About 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Lala Mustafa Pasha landed unopposed near Limassol on July 2, 1570, and laid siege to Nicosia.

Bragadin had his ears and nose cut off and, after thrown in prison for two weeks, he was dragged round the walls with sacks of earth and stone on his back, then tied naked to a column in the main square and skinned alive.

[7][8][9][10] The fall of Famagusta marked the end of the Venetian rule and the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus, with Lala Mustafa Pasha becoming the island’s first Turkish Governor.

Additionally, the sanjaks of Alâiye, Tarsus, İçel, Sis, Zülkadriye and Tripoli (Trablusşam) on the mainland were placed under the administration of the Cyprus eyalet.

Cyprus was also divided into several kazas: Tuzla, Limassol, Episkopi, Kythrea, Paphos, Kukla, Lefka, Morphou, Hirsofu, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Mesariye.

[12] However, after the Ottoman conquest of Crete, the Cypriot Orthodox Church argued that Cyprus had lost importance, that trade volume had decreased and that people were emigrating.

This magnified their power and resulted in discontent, with the rivalry between them causing a two-year long revolt in the 1680s, led by Boyacıoğlu Mehmed Agha.

[13] This proved that the existing system caused a power vacuum and was ineffective, so in 1703 Cyprus was placed directly under the control of the Grand Vizier, administered on his behalf by a muhassıl.

During the 17th century the Turkish population grew rapidly, partly by Greek conversion (including converts who retained some pre-Islamic practices) joined to them.

Most of the Turks who had settled on the island during the three centuries of Ottoman rule remained when control of Cyprus—although not sovereignty[clarification needed]—was ceded to Britain in 1878.

Gradually, the Archbishop of Cyprus became not only religious but ethnic leader as well, something the Ottoman Turks promoted, wanting to have somebody responsible for the loyalty of the Greek flock.

[17][18] In 1869 the Suez Canal opened, and the United Kingdom showed increasing interest in the island, which is situated in what had suddenly become a very convenient location.

When the Ottomans were defeated by the Russians in 1877 and the Berlin Congress took place the next year in order to revise the Treaty of San Stefano which was signed by Russia and the Ottoman Empire according to terms dictated by the former, it was officially announced on 9 July 1878 that on the 4th of preceding June, the British and the Sultan had secretly countersigned the Convention of Constantinople by virtue of which the possession and administration of Cyprus was vested in Great Britain.

During the Ottoman era, numerous mosques, masjids, churches, public baths, bazaars, caravanserais, medreses, schools and libraries were built in Cyprus.

[23] Two of the most prominent Muslim religious sites built in the Ottoman period are Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaca and Arab Ahmet Mosque in Nicosia.

[25] The authorities also encouraged the construction and improvement of artificial channels for water supply and irrigation, which greatly increased crop yield and allowed large-scale fruit production.

Among villages described as prosperous due to artificial irrigation upon the British takeover of the island are Morphou, Lapithos, Polis, Lefka, Avdimou and Kolossi.

Governor Mehmet Halet in the 1850s further improved the road network and harbour of Larnaca and established a grain store and market in Nicosia to encourage cattle breeding.