 1363.

2) The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1500, by Florin Curta -> Page 288 and Page 289.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=aKEkDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA288&lpg=PA288&dq=kapheroi+armenians+crete&source=bl&ots=FZDZ5-ekiZ&sig=qqQ-B61INX9lLYusqim0avpPL_0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjop6zQ-5HbAhUJwYMKHZ8ZD1kQ6AEISDAD#v=onepage&q=kapheroi%20armenians%20crete&f=false

- 'Kapheroi, Thrakesians, Armenians, and others from different places and cities' settled in Peloponnesos in the early ninth century, while Armenians 'and other rabble' came to Crete in the aftermath of the island's conquest in 961.

3) JOURNAL ARTICLE

From Capital to Colony: Five New Inscriptions from Roman Crete
M. W. Baldwin Bowsky
The Annual of the British School at Athens
Vol. 101 (2006), pp. 385-426

https://www.jstor.org/stable/30073264?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

This article present and contextualises five new inscriptions from central Crete: one from the hinterland of Gortyn, two from Knossos, and two more in all likelihood from Knossos. Internal geographical mobility from Gortyn to Knossos is illustrated by a Greek inscription from the hinterland of Gortyn. The Knossian inscriptions add new evidence for the local affairs of the Roman colony. A funerary or honorary inscription and two religious dedications - all three in Latin - give rise to new points concerning the well-attested link between Knossos and Campania. The colony's population included people, many of Campanian origin, who were already established in Crete, as well as families displaced from southern Italy in the great post-Actium settlement.

4) After the 1204 AD sack of Constantinople, the island of Crete was offered first to Count Boniface of Monferrat, the leader of the Crusade. Unable to stamp his authority on the large island he sold it to the Venetians for 1000 silver pieces. Formal possession was taken by the Republic of Venice on 12th August 1204 AD, and by 1212 they had consolidated their authority, ousting the initially successful usurpation of the Genovese; they then began a systematic colonization by settling Venetian nobles and soldiery.

http://www.destinationcrete.gr/en/mesaionas/venetians

5) Emirate of Crete

The Emirate of Crete (called Iqritish or Iqritiya in Arabic) was a Muslim state that existed on the Mediterranean island of Crete from the late 820s to the Byzantine reconquest of the island in 961. Although the emirate recognized the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate and maintained close ties with Tulunid Egypt, it was de facto independent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Crete

It is unclear what happened to the island's Christians after the Muslim conquest; the traditional view is that most were either converted or expelled. There is evidence from Muslim sources, however, for the continued survival of Christians on Crete, as a subject class, as in other Muslim conquests, although according to the same sources the Muslims, whether descendants of the Andalusians, more recent migrants, or converts (or any combination of these) formed the majority.

6) In the 18th century Muslim Lazes settled in Cyprus and Crete, transferring their cultural influence.

https://www.ithesis.gr/politikh/oi-pontioi-den-einai-ellines-einai-ithagenis-fili-mousoulmanon-po-tou-ksaposteilan-to-1923-stin-ellada-mas/

7) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gX7Q5chnh0



"NOT ALL AFRO-TURKS ARE DESCENDANTS OF SLAVES. SOME ARE DESCENDANTS OF GREEK SPEAKING BLACK MUSLIMS FROM CRETE."

8) The Venetians moved Arvanites to Crete, where they remained until 1669, when Crete finally fell to the Turks.

[tchaiku]

Yeah I have seen most of those before. I said drastic in purpose, couple of thousands settlers does not do much.

I didnt expect your story about Black people though. That was quite surprising.

[tchaiku]

After the purchase of Cyprus by titular Frankish King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan in 1192, in his attempt to establish a western-type feudal kingdom, the latter sent emissaries to Europe, Cilicia and the Levant, resulting in a massive immigration of Armenians and other peoples from Western Europe, Cilicia and the Levant (mainly Franks, Latins and Maronites, as well as Copts, Ethiopians, Georgians, Jacobites, Jews, Melkites, Nestorians and others).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Armenians_in_Cyprus

[tchaiku]

Cyprus -
But after the Frankish settlement, men 'began to learn French, and barbarized their Greek into what it is to-day', says Machaeras in the fifteenth century, 'and we write French and Greek so that in the world there is no one who can say what langauge we use'.

https://books.google.com/books?id=SnCWSuZ-58oC&pg=PA5&dq=is+to-day%27,+says+Machaeras+in+the&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIi4Tu-ZncAhWBO5oKHRdKCXoQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=is%20to-day'%2C%20says%20Machaeras%20in%20the&f=false

[Carlin]

Venice was a hub of transportation of slaves to Tuscany and Catalonia (many were Slavs). From the 12th century, sugar plantations in Cyprus and Sicily were fuelled by slave labour. During the 15th century, the Portuguese transported over 150,000 slaves to their possessions and Spain issued vast allocations of slaves to settlers in Mexico.

(We may never know how many slaves ended up being transported to Cyprus.)

[tchaiku]

- "Martin Kruzius, (1526-1607), an author who was well familiar with Greek, states that the following 5 languages were spoken in Cyprus: Greek, Chaldean, Armenian, Albanian and Italian. Another writer, who lived in 1537-1590, Stephen Lusignan, says that the following 12 languages were spoken in Cyprus, during his day: Latin, Italian, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Jacobine, Maronine, Assyrian, Indian, Georgian, Albanian and Arabian. (See "Description de toute l'isle de Cypre et des roys ..."

''... the tongues of every nation under heaven are heard and read and taught; they are all taught in special schools.''

But after the Frankish settlement, men ''began to learn French, and barbarized their Greek into what it is to-day'', says Machaeras in the fifteenth century, ''and we write French and Greek so that in the world there is no one who can say what language we use''.

[tchaiku]

Cyprus during Middle Ages ---

There are no Byzantine churches which survive from this period; thousands of people were killed, and many cities – such as Salamis – were destroyed and never rebuilt. Byzantine rule was restored in 965, when Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas scored decisive victories on land and sea.
Source (unfortunately no longer available):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus#cite_note-lcweb2.loc.gov-56