The 8th Ottoman Kilise Defter concerning the Georgian Faithful and Georgian Churches and Monasteries

Abstract

The Ottoman Kilise Defters consist of 10 volumes, of which volumes 8, 9, and 10 concern the administration and governance of the churches and monasteries of Jerusalem, as well as the regulation of relations among different confessions. In addition to the above-mentioned registers, another kilise defters concerning Jerusalem is preserved in the archives of the Topkapı Museum, catalogued as TS.MA. d. 7016, which also contains documents of a similar type.

The eighth kilise defters measures 17.5 × 42.0 × 1.0 cm. The front cover is made of burgundy-colored leather, worn in several places. The pages and the text are well preserved, though some pages have come loose. It has no outer cover. On the front cover, the Otto­man inscription قمامة دفتری“  appears, along with two dates: Shawwāl of the year 860 (2–30 September 1456) and Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 1071 (4 November–3 December 1660). In Latinized Turkish it is lab­eled "Kilise Defteri  No. 8".

The first page is unnumbered. Numbering begins on the foll­owing page, from 1 through 41, making a total of 42 pages, of which pages 3, 4, 15–21, and 36–39 are blank. The collection contains 18 entries, and information about Georgians in the eighth ecclesiastical register appears in documents 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

From the documents contained in the Ottoman ecclesiastical registers it becomes clear that the Georgian Church in Jerusalem had lost its independence. It fell completely under the authority of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Georgians no longer took part in disputes concerning Georgian property, although the Church of St. James and the Monastery of the Holy Cross still retained the designation “Georgian churches and monasteries.”