A collection of articles written over a period of 30 years, dealing with various aspects of the history of the Greek people under Ottoman rule, both before 1821 and after 1830. Topics include the Turkish-speaking Greeks of Asia Minor, elite and popular culture in Greece under Turkish rule, Korais and England, anti-clericalism in pre-independence Greece, and the attempt to revive Turkish printing in Istanbul in 1779. Original pagination is retained. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Until 1923 there were large Greek populations outside the boundaries of the Greek state in many areas of the Near and Middle East. These constituted what the Greeks term I kath'imas Anatoli ('our East') and were the focus for the Megali Idea, the 'Great Idea' of incorporating the Greeks of the region within a single state, with Constantiople as its capital. Professor Clogg deals here with the history of this Greek East in the 18th and 19th centuries and at the same time makes a contribution to the study of the Ottoman world within which they lived. The opening articles examine how these communities were defined, in religious terms (many were Turkish-speaking), and their organisation as part of the Ottoman system of government. Further studies then look at factors, economic, intellectual and messianic, which contributed to the emergence of the Greek state and its expansionist aspirations, and at aspects of religious history, including Protestant missionary activity and the Orthodox reaction to Enlightenment thought.