Sanjak of Tirhala
| Sanjak of Tirhala Ottoman Turkish: Liva-i Tirhala |
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| Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire | |||||
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| Capital | Originally Trikala (Tirhala), from the 18th century Larissa (Yenişehir i-Fenari) | ||||
| History | |||||
| • | Ottoman conquest | 1395/6 | |||
| • | Cession to Greece | 1881 | |||
| Today part of |
 Greece
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The Sanjak of Tirhala or Trikala (Ottoman Turkish: Sancak-i/Liva-i Tirhala; Greek: λιβάς/σαντζάκι Τρικάλων) was second-level Ottoman province (sanjak or liva) encompassing the region of Thessaly. Its name derives from the Turkish version of the name of the town of Trikala. It was established after the conquest of Thessaly by the Ottomans led by Turahan Bey, a process which began at the end of the 14th century and ended in the mid-15th century.
In the 14th century, Thessaly had been ruled by Serbian and Greek lords and enjoyed great prosperity. It was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in successive waves, in 1386/7, the middle 1390s, and again after 1414/23, and was not completed until 1470. Trikala itself fell probably in 1395/6 (although Evliya Çelebi claims it happened as early as 1390).
The newly conquered region, however, was initially the patrimonial domain of the powerful marcher-lord Turahan Bey (died 1456) and of his son Ömer Bey (died 1484) rather than a regular province. Turahan and his heirs brought in settlers from Anatolia (the so-called "Konyalis", or "Koniarides" in Greek, since most were from the region around Konya) to repopulate the sparsely inhabited area, and soon, Muslim settlers or converts dominated the lowlands, while the Christians held the mountains around the Thessalian plain. Banditry was endemic, and led to the creation of the first state-sanctioned Christian autonomies known as armatoliks, the earliest and most notable of which was that of Agrafa.
Thessaly was generally peaceful, but did see the occasional conflict. Thus in 1570 the Venetians raided the region of Fenarbekir (Fanari), and failed Greek uprisings occurred in 1600/1 and 1612, the first under Dionysius the Philosopher, the metropolitan bishop of Yenişehir i-Fenari (Larissa), and the second at the instigation of the Duke of Nevers, who claimed the Byzantine throne. The Greeks also rose up in various areas during the Morean War of 1684–1699, and again during the Orlov Revolt, but these insurrections were swiftly suppressed.
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