Epirus revolt of 1611

The uprising in Epirus of 1611, also known as uprising of Dionysios Skylosophos, was an anti-Ottoman rebellion^[1][2] by Albanian peasants, organized and led by the former Greek Orthodox bishop Dionysios. The peasants and shepherds who rebelled, attacked the city of Ioannina, the seat of the Ottoman governor of the region, on September 10, 1611. The following day the uprising was brutally suppressed by the Ottoman authorities with support from the local Greek Orthodox notables and the ringleaders were executed.^[3] As a result of the revolt the privileges which the native inhabitants of Ioannina enjoyed since the beginning of Ottoman rule (1430) were annulled.^[4]

Background

The rebellion led by Dionysios is part of the local uprisings in the early 17th century in different part of the Balkans including Albania and Epirus which combined anti-taxation demands and anti-Ottoman sentiments. An anti-taxation uprising had occurred in the region just five years before 1611 in the region of Kurvelesh. These 17th century uprisings were often instigated by pro-western figures and as such had a more limited scope than those of the 16th century which purely relied on the economic and social demands of a popular base.^[5]

After the Ottoman-Venetian peace treaty of 1573 Spain and the Holy Roman Empire fostered various uprisings in the Balkans and especially in Epirus with the support of local nobility, scholars, clerics and Greek military figures under their command.^[6] On the other hand since 1430 when the administrative center of Ioannina peacefully surrendered to the Ottomans the Greek population of the city lived in relative harmony with the Ottoman newcomers. As such 25 Christian churches and 7 monasteries were located inside its walls while on the other hand mosques were erected only outside the walls.^[7] Nevertheless part of the population including some the local clergy of Ioannina was involved in preparations of rebellious activities against the Ottoman authorities.^[8]

Internal problems and prolonged wars by the Ottoman Empire raised the expectations of Greek subjects to end Ottoman rule; as such a rebellion broke out in Himara at 1596 under metropolitan bishop Athanasios of Ohrid, while at 1600 a delegation from central Greece on behalf of Dionysios arrived in Madrid to propose a major revolt.^[9] The later had already incited a failed rebellion in Thessaly in 1600. In 1601, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople deposed him for "plotting with madness the uprising against the rule of the lifelong sovereign Sultan Mehmet III".^[10] The conspirators who cooperated with Dionysios also maintained contact with Michael the Brave of Wallachia and possible offered financial support for his campaign against the Ottoman Empire.^[11]

Planning

In the following years Dionysios traveled to Spain to seek for western support for his plans. There he proposed a plan for the liberation of Epirus, Macedonia, Thessaly and all of "Greece".^[12][13] He was the head of a delegation of various notables and metropolitan bishops from Ioannina, Arta and Larissa and the wider region. According to the plan proposed the uprising would begin with the capture of Preveza by a Greeks force that will hand it over to a Spanish fleet.^[14]

In 1603 just before he traveled to Spain, he abandoned Greek Orthodoxy, pledged his allegiance to Pope Clement VIII and received communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In response, Greek clerics of the era frequently attacked and called him an apostate. In this circumstances, Greek clerics in Epirus gave him the sobriquet "Dionysios the Demon" and later Skylosophos (Σκυλόσοφος Dog-philosopher in Greek). His most fierce opponent who violently attacked his memory after his execution was Maximos, a Greek hieromonk from the Peloponnese, who happened to witness the events of 1611 in Ioannina, wrote a "stigmatizing address" (Λόγος Στηλιτευτικὸς) and a number of letters to fellow Greek clerics in Epirus.^[10] He emerged openly as a sworn clerical opponent of the rebellious bishop Dionysios whom he clearly identified as an enemy of the Church and the Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians.

After his journey to Spain, Dionysios received promises of support from the Spaniards of the Kingdom of Naples and begun preparations for another uprising in the Sanjak of Ioannina. As such he moved at 1604 in the village of Hoika, near Paramythia.^[15] Dionysios also managed to gain the support of various nobles of the area, such as Mattheos, the metropolitan bishop of Dryinopolis, the Christian Deli Giorgos, secretary of an Ottoman official, Lambro, who despite being personal secretary of the Pasha of Ioannina, was deemed by the Albanians as their King, and Zotos Tsiripos.^[16][17]

