Nicosia City Plans in the Ottomans Era (An Archaeological Civilized Study)

Ottomans divided Nicosia into twelve districts after dominating it in 1570 A.D. These districts were named after the twelve Ottoman generals of the military campaign against Cyprus. Then, Nicosia witnessed the next stage of administrative and urban development until the end of the Ottoman era in 1878. Consequently, Nicosia was divided into 25 quarters, and gained more importance. It became an important commercial and administrative center; it had the "Saray" palace, which was the headquarters of the governor of Cyprus, and the "Divan" to manage the affairs of the island. It was also headquarters of the Greek Patriarch, the judge, the mufti, and the Greek Cypriot Dragoman. In fact, this research deals with Nicosia's quarters during the Ottoman period in terms of their origin, ambience, history, and civilization and urbanization development. This is in addition to the diversity of the established buildings. The researcher studied the location of each quarter, its borders, architectural Monuments, crafts and population activities. Furthermore, the researcher studied the impact of environmental, economic, religious and security factors on Nicosia's districts. Results are at the end of the research, followed by the bibliography, references, and Catalog, which includes figures and explanatory plates.