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Collectivities and groups > Ethnocultural groups > Levantines

Preferred term

2291Levantines  

Broader concept

Scope note

  • Ethnocultural group of the Ottoman Empire that consisted of Catholic Christians who originated either from European settlers in Ottoman territories or from local Christians. The latter had developed close relations with a European diplomatic mission and had thus acquired the legal status of protection from a foreign power, a fact that granted to them tax privileges and some degree of extraterritoriality. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Levantines became a characteristic trait of the empire's important trade centres, like Istanbul, Smyrna, and Aleppo. Being for the most part merchants, interpreters, and middlemen, they developed marriage strategies that led them either to endogamy or to intermarriage with Europeans, Greeks, Armenians, or Catholic Arabs, in order to strengthen and expand their networks of activity.

Source

  • Γκαρά & Τζεδόπουλος 2015

Contributor

  • Katsiadakis Helen (AA)

Creator

  • Tzedopoulos Giorgos (AA)

Notation

  • 2291

In other languages

URI

https://humanitiesthesaurus.academyofathens.gr/dyas-resource/Concept/2291

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