In the BA thesis I focus on the conflict between the Orthodox and Muslim Cretans that in 1896–1897 culminated in mass violence and anarchy on the island of Crete. The geostrategic and domestic political considerations led European powers to intervene and impose the short-lived cretan autonomy. Western historiography discusses it mainly as a development of international law, while Greek historiography focusses mosly on Crete’s unification with Greece. The system of the Muslim community’s representation and self-government, however, has not yet been directly adressed. Within the broader historical context of the events in Crete, I present based on diverse archival sources, the system of the Muslim community’s special rights. I argue that the special provisions for the Turkish-Cretan community are an ante-factum example of modern non-territorial autonomy and that, instead of being planned, it developed spontaneously through the contact of the “pre-modern” Ottoman millet tradition with the “modern” European concept of statehood.
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