Athens

The first, closer and admittedly hostile contact with the Muslims came in 283 AH (896), when Saracen pirates occupied the town for a short time. Certain Arabic remains and influences on the ornamental style in Athens have been traced back to this event, but the entry notes that the whole question still needs clarification. Shortly after Justinian I, Athens had sunk to a provincial town. ¹

Under western rule Athens became the capital of a duchy in 1205. It was held in turn by the Burgundians and the Catalans, who occupied it in 1311 and brought it under the kings of Aragon. From 1388 to 1458 the Florentine house of the Acciajuoli ruled there. ¹

In 1397 Sultan Bayazid I took the town temporarily. Some Turkish sources place this before the battle of Nicopolis (28 September 1396), others after it. The entry prefers the later date, since Timurtash is named as the conqueror and a Chronicum breve mentions a raid by Ya'qub Pasha and Timurtash against the Morea in the summer of 1397; it was probably only a temporary occupation or a raid. Athens finally came under Ottoman rule when Mehmed II, the Conqueror, entered it in the last week of August, beginning nearly 330 years of Turkish occupation. ²

The Parthenon had been converted into a mosque, and barracks were built in the Propylaea. Turkish rule meant a time of decadence, and Athens sank to the status of a small country town. In the autumn of 1687 a Venetian admiral, Francesco Morosini, besieged it, and on 26 September the Parthenon was largely destroyed by a bomb that hit the ammunition stored there. The two mosques were turned into places of Catholic and Protestant worship by the Venetian proveditore Daniele Dolfin. On 9 April 1688 the occupying troops left and the Turks re-entered. A city wall, built largely from the remains of ancient monuments, was erected in 1777. ³

In 1822 Athens was conquered by the Greeks, but it had to be ceded to the Turks again by 1826, and the Acropolis in 1827. It was only after the London Conference of 1830 that Athens was incorporated into the new kingdom of Greece. It became the capital at the end of 1834, soon developed into an intellectual and cultural centre, and its population rose steeply. The university was founded in 1835. ⁴