Women in Ottoman Greece: Protagonists or Pawns?

• In Event: Negotiating the Levant

Abstract

In Ottoman Greece, property generally followed the female line in its passage from one generation to the next. But in a recent monograph, Evdoxios Doxiadis used notarial sources to show that, ironically, 'modernization' actually weakened women's control over their own wealth. To test his thesis, this paper takes a second look at the Roman Catholic (or Latin) communities of the Cyclades under the Ottomans; commonly known as the Archipelago, these communities were established after the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It looks at them, however, not through notarial documents, but rather the reports of foreign observers. France and the Holy See, which had interests in the region, opposed the customary laws that protected the property rights of women. By gradually supplanting this unwritten code with Roman and canon law, Paris and Rome sought to undermine such cherished institutions as the dowry, and thus strengthen their grip on what was considered a vital frontier.

Author

• Andrew Pâris McCormick, INALCO, Centre de recherches Europes-Eurasie