Outbreak

Most of the details of the insurrection have come from Maximos, Dionysios' adversary.^[18] The rebellion broke out in the coastal region of Epirus, Thesprotia. On September 10, 1611, 700-800 peasants and shepherds from 70 villages were gathered in the coastal region and were ready to revolt under the guidance of the metropolitan bishops of Larissa, of Nafpaktos and of Arta.^[19] However the vast majority of them had only access to peasant tools with 40 of them bearing arquebuses and additional 100 yatagans.^[16][20] The peasants were expressing their indignation not only against the Ottoman taxation system, but also against Ottoman rule and presence in the region in general shouting slogans and chanting Kyrie Eleison (Greek: Κύριε Ελέησον Lord have mercy) and anti-Haraç taxation slogans (Greek: Χαράτσι χαρατσόπουλο αναζούλι αναζουλόπουλο) in Greek.^[21] In Venetian archival sources they are described as Albanians (questi Albanesi sollevati) which covered the events.^[10] They are also described as drunken followers of Dionysios.^[22] The ca. 1000 Albanian peasants who participated in the rebellion came from 70 villages of the Paramythia region. In the previous centuries they must have been part of the Albanian semi-nomadic pastoralists who roamed freely the grazing pastures of the area, but in the early Ottoman era were forced to settle down permanently and be taxed as peasant farmers.^[23] They violently attacked the Muslim beys of the villages Tourkogranitsa and Zaravousa, in Thesprotia.

A list of the settlements that participated in the movement of Dionysios can't be provided with certainty. As such it is uncertain if the population of Dropull and Lunxheri joined the uprising.^[21]

The rebels marched towards Ioannina, the administrative center of the region.^[21] There they arrived on the night of September 10–11 and burnt down the house of the local Ottoman lord, Osman Pasha.^[21] According to accusations by Maximos, the metropolitan bishop of Dryinopolis, who was at that time in Ioannina serving as a vicar of the old and ailing metropolitan of Ioannina also supported the uprising.^[21] Osman Pasha finally managed to escape and the following day the Ottoman garrison of the city reinforced with a small cavalry unit and with the support of local Greek notables defeated and dispersed the poorly organized rebellious elements of Dionysios.^[16] The decisive Ottoman response was also supported by the local Jewish community.^[24]

Aftermath

Three days later Dionysios was found and arrested by the Ottomans in a nearby cave. During his interrogation he claimed that he aimed at the liberation of the population to put an end to Ottoman tyranny. Dionysios also stated that the King of Spain promised him active support.^[25][26] In lack of Spanish support the Greeks were exposed to Ottoman reprisals.^[27]

Dionysios was tortured at the central square of Ioannina and he perished upon being flayed alive. His remains were sent to Constantinople together with the heads of the movement. Other notables that participated in the movement shared a similar fate.^[25] All Greek Orthodox churches inside the Ioannina castle were razed to the ground.^[28] The Venetian report which described the aftermath of the events mentions that most of the Albanians who escaped the onslaught remained in active rebellion in the more mountainous areas, straining communication between Epirus and Macedonia.^[29] Albanian bands also supposedly wreaked havoc in the Christian settlements of Pogoni allegedly as a reprisal against the movement of Dionysios.^[30] Gabriel Malamas, who fought next to Dionysios, managed to escape to Mani, southern Greece.^[31]

This also led to the expulsion from the Ioannina Castle of Greeks, who were allowed to live inside the citadel before the rebellion.^[32][33] Only Muslims and Jews were allowed to remain inside the castle of Ioannina, while the churches there were confiscated and turned into mosques. In 1618, the Greek Orthodox cathedral of John the Baptist, patron saint of the city was demolished and the Aslan Pasha Mosque (now the Municipal Ethnographic Museum of Ioannina) was erected on the site.^[25] The rebellion indicates some political oscillation in a minor section of the Greek Orthodox clergy, but despite these differences the distinctive features of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek urban classes involved alignment with the Ottoman Empire and an anti-western attitude.^[34] As such the privileges which the native inhabitants of Ioannina enjoyed since the beginning of Ottoman rule (1430) were annulled.^{[25][35][36][37][4]}

After the failure of the 1611 rebellion the Spanish authorities adopted a policy of prudent containment towards the anti-Turkish impulses of the Greeks. Moreover, the Greek representatives continued to offer information about the situation in the Ottoman Empire.^[38]

