12 Facts About Ottoman Cyprus

Eyalet of Cyprus was an eyalet (province) of the Ottoman Empire made up of the island of Cyprus, which was annexed into the Empire in 1571.

In 1573 the Venetians left Ottoman Cyprus, removing the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ottoman Cyprus was divided into three sanjaks: Famagusta, Kyrenia and Paphos.

Ottoman Cyprus was divided into several kazas: Tuzla, Limassol, Episkopi, Kythrea, Paphos, Kukla, Lefka, Morphou, Hirsofu, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Mesariye.

Thus, on the request of the Archbishop and the Dragoman, Ottoman Cyprus was placed directly under the administration of the Imperial Council in 1785, with the muhassil being directly appointed.

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In 1861, Ottoman Cyprus became an independent mutasarrifate under the direct control of the Sublime Porte.

However, this changed again in 1868, when Ottoman Cyprus became a sanjak under the Vilayet of the Archipelago under the newly established vilayet system.

Ottoman Cyprus Empire gave timars—land grants—to soldiers under the condition that they and their families would stay there permanently.

Gradually, the Archbishop of Cyprus became not only religious but ethnic leader as well, something the Ottoman Turks promoted, wanting to have somebody responsible for the loyalty of the Greek flock.

In 1883, waqf reports published by the British authorities in Ottoman Cyprus listed 81 mosques that belonged to the Evkaf Administration in Ottoman Cyprus.

Two of the most prominent Muslim religious sites built in the Ottoman Cyprus period are Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaca and Arab Ahmet Mosque in Nicosia.

Ottoman Cyprus wrote that "every garden and farm was irrigated by water conducted from the mountains in artificial channels" in the northern slopes of the Kyrenia Mountains extending to the Karpas Peninsula.