Chapter I - The Ottoman Organization

Summary

The war had reduced Cyprus to a sorry state. It was all the worse because from the capture of Famagusta until the next harvest there was a great dearth, which may partly explain the lamentable account of the island given to Martinengo when the ship in which he escaped touched at Capo delle Gatte on her voyage home. The peasants with whom he spoke told him that the Turks were treating them so badly that they already regretted the days of Venetian rule. The island was almost desert, the only part cultivated being the hilly country of the west. The desolation which too often followed in the wake of Ottoman conquest was already evident. Those of the upper classes who had ransomed themselves and remained in the island were reduced to extreme poverty, and had to make a living as muleteers or pedlars. No less unhappy was the condition of the inhabitants some ten years after the conquest, as described by Jean Palerne; they were reduced to miserable slaves; hardly a Venetian ship left without secretly carrying off a family. The Turks threatened to take a percentage of the children, as was their practice in the Balkans. But against this must be set the testimony of Stamatius Donatus, a Cypriote by birth, who about the same time told Martin Crusius that the slavery of the Cypriotes under the Turks was much milder than before, and their Church was more in agreement with the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The government of the island, immediately after the conquest, was entrusted to Muzaffer Pasha, who was appointed Beylerbey of Cyprus.