In historiography

Doja (2022) claimed that sources which were written and published in the region after the uprising show that a Greek faction of Epirus fought against the rebelling Albanian peasants and supported the local Ottoman elite.^[39] According to him this attitude of the Greek urban, merchant and ecclesiastical faction is evident in the treatise of Maximos of the Peloponnese against Dionysios which was written immediately after his execution. In Greek historiography, since the 19th century the events were re-envisaged as part of the Greek nationalist narrative. Additionally he adds that this approach has been criticized for its "reconstruction based on selective uses of Greek sources and serious inaccuracies, and often deliberate interventions, in the Greek publication of contemporaneous Western documentary sources".^[40]

Koukoudes (2003) discusses the possibility that Aromanians and non-Aromanians from the regions of Zagori, Malakasii and other regions around Ioannina may have participated in the revolt.^[41]

Commemoration

Annual festivities commemorating the uprising of Dionysios take place in the village of Radovizi, east of Ioannina.^[42]

References

1. Braddock, Joseph (1973). The Greek Phoenix. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-698-10487-7. There was a Greek rising in Epirus in 1611...
2. Clogg, Richard (20 June 2002). A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-521-00479-4. Even during the darkest period in the fortunes of the Greeks there were sporadic revolts against Ottoman rule... In 1611 a short-lived revolt was launched in Epirus by Dionysios Skylosophos.
3. Doja 2022, p. 751:The uprising in Janina ended in failure, put down with the support of local Greek notables (...)
4. Osswald, Brendan (2006). "Citizenship in Medieval Ioannina". Citizenship in Historical Perspective. Edizioni Plus: 100. ISBN 9788884924063. Retrieved 11 February 2023. The people of Ioannina were guaranteed the continuity of their laws and self-administration. This status lasted until 1611. In that year, after a rebellion, the Christians were expelled from the castle, which then became the preserve of the Turks
5. Giakoumis 2002, p. 19, 35.
6. Ψιμούλη, Βάσω Δ. (2006). Σούλι και Σουλιώτες. Ιστορία και Πολιτική (4th ed.). Athens: Βιβλιοπωλείον της Εστίας. p. 54. 'Ετσι υποκινούν μέσω των τοπικών ηγετών -λογίων, κληρικών καθώς και Ελλήνων στρατιωτικών που βρίσκονται στην υπηρεσία τους, πολλές εξεγέρσεις σε διάφορα σημεία της χερσονήσου καθώς και στην Ήπειρο. Η ανταρσία.... "Σκυλοσόφου" το 1600 και 1611 στην Ήπειρο, εντάσσονται στις κινήσεις αυτές.
7. Lellio, Anna Di (2006). The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence. Anthem Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-84331-245-1. From 1430 till 1611 the Greeks of Ioannina... outside the walls. In 1611 the ex-Bishop..
8. Giakoumis 2002, p. 259.
9. Floristan, Jose M. (1993). "Pedro de Valencia, traductor regio en romance de Felipe III". Obras Completas (in Spanish). 10 (Pedro de Valencia, traductor regio en romance de Felipe III). Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Léon: 287. ISBN 9788477192374. Retrieved 10 February 2023. Estos problemas internos y las guerras exteriores despertaron las esperanzas de los griegos sometidos: en 1596 una revuelta chimarrote , encabezada por el arzobispo Atanasio de Acrida , 1600 llegaron a Madrid cuatro embajadores de la Grecia central , en nombre de Dionisio el Escilósofo , para proponer una gran revuelta que había de comenzar por La Prevesa , y en 1601 comenzó un periodo de continuos contactos entre los habitantes de Maina ( Morea ) y las autoridades españolas de Sicilia.
10. Doja 2022, p. 751
11. Hasiotis 2008, p. 108
12. Kasidiari-Hering, Olga (2014). Christian Subjects in Ottoman Empire. Hērakleio. p. 601. ISBN 978-960-524-437-8. Άλλοτε (περίπτω- ση Διονυσίου «Σκυλοσόφου», 1611) προτείνεται η εξέγερση και συνεπώς η «απε- λευθέρωση» της Ηπείρου, της Μακεδονίας, της Θεσσαλίας και όλης της «Γραικίας».{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
13. Egea, José M. (1993). Oriente y Occidente en la Edad Media: influjos bizantinos en la cultura occidental : [actas de las VIII Jornadas sobre Bizancio] (in Spanish). Instituto de Ciencias de la Antigüedad. p. 185. ISBN 978-84-7585-418-2. Dionisio, espiritu sonador e inquieto, no supo medir foerzas, y su ardient desco de expulsar a los turcos de Grecia le engano.
