VenetianCrete

Written by Emre Kaymakçı

When I come across the question Why Crete? Or Why Venetian Crete? from people, I simply answer them: “I chose the island of Crete because of my grandparents, who came from Crete to İzmir in the early 20th century.” Surely, this is entirely an emotional reason for me. But on the other hand, this reason, as a historian, increased my existing curiosity for research even more. My passion for Crete academically began during my Bachelor’s time, when I was searching for the Minoan/Mycenean culture of Crete. The Minoan culture has fascinated me since my early university years. After successfully completing courses in Aegean and Greek History, I wrote an MA thesis titled “Struggle for Dominion in the Aegean Islands (Byzantines, Venetians, Turks)”. And while I was writing my thesis, I realised that Crete was not only strategically crucial in the Minoan culture, but also in the Middle Ages, particularly after Venice’s conquest following the Fourth Crusade. At that point, I had decided to study Venetian Crete (1204-1669).

There are several reasons why I chose Venetian Crete for my research. Firstly, I should say that before I wrote my PhD thesis on Venetian Crete, there were no studies in Turkey, even though there are many essential scholars who study Venetian Crete in the world. For this reason, I wanted to make a meaningful contribution to Turkish academia to fill the gap. I entered this field aware of the difficulties involved in studying Venetian Crete. The most critical challenges were the source languages and access to the Venetian Archives. Greek, Italian, and Latin are essential for studying Venetian Crete, so I took various language courses before travelling to Venice in 2023-2024 for my project. Also, after I went to Venice, I improved my medieval Latin palaeography by reading archival documents in the Venetian State Archives. Secondly, there were almost no sources in Turkey related to the Venetian Crete. To this end, I gained a scholarship abroad. I worked as a visiting scholar at Ca’Foscari University in Venice, where I had the opportunity to access documents related to Crete in the Venetian State Archives. After overcoming these challenges and completing my PhD thesis in August 2024, which I enjoyed writing, I received my doctorate.

The Venetian Republic began to expand mainly after AD 992 and 1082 by gaining privileges from the Byzantine Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean. But Venice’s rise to “superpower” status in the Eastern Mediterranean began with its conquest of Crete and its establishment as its main colony. After Venice conquered Crete in 1204/1205, it wanted to implement the same administrative system as in Venice and divided Crete into six parts. Venice then appointed a duke and sent its own citizens there in an attempt to establish a stronghold in Crete. After these dates, Venice utilised Crete in every sense and attempted to maintain its power by managing its affairs in the eastern Mediterranean from here until it lost the island to the Ottomans in 1669. The rebellions against Venetian rule on the island, the shipyard (Arsenale), palaces, fountains, church and other structures built by Venice, commercial products like vine and wheat, the land system, and Venice’s relations with the other states through the island provide a laboratory environment for today’s researchers.

Both during my doctoral studies and immediately after completing my PhD, I saw the economic, political and military wealth that existed in the Venetian Crete documents, which led me to come up with an innovative project idea related to Venetian Crete during the EU project seminars I attended after completing my doctorate. For me, Venetian Crete is not just an academic subject-it is an endless source of questions, connections, and inspiration for understanding the Mediterranean world.