Levantine Lives
About
An atlas of the Christians of the Ottoman Holy Land: their lives, their families, the events they lived through, the places they lived in. It is published by the Levantine Lives association, independent of any university.
Where it began
It began with the dragomans of Bethlehem.
It all starts with personal research into a line of Bethlehem dragomans, interpreters of the Custody. Page after page, this family opens onto a whole world: other families, friars and pilgrims, lawsuits, epidemics, wars.
Research as painstaking as it was fascinating.
If one line of dragomans could be traced this way, how many other lives still lie in the archives of the Holy Land?
Act by act
Lives recovered.
Following that line meant reading every act, one by one. The registers then yielded what no index records: lost anecdotes, local incidents, fragments of lives.
1606
Elias, a dragoman known as “il Dottore”, falls from the roof of the church of Bethlehem while repairing the lead. Turkish villagers accuse the friars of pushing him. Ten sequins silence them.
Croniche ovvero Annali di Terra Santa, pp. 257-273
1656
The Custos has the dragomans of Bethlehem give their opinion of his own conduct under oath, to report it to Rome. Those who cannot write sign with a cross.
Terra Santa nuovamente illustrata, pp. 416-426
1756
Abraham Charuase steps into a quarrel between Turkish neighbours. An arquebus ball strikes his head. Unable to speak, he squeezes the priest’s hand in penitence and never lets go of his crucifix.
Sainte-Catherine Bethléem (film 8189367), f. 76
Our mission
Step by step, a goal.
What turned up along the way had to be shared.
Levantine Lives exists to make the lives of the Christian communities of the Ottoman Holy Land accessible as widely as possible. Who they were, what they went through, how they evolved.
Identity
Who they were
Experience
What they went through
Evolution
How they evolved
The atlas
Centuries of Christian lives, act by act.
Levantine Lives brings together parish registers, Ottoman court acts, chronicles, tax surveys and the accounts of the Franciscan convent. From these sources come records that can be cited, down to the folio.
People
Each life can be followed from act to act, from baptism to burial, with its godparents, witnesses and trades.
Families
A line of descent through the fathers, spouses included, across several generations. Every link in the tree carries its act.
Events
Epidemics, wars, affairs of the Custody, on the map and on the timeline, with the people they touched.
Places
Bethlehem, Jerusalem, ʿAyn Kārim and the villages, told period by period.
Sources
Every collection, every act, with its original text, its translation and its reference.
Analyses
What the acts say together, subject by subject: illness, war, money, faith, trades, decade by decade.
Notebooks
Short stories read in the acts, like the Bethlehem wedding where the leaven comes out as soon as the priest has left.
The team
Who carries the project.
The project is carried by the Levantine Lives association: two people and four working instruments.
The researchers
Thomas Issa
He directs the research infrastructure. He decides, under his dated signature, the identities and filiations the sources leave open.
Munevver Esma Oztop
Ottoman palaeography. Her reading determines the reliability of every name drawn from the court acts and the taḥrīr registers.
Four instruments, one doctrine
The research instruments
One for transcription, one for identities, one for events, one for economic data. Each one proposes, a person decides.
Hanna · transcription agent
Builds the database from the historical texts: transcription, indexing and structuring of acts.
Elias · identity reconciliation agent
Links identities: identifies mentions that may name the same person.
Catharina · event reference agent
Documents major events: what happened, where, when, and to whom.
Barbara · economic data agent
Documents economic data: prices, property and chains of ownership.
The framework
The organisation
Levantine Lives is a French non-profit association (loi 1901), declared on 18 September 2026, based in Nanterre. Its purpose: to make the lives of the Christians of the Ottoman Holy Land accessible, with the provenance of the sources that establish them.
The scientific committee
A scientific committee is being formed: Ottoman Palestine, law and sijills, Eastern Christianities, Latin and Arabic palaeography, onomastics.
The collections
The collections gathered, as of 5 October 2026.
Each collection was kept by an authority that knew nothing of the others: the Church, the Ottoman court, the tax administration, the convent.
| Latin parish registers: St Saviour’s, St Catherine’s, ʿAyn KārimBaptisms, marriages, burials: the Church’s view. | 1555-1799 · 11 holdings |
|---|---|
| Registers of the Jerusalem sharīʿa court, read in editionDisputes, contracts, inheritances: the Ottoman court’s view. | 1542-1703 · 27 holdings |
| Chronicles, travel and pilgrimage accounts, critical editions, studiesA contemporary’s account, year after year. | 1500-1799 · 27 holdings |
| Taḥrīr registers of the liwāʾ of JerusalemOttoman tax surveys, edited and transcribed. | 4 holdings |
| Franciscan convent accounts | being transcribed |
Originals and film
The parish registers are read from two sets of images: the Genealogical Society of Utah microfilms for Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and the British Library’s EAP1142 project for ʿAyn Kārim.
Editions
The sijills are read in the IRCICA edition, the defters in al-Bakhīt and al-Sawāriyya’s edition. Each collection names its edition, register by register.
116,913
Acts
Each with its provenance.
14,798
People
Reconstructed from one act to the next.
2,662
Families
A patrilineal line of descent and its spouses.
84
Events
Epidemics, crises, affairs of the Custody.
607,550 names found in the acts link these entries together.
The holdings, shelf by shelf
Parish registers (11)
Baptisms, marriages, burials: the Church’s view.
