 The Province Goes to the Center

The Case of Hadjiyorgakis Kornesios,

Dragoman of Cyprus

Antonis Hadjikyriacou

The dragoman of Cyprus... [caused] sedition and discord... by performing

a great deal of villainy... to the Muslim worshippers.... [He escaped from

Cyprus, and] when he arrived at Istanbul he was hidden in the palaces of the

European states.... [He was] executed in front of the Sublime Gate, and his

corpse was put upside-down in the basket of a broom-seller, carried around,

and left outside the gate of the fish market; he thus became a warning to oth-

ers.... He was going to escape to Russia by converting his property and cash

to bills of exchange.... His house in Beşiktaş was given... to the Chief tax-

inspector.... It was rumored that all his property and cash totaled 11,000

purses [5,500,000 kuruş].

It is not very often that one finds Cypriot officials executed in Istanbul, let alone
their execution described in Ottoman chronicles. Hadjiyorgakis Kornesios is one
of the most intriguing figures in the history of Ottoman Cyprus and, given the
above passage, understandably so. He was at the center of the political, social,
and economic life of the island from the late eighteenth century until his death
in 1809. Thus, he is one of the best-documented subjects of the Ottoman period
of Cypriot history, and information on his activities appears in unconventional
sources, such as folk songs, an agrarian almanac recording major events, and a
narrative written on the back of a church icon.
His case is particularly enlightening for understanding how a non-Muslim
could rise to a position of prominence in a provincial setting at the turn of the
nineteenth century. The emerging picture reveals a man who concentrated an
unprecedented degree of power and wealth for a non-Muslim in Cyprus, over-
rode communal consensus politics, and extended the reach of his fiscal author-
ity to the Muslims of the island. More significantly, his ambitions went beyond
Cyprus itself, extending as far as Istanbul and Saint Petersburg. His position as
dragoman of the province (i.e., interpreter for the local Ottoman administra-
tion) allowed him to play an integral role in the running of provincial affairs.