World’s oldest Ottoman documents offer window into Empire's early history

In a medieval monastery on the Mount Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece, researchers are gaining a glimpse of what life was like in the region more than six hundred years ago.

Records by the Ottoman Empire from that period have sat virtually unknown inside the Pantokrator Monastery's metal library. 

But now researchers are looking for the first time into roughly 25,000 documents thought to be the oldest Ottoman records ever discovered.

Some of the documents in the collection date back to 1374 or 1371. Before this find, researchers believed the oldest Ottoman documents were stored in Istanbul’s archives, which only date back to 1480 or 1490.

“Here we have the most ancient Ottoman documents - before the fall of Constantinople - which [have been] kept in Mount Athos's monasteries," said Father Theophilos, a monk at the Pantokrator Monastery.

The Ottoman Empire ruled northern Greece from the late 14th century, decades before it took control of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), in 1453. 

At its peak, the Empire spanned the North African coast, much of the Middle East and the Balkans. While losing territory, it lasted until the early 20th century, collapsing after World War I.

The religious community on Mount Athos is home to documents that date back a thousand years, many of which were already extensively studied.

But until now, the Ottoman texts have remained untouched.

According to the Byzantine scholar Yiannis Niehoff-Panagiotidis, it would be impossible to understand life on Mount Athos under Ottoman rule without these documents.

Many of them are legal texts, such as decrees and deeds of ownership, that regulated how the monks living in the area dealt with authorities.

According to the manuscripts, the