Date: 24 October 2024, Thursday
Time: 16.30
Avenue: AZ-31 Seminar Room
Title: Ottoman Censuses of the Famagusta Region (1831-1877)
Speaker: Ahmet Zeybek, PhD Candidate, Bilkent University, Department of History
Abstract:
My thesis addresses the previously not researched experiences of the common people in the Famagusta region during the late Ottoman period. By focusing on the region’s demographic structure, population movements, and economic profile through an in-depth examination of nineteenth century Ottoman population censuses and fiscal surveys, I elucidate how the daily lives of ordinary people were profoundly shaped by political events, economic hardships, and the sweeping reforms of the era. This approach offers a more inclusive understanding of Cyprus’s history under Ottoman rule, particularly with regard to the impact of broader imperial challenges on local populations and provide the opportunity to explore crucial demographic indicators such as migrations, fertility, and mortality in relation to the economic and political circumstances of the period. The Famagusta region, though geographically peripheral, provides an illustrative case study of the broader demographic and socio-economic transformations that occurred throughout the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century. My thesis argues that the region’s demographic shifts, population movements, and economic reconfigurations were directly linked to the Empire wide processes of modernisation, crisis, and reform. By examining local censuses and fiscal surveys, this study demonstrates that the experiences of the Famagusta region offer valuable insights into the interconnectedness between provincial conditions and broader imperial developments. In this seminar, after a brief literature review, I confine myself to a discussion of the sources that form the foundation of my research.