The ‘Second Phanar’: Constantinople Greeks and Ottoman Sultans, 1821 to 1914

Dr.Philip Mansel talks at Kings College

, King’s Great Hall, KCL Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS

‘After the revolution of 1821, some Greeks continued to serve Ottoman Sultans in such positions as doctor, banker or photographer to the Sultan, or as diplomats. The Ecumenical Patriarch, who had anathematised the Greek revolution of 1821, continued to be part of the Ottoman hierarchy. Members of the Aristarchi, Mavroyenni, Musurrus and Zarifi families, among many others, preferred to live in Constantinople and serve the Sultan, rather than to reside in the kingdom of Greece. Abdulhamid II (1876-1909) had a Greek doctor Spiridon Mavroyenni, a Greek banker Giorgios Zarifi whose nephew’s memoirs will be quoted, while the Hamidiye mosque beside his palace at Yıldız was designed by his Greek architect, Nicolo Vasilaki. The title of Prince of Samos could be awarded by the Sultan to Ottoman Greeks as a reward for their services, as the titles of Prince of Wallachia or Moldavia had been awarded to Phanariots before 1821. The nineteenth century was an age of multinational empires as well as nation states. Many people preferred the former to the latter.’