After the division of the Roman empire Cyprus naturally passed, with all the neighbouring countries, into the hands of the Eastern or Byzantine emperors, to whom it continued subject, with brief intervals, for more than seven centuries. Until 644 the island was exceedingly prosperous, but in that year began the period of Arab invasions, which continued intermittently until 975. At the outset the Arabs under the caliph Othman made themselves masters of the island, and destroyed the city of Salamis, which until that time had continued to be the capital. The island was recovered by the Greek emperors and, though again conquered by the Arabs in the reign of Harun al-Rashid (802), it was finally restored to the Byzantine empire under Nicephorus Phocas. Its princes became practically independent, and tyrannized the island, until in 1191 Isaac Comnenus provoked the wrath of Richard I., king of England, by wantonly ill-treating his crusaders. He thereupon wrested the island from Isaac, whom he took captive. He then sold Cyprus to the Knights Templars, who presently resold it to Guy de Lusignan, titular king of Jerusalem.
Guy ruled from 1192 till his death in 1194; his brother Amaury took the title of king, and from this time Cyprus was governed for nearly three centuries by a succession of kings of the same dynasty, who introduced into the island the feudal system and other institutions of western Europe. During the later part of this period, indeed, the Genoese made themselves masters of Famagusta—which had risen in place of Salamis to be the chief commercial city in the island—and retained possession of it for a considerable time (1376-1464); but it was recovered by King James II., and the whole island was reunited under his rule. His marriage with Caterina Cornaro, a Venetian lady of rank, was designed to secure the support of the powerful republic of Venice, but had the effect after a few years, in consequence of his own death and that of his son James III., of transferring the sovereignty of the island to his new allies. Caterina, feeling herself unable to contend alone with the increasing power of the Turks, was induced to abdicate the sovereign power in favour of the Venetian republic, which at once entered into full possession of the island (1489).
The Venetians retained their acquisition for eighty-two years, notwithstanding the neighbourhood of the Turks. Cyprus was now harshly governed by a lieutenant, and the condition of the natives, who had been much oppressed under the Lusignan dynasty, became worse. In 1570 the Turks, under Selim II., made a serious attempt to conquer the island, in which they landed an army of 60,000 men. The greater part of the island was reduced with little difficulty; Nicosia, the capital, was taken after a siege of 45 days, and 20,000 of its inhabitants put to the sword. Famagusta alone made a gallant and protracted resistance, and did not capitulate till after a siege of nearly a year’s duration (August 1571). The terms of the capitulation were shamefully violated by the Turks, who put to death the governor Marcantonio Bragadino with cruel torments. From that time Cyprus was under Turkish administration until the agreement with Great Britain in 1878. Its history during that period is almost a blank. A serious insurrection broke out in 1764, but was speedily suppressed; and a few similar incidents are the only evidence of the Turkish oppression of the Christian population of the island, and the consequent stagnation of its trade.
Authorities.—An Attempt at a Bibliography of Cyprus, by C. D. Cobham (4th ed., Nicosia, 1900), registers over 700 works which deal with Cyprus. A Handbook of Cyprus, by Sir J. T. Hutchinson and C. D. Cobham (London), treats the island briefly from every standpoint. See also E. Oberhummer, Die Insel Cypern (Munich, 1903 et seq.), a comprehensive work. The most interesting travels may be found under the names of Felix Faber, Evagatorium (Stuttgart, 1843); de Villamont, Voyages (Arras, 1598); van Kootwyck, Cotovici itinerarium (Antwerp, 1619); R. Pococke, Description of the East (London, 1743); A. Drummond, Travels (London, 1754); E. D. Clarke, Travels (London, 1812); Sir S. Baker, Cyprus in 1879 (London, 1879); W. H. Mallock, In an Enchanted Island (London, 1879). The geology of the island has been handled by A. Gaudry, Géologie de l’île de Chypre (Paris, 1862); C. V. Bellamy, Notes on the Geology of Cyprus, to accompany a Geological Map of Cyprus (London, 1905); C. V. Bellamy and A. J. Jukes-Brown, Geology of Cyprus (Plymouth, 1905). Its natural history by F. Unger and T. Kotschy, Die Insel Cypern (Wien, 1865). Numismatics by the Duc de Luynes, Numismatique et inscriptions cypriotes (Paris, 1852); R. H. Lang, Numism. Chronicle, vol. xi. (1871); J. P. Six, Rev. num. pp. 249-374 (Paris, 1883); and E. Babelon, Monnaies grecques (Paris, 1893). The coins of medieval date have been described by P. Lambros, Monnaies inédites (Athens, 1876); and G. Schlumberger, Num. de l’orient latin (Paris, 1878). Inscriptions in the Cypriote character have been collected by M. Schmidt, Sammlung (Jena, 1876); and W. Deecke, Die griechisch-kyprischen Inschriften (Göttingen, 1883); in Phoenician in the C.I.P. (Paris, 1881). J. Meursius, Cyprus (Amsterdam, 1675), marshals the classical authorities; and W. Engel, Kypros (Berlin, 1841), gives a good summary of the ancient history of the island. For the Phoenician element, see F. Movers, Die Phönizier (Bonn and Berlin, 1841-1856). L. Comte de Mas Latrie published between 1852 and 1861 one volume of History (1191-1291), and two of most precious documents in illustration of the reigns of the Lusignan kings. Fra Stefano Lusignano, Chorograffia di Cipro (Bologna, 1573), and Bp. Stubbs, Two Lectures (Oxford, 1878), are useful for the same period; and perhaps a score of contemporary pamphlets—the best of them by N. Martinengo, Relatione di tutto il successo di Famagosta (Venezia, 1572), and A. Calepio (in Lusignan’s Chorograffia)—preserve details of the famous sieges of Nicosia and Famagusta. G. Mariti, Viaggi (Lucca, 1769; Eng. trans. C. D. Cobham, 2nd ed., 1909), and Cyprianos, History (Venice, 1768), are the best authorities of Cyprus under Turkish rule. Medieval tombs and their inscriptions are recorded and illustrated in T. J. Chamberlayne, Lacrimae nicossienses (Paris, 1894); and C. Enlart’s volumes, L’Art gothique et la Renaissance en Chypre (Paris, 1899), deal with medieval architecture. For Cypriote pottery in Athens and Constantinople, see G. Nicole, Bulletin de l’Institut Genevois, xxxvii.
[1] M. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Arch. Zeitung (1881), p. 311, pl. xviii. The principal publications respecting this and all sites and phases of culture mentioned in this section are collected in Myres and Ohnefalsch-Richter, Cyprus Museum Catalogue (Oxford, 1899), pp. 1-35.
[2] Myres, Journ. Hellenic Studies, xvii. p. 146.
[3] Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch. v. pp. 441-444. The exact provenance of these cylinders is not known, but there is every reason to believe that they were found in Cyprus.
[4] British Museum, Excavations in Cyprus (London, 1900). The official publication stands alone in referring these tombs to the Hellenic period (800-600 B.C.).
[5] E. Oberhummer, Die Insel Cypern (Munich, 1903), i. pp. 1-3 (all the Egyptian evidence).