Kıbrıs Araştırmaları ve İncelemeleri Dergisi C-IV/S.8 (Temmuz 2021) 58 Othering Through Absence, the Unmentionable “Ottoman Cyprus” 1571-1878: A Note on the French and English Terminology Identifying l’ile de Chypre, the Island of Cyprus and Recognised Muslim de facto, but not de jure Rule ** Terrance Michael Patrick Duggan * Introduction In respect to the view of the Muslim “Other” it seems worthwhile attending in some measure to the example presented of the European - French and English terminology applied to the island of Cyprus under Ottoman rule for three hundred years from 1571 to 1878. Did the terminology differ from that applied to describe the sovereignty exercised by the Abbasid Caliphs over Cyprus until 964? In 1854 Adolph Ludvig Køppen related: “To the great regret of Constantine, “the infidel Hagareans” still occupied Cyprus in his day (950), but in 964, the brilliant Nicephorus Phocas finally recovered that gem of the eastern empire” 7 . But the term Hagarene/Hagarean Cyprus, meaning, Muslim ruled Cyprus, remains elusive in published texts, while Mohammedan Cyprus does in fact occur if as late as 1876 in reference to Ottoman Cyprus, albeit published in a Protestant Episcopalian religious tract in Ohio 8 , and there is also an example in translation from the French that states: The island of Cyprus, under the Turkish rule 9 , of 1857. However, the terms, Chypre musulman, Chypre ottoman, Chypre turc, Muslim/ Mahometan/ Mussulman Cyprus, Turkish Cyprus, or, Ottoman Cyprus, do not seem to occur with any frequency at all in published texts in the period 1573-1878. How, in the period from 1573-1878 did the French and English terminology that was applied to the Ottoman ruled island of Cyprus differ from that which was applied to Christian ruled Cyprus, and how did it differ from the terms employed in this same period by French and British writers to describe sovereignty exercised over Christian-European acquired territory? In the period prior to the 12 th of July 1878 onwards when the British exercised administrative responsibility over the island of Cyprus, as a result of the signing on June 4 th 1878 of The Convention of Defensive Alliance between Great Britain and Turkey (abrogated on November 5 th 1914 through annexation), in published 19 th century texts, as was likewise ** Research Article * Akdeniz Üniversitesi, el-mek: tmpduggan@yahoo.com 7 Køppen, 1854: 256. 8 Anonymous, 1879: 19. 9 About, 1857: 191.