Le prôtogéros de Constantinople Laskaris Kanabès (1454). À propos d’une institution ottomane méconnue

A Venetian document from 1454 mentions a Lascari Canavi protoierus Constantinopolis. This information, which has remained unnoticed until now, shows that after Loukas Notaras was killed by Meḥmed II, the sultan did not change his mind and appointed a Greek administrator (ἐπιστάτης) for the former Byzantine and now Ottoman capital city. Laskaris Kanabes, otherwise unknown, was clearly at the service of the Sultan before 1453. A close study of the sources has revealed further protogeroi in other cities conquered by the Ottomans. The author tries to shed light on this institution, well known to the specialists of modern Greece but ignored by historians of the late Byzantine Empire and of the early Ottoman period. This discovery is in line with the current historiographical trend which rejects the notion that Ottomans would have given the administration of dhimmis to their religious hierarchy. During the 15th century, a protogeros (and/ or krites ?) of a city is a wealthy lay Greek serving the Ottomans administration and placed by this administration at the head of a Christian urban community. However, the designation process slowly escaped from the authority of the central government in the next centuries, when the institution was more commonly named kocabaşı/ kotzapasès.