Abstract:

Abstract: Although there are certainly unaccountable issues regarding the experience of slavery found in Ottoman Cyprus, very few studies concerning the slavery institution have been carried out. Hence, the primary matter to be investigated in this article is the main indicators of this institution of slavery as reflected in the Qadi registers. These registers are the richest and most reliable resources, since they are basically the court minutes recorded during the Ottoman period. This research, which looks at the Qadi registers of the institution of slavery across all of Cyprus that emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries, carries out the study of this subject from an all-inclusive perspective. It attempts to shed light on the reality of this institution, and on other various issues related to it such as the attempts of freeing such slaves, for very high costs, in the path of God, but also at the enslaving of free people through fraud and deceit. The study demonstrates how people were bought and sold as slaves, and in what way they were made to labor. Moreover, their family relationships, their claims through lawsuits, the alleged crimes that they were involved in, and their relationships with their individual lords are revealed within the framework of these historical documents.

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