DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0029
INTRODUCTION.
Nel mezzo '1 mar siede un paese guasto,
Diss' egli allora, che s' appella Creta.
Dantk.
Before the outbreaking of the Greek revolution,
Crete was the worst governed province of the Turkish
Empire; the local authorities were wholly unable to
control the license of the Janissaries, who consisted
solely of Cretan Mohammedans, and made it a point
of honour not to suffer any one of their members to be
brought to justice for any ordinary crime. So com-
pletely did every Pasha, appointed by the Sublime Porte,
depend on this turbulent militia, that his authority
always ceased as soon as they resisted it; which, on
several occasions, they did, so far as even to depose him
and to send to Constantinople in order to obtain the
confirmation of his successor's election as made by them-
selves. In one or other of their regiments almost every
Cretan Mohammedan was enrolled; and it is easy to con-
ceive what must have been the condition of the Christian
population.
Besides the grinding oppressions of the regular autho-
rities, and of the different corps of Janissaries, every
Greek was also at the mercy of the lowest Mohammedan
of the island, who, in consequence of the weakness of the
local government, could make any demand, and perpetrate
any enormity with complete security. Thus, literally,
no Christian was master of his own house: any Moham-
medan might pass his threshold, and either require
from him money, or, what was far commoner, send the
Nel mezzo '1 mar siede un paese guasto,
Diss' egli allora, che s' appella Creta.
Dantk.
Before the outbreaking of the Greek revolution,
Crete was the worst governed province of the Turkish
Empire; the local authorities were wholly unable to
control the license of the Janissaries, who consisted
solely of Cretan Mohammedans, and made it a point
of honour not to suffer any one of their members to be
brought to justice for any ordinary crime. So com-
pletely did every Pasha, appointed by the Sublime Porte,
depend on this turbulent militia, that his authority
always ceased as soon as they resisted it; which, on
several occasions, they did, so far as even to depose him
and to send to Constantinople in order to obtain the
confirmation of his successor's election as made by them-
selves. In one or other of their regiments almost every
Cretan Mohammedan was enrolled; and it is easy to con-
ceive what must have been the condition of the Christian
population.
Besides the grinding oppressions of the regular autho-
rities, and of the different corps of Janissaries, every
Greek was also at the mercy of the lowest Mohammedan
of the island, who, in consequence of the weakness of the
local government, could make any demand, and perpetrate
any enormity with complete security. Thus, literally,
no Christian was master of his own house: any Moham-
medan might pass his threshold, and either require
from him money, or, what was far commoner, send the