Economic interaction between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Ottoman State in the seventeenth-century Ottoman documents

This thesis examines the nature of the financial activities of the Greek Orthodox Church vis-à-vis Ottoman State during the 17th century that has often been neglected by the historians due to the lack of archival sources. It proposes to overcome these challenges by systematically scanning two important archival collections, namely the Atik Şikâyet Defters and Mühimme Defters, which contain registers covering both ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical matters through an examination and analysis of the orders (hüküms) on financial aspects of the ecclestical matters between 1650 and 1690. This research will unveil the evolving dynamics between the church members and the Ottoman officers. Analysis of the orders in these registers with the religious, legal, financial and social dynamics of the petitioners sheds light on the financial changes of the period that is often characterized by almost exclusive crisis in the secondary literature. This thesis shows that the financial relations between them were more complex and that the crisis also included several cases of financial cooperation. Consequently, the findings promise to make a significant contribution to the field of Ottoman and ecclesiastical studies, providing a rich and comprehensive understanding of an important but under-explored period.