14. Floristan, 2014, p. 873
15. Giakoumis, 2002, p. 35
16. Vranousis, Sfyroeras, 1997, p. 246
17. Xhufi., Pëllumb (2017). Arbërit e Jonit (eng: The Albanians of the Ionian Sea). Onufri. p. 756. Lambro, che seben era servitore di esso Bassá, et scrivano sopra li detti casali, veniva peró dagli Albanesi niominato loro Ré
18. Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Duckworth. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7156-3201-7. Unfortunately most of the details of this insurrection have come from yet another Greek enemy of Dionysios, the monk Maximos from the Peloponnese , who denounced him for ' bizarre and false prophecies and divinations '
19. Παπαδόπουλος, Στέφανος (1982). Απελευθερωτικοί αγώνες των ελλήνων επι τουρκοκρατίας. Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων. Φιλοσοφική Σχολή. Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας. p. 92. doi:10.26268/heal.uoi.3696.
20. Xhufi., Pëllumb (2017). Arbërit e Jonit (eng: The Albanians of the Ionian Sea). Onufri. p. 760. uniti insieme a 700-800 Albanesi in circa andarono per ammazzar alla sua casa detto Bassá
21. Giakoumis, 2002, p. 36
22. Potts, Jim (2010). The Ionian Islands and Epirus: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-19-975416-8. He led an uprising in 1611, heading a crowd of drunken followers
23. Psimuli 2016, p. 77:According to the Venetian sources, the 1000 Christians, shepherds and farmers, who followed Dionysios the Philosopher in the revolt of 1611 were Albanian villagers from 70 villages of the broader region of Ajdonat/Paramythia. The fact that they were farmers and shepherds shows that a large part of the semi-nomadic Albanians of the previous century had entered at the beginning of the 17th century, the category of the settled peasants (...) Taxation and the arbitrary excerise of authority led these 1000 Albanian peasants and shepherds to revolt.
24. Fromm, Annette B. (2008). We are Few: Folklore and Ethnic Identity of the Jewish Community of Ioannina, Greece. Lexington Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7391-2061-3.
25. Vranousis, Sfyroeras, 1997, p. 247
26. Xhufi., Pëllumb (2017). Arbërit e Jonit (eng: The Albanians of the Ionian Sea). Onufri. p. 785. con molte teste dei figli d'Albanesi
27. Imízcoz, José Manuel Floristán (1994). "Felipe II y la empresa de Grecia tras Lepanto (1571-78)". Erytheia: Revista de estudios bizantinos y neogriegos (15): 157. ISSN 0213-1986. Retrieved 23 September 2022. Ante esta respuesta sólo cabían dos actitudes: o la embajada moría por consunción -como ocurrió con la mayoría de ellas- o una mala interpretación de la misma dejaba a los griegos a merced d e los turcos -como aconteció, por ejemplo, con la famosa revuelta de Dionisio el Escilósofo en Yanina (1611), en la que no puede ocultarse el arrojo irreflexivo e infundado de su protagonista-. translation: Faced with this response, there were only two possible attitudes: either the embassy died by consumption -as happened with most of them- or a misinterpretation of it would leave the Greeks at the mercy of the Turks -as happened, for example, with the famous revolt of Dionysus the Scilosopher in Yanina (1611), in which the thoughtless and unfounded courage of its protagonist cannot be hidden
28. Potts, Jim (2010). The Ionian Islands and Epirus: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-19-975416-8. Every Greek church within the Kastro was razed to the ground
29. Xhufi., Pëllumb (2017). Arbërit e Jonit (eng: The Albanians of the Ionian Sea). Onufri. p. 784. essendo peró la maggior parte delli ribelli rettirati alla ontagna, et a tutti li passi piu principali delle strade, non conosce, che fin a Salonicchi esse strade posano essr sicure, oltre che li nolizeni temendo grandemente di questi Albanesi sollevati si renderanno piu tosto difficili che altrimente nel servire con la debita provisione di cavalli in questo viaggio
30. Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Duckworth. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7156-3201-7. It was one of these armed bands of Albanians which was supposed to have wreaked havoc in Pogoni, although this action is alleged to have been a reprisal against a definitie revolt led by a bishop called Dionysios Philosophos, or Skylosophos
31. Floristan 2018, p. 315
32. Fodor, Eugene; Curtis, William (1963). Greece. David McKay Company. Overlooking the lake are two eminences, the one crowned by the mosque of Asian Pasha built in the 17th century and the other by the Fethie mosque, originally built at the time of the Turkish conquest in 1430. By the terms of the capitulation the Greek inhabitants were allowed to continue living inside the citadel, but in 1612 an abortive rebellion headed by the Metropolitan of Trikala, Dionysios Skylosophos, led to the expulsion of the Greeks who were replaced by Jews.
33. Machiel Kiel. Art and society of Bulgaria in the Turkish period : a sketch of the economic, juridical, and artistic preconditions of Bulgarian post-Byzantine art and its place in the development of the art of the Christian Balkans, 1360/70-1700 : a new interpretation, p. 132 – 133.
34. Doja 2022, p. 752 "The failed uprising of 1611 in Janina, like other anti-Ottoman movements in the Western Balkans throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, showed the existence of two opposing positions among Orthodox clerics in relation to Ottoman authority and Western Christianity. Despite occasional exceptions, submission and anti-Occidentalism were the distinctive features of the Rum Church hierarchy, supported by the Greek clerics and the Greek urban class".
35. Ioannides, Marinos; Fink, Eleanor; Cantoni, Lorenzo; Champion, Erik (13 April 2021). Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection: 8th International Conference, EuroMed 2020, Virtual Event, November 2–5, 2020, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Nature. p. 79. ISBN 978-3-030-73043-7. In 1611, a failed Christian uprising1 would lead to the abolition of the privileges the Ioannites2 had secured with the Decree by Sinan Pasha in 1430
36. Giakoumis, Konstantinos (2005). "Dialectics of Pragmatism in Ottoman Domestic Interreligious Affairs. Reflections on the Ottoman Legal Framework of Church Confiscation and Construction and a 1741 Firman for Ardenicë Monastery" (PDF). Balkan Studies. 47: 89. Thus, the Christian inhabitants of Berat were able to dwell within the Castle compound and keep their old churches. Ioannina was a similar case. Its twenty-five churches and five monasteries continued to be used by the Christians after their voluntary surren- der with the Pact of Sinan Pasha (1430) until the aforementioned 1611 uprising by Bishop Dionysios when all earlier concessions were nullified.
37. Katsiardi-Hering, Olga (2009). "Von den Aufständen zu den Revolutionen christlicher Untertanen des Osmanischen Reiches in Südosteuropa (ca. 1530-1821). Ein Typologisierungsversuch". Südost-Forschungen (in German) (68): 121. ISSN 0081-9077. Retrieved 11 February 2023. Die Anerkennung der Rechte, die in der Region von Ioannina durch seine Besatzung von 1430 sicherte, hatte ausreichendes gesichert waren ??? Wachstum erlaubt. Der Aufstand von Dionysios im Jahre 1611 brachte katastrophale Folgen der Unterdrückung und der Aufhebung der Privilegien 118 für die Bevölkerung von Epirus mit sich sowie eine interne und externe Migration der Einwohner nach Makedonien.
38. Floristan, 2014: "El desastre sirvió para confirmar a las autoridades españolas en su política de prudente contención de los ímpetus antiturcos de los griegos y, a partir de entonces, los embajadores griegos se dedicaron, hasta su muerte, a transmitir información sobre Turquía.
39. Doja 2022, p. 750
40. Doja 2022, pp. 750–51.
41. Koukoudēs, Asterios I. (2003). The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora. Zitros. ISBN 978-960-7760-86-9. When the second uprising broke out in 1611 , organised by Dionysios, Metropolitan of Trikke, the inhabitants of Zagori, like those of Malakassi and the areas around Ioannina, Vlachs and non - Vlachs alike , reportedly joined in the rebels ' attempt to take Ioannina .
42. Papadopoulou, Varvara (2008). (PDF). Prefectural Committee of Tourist Promotion. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2009-11-02.

Sources

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• Ψιμούλη, Βάσω Δ. (2006). Σούλι και Σουλιώτες. Ιστορία και Πολιτική (4th ed.). Athens: Βιβλιοπωλείον της Εστίας.
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