ΣΠΑΘΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΛΛΑ ΟΠΛΑ: ΣΤΟΙΧΕΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΑΦΟΠΛΙΣΜΟ ΤΩΝ ΜΗ ΜΟΥΣΟΥΛΜΑΝΩΝ ΣΤΑ ΧΑΝΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥΠΟΛΗΣ, ΜΑΡΤΙΟΣ – ΑΠΡΙΛΙΟΣ 1821

Abstract

After the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, the Ottoman gov¬ernment took several measures in order to prevent a potential crisis in the capital. One of them was the registration of the Greek-Orthodox population in the city. The first survey, started on the 14th/26th of March, recording the non-Muslims working and/or staying at khans (inns/commercial buildings), located primarily at the Old City’s commercial center. The operation aimed at ensuring that there were no unidentified persons in the khans, that is individ¬uals without guarantors (kefils), as well as at confiscating all their weapons.
The paper discusses this operation in connection to crisis management practices already in use, such us disarmament operations and inspection surveys. Furthermore, it examines its results focusing on the numbers and types of the confiscated weapons, the khans in which they were dis¬covered and their possessors. Finally, the unique case of Alekos Theolo¬gos, a ‘‘merchant of Europe’’ (Avrupa tüccarı), who was found to possess 391 swords, allows us to consider the place of Istanbul in the plans of the Filiki Eteria, and the possibility that the swords had been imported in order to serve the purposes of the Greek War of Independence.