Cyprus eyalet
Cyprus, 1571–1878. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Eyalet of Cyprus was an eyalet/province of the Ottoman Empire made up of the island of Cyprus, which was annexed into the Empire in 1571. The Ottomans changed the way they administered Cyprus multiple times. The fall of Famagusta marked the end of the Venetian rule and the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus, with Lala Mustafa Pasha becoming the island's first Turkish Governor.
Seat of power: Nicosia
No rulers documented for this era yet.
Culture
- The island was a sanjak/sub-province of the Eyalet of the Archipelago from 1670 to 1703, and again from 1784 to 1914; a fief of the Grand Vizier (1703-1745 and 1748-1784); and again an eyalet for the short period from 1745 to 1748.
- In the summer of 1570, the Ottomans struck again, but this time with a full-scale invasion rather than a raid.
- The city fell on September 9, 1570; 20,000 Nicosians were massacred and every church, public building, and palace was looted. The citizens of Famagusta, on the other hand, led by Venetian commander Marco Antonio Bragadin, put up a heroic resistance which led to the siege of the city for about a year, from September 1570 until August 1571.
Picture
Selimiye Mosque, historically known as Cathedral of Saint Sophia, is a former Christian cathedral converted into a mosque, in North Nicosia.
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.