Read Online Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower - Free Book Online

streets on biers, and flowers were strewn where they had fallen. There was, however, no further violence. After a few days in which the government’s authority appeared to have almost completely broken down, the demands of the tobacco workers were granted, and the general strike was called off. The American ambassador, Lincoln MacVeagh, who had been in the city throughout these events, was quite clear that their underlying cause was the government’s neglect of labour conditions in northern Greece, and of the economic plight there in general. “The region as a whole feels itself in a hopeless situation,” he wrote. “Is the Greek Government going to heed these lessons? Or is Salonica destined to become another Barcelona and spread the infection of economic revolt throughout the whole rotten body politic of this country?” 13
    MacVeagh was not blind to the possibility of communist agitation behind what had happened, but it was not, for him, the real reason for such widespread protest. After all, had the unrest been revolutionary in its aims, it would not have subsided so quickly. Prime Minister Metaxas, however, was of a different mind and played up the threat of subversion. When the trades union federation announced a general strike for 5 August, he was given the pretext he had sought. He told the king the country faced a communist plot to overthrow the political system, and with the latter’s approval, he declared martial law the day before the strike was due to begin and assumed dictatorial powers.

Glossary
    agha - janissary commander
    ayan - provincial landed notables
    ayios/ayia - saint
    bazaar - open market
    bedesten/bezesten - covered market for valuables
    beratli - beneficiaries of the capitulation agreements (thus, clients of a European state)
    bey - high military title
    boza - drink made of fermented barley and millet
    caique - long, fast boat
    caravanseray - a hostelry for travellers
    cavass - bodyguard
    cortijo - courtyard
    defterdar - treasurer
    dervish - member of Muslim mystical order
    devshirme - child slave levy
    djami - large mosque
    Dönme - see Ma’min
    dragoman - interpreter
    Effendi - title of respect
    fetva - advisory opinion issued by mufti
    firman - imperial decree
    gavur - infidel (used of Christians) (also giaour)
    ghazi - warrior fighting for Islam
    halvades - sellers of halva
    hamal - porter, carrier
    hamam - bath-house
    haremlik - women’s/family quarters
    Hatt-i-Humayun - imperial decree/rescript
    herem - a decree of excommunication
    hodja - teacher
    imam - Muslim prayer-leader
    imaret - a complex of public buildings associated with a mosque
    intari - gabardine overcoat worn by Jewish men
    janissary - member of imperial infantry corps
    Judesmo - Judeo-Spanish (lit. “Jewish”)
    kadi - judge
    kahal - congregation of a synagogue
    kahya - agent, representative
    khan - hostelry
    komitadji - armed band member (lit. “committee-man”)
    konak - villa, governor’s building
    limonadji - lemonade-seller
    loustros - shoe-black
    mahalla - neighbourhood, district
    Ma’min - followers of Sabbetai Zevi who converted to Islam
    Marrano - Iberian Jews who converted to Catholicism
    medrese - religious school attached to a mosque
    mesjid - small mosque
    millet - religious community
    modistra - seamstress [dim. modistroula]
    mollah - Muslim judge and senior member of the ulema
    mufti - Muslim jurisconsult
    muqarna - honeycomb combination of miniature squinches
    narghilé - hookah
    odos - street
    orta - a janissary battalion
    oud - musical instrument
    pasha - governor, or high-ranking military officer
    pasvant - neighbourhood watchman
    pechlivanides - wrestlers
    plateia - square
    sarraf - personal banker, money-lender
    shaknisirs - projecting covered windows
    shari’a - Muslim canonical law
    sheykh - elder, head of a religious order
    sheykh-ul-Islam - Chief Mufti of the Ottoman empire
    tekke - Sufi lodge
    tseftiteli - belly-dance
    turbe - mausoleum
    ulema - the doctors of Muslim canon law, tradition