Vilayet of the Archipelago

ولايت جزائر بحر سفيد‎ Vilâyet-i Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire ← 1864–1912 →   →   → Cezayir-i Bahr-i Sefid Vilayet in 1900 Capital Rhodes[1] History  - Established 1864  - Disestablished 1912 Area  - 1885[2] 12,850 km2 (4,961 sq mi) Population  - 1885[2] 325,866       Density 25.4 /km2  (65.7 /sq mi) area does not include Cyprus

The Vilayet of the Archipelago^[3] (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت جزائر بحر سفيد, Vilâyet-i Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid;^[4] "Vilayet of the Islands of the White Sea") was a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century it reportedly had an area of 4,963 square miles (12,850 km²), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 325,866.^[2] It should be noted that the accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.^[2]

It was established in 1864 as the successor of the homonymous "Eyalet of the Archipelago" which was established in the mid-16th century.^{[citation needed]} It covered the Aegean islands held by the empire and was under the direct control of the Kapudan Pasha, the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman Navy.

The vilayet encompassed the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea (Imbros, Tenedos, Lemnos, Lesbos, Chios and the Dodecanese) as well as Cyprus. It was subdivided into five sanjaks: Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Lemnos and Cyprus. Cyprus was soon separated into an independent mutasarriflik in 1870; it then came under British administration in 1878 by the terms of the Treaty of Berlin. The Dodecanese were occupied by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, and the remaining islands were captured by Greece during the First Balkan War (1912–1913).

Administrative divisions

Sanjaks of the Vilayet:^[5]

1. Sanjak of Rodos
2. Sanjak of Midilli
3. Sanjak of Sakiz
4. Sanjak of Limni

See also

• Ottoman Cyprus

Sources

1. ^  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Rhodes". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Rhodes. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Asia by A. H. Keane, page 459
3. ^ Geographical Dictionary of the World at Google Books
4. ^ Salname-yi Vilâyet-i Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid ("Yearbook of the Vilayet of Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid"), Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid vilâyet matbaası, Rodos [Greece], 1293 [1876]. in the website of Hathi Trust Digital Libray.
5. ^ Cezâir-i Bahr-i Sefid Vilâyeti | Tarih ve Medeniyet

Vilayets (1864–1922)
Anatolia Adana · Aidin · Ankara · Archipelago · Bitlis · Diyâr-ı Bekr · Erzurum · Hüdavendigâr · Istanbul · Kastamonu · Konya · Mamuret-ul-Aziz · Sivas · Trebizond · Van Europe Adrianople · Bosnia · Crete · Danube · Janina · Kosovo · Monastir · Salonica · Scutari Elsewhere Aleppo · Baghdad · Basra · Beirut · Hejaz · Mosul · Syria · Tripolitania · Yemen

Vassals and autonomies
Cossack Hetmanate · Cretan State · Crimean Khanate · Khedivate of Egypt · Principality of Moldavia · Sharifate of Mecca · Republic of Ragusa · Eastern Rumelia · Principality of Samos · Serbian Despotate · Duchy of Syrmia · Principality of Transylvania · Tunis Eyalet · Principality of Wallachia

See also the list of short-lived Ottoman provinces