Aytek Soner Alpan explores the presence of Lesvos-based educational initiatives in the Ottoman yearbooks, the sâlnâmes.

In a different entry on the Aegean Stories Vault, we focused on the Ottoman yearbooks, the sâlnâme, and shared some information about Muslim educational institutions as those emerge from the yearbooks, specifically in the case of the island of Lesvos, on this page. In the sâlnâme then, it is possible to find detailed data not only on the Muslim population but also on the non-Muslim under Ottoman rule. Thus, for example, according to the Cezâyir-i Bahr-i Sefîd Vilâyeti Sâlnâmesi [The Yearbook of the Vilâyet of the Islands of the Mediterranean Sea] published in AH 1301 [1883/1884], there were a total of 88 educational institutions for the education of Greeks on the island. Their distribution was as follows:

– Mytilene (center) and its villages: 29 boys’ schools, 11 girls’ schools

– Molyvos [Tr. Molova] and its villages: 30 boys’ schools, 8 girls’ schools

– Plomari [Tr. Pilmar] and its villages: 5 boys’ schools, 2 girls’ schools

On the island of Moschonisi [Tr. Yunda, Cunda], which was administratively connected to Mytilini, two of the three Greek schools provided education for boys and one for girls.

The Tanzimat and Islahat reforms, which caused major upheavals in the administrative, political, and social structure of the Ottoman Empire, brought Greek education under religious authorities, and the school system became organized around the religious institutions of the Millet-i Rum. Education outside the imperial center fell under the purview of the metropolitans. Education commissions within the Mixed Church Assemblies in the metropolitan seats were responsible for the supervision and development of educational activities. The financing of educational institutions was largely left to the initiative of the local population, with church funds or individual initiatives being the most important sources.

Roughly speaking, if the Greek community wished to build or repair a school, they first notified the Patriarchate. The Patriarchate would bring the matter to the attention of the Ministry of Justice. The Μinistryfirst obtained information and documents from local administrative units and inquired about the appropriateness of the requested permit. Then, in the relevant departments of the Şûrâ-yı Devlet [the Council of State] the appropriateness of granting a permit for the construction/renovation of the school building was further examined. If the application was deemed complete and within the existing legal framework, the permit was to be granted.