Reevaluating the institutional autonomy of 14th century Mount Athos under the Ottomans: The “confiscation issue” concerning Athonian landholdings in post-Byzantine Macedonia

The dependances of the monasteries of Mount Athos, from the emergence of the Athonian monastic community, constituted a unique and particular institution which had certain legal characteristics; it was recognized by both the Byzantine and the post-Byzantine legal order and was always respec...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nikopoulos Anastasios
Format: Article
Language:Bulgarian
Published: Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts 2024-01-01
Series:Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta
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Online Access:https://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0584-9888/2024/0584-98882461253N.pdf
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Summary:The dependances of the monasteries of Mount Athos, from the emergence of the Athonian monastic community, constituted a unique and particular institution which had certain legal characteristics; it was recognized by both the Byzantine and the post-Byzantine legal order and was always respected by every sovereign in the history of Mount Athos. These features were that they constituted the property of each monastery, according to its legal type as a foundation of Byzantine-Roman law; they could come from any legal cause and be subject to ratification or recognition, directly or indirectly, by an imperial act and had a privileged character and enjoyed special protection, rendering them inalienable. The Byzantine institution of monastic dependance institutionally and historically influenced the development of the kinship institution of the Ottoman and Islamic vakif, and it is known that the Ottomans recognized and protected the dependances, especially those of the Athonite monasteries. The opinions regarding the alleged confiscations of dependances of Athonian monasteries during the early period of Ottoman rule, around the end of the 14th century, are incorrect. The study examines in detail the cases of two dependances of the Zographou monastery in 1392, one dependance of the Esphigmenou monastery from 1388 and some dependances of the Vatopedi monastery, based on two documents (from 1404 and 1408) from its archive.
ISSN:0584-9888
2406-0917