The Mousouros ( or , pl. ) or Musurus family was a Greek aristocratic family. Hailing from Venetian-ruled

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, they later became one of the

Phanariote Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots (, , ) were members of prominent Greek families in Phanar (Φανάρι, modern ''Fener''), the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is located, who traditionally occupied ...

families that played a significant role in the foreign affairs of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

during the 19th century.

Cretan family

The Mousouroi are considered one of the

twelve noble families of Crete The twelve noble families of Crete or Twelve () is a legend ascribing the origin of the most prominent families of the Crete, Cretan nobility to a settlement of twelve scions of noble families of Constantinople on the island by a Byzantine emperor. ...

, which according to tradition were settled on the island by the

Byzantine emperors The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

in the 11th or 12th centuries, although this tradition is most likely later invention. In the relevant documents, the family's ostensible founder, Leo Mousouros, appears in fourth or sixth place among the twelve founders. Although the Moousouroi claimed thus to be one of the most ancient families on the island, they are ill attested in later historical or epigraphical sources. Their most famous member was likely the Renaissance humanist

Marcus Musurus Marcus Musurus (; ; – 1517) was a Greek scholar and philosopher born in Candia, Venetian Crete (modern Heraklion, Crete). Life The son of a rich merchant, Musurus became at an early age a pupil of Janus Lascaris in Venice. In 1505, Musurus w ...

Ottoman family

A branch of the family moved to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and entered service of the

as one of the late-period

families. The most distinguished members of this branch were the descendants of : * , Ottoman Greek newspaper journalist and editor * Konstantinos Mousouros, Ottoman ambassador to Greece (1840–1848), Austria (1848–1850), the United Kingdom (1850–1885), the Netherlands (1861–1877) and Belgium (1861–1875) **

Stephanos Mousouros Stephanos Mousouros (1841–1906) was an Ottoman Greek diplomatic official of the Ottoman Empire, who served as ambassador to Italy and the United Kingdom, and was the Ottoman-appointed Prince of Samos from 1896 to 1899. Mousouros was the grandso ...

, Ottoman ambassador to Italy and the United Kingdom, Prince of Samos (1896–1899) * Pavlos Mousouros,

Prince of Samos The Principality of Samos (, ; ; ) was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire from 1834 to 1912. The island of Samos had participated in the Greek War of Independence since 1821 and successfully resisted several Turkish and Egyptian a ...

(1866–1873)

References

Sources

* * {{cite book , first=Dimitris , last=Tsougarakis , title=Byzantine Crete: From the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest , publisher=Historical Publications St. D. Basilopoulos , location=Athens , year=1988 , isbn=960-7100-04-2 Greek noble families