Month: August 2017

Armenian Kayseri, 1872

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The 1872 defter, or taxation schedule, from Kayseri in Turkey (Gesaria or Kesaria in Armenian) is arranged by mahalle and, within that, by street. The taxpaying householders in each street are then listed. There were 8,119 taxpaying households in total in Kayseri in 1872.

At that date, Kayseri had a total of 108 recognised mahalleler or neighbourhoods, comprising between 16 and 352 households each, with the mean being 75 homes. 67 neighbourhoods were exclusively Turkish, 25 were Armenian, two were Kurdish and one was Greek. However, Greeks and Armenians lived together in some Christian quarters and there were seven neighbourhoods with a mixed Armenian/Turkish population.

The original archival material is in Osmanlı Turkish, written using a modified Arabic alphabet, and has been transliterated and transcribed into modern Turkish, which of course uses the Latin alphabet. One needs to understand the pronunciation of certain Turkish letters to be able to match them with the approximately corresponding letters used in English to spell Armenian names in transliteration. For example, the Turkish letter c may be the equivalent of j or dj, and ç and ş represent the sounds ch (or tch) and sh respectively.

Armenian and Greek personal names are rendered in Turkish style, using the suffix -oğlu to indicate “son of”, rather than an Armenian or Greek surname ending. The entries are terse and it is not always clear whether a surname has already been assumed by a family or, contrarily, a simple system of patronymics is still in use – for example, in the case of entries in the format “Manük oğlu Serkis”, it is not certain whether the individual in question is Sarkis Manoukian, or simply a Sarkis son of Manouk with no settled surname (or with a surname not recorded). Contrarily, when the entry is in the format “Demiroğlu Karabet”, it seems clear that the man’s name is Karabet (or Garabed) Demirian.

It is worth noting that the Armenians of Kayseri were native Turkish speakers.

I began by looking for surnames I knew from previous research to be associated with the town and/or sanjak of Kayseri. I was able to find only about one quarter of these. Either the other names were not from Kayseri itself but an outlying town or village, or they had not been taken by 1872 (which seems less likely).

Some of the names in the defter are simple to match to modern Armenian names, for example:

  • Arzuman oğlu Parsıh = Parsegh Arzumanian or Arzoumanian
  • Beyleroğlu Mardiros = Mardiros Beylerian
  • Erkiletlioğlu Karabet = Karabet Erkiletlian
  • Gürünlüoğlu Kesbar ve Avidis = (brothers) Kasbar and Avedis Gurunlian (or Gourounlian)
  • Kalaycıoğlu Mardiros = Mardiros Kalaydjian
  • Keşişoğlu Kalus = Kaloust Keshishian
  • Minasoğlu Hacı Agop = Agop Minasian
  • Odabaşıoğlu Agop = Agop Odabashian
  • Şahinoğlu Karabet = Karabet Shahinian
  • Seferoğlu Parsıh ve Artin = (brothers) Parsegh and Artin Seferian
  • Taşçıoğlu Ohanes = Ohanes Tashjian

Other names are less confident matches:

  • Acemoğlu Karabet = Karabet Ajemian
  • Dökmecioğlu Agop = Agop Deukmejian

The records mainly involve heads of household, as the taxpayers, and these are usually men – however, there are some women, perhaps mostly widows or women who had inherited property or had established a charitable trust (vakif).

Below are details of the Fırıncı mahallesi. Its name means simply “bakers’ neighbourhood” and it was a small, entirely Armenian quarter of the town, comprising just five streets with 23 taxpaying households, of which 21 are named in the defter. These households are shown in the table below.

street householder interpretation
Hamame Sokağı Kırnıkoğlu Hacı Karabet Karabet Kirnikian
Hamame Sokağı Mardinoğlu Karabet Karabet Mardinian
Hamame Sokağı Kazancıoğlu Hacı Agop Agop Kazandjian
Hamame Sokağı Acıroğlu Artın Artin Adjirian
Kazancı Sokağı Kazancıoğlu Murat Murat Kazandjian
Muytab Sokağı Ağlağanoğlu Hacı Agop Agop Aghlaghanian
Muytab Sokağı Keşişin oğlu kızı Meryem Miss Mariam Keshishian
Muytab Sokağı Köseoğlu kuyumcu Hacı Parsıh goldsmith Parsegh Keseian
Muytab Sokağı Külhancıoğlu Bedirus Bedros Kulhandjian
Muytab Sokağı Acıroğlu Keyfuruk Kevork Adjirian
Muytab Sokağı Çoduloğlu Agop Agop Tchodulian
Muytab Sokağı Ohanes oğlu Parsıh Parsegh Ohanesian, or Parsegh son of Ohanes
Muytab Sokağı Sade Agop oğlu Artin simple Artin Agopian, or Artin son of Agop
Gümüşoğlu Sokağı Berber Ohanes Ohanes Berber, or Ohanes the barber
Güllük Sokağı Abacıoğlu zevcesi Ehsabet Mrs Yeghsabet Abadjian
Güllük Sokağı Güllükoğlu Bedirus Bedros Kullukian or Koulloukian
Güllük Sokağı Üskü oğlu Karabet Karabet Ouskouian
Güllük Sokağı Güllükoğlu kızı Meryem Miss Maryam Kullukian or Koulloukian
Güllük Sokağı Çulha Muratoğlu Mığırdıç weaver Mgrdich Muratian
Güllük Sokağı Ağacanoğlu şekerci Artin confectioner Artin Aghadjanian
Güllük Sokağı Hızarcı Manikoğlu Karabet sawyer Karabet Manikian

 

Some thoughts on these householders:

  • Two of the streets appear to be named after the principal family in residence – the Kazandjian household in Kazancı Sokağı and the Kullukian or Koulloukian household in Güllük Sokağı (“roses street”).
  • The occupations of four of the householders are given – goldsmith, weaver, confectioner, sawyer. A fifth man – Ohanes, the sole taxpaying resident in Gümüşoğlu Sokağı – is either a barber or bears the surname Berber or Berberian – the original record does not make it clear. Given the name of this mahalle, one would assume that at least one of the men without a given occupation was a baker.
  • Three out of the 21 are women – two described as daughters (kızı in Turkish) and one as a wife (zevcesi), and presumably are respectively spinsters and a widow.
  • Four of the male householders have their forename prefixed with Hacı (Hadji), which would normally indicate that they had performed the pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

 

The Google Map shows the Armenian settlements in the Kayseri province of the Ottoman Empire before the 1915 Genocide.

 

 

This article and map are versions of originals which were published by bluebirdresearch.com in 2013/2014.

Isniq and Istog, Kosova

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Manchester United is a global brand and, in addition, the least liked team in the English Premier League, the side that everyone enjoys seeing beaten or embarrassed.  

Adnan Januzaj was purchased by Man Utd from the Belgian champions RSC Anderlecht in 2011, aged 16. Although born in Brussels, it is immediately clear from his name that his family is not of traditional Belgian heritage. The surname is Albanian. The forename Adnan, which means “settler” in Arabic, is common in Muslim parts of the Balkans, in Turkey and across the Middle-East. Januzaj’s father Abedin migrated to Belgium from Istog, Kosova in 1992, apparently to avoid the draft into the Yugoslav People’s Army as the state fell apart.  

Istog (or Istok in the Serbian language) is a twin village, in a peculiarly Kosovar Albanian sense. Its twin is Isniq (Istinić in Serbian). In fact, it would be more true to say that, rather than siblings, Isniq is the parent settlement which gave birth to Istog.   

The founding myth is as follows. At a date probably during the latter half of the C17th, three Catholic Albanian brothers from the Shala clan in Albania left their native highlands in Malësi e Madhe, where land was in short supply. They settled in the Rrafshi i Dukagjinit plains (known as Metohija in Serbian) near a modest settlement then known as Istinići, populated by a handful of households of the Orthodox confession (probably ethnic Albanian rather than Serb) of the Bojkaj clan. In due course, both the Orthodox Bojkaj, and the descendants of the incoming Catholic brothers, converted to Islam, and the settlement, being populated by Albanian speakers, generally became known as Isniq.  

During the mid-C19th, Isniq had expanded to the extent that all land was accounted for, and the village’s overflow population settled at Istog, where they were effectively serfs (çifçi) rather than independent peasant agriculturalists or pastoralists. Henceforth, many families had two homes, one in Isniq and one in Istog, under the same head of household (at least until post-WW1 reforms in Yugoslavia).  

To explain this, one must understand the traditional clan structure in this part of Kosova. The word for a clan is fis. Each fis is subdivided into lineages, or lines of descent (patrilineal, as only male lines are considered). There are two local words for these in Albanian, both of which have a geographical meaning coinciding with the genealogical meaning – mëhallë (derived from the Turkish mahalle) and lagje. These translate to lineage but also to neighbourhood or quarter – this is because residence followed kinship lines, and the entire lineage would live in the same part of the village. In turn, each mëhallë or lagje was subdivided into barks, which were the main kinship group for most practical and social purposes. Each bark was also subdivided, into shpies. A shpie was a household (equivalent to a Slavic zadruga) – a usually walled compound in which typically might live an old man, his sons and the sons’ children, or alternatively (following the death of the elder, if the shpie does not divide, the sons as brothers and their children). Finally, within each shpie are the hises. A hise is the equivalent of a nuclear family – i.e. a man, his wife and their children.  

In the case of Isniq and Istog, then, it is the shpie which might have two physical households, one in each village, under the headship of the same head of household.   

As for the Januzaj family or bark, in Isniq this comprised three shpies in 1900, six in 1932 and 13 in 1975. They were relatively well-off and, indeed, it seems that the leader of the Januzaj was a spahi, a hereditary landowner favoured under the Ottomans, responsible for collecting the tithe on behalf of the local bey. In Istog, there is a mëhallë or quarter named Januzaj in which the family lives. It is in this place that the footballer Adnan Januzaj’s father was born.  

The Google Map shows the two Kosovar towns.

This article first appeared on the bluebirdresearch website. Since the original article was written, Adnan has been sold by Man U to the Spanish La Liga club Real Sociedad.

Catholic communities in Kosova

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The Google Map shows the known Roman Catholic churches in Kosova. Note that in some cases, where the exact location of the church building could not be established on the map, the pin marking the church is simply placed in the centre of the village or town.

Some of the churches are of recent construction (such as the cathedral dedicated to Mother Teresa in the capital, Prishtina) and it is likely that the number of places of worship will continue to increase with religious freedom in Kosova and ongoing Catholic pastoral outreach.

It will be seen that the three main clusters of Catholic settlement are around Gjakova, between Peja and Klina, and in the SE around Stublla.

According to the 2011 census, 38,438 individuals identified themselves as Catholic, approximately 2% of the total population.

 

Armenian communities in Lebanon

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The Google Map shows the Armenian communities and places of worship in Lebanon. All churches marked are Armenian Apostolic unless stated otherwise.

The Lebanese Armenian community is heavily concentrated in Beirut, and particularly in and around its eastern suburb of Bourj Hammoud. Many of the local Armenians are descendants of 1915 Genocide survivors and refugees. The total Armenian population in Lebanon was estimated to be 156,000 in 2014.

 

 

This map was previously published by bluebirdresearch.com