Their descendants settled principally in Turkey, the Dodecanese Islands under Italian administration (part of Greece since 1947), Syria (notably in the village of Al-Hamidiyah), Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, and Egypt, as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora.

Alongside Ayvalık and Cunda Island, they settled in İzmir, Çukurova, Bodrum, Side, Mudanya, Adana and Mersin.

Since the Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II, had no army of his own available, he was forced to seek the aid of his rebellious vassal and rival, Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt, who sent troops to the island.

Starting in 1832, the island was administered for two decades by Mustafa Naili Pasha, whose rule attempted to create a synthesis between the Muslim landowners and the emergent Christian commercial classes.

Mustafa Naili Pasha angled unsuccessfully to become a semi-independent prince but the Cretans rose up against him, once more driving the Muslims temporarily into siege in the towns.

An Anglo-Ottoman naval operation restored control in the island and Mustafa Naili Pasha was confirmed as its governor, though under command from Istanbul.

More importantly, he designed an Organic Law which gave the Cretan Christians equal (in practice, because of their superior numbers, majority) control of local administration.

At the time of the Congress of Berlin in the summer of 1878, there was a further uprising, which was speedily halted through the adaptation of the Organic Law into a constitutional settlement known as the Pact of Halepa.

Turks in Crete produced a varied literary output, leading one researcher to define a "Cretan School" which counts twenty-one poets who evolved within Ottoman Divan poetry or Turkish folk literature traditions, especially in the 18th century.

[25] Personal, mystical, fantastic themes abound in the works of these men of letters, reflecting the dynamism of the cultural life in the island.

A taste and echo of this tradition can be perceived in the verses below by Giritli Sırrı Pasha (1844–1895); Fidânsın nev-nihâl-i hüsn ü ânsın âfet-i cânsın Gül âşık bülbül âşıkdır sana, bir özge cânânsın[26] which were certainly addressed to his wife, the poet-composer Leyla Saz, herself a notable figure of Turkish literature and Turkish Classical Music.

Among contributions made by Cretan Muslims to the Turkish culture in general, the first to be mentioned should be their particular culinary traditions based on consumption at high-levels of olive oil and of a surprisingly wide array of herbs and other plant-based raw materials.

While they have certainly not introduced olive oil and herbs to their compatriots, Cretan Muslims have greatly extended the knowledge and paved the way for a more varied use of these products.

Occasional although intrinsically inadequate care has also been demonstrated by the authorities in the first years of the Turkish Republic for settling Cretan Muslims in localities where vineyards left by the departed Greeks were found, since this capital was bound to be lost in the hands of cultivators with no prior knowledge of viniculture.

However, with sex roles and social change starting out from different grounds for Cretan Muslims,[29] the adaptation to the "fatherland"[30] did not always take place without pain, including that of being subjected to slurs as in other cases involving immigration of people.

[32] The same author depicts a picture where they did not share the "Ottoman perceptions of certain crafts and trades as being of low status",[32] so more entrepreneurial opportunities were open to them.

[34] As of 2006[update] there were about 7,000 Greek speakers living in Tripoli, Lebanon and about 3,000 in Al Hamidiyah, Syria,[35] the majority of them Muslims of Cretan origin.

Records suggest that the community left Crete between 1866 and 1897, on the outbreak of the last Cretan uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which ended the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.

[35] Sultan Abdul Hamid II provided Cretan Muslim families who fled the island with refuge on the Levantine coast.

The knowledge of the spoken Greek language is remarkably good and their contact with their historical homeland has been possible by means of satellite television and relatives.