A church bell sounds, the staccato thudding of mallet on plank summons monks to afternoon prayers, deep voices are raised in communal chant. And excessive within the nice tower of Pantokrator Monastery, a steel library door swings open.
There, deep contained in the medieval fortified monastery within the Mount Athos monastic Orthodox Christian group, researchers are for the primary time tapping a just about unknown treasure – hundreds of Ottoman-era manuscripts that embrace the oldest of their type on this planet.
The libraries of the self-governed group, established greater than 1,000 years in the past on northern Greece’s Athos peninsula, are a repository of uncommon, centuries-old works in a number of languages together with Greek, Russian and Romanian.
Many have been extensively studied, however not the Ottoman Turkish paperwork, merchandise of an occupying paperwork that dominated northern Greece from the late 14th century – nicely earlier than the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, fell to the Ottomans in 1453 – till the early twentieth when the realm turned Greek once more.
Father Theofilos, a Pantokrator monk reads a manuscript on the library of Pantokrator Monastery within the Mount Athos, northern Greece. Photo: AP
Byzantine scholar Jannis Niehoff-Panagiotidis says it’s inconceivable to know Mount Athos’ economic system and society beneath Ottoman rule with out consulting these paperwork, which regulated the monks’ dealings with secular authorities.
“Ottoman was the official language of state,” he mentioned from the library of the Pantokrator Monastery, one of 20 on the closely wooded peninsula.
Niehoff-Panagiotidis, a professor on the Free University of Berlin, mentioned the oldest of the roughly 25,000 Ottoman works discovered within the monastic libraries dates to 1374, or 1371. That’s older than any recognized on this planet, he mentioned, including that in Istanbul, because the Ottomans renamed Constantinople after they made the town their very own capital, the oldest archives solely return to the late fifteenth century.
A view of Pantokrator Monastery from above within the Mount Athos, northern Greece. Photo: AP
“The first paperwork that shed mild (on the primary interval of Ottoman historical past) are saved right here, on Mount Athos,” he mentioned, seated at a desk piled with paperwork and books. Others, the extra uncommon ones, are saved in giant picket drawers.
These embrace extremely ornate Sultans’ firmans – or decrees – deeds of possession and court docket selections.
“The overwhelming majority are authorized paperwork,” mentioned Anastasios Nikopoulos, a jurist and scientific collaborator of the Free University of Berlin who’s been working with Niehoff-Panagiotidis on the undertaking for the previous few months.
And the manuscripts tell a story at odds with the standard understanding in Greece of Ottoman depredations within the newly-conquered areas, by means of the confiscation of the Mount Athos monasteries’ wealthy actual property holdings. Instead, the new rulers took the group beneath their wing, preserved its autonomy and guarded it from exterior interference.
A manuscript is seen on the library of Pantokrator Monastery within the Mount Athos, northern Greece. Photo: AP
“The Sultans’ firmans we noticed within the tower … and the Ottoman state’s court docket selections present that the monks’ small democracy was in a position to acquire the respect of all conquering powers,” Nikopoulos mentioned. “And that’s as a result of Mount Athos was seen as a cradle of peace, tradition … the place peoples and civilizations coexisted peacefully.”
Nikopoulos mentioned that one of the primary actions of Murad II, the Ottoman ruler who conquered Thessaloniki – the closest metropolis to Mount Athos – was to attract up a authorized doc in 1430 defending the group.
“That says so much. The Ottoman sultan himself ensured that the executive system of Mount Athos was preserved and safeguarded,” he mentioned.
Even earlier than that, Niehoff-Panagiotidis added, a sultan issued a mandate laying down strict punishment for intruders after a band of marauding troopers engaged in minor thieving from one of the monasteries.
Father Theofilos, a Pantokrator monk, left, Byzantine scholar Yiannis Niehoff-Panagiotidis, centre, and Anastasios Nikopoulos, a jurist and scientific collaborator of the Free University of Berlin, converse to one another on the library of Pantokrator Monastery within the Mount Athos, northern Greece. Photo: AP
“It’s unusual that the sultans stored Mount Athos, the final remnant of Byzantium, semi-independent and didn’t contact it,” he mentioned. “They didn’t even hold troops right here. At the very most they’d have an area consultant who in all probability stayed at (the group’s administrative middle, Karyes) and sipped tea.”
Another surprising revelation, Niehoff-Panagiotidis mentioned, was that for roughly the primary two centuries of Ottoman rule no effort was made to impose Islamic regulation on Mount Athos or close by components of northern Greece.
“Mount Athos was one thing like a continuation of Byzantium,” he mentioned.
The group was first granted self-governance by means of a decree by Byzantine Emperor Basil II, in 883 AD. Throughout its historical past, girls have been forbidden from getting into, a ban that also stands. This rule known as “avaton” and the researchers imagine that it considerations each type of exterior administrative or secular intervention that would have an effect on Mount Athos.
A monk utilizing a mallet and plank to summon monks and guests to the afternoon prayers, pauses on the Pantokrator Monastery within the Mount Athos, northern Greece. Photo: AP
Father Theophilos, a Pantokrator monk who helps with the analysis, mentioned the paperwork present the far-flung affect of Mount Athos.
“Their research additionally illuminates examples of how folks can dwell with one another, ideas which can be frequent to all humanity, the seeds of human rights and respect for them, democracy and the ideas of social coexistence,” he mentioned.
The analysis undertaking is anticipated to proceed for a number of months, even years.
“What may emerge in the long run I’ll be capable of say when we now have catalogued and digitised all of the paperwork,” Niehoff-Panagiotidis mentioned.
“Right now, no one is aware of what’s hidden right here. Perhaps, even older paperwork.” – AP
