Editing Lemnos (section)

===Ottoman period===
{{further|Ottoman Greece}}
[[File:Carte de l'ile de Lemnos - Choiseul-gouffier Gabriel Florent Auguste De - 1809.jpg|thumb|Map of Lemnos, 1809]]
Following the fall of Constantinople (1453), and thanks to the intercession of [[Michael Critobulus]], Sultan [[Mehmed II]] recognized Dorino I Gattilusio's possession of Lemnos and [[Thasos]] in exchange for an annual tribute of 2,325 gold coins. When Dorino died in 1455, his son and successor [[Domenico Gattilusio|Domenico]] was only granted Lemnos, however.<ref name="EI2"/> In 1456, Mehmed II attacked and captured the Gattilusi domains in Thrace ([[Enez|Ainos]] and the islands of [[Samothrace]] and [[Imbros]]). During the subsequent negotiations with Domenico Gattilusio, the Greek populace of Lemnos rose up against Domenico's younger brother [[Niccolò Gattilusio]] and submitted to the Sultan, who appointed a certain Hamza Bey as governor under the [[Sanjak of Gallipoli|Bey of Gallipoli]], Isma'il.<ref name="EI">{{cite encyclopedia | article= Limni | first = J. H. | last = Kramers | author-link = J. H. Kramers | encyclopedia = E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume V: L–Moriscos | editor-first = Martijn Theodoor | editor-last = Houtsma | publisher = BRILL | location = Leiden | year = 1987 | isbn = 90-04-08265-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iJQ3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA27 | pages =27–28 }}</ref> Mehmed granted a special legal charter (''kanun-name'') to Lemnos, Imbros, and Thasos, at this time, later revised by [[Selim I]] in 1519.<ref name="EI2"/> In 1457 a [[Papal States|Papal]] fleet under Cardinal [[Ludovico Scarampi Mezzarota]] captured the island.<ref name="EI2"/> [[Pope Callixtus III]] (in office 1455–1458) hoped to establish a new [[Military order (society)|military order]] on the island, which controlled the exit of the [[Dardanelles]], but nothing came of it as Isma'il Bey soon recovered Lemnos for the Sultan.<ref name="EI"/>

In 1464, during the [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479)|First Ottoman–Venetian War]], the [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] seized Lemnos and other former Gattilusi possessions, but the area reverted to Ottoman control in accordance with the 1479 [[Treaty of Constantinople (1479)|Treaty of Constantinople]].<ref name="EI"/> In the aftermath, the [[Kapudan Pasha]], [[Gedik Ahmed Pasha|Gedik Ahmed]], repaired the island's fortifications and brought in settlers from [[Anatolia]]. At this time, the administration of the island was also reformed and brought in line with Ottoman practice, with a governor (''[[voevoda]]''), judge ([[Kadi (Ottoman Empire)|''kadi'']]), and elders (''[[kodjabashis]]'') heading the local Greek inhabitants.<ref name="EI2"/> In the late 16th century, Lemnos is recorded, along with Chios, as "the only prosperous island of the Archipelago". It had 74 villages, three of them inhabited by Turkish Muslims.<ref name="EI2"/>

In July 1656, during the [[Cretan War (1645–1669)|Fifth Ottoman–Venetian War]], the Venetians captured the island again following a [[Battle of the Dardanelles (1656)|major victory]] over the Ottoman fleet. The Ottomans under Topal Mehmed Pasha recovered it barely a year later, on 15 November 1657, after besieging the capital of Kastro for 63 days.<ref name="EI"/> The famous [[Sufi]] poet Niyazi Misri was exiled to Lemnos for several years during the late 17th century. In July 1770, Russian forces under Count [[Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov]] [[Siege of Lemnos (1770)|besieged]] Kastro for three months during the [[Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774]]. The fortress had just surrendered when an [[Battle of Kastro|attack]] by the Ottoman fleet under [[Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha]] on the Russian vessels in Mudros Bay forced the Russians to withdraw (9–10 October 1770).<ref name="EI"/> Only a few days later, the pasha and Orlov [[Battle of Mudros|clashed]] once again at [[Mudros]], which once again resulted in an Ottoman victory.

[[File:Fountain in Myrina Lemnos Greece.jpg|thumb|Ottoman fountain in [[Myrina, Greece|Myrina]]]]
Under Ottoman rule, Lemnos initially formed part of the ''[[sanjak]]s'' of Gallipoli or Mytilene under the [[Eyalet of the Archipelago]], but was constituted as a separate ''sanjak'' in the [[Tanzimat|reforms]] of the mid-19th century, at the latest by 1846. Abolished in 1867, the sanjak was re-formed in 1879 and existed until the [[Capture of Lemnos (1912)|island's capture]] by the Greeks in 1912. It comprised the islands of Lemnos (Limni in Turkish), [[Agios Efstratios]] (Bozbaba), Imbros (Imroz) and [[Tenedos]] (Bozcaada).<ref name="EI"/><ref name="Provinzen">{{Die Provinzen des Osmanischen Reiches | page = 105}}</ref>

The French scholar [[Vital Cuinet]], in his 1896 work ''La Turquie d'Asie'', recorded a population of 27,079, of which 2,450 were Muslims and the rest Greek Orthodox.<ref name="EI"/>