Scholarly supervision: Dr Elias Kolovos

The project runs in cooperation with the Kaireios Library of Andros

The aim of the project is to study the economic and social history of the island of Andros under Ottoman administration (1538/1579-1821), through the light of the information provided by the Ottoman documents preserved on the island. The project started in 2002 with the preliminary classification of the Ottoman documents in the Kaïreios Library, at the invitation of its director, Demetrios Polemis. Most of the documents originate from the monastery of Ayia and a small number from the monastery of Ayios Nikolaos. The rest have been brought at the library from private collections on the island.


The study of the Ottoman documents of Andros may contribute to a wider study of the Aegean islands under Ottoman administration.

The Ottoman documents are being abstracted (in Greek) and the information on persons, topography and selected subjects is entered in an index. The final product of the project is in print by the Kaireios Library. At the same time, the facsimiles, the transcriptions and the summaries of the Ottoman documents are entered in a database, which will be published on the Internet.

The following have already been published as results of the research project:

Elias Kolovos, “Les documents ottomans de la bibliothèque Kaireios d´Andros (Grèce)”, Turcica, 35 (2003), 317-321.

Elias Kolovos, “Reaya and Frenks in the Gate of the Ottoman Sultan: The Society of Andros in 1564 and the Ottoman Central Administration” (in Greek), Agkyra, 2 (2004), 55-88.