The collections of the corpus, by category : Parish registers Source Period Volume En Kerem & Saint-Sauveur (film 8927193) 1555-1798 1,578 acts Saint-Sauveur (film 8927189) 1617-1799 6,531 acts En Kerem & Sainte-Catherine Bethléem (film 8927273) 1629-1784 3,821 acts Sainte-Catherine Bethléem (film 8189367) 1633-1799 2,826 acts Sainte-Catherine Bethléem (film 8189366) 1636-1799 1,326 acts Saint-Sauveur 1643-1798 208 acts Saint-Sauveur (film 8189399) 1669-1795 1,677 acts En Kerem (film 8958859) 1669-1797 366 acts Saint-Sauveur 1729-1740 313 acts Saint-Sauveur (film 8927220) 1742-1799 2,709 acts Sainte-Catherine Bethléem 1785-1799 720 acts Sijillat (27)
Disputes, contracts, inheritances: the Ottoman court’s view.
The collections of the corpus, by category : Sijillat Source Period Volume Sijill 191 1542-1690 900 acts Sijill 59 1544-1582 4,101 acts Sijill 16 1544-1545 1,104 acts Sijill 66 1550-1587 4,163 acts Sijill 67 1558-1588 2,283 acts Sijill 55 1570-1573 3,544 acts Sijill 56 1572-1576 3,873 acts Sijill 167 1572-1685 2,261 acts Sijill 57 1576-1578 3,173 acts Sijill 64 1581-1585 3,281 acts Sijill 61 1581-1583 3,271 acts Sijill 62 1583-1584 2,833 acts Sijill 69 1588-1590 2,028 acts Sijill 78 1595-1598 2,524 acts Sijill 88 1605-1609 1,742 acts Sijill 96 1614-1615 2,212 acts Sijill 101 1618-1619 2,179 acts Sijill 107 1623-1624 2,333 acts Sijill 112 1623-1627 2,192 acts Sijill 119 1631-1632 2,143 acts Sijill 136 1645-1646 2,000 acts Sijill 149 1652-1654 1,896 acts Sijill 150 1653-1661 2,142 acts Sijill 172 1670-1672 1,903 acts Sijill 173 1670-1672 1,081 acts Sijill 183 1679-1681 1,769 acts Sijill 201 1696-1703 1,221 acts Travel and pilgrimage accounts (8)
The collections of the corpus, by category : Travel and pilgrimage accounts Source Author Period Volume Thevenot, 1664 Thevenot 1500-1700 3,035 acts Gröben, 1694 Gröben 1500-1676 1,548 acts Lithgow, 1632 Lithgow 1508-1783 1,084 acts Chronica de la Provincia de Syria y Tierra Santa de Gerusalen Calahorra 1514-1677 797 acts Gonsales, 1673 Gonsales 1516-1673 909 acts Surius, 1661 Surius 1517-1660 6,132 acts Doubdan, 1652 Doubdan 1517-1750 2,785 acts La Terre Saincte Roger 1561-1754 86 acts Modern scholarly studies (4)
The collections of the corpus, by category : Modern scholarly studies Source Author Period Volume Tramontana, 2014 Tramontana 1516-1755 472 acts « Dragomans, tattooists, artisans » Norris 1517-1773 45 acts Lewy, 2000 Lewy 1534-1725 57 acts Capomaccio, 2025 Capomaccio 1561-1757 38 acts Primary sources and registers (1)
The collections of the corpus, by category : Primary sources and registers Source Author Period Volume Patrimonio Seraphico de Tierra Santa San Juan del Puerto 1513-1724 2,413 acts French and Levantine diplomacy (1)
The collections of the corpus, by category : French and Levantine diplomacy Source Author Period Volume Nouveaux memoires des missions de la Compagnie de Jesus, t. IV Fleuriau 1550-1723 1,471 acts Major reference works on the Holy Land (10)
The collections of the corpus, by category : Major reference works on the Holy Land Source Author Period Volume Croniche ovvero Annali di Terra Santa Verniero di Montepeloso 1500-1660 528 acts Croniche ovvero Annali di Terra Santa Verniero di Montepeloso 1500-1642 172 acts Bannoura, 1982 Bannoura 1500-1799 524 acts Acta Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide pro Terra Sancta, t. I Lemmens 1518-1720 603 acts Memoires du chevalier d'Arvieux, t. II Arvieux 1518-1665 2,699 acts Acta Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide pro Terra Sancta, t. II Lemmens 1593-1799 119 acts Croniche ovvero Annali di Terra Santa Verniero di Montepeloso 1619-1634 445 acts Croniche ovvero Annali di Terra Santa Verniero di Montepeloso 1629-1638 460 acts Golubovich, 1924 Golubovich 1708-1726 293 acts Biblioteca bio-bibliografica, T. V (serie II) Golubovich 1710-1715 339 acts Censuses (4)
Ottoman tax surveys, edited and transcribed.
The collections of the corpus, by category : Censuses Source Author Period Volume Dafatir Tabu Liwa' al-Quds al-Sharif, vol. 4 al-Bakhit & al-Sawariyya 675 acts Dafatir Tabu Liwa' al-Quds al-Sharif, vol. 5 al-Bakhit & al-Sawariyya 615 acts Dafatir Tabu Liwa' al-Quds al-Sharif, vol. 3 al-Bakhit & al-Sawariyya 2 acts Dafatir Tabu Liwa' al-Quds al-Sharif, vol. 6 al-Bakhit & al-Sawariyya 1500 652 acts Scholarly studies (3)
Interpretations cited, never treated as primary proof.
The collections of the corpus, by category : Scholarly studies Source Author Period Volume Terra Santa nuovamente illustrata Morone da Maleo 1504-1669 333 acts Terra Santa nuovamente illustrata Morone da Maleo 1516-1669 456 acts Beauvau, 1615 Beauvau 1522-1605 899 acts
The memory of a world, restored act by act.
To make the lives of the Christians of the Ottoman Holy Land accessible, from 1500 to 1799, each one down to the folio.
Every register read gives names back to the families of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the villages.
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