Concept
Phanariots
Overview
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots (Greek: Φαναριώτες, Romanian: Fanarioți, Turkish: Fenerliler) were members of prominent Greek families in Phanar (Φανάρι, modern Fener), the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is located, who traditionally occupied four important positions in the Ottoman Empire: Hospodar of Moldavia, Hospodar of Wallachia, Grand Dragoman of the Porte and Grand Dragoman of the Fleet. Despite their cosmopolitanism and often-Western education, the Phanariots were aware of their Greek ancestry and culture; according to Nicholas Mavrocordatos's Philotheou Parerga, "We are a race completely Hellenic".
They emerged as a class of wealthy Greek merchants (of mostly noble Byzantine descent) during the second half of the 16th century, and were influential in the administration of the Ottoman Empire's Balkan domains in the 18th century. The Phanariots usually built their houses in the Phanar quarter to be near the court of the Patriarch, who (under the Ottoman millet system) was recognized as the spiritual and secular head (millet-bashi) of the Orthodox subjects—the Rum Millet, or "Roman nation" of the empire, except those under the spiritual care of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Ohrid and Peć—often acting as archontes of the Ecumenical See. They dominated the administration of the patriarchate, often intervening in the selection of hierarchs (including the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Their greatest enclosure and that one which has most name and is most frequented is called the Hellenion, and this was established by the following cities in common:--of the Ionians Chios, Teos, Phocaia, Clazomenai, of the Dorians Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos, Phaselis, and of the Aiolians Mytilene alone. To these belongs this enclosure and these are the cities which appoint superintendents of the port; and all…
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt
States what Phanariots is.
That society then which nature has established for daily support is the domestic, and those who compose it are called by Charondas _homosipuoi_, and by Epimenides the Cretan _homokapnoi_; but the society of many families, which was first instituted for their lasting, mutual advantage, is called a village, and a village is most naturally composed of the descendants of one family, whom some persons call homogalaktes…
Aristotle, Politics
States what Phanariots is.
At once from the Ister begins this original land of Scythia, and it lies towards the midday and the South Wind, extending as far as the city called Carkinitis. After this the part which lies on the coast of the same sea still, a country which is mountainous and runs out in the direction of the Pontus, is occupied by the Tauric race, as far as the peninsula which is called the "Rugged Chersonese"; and this extends to…
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Phanariots is.
Related ideas
- Eastern Orthodox Church
- Fall of Constantinople
- Jerusalem
- Byzantine Empire
- Chios
- Levant
- Mytilene
- Macedonia (region)
- National identity
- Russian Empire
- Iași
- Ottoman Empire
- Romania
- Orthodoxy
- Social class
- Alexandria
- Black Sea
- Antioch
- Bessarabia
- Greeks
- Napoleonic Wars
- Peloponnese
- Genoa
- Constantinople
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Romanian philosophy.