After the
Ottoman conquest of
Rhodes from the
Knights Hospitaller in 1522, the island initially became the seat of a
beylerbey, and was not subordinated to the
Eyalet of the Archipelago as a sub-province (
sanjak) until 1546. However, for most of the duration of Ottoman rule, apart from Rhodes itself, the other
Southern Sporades islands (the remainder of the
Dodecanese including
Samos) were practically autonomous, and were not subject to a centralized administration until the introduction of the uniform
vilayet-based administrative system in the 1860s. In 1748,
Hungarian,
Georgian and
Maltese slaves on board the ship
Lupa revolted and sailed the ship to
Hospitaller Malta taking over 150 Ottomans prisoner, including
Mustafa, the former
Pasha of Rhodes. In Malta, Mustafa
attempted to instigate a Muslim slave revolt which was to have taken place on 29 June 1749, but the plotters were discovered and punished. Mustafa returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1751 after the
intercession of France. During the
Greek War of Independence, Rhodes and
Kos did not take part in the uprising, although many Rhodians were members of the
Filiki Etaireia and fled to join the Greek rebels. The other islands of the
sanjak however rose up, most prominently
Kasos until its
destruction in 1824. Rhodes apparently became the seat of the
Kapudan Pasha (the chief admiral of the
Ottoman Navy, who also served as governor of the Archipelago Eyalet) in the late 17th century. In 1849, Rhodes became officially the
pasha-sanjak of the Archipelago province, now separated from any relation with the
Kapudan Pasha. With the introduction of the
vilayet system, the capital of the new
Vilayet of the Archipelago was transferred to
Kale-i Sultaniye in 1867, returned to Rhodes in 1877, went to
Chios in 1880, before finally returning to Rhodes in 1888. In 1912, the year the province was occupied by the
Kingdom of Italy during the
Italo-Turkish War, it comprised the
kazas (districts) of Rodos itself, Kasot (Kasos), Mis (
Kastellorizo), Sömbeki (
Symi), Kerpe (
Karpathos), and Istanköy (Kos). The islands were slated to be returned to the Ottoman Empire after the
Treaty of Ouchy, but Italy took advantage of the outbreak of the
Balkan Wars to
continue its occupation. The islands were finally ceded to Greece in 1948, in the aftermath of
World War II. == References ==