Armatoles

Greek armatolos by Carl Haag (1820–1915).

Armatoles or Armatoloi (Greek plural Αρματολοί; singular Armatolos, Αρματολός; Albanian: armatolë; Aromanian: armatoli; Bosnian: armatoli) were Christian Greek militiamen. They were paid by the Ottomans to enforce the authority of the Sultan in an district called an Armatoliki (Greek singular Αρματολίκι; plural Armatolikia, Αρματολίκια). There were also Albanian, Aromanian, Bosnian and Megleno-Romanian armatoles.

Name

The word armatolos in Greek means "someone who deals with arms" or "an armed person".

Greek armatoles

History

The armatoles as an institution, known as armatolismos, began in the Byzantine era of Greek history. Armatolismos was a kind of feudalism where guard duties were offered in exchange for land titles. The armatoles first appeared in Agrafa, Thessaly during the reign of Sultan Murad II (r. 1421–1451). From there, they spread to other parts of Greece except the Peloponnese. While conquering Greece in the 15th century, the Ottomans made treaties with the armatoles to have them maintain their guard duties. During the Greek Revolution of 1821, the armatoles and the klephts formed the core of the Greek military (Yannis Makriyannis, a Greek revolutionary, called them the "yeast of liberty").

Organization

In the hierarchy of an armatoliki, every captain (καπετάνιο) had under his command rank-and-file soldiers called palikaria (παλικάρια, from ancient Greek pallix). And among the palikaria were section leaders called protopalikara (πρωτοπαλίκαρα). The main weapon used by the palikaria was a gun called a kariofili (καριοφίλι).

Other armatoles

Albanian armatoles were used specially in the second half of the 18th century by the Ottomans. During the administration of the Pashalik of Yanina by Ali Pasha, many Greek armatoles were removed, becoming klephts, and replaced by Albanians.

In Bosnia, armatoles were largely recruited from the local Muslim population.

Aromanian armatoles often fought with pro-Bulgarian bands such as the Secret Macedo-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (TMORO). Examples of Aromanian armatoles include Ioryi Mucitano and Cola Nicea. There were also Megleno-Romanian armatoles like Traian Cucuda.

Gallery

• 
  Greek armatolos by Richard Parkes Bonington, 1825–1826.
• 
  Aromanian armatole, Ioryi Mucitano.
• 
  Cola Nicea (person on the far left) and his band of armatoles, 1907.

Related pages

• Klepht

References

Sources

• Babiniotis, George D. (1998). Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας (in Greek). Athens, Greece: Kentro Leksikologias. ISBN 978-9-60-861900-5.
• Crețulescu, Vladimir (2016). "The Memoirs of Cola Nicea: A Case-Study on the Discursive Identity Construction of the Aromanian Armatoles in Early 20th Century Macedonia". Res Historica. 41: 125–150. doi:10.17951/rh.2016.41.125.
• Dakin, Douglas (1973). The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821–1833. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02342-0.
• Fleming, Katherine Elizabeth (2021). "Armatoloi". In Speake, Graham (ed.). Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. New York: Routledge. pp. 169–170. ISBN 978-1-135-94206-9.
• Vacalopoulos, Apostolis (1961). Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού [History of Neo-Hellenism]. Vol. 2. A.E. Vakalopoulos.
• Vacalopoulos, Apostolis (1976). The Greek Nation, 1453–1669. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813508108.

Further reading

• Brewer, David (2011). The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression. New York and London: Overlook/Duckworth. ISBN 978-0-71-564161-3.
• Paroulakis, Peter Harold (1984). The Greeks: Their Struggle for Independence. Darwin, Northern Territory (Australia): Hellenic International Press. ISBN 978-0-95-908940-0.

Other websites

• Armatolii: Vulturii Pindului