300 | The Multiple Personae of Pavlos Carolidis
administration, their role as the national center of the Greek Orthodox and Ar-
menian communities faded away.
The main challenge, though, especially for the Christian communities, was
the elimination of their autonomous status in educational and religious affairs.
Although such an autonomy existed as privileges well before the Tanzimat, it
became institutionalized only as a result of these reforms in the mid-nineteenth
century. The privileges, already a controversial issue, would become a point of
contention throughout this period. The structuring of Ottoman society on the
basis of ethnoreligious practices provided different social groups, though con-
taining diverse cultural affiliations, with a potential collective identity. This hap-
pened regardless of whether these groups participated in decision making within
their own communities. Even if it was the elite groups among the non-Muslims
who were involved in the state administration and shared the power of their
Muslim peers, the community institutions (religious courts, schools, and chari-
table foundations) provided a vehicle for social and political contestation to new
middle-class groups, as well.
The efforts of the Ottoman administration to modernize the empire by cur-
tailing the possibility of participation that these new middle-class groups en-
joyed was perceived, and rightly so, as a violation of the self-images that these
populations had developed. In this sense, reactions to state-oriented moderniza-
tion were not limited to the elite. Resentment was expressed in acts of protest
and demonstrations that brought together large crowds, particularly in urban
centers. Despite this political controversy, though, what made the relations of
certain groups among the Muslims and non-Muslims in cities such as Istanbul,
Salonica, Smyrna, Beirut, Jerusalem, and Aleppo during this period so interest-
ing were the shared values of modernization and progress that led to common
visions about society.
A Cappadocian in Athens
Carolidis started his career at the University of Athens. The first course he taught
was History of the Middle Ages and Modern Times, thus putting an end to the
tradition of teaching exclusively Greek history that had its origins in the forefa-
ther of Greek historiography, Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos (1815–1891). In 1892,
Carolidis applied for the professorship previously held by the deceased Papar-
rigopoulos. Despite the electoral assembly recommending one of his rivals to the
Education Ministry, the ministry eventually appointed Carolidis. Until 1908, he
taught several courses, including ancient history, Byzantine history, and the his-
tory of the Greek Revolution. What is more significant, though, is that he was the
first to introduce separately the courses History of Turkish Rule and History of
Frankish Rule, thus, in effect, inaugurating the field of Turkish Studies in Greek